Our vision for working together for a Better Decoplage is to control operating expenses by creating a committee of skilled owners to thoroughly investigate expenditures over a certain amount to see if there is a better or lower cost way to accomplish the same objectives. With respect to going forward expenses, working together means that the committee will participate in the budgeting process to provide insight for better planning for our needs.

We believe that the annual operating budget for the Decoplage can and should better anticipate repair/replacement needs as well as rising and inflationary costs. We also believe that better planning and fiscal responsibility will result in an operating budget that reasonably and responsibly addresses our needs.

For the past three (3) years, our Association has been operating at a deficit. The situation has become so dire that the Board has already allocated more than $1.2 million from the $17 million assessment to cover these costs. This reflects inadequate budgeting, poor expense management, and even poorer Board judgment on issues that impact us all.

Operating budgets can be based on either the previous year’s spending or a zero-based budget where every item is assumed to be zero and each item is valued for what is known to be due and an estimate of what will come due that year. Either method properly and responsibly utilized should lead to a budget that addresses our needs and informs Board decisions that are in the best interests of the Association.

While it has been very difficult to gain access to the operating numbers, there are three areas where our operating expenses are clearly not necessary:

• Lack of 40/50-year certifications. More than $1.2 million has been spent, to date, because we do not have our 40/50-year certification. This is not a new issue. Two years after the Champlain collapse in 2021, our 40/50-year certification work remains incomplete and, while we have been given various reasons for this, the simple fact is that the lack of this certification is costing us approximately $10,000/month for the temporary supports in the east stairwell and almost $1 million more for property insurance in 2023. A proper budgeting process should have led to better decisions to obtain the 40/50-year certification and more prudent fiscal planning and spending.

• Legal fees (Litigation). Legal fees are out of control. Ten percent of Special Assessment X, $1.7 million of the $17 million Special Assessment, represented legal expenses much of which was just to bring our Association current in its legal spending. We have been told that legal fees alone in 2023 will approach $1.0 million. It is simply unsustainable to continue to spend this much money on legal fees. A better budgeting process that included input from a committee of owners should have led to better decision-making so that the cost of litigation does not drain resources that are desperately needed elsewhere.

• Lack of contingency to accommodate unforeseen expenses like increased salary expenses. While labor costs cannot be budgeted to the dollar, the lack of an operating contingency has caused these higher labor costs to increase our operating deficits and will have to be funded out of the $17 million assessment, and there is no money allocated in the assessment for this purpose. A responsible budget anticipates the need for contingency funds.

The fact that we have operated in a deficit for several years in a row should have alerted the Board to better address our operating budget. A forensic review of our spending would have revealed excessive spending on legal fees and inadequate funds for inflationary and increased salary expenses. Our insurance broker should have (and probably did) alert us to the fact that our insurance premiums would skyrocket after the Champlain collapse especially as we did not have our 40/50-year certification. Only by implementing a budgeting process that is transparent, involves owner input and results in changes in Board decision-making can we get out of this cycle of operating at a deficit.