The Village View psychic board member hotline.

Thank you for calling the Village View psychic hotline. My name is Dante your psychic advisor and I will be revealing your financial future. I am getting a vision concerning higher prices in oil, gas, and electricity. I see a number of years ago Village View had assessments based on record oil prices. I predict O.P.E.C. will be having you over a barrel once again. I can also see a tall dark man who will pick your pocket. I can hear him saying "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket"* under my Cap and Trade system. Another strange man named Al Gore will also raise havoc with your finances by claiming earths temperature will rise and increase cooling costs, while other warm mongers claim an ice age is coming and it will increase heating costs. Boy your screwed no matter which way the wind blows. The only question is how can you avoid these shysters and prevent yourself from becoming homeless. Well no self respecting psychic gives out that information without getting your credit card info first. I will tell you one thing REVENUE is the answer. The board is currently examining cost saving concepts such as co-generation, but ultimately like all successful businesses REVENUE determines the winners. I have another vision that will bring you prosperity and happiness, but it seems your mastercard was denied. Check back when you fix your credit problems.

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTxGHn4sH4

Salary raises for the guards. Board Meeting 12/13/10

The issue of salary raises for the guards was brought to the floor. It was suggested it is not in the co-ops best interest to approve a multi-year contract. This is because it is very hard to predict future operating expenses, and any shortfall in our budget could result in higher maintenance charges. Since the boards primary responsibility is to the shareholders I agree, but I also believe this benefits the guards as well. If we approve a contract with 4 years of increases what would happen if we start running huge deficits? Obviously a future board would certainly consider letting the guards go and hiring private security as an easy solution to avoid large carrying charge increases. A motion was brought to the floor for a 3% increase and was approved, although some members were disappointed it wasn't higher. The truth is that careless disregard of expenditures is wrecking many states economies. They will probably be bailed out by the taxpayers. If this board operates the same way the shareholders will be the ones footing the bill. Coming to think of it we would be paying for both bailouts. Ain't that a kick in the head.

UPDATE: A compensation package for eligible retirees, and health insurance for the newly hired guards will be forthcoming. I had not included this in the original blog as I wasn't sure all the details were worked out.

I have some bad news and some glad news

First the bad news, on Dec. 8 boiler #1 was damaged because it failed to shut off when there was no water inside it. A similar situation occurred when I left an expensive kettle on the stove too long and ruined it. Unlike my kettle the boiler has numerous safety devices, but unfortunately they failed. New York Plumbing and Heating concluded a power surge caused the fuse for the water pump to blow and it stopped pumping water. In addition the two low water cutoff controls circuitry were damaged so they allowed boiler #1 to run even though it was empty. I was surprised that a power surge caused this problem, but my expertise is limited to making electricity from a potato in the school science fair. The glad news is that our insurance carrier may pay for part or all of the damage, and we did not have any disruption of services. Also the board is moving quickly to have additional smoke detectors, and alarms installed so that any future problem can be dealt with before catastrophic failure occurs. Our boiler system met all the safety regulations currently in effect at the time of it's installation in 2003, but I guess not even the professionals can foresee every possible problem. I still have that potato in case we have a blackout.

Clean costs green.

A question was raised at the annual meeting concerning the $168,462. spent on janitorial supplies, and I must admit I thought the figure was rather high. Fortunately I have relatives and friends who live in other Manhattan co-ops and was able to compare our costs with theirs. One co-op actually spent more than we did, and had less apartments. It seems on average our expenses are reasonable for a complex of this size, and I certainly haven't heard any complaints about the floors being too clean or waxed too often. They say cleanliness is next to Godliness, but forgot to tell you both come with a high price.