When District 6 Commissioner Idelma Quintana opened the meeting, Michelle Delvecchio, President of Hillcrest 24 asked if she could officially thank Commissioner Quintana and the City of Hollywood staff for their neighborly and fast action after a broken water main left her residents without water over the New Year’s Day weekend.
Commissioner Quintana sprang into action after a building leader notified her about the situation. Quintana worked with a Hollywood City supervisor and tried to get a part which was not available through regular channels during the holiday stretch. Unfortunately, the part did not work, and water was not restored until Jan. 2, the first workday after the New Year’s break.
Quintana also contacted the Hollywood YMCA on nearby Taft Street so Hillcrest 24 residents could take free showers during their ordeal.
Next up was our monthly report from the HPD. Our Hollywood Police Neighborhood Liaison to Hillcrest, Officer Amanda Maldonado, was on assignment so Officers O. Rebolledo and J. Guzman attended the meeting. Officer Rebolledo reported scant criminal activity during the month of December. Most incidents involved automobiles. One stolen vehicle report turned out to be a civil matter concerning a rental car. And a reported burglary turned out to involve a former domestic partner returning to Hillcrest.
Hollywood Police also responded to concern about speeding cars on Hillcrest Drive. The leaders wanted to know more about the carjacking at gunpoint that was reported in our neighborhood. We had seen the video of the incident on the news and the technology used to apprehend the teenage thieves was interesting. Apparently, the carjackers were spotted on Washington and 56th and police deployed one of the department’s newly received six Grappler devices, which wraps a net around the rear tires to bring a vehicle to a controlled stop. The HPD then apprehended the teenagers who were charged with armed carjacking.
This was the exciting part of the meeting; the leadership then got down to the business of updating the Hillcrest Preferred Vendor list used by the building boards. Every year the HLC meeting is devoted to sharing businesses/vendors that have worked in our buildings and did a great job. Categories range from A/C maintenance to Plumbers and Reserve Study Appraisers to Water Pumps. The list is invaluable when getting bids or just knowing that the recommendation comes from a solid source. The building number is next to each preferred vendor in case a board member wants specific information.
The revised list will be available to every building after all the contact info is verified. Each vendor is contacted and told that they are on the Preferred Vendor list which also gives them an incentive to be very sure they do their best job for us.
Some leaders stayed behind to talk about the impact of the high insurance rates, rising utility bills as well as the new reserve requirements to some of our residents on fixed incomes. We discussed options to give those unit owners who are struggling. However, “shooting the messenger” was a problem in some buildings. Several building meetings almost got out of control. What the residents need to understand is that almost every condominium in Florida had a substantial increase in their monthly maintenance fees this year.
Unfortunately, In a couple of our buildings the unit owners decided on the “Pay me now or pay me later” strategy and kept the monthly maintenance fees low preferring to levy a sizeable assessment later in the year. Hopefully, these unit owners know that if their strategy is to hurry up an sell to duck the assessment, once it is in the building minutes, it must be disclosed to the potential buyer by the seller or by the board members who do the interview. Otherwise, the buyer can take legal action against the seller as well as the Association.
The next HLC meeting will take place on FEBRUARY 8, 2024. This is one of those rare occasions when the HLC meeting is scheduled for the 2nd Thursday of the month due to a scheduling conflict.
