Who's on the Board now

Anny Wong (658-B), sh22202@hotmail.com — President
Bernard Alter (1661-B), bjalter@hotmail.com — Vice President
Mike Pickford (1645-A) — Treasurer
Carlos Vasquez (726-A), sh22202@gmail.com — Secretary
Duff McCully (656-A), rdmccully@comcst.net
Joe Smith (654-B), joesmith@mris.com
Gene Tighe (618-B), eftighe@verizon.net

How is landscaping prioritized?

Last winter did a lot of damage, but the damage in these pictures — all from the limited common area at 1705, 1707 S Hayes St — was done over several years.

There used to be a tall bush here — reaching the railing.

There were two bushes here. Now we have the remnants of one, a creeper planted by a tenant, weeds, and a tree that was supposed to replace a dead tree on the other side of the steps.

These were two healthy bushes.

Some areas of the condominium seem to be well maintained. Others are neglected. How is landscaping being prioritized? Is anyone inspecting what's done?

Board lowers bar for election fraud

On October 1, 2010, CMS sent a letter informing homeowners that they "may send in the proxy without it being witnessed by another unit owner." This is an invitation for fraud.

Proxies must have controls to assure that they're not misused. The proxies I receive for my stock holdings have my name, address, the number of shares held, etc., and they are submitted to a third party — not a management agent whose contract depends on good relations with the Board.

The color-coded proxies we received represented different amounts of voting rights. If the Board wanted to do away with witness requirements, they could easily have mailed out proxies with the unit owners' name, address, and voting percentage printed on the proxy.

Installed Apple TV, considering dropping DirecTV

Installed Apple TV yesterday, and I'm considering dropping DirecTV.

Apple TV runs off the Internet, and you pay $99 to purchase it — no monthly fees. Depending on your needs, this may be all you need.

What is the legal basis for a 'door prize'?

A "door prize" — waiver of a month's condo fee — is being offered for attending the annual meeting. We find no legal basis for this offer.

What's next? Move in expenses? Southampton is not an apartment house. The Board is required to abide by the condominium documents.

Who is up for election?

The notice for the October 14 meeting of the Association includes a proxy form but does not list the candidates for the Board of Directors.

Owners are asked to check one of three boxes. Box C requires the proxy holder to cast votes for the person selected by the unit owner. There are no candidates listed, and there's no blank to write in one's selection.

For sale, rent, etc

Have something to sell, rent, etc.? Just add your comment with name and contact information.

Older listings

Room rentals by the day at Southampton?

Jeff@NOVASublets.com has "advertised: "Available this Friday and Saturday for only $50/night. . . . Normal rate is: $70/night or $400/week."

Bylaws, Article X Use Restrictions, Section 3 prohibits this.

Why isn't the Board taking care of plants in limited common areas?

Plants, patios, steps in the limited common areas used to be the responsibility of individual homeowners. But then the Board changed the Bylaws (arguably in an unlawful manner, and without budgeting for the change) to make these the responsibility of the Association. Now it's not clear who is responsible for maintaining these.

I talked today to the folks who were trimming a tree overhanging my steps and car. He trimmed the tree over the sidewalk, but said his contract did not permit him to go into the limited common areas to trim that portion of the tree. He also said that's why they hadn't mulched the limited common area.

Why isn't the Board taking care of plants in limited common areas?

WiMAX now available in our area

I placed my order on Friday, June 18, received the CLEAR modem on Monday, and connected to the Internet in minutes.

With Verizon I was getting 1500 kbps downloads, and 375 kbps uploads. Here's what I'm getting on CLEAR.

BEST so far: Download Speed: 5528 kbps (691 KB/sec transfer rate); Upload Speed: 823 kbps (102.9 KB/sec transfer rate).
WORST so far: Download Speed: 2925 kbps (365.6 KB/sec transfer rate); Upload Speed: 154 kbps (19.3 KB/sec transfer rate).

The best I could get from Verizon DSL: Download Speed: 1529 kbps (191.1 KB/sec transfer rate); Upload Speed: 380 kbps (47.5 KB/sec transfer rate).

WiMAX competitor LTE (Long Term Evolution) is expected to be deployed next year, and appears to be the 4G favorite.

If you're looking for unlimited broadband at a reasonable price, check out CLEAR. It's now available in our area — see coverage map. Email Alan Hewitt at alan.hewitt@clearwire.com and tell him that Enver Masud referred you to him.

PS Here are test results from SpeedTest.net:

CMS property manager accused of embezzling $365,000

An Alexandria woman who worked as an agent for a Fairfax County property management company has been arrested for allegedly embezzling $365,000 from the account of an Alexandria apartment complex.

Wendy R. West, 35, was a management agent for Control Management Systems & Services Inc., . . .

A more equitable and cost-effective parking plan?

Currently each of the 220 units have an assigned space, and are allotted two stickers each to park in the 68 unassigned spaces — no sticker is required for owners (and whoever they permit) to park in their assigned space.

The problem is that this plan potentially has 440 cars competing for 68 unassigned spaces. It’s also costly to administer.

Here’s a proposal for providing more equitable, and cost effective, access to the unassigned spaces.

Issue one movable pass, bearing the owner’s unit number, to each owner. The owner, or his guests, may then use this pass to park in any unassigned space.

This proposal would not change the use of assigned spaces, but there would then be 220 cars (instead of 440 cars) competing for the 68 unassigned spaces.

It would reduce administration costs because each owner gets one pass with their unit number (no need for street names since unit numbers do not duplicate).

The management agent would not have to track who has what pass. Parking enforcers would need only to see if cars in unassigned spaces have the movable pass.

Southampton Board ignoring § 55-79.75:1 Virginia Condominium Act

For 7 years, the Southampton Board has ignored § 55-79.75:1 Virginia Condominium Act regarding distribution of information by members. Specifically:

A. The executive organ shall establish a reasonable, effective, and free method, appropriate to the size and nature of the condominium, for unit owners to communicate among themselves and with the executive organ regarding any matter concerning the unit owners' association.

B. Except as otherwise provided in the condominium instruments, the executive organ shall not require prior approval of the dissemination or content of any material regarding any matter concerning the unit owners' association.

We expected better from the new Board.

Sky Broadband offers 20 Mbps service; Verizon 1.5 Mbps

Sky Broadband customers who enjoy internet as part of their TV and phone packages will have their connection speeds boosted up to 20 Mbps. The maximum available from Verizon in Southampton is 1.5 Mbps.

FCC rules regulate satellite dishes in community associations

In January 2006, a non-penetrating antenna mount was shown to several Board members, and installed by a homeowner. Refer to your Homeowner's Manual, and the FCC Information Sheet, for more information.

Our worst snowstorm ever?

February 6, 2010: Early Morning


February 11, 2010: Afternoon

Why do we have this blog?

Why do we have this independent, homeowner-moderated blog? Several reasons:

ONE, for several years, despite being asked to do so, the Board has failed to comply with Code of Virginia, § 55-79.75:1 Distribution of information by members.

A. The executive organ shall establish a reasonable, effective, and free method, appropriate to the size and nature of the condominium, for unit owners to communicate among themselves and with the executive organ regarding any matter concerning the unit owners' association.

B. Except as otherwise provided in the condominium instruments, the executive organ shall not require prior approval of the dissemination or content of any material regarding any matter concerning the unit owners' association.

TWO, cover up of a check drawn from Southampton funds given to Handley (Treasurer) while she and Thompson (President) were awaiting trial on a charge of grand larceny.

THREE, on two occasions (2001, 2008) this moderator's statement was not included among the candidate statements in the election package sent to homeowners. To my knowledge, no other candidate's statement has ever been excluded from the election package. No legal justification was provided.

FOUR, repeated and continuing failure of the Board to comply with the Code of Virginia § 55-79.75 Meetings of unit owners' associations and executive organ — Sections B and C.

Contacting members of the Board of Directors

All seven members of the Board of Directors may be contacted by emailing shchoa@gmail.com. Doing so will also put you on the Board's mailing list* for the Board to contact you.

The current Board of Directors:
Anny Wong (President) — sh22202@hotmail.com
Robert Dogan (Vice President) — rdogan@aol.com
Carlos Vasquez (Secretary) — cvdoj@hotmail.com
Michael Pickford (Treasurer) — mikeandcol@gmail.com
Duff McCully — rdmcully@comcast.net
Joe Smith — joesmith@mris.net
Jess Watkins — ghostwnd@verizon.net

The CMS contact is Steve Peacock — speacock@cmsserv.com.

*Questions:

(1) Who owns this mailing list? The Board or the Association? If it is the latter, the list is available to all homeowners on demand. If it is the former, why is the Board using Association funds to build the list? The list was promoted in The Southampton Herald, January 2010, mailed to homeowners at the Association's expense.

(2) Are the mailings part of Association records many of which are by law available to all homeowners? Where are these records stored, and what is the procedure for viewing them?

(3) Does the Board authorize each email? Is this authorization included in the minutes of Board meetings? Individual directors have no authority to direct homeowners to do anything?

Phones working—for now

Verizon informed a Southampton resident: "The number you are reporting is part of an outage. The estimated restoration time for this outage is 2/1/2010 9:00 PM." . . . but phones started working before noon on January 18.

The outage began on the morning of January 9. We were told service would be restored on January 12, then January 14, then January 18, then February 1 !!!

If you are still without service — some are, call the Customer Care and Escalation Office (1-877-815-8494) and let them know your phone is still out.

Verizon outage update

Cynthia Kellams reports: A number of residents in the Arlington Ridge and Aurora Highlands neighborhoods of Arlington (including Southampton) have been without Verizon landline service for many days ... and, in some cases, weeks. Initially it was reported the outage was due to four cables being cut on Columbia Pike over a week ago. The vast majority of lines affected in that incident have been restored. Last night (1/15) Verizon alerted the County's Office of Emergency Management they'd discovered problems with another much older cable that affects approximately 160 phone lines. Repairs are being made and service is expected to be restored by 9 pm Monday, January 18. If you are still without service and have not already reported your outage to Verizon, do so by calling 1-800-837-4966. If it's still out on Monday, call their Customer Care and Escalation Office at 1-877-815-8494 to register a complaint and request repair. A real person typically answers the second number, but that office in only open during regular business hours Monday through Friday. If you hope to receive any relief on your next Verizon bill, it's important you report your problem and its duration.

Verizon phone, Internet outage in Arlington, Virginia expected to be repaired after NINE days

Our Verizon phone and Internet service has been out since the morning of Saturday, January 9.

We were told it would be restored by the following Tuesday, that was changed to Thursday, and now Verizon is saying it will be Monday evening — making it 9 days (if it gets done then).

We're not out in the boondocks, we're in the shadow of the Pentagon, and the weather has been quite nice lately.

And we don't see any Verizon crews in our neighborhood.

Is your Verizon landline working?

Several residents of Southampton have reported that their Verizon landline and DSL have not been working since Saturday morning. Initially, Verizon said service would be restored by Tuesday night. Now we're hearing that has been moved to Thursday night.

Let us know how you're doing, and if you learn anything new.