Residents were recently advised that our caretaker will be gone as of August 31^st. Residents have been advised on numerous occasions over the past two years that a new caretaker was being sought. It appears that no effort has been made during this period to find and ensure a replacement.

There is an opportunity to finally correct the many caretaker issues we have experienced in the past ten years. For many years, the caretaker has been overpaid while his duties have been drastically reduced. As a result, substantial contractor costs have been incurred to make up for this reduction in duties. An additional $20,000 would be a conservative estimate of these additional annual costs. With the caretakers cost for a number of years at $80,000 plus this $20,000, the annual caretaker costs have as a result have essentially been $100,000 plus. Obviously, there is an opportunity to save tens of thousands of dollars.

A resident review of invoices in 2015 revealed that the caretaker was spending time providing private services to the commercial units, often at the expense of the Corporation. For many years, caretaker services contracted by the Corporation were strictly for common area services and not for services provided within condominium units. This practice must resume immediately. The new caretakers duties should include inside common area and ground services only and should not be available to provide service to any individual unit. A separate service source for miscellaneous in unit services could be arranged and their contact information provided to all unit owners.

There are numerous contracting options available including:

1. Caretaker provides common area cleaning only.
2. As per #1 but providing the living quarters to the caretaker
3. As above, but the caretaker provides specific inspection and maintenance duties at prescribed hourly rate.

A contract must ensure that the duties of the caretaker are sufficiently described. Regular inspections and enforcement of building regulations (ie. parking) must be included as well.

It is suggested that a pre AGM meeting be held to cover not only the Reserve Fund Planning matter, but also to hear the input of unit owners regarding a caretaking contract. In the meantime, temporary cleaning services can easily be arranged.

At the 2019 Annual General Meeting, owners were advised that a Reserve Fund Study would be conducted and submitted to owners in the spring of 2020. The Study was in fact submitted to the Board on May 14, 2020 however the Board has now going into fall, continued its refusal to distribute the study to owners and allow presentation of the Study as offered by Brunsden & Associates the preparer of the Study. It is imperative that Brunsden present the Study to a General Meeting of unit owners to ensure an independent and professional review of the Reserve Fund Study.

It would be prudent and in the best interest of all unit owners for the Board to arrange for distribution and presentation of the 2020 Study to unit owners well in advance of the 2020 AGM so that everyone has the opportunity to become familiar with the status and extent of current and future reserve fund expenditures that will be affecting their personal finances.

During the current 2020 fiscal year, management and the Board of the Spadina Condominium Corporation has prevented the posting of an information bulletin board to be displayed in the residential lobby. The previous bulletin board was suddenly removed early in the year. Objections to the removal of the bulletin board have been expressed over the past year with no Board response provided. Management did respond, but simply advised that they had no idea why the bulletin board was removed and expressed no interest in its replacement. This of course speaks well of the position of both management and the Board.

It appears that residential Board members have again succumbed to the illegitimate instructions to management to disallow the democratic and convenient means of a simple bulletin board communication to our resident community of building activities.

As a result of the continued removal from the previous bulletin board, of an information advisory of NEWS POST’s from https://dennistofin.com/, a post was made (using tape) next to the mail boxes. This posting was repeatedly removed by someone for several days until such time as it was no longer posted. The message posted and removed simply advised website access information.

www.spadinanewscenter.com.