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Mondo Condo: Director's Cut

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SharynS	Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 2:55 pm
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2883 Location: the 'puter	Have mondo owners filed with the HRT hawk? I'm not sure, but am wondering if it's possible for others to file on the behalf of the disabled to get the ball rolling. The more dogs that are called in the sooner Ieradi may be forced to comply with the law and act more like a human being. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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wm pasz	Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 6:34 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	It's really sad that people should have to run around filing complaints and trying to get the attention of various bureaucrats to get these kinds of issues resolved. The real problem here is that in this country fraud is increasingly becoming a civil matter. Cops don't want to investigate or can't be bothered, prosecutors don't like hauling "upstanding citizens" who donate to local politicians' war chests into court and judges don't see them as crooks. They are leaving the victims to pursue their issues through the civil courts (to which they don't have access because of the costs, delays, etc.) or through toothless agencies like the HRC or municipal enforcement offices. There's been a lot scoffing lately at the suggestion by whichever federal minister it was about unreported crime. Well, on this subject I have to side with the the ruling federal party - there's a shitload of unreported crime in this country. Every person who's been ripped off by guys like Earl Jones, or been sold a bill of goods of one kind of another or had their bank account emptied by some ATM scammer, should be counted in those statistics. I have no idea why they even keep fraud in the Criminal Code anymore. Anyone can do it and get away with it. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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hawk	Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:56 pm
Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 268	I am sure that only a person who was faced the human rights violation can complain to the Human Rights Commission. Last edited by hawk on Fri Apr 08, 2011 9:54 pm; edited 2 times in total
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SharynS	Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 12:46 am
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2883 Location: the 'puter	I'm sure you're correct but wouldn't the HRT be obligated to act if it became aware of a human rights violation? wm is spot on. it's deplorable that people are forced to chase down any kind of justice. I think the system is so bloated the majority who are paid to dispense it spend the better part of what should be productive hours, competing for budget and defining jurisdiction. Nothing sucks up time and budget faster than who gets which slice of which pie. It's not about justice or streamlining or improving anything, it's about personal careers and staying in the game. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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hawk	Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 1:15 am
Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 268	All these government agencies have been cut back. Enforcement of by-laws and legislation are underfunded all throughout North America. Politicians talk about hiring police but not health, water, work safety, building, by-law or food inspectors. I believe that most government employees try hard to do a good job. They have to fight the system too.
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SharynS	Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 2:33 am
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2883 Location: the 'puter	I'm not sure I totally agree with you hawk. For sure programs are underfunded. I'm also sure there are people doing their job the best they can and doing what they can under whatever condition. I don't think that holds true of the people heading the programs. Funding cuts alone would pit program against program. The programs spend an enormous amount of time and dollars playing musical heads, it's little wonder the real work has been lost in the bureaucracy. I'm not at all convinced that throwing more money at the problem changes anything at this point. I'm not convinced a revamp would fix it. Until something changes, people like Ieradi and his mondo condo minutemen go free. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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hawk	Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 2:49 am
Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 268	I subscribe to Private Eye magazine that is an English muckraking wonder. When you read Private Eye you see so much corruption, graft and theft among politicians, businessmen and government officials, it can make you cry. The one column on foreign affairs makes the price of the whole issue worth while. There is nothing like it in North America. Nothing. The higher you get to the top, the less honesty there is. To go after bigger fish, we need whistle-blowers at at a higher level. Last edited by hawk on Fri Apr 08, 2011 9:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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wm pasz	Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 2:21 am
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	Institutional corruption seems to have reach mammoth proportions, that's absolutely true and it's everywhere - businesses, unions, government offices, NGO's, political parties, religious organizations, you name it. If it I think that the problem lies in organizational structure. Put bureaucracy together with hierarchy and throw in some HR practices that encourage bad behaviour and it's pretty much inevitable. Even the most principled people get pulled in. This is also what's behind the so called underfunding problem. As corrupted bureaucrats work at getting themselves ahead, they create more and more bureaucracy as they hire on legions of underlings to staff their empires and create new branches of the bureaucracy to solve problems that they have no idea how to solve. As the ranks of these middle managers, analysts, specialists, consultants and other non-contributors grow, they suck up available resources leaving less and less for the people who actually provide services to the public. If you were to track the growth of the bureaucracy in government offices across Canada you would likely find that it really got going in the early 90's and the bureaucrats have never looked back. I would bet that if you got rid of half of the non-contributors (people whose jobs serve the bureaucracy and not the public), there would be a lot more funding available all of a sudden. But it's not just the money that's a problem. Bureaucrats don't like to make waves or alienate other institution riders - even those whose activities they're supposed to monitor or prosecute. The FSCO is a good example. The senior bureaucrats there did not want to aggressively pursue the ccwipp boys even though it would be obvious to anyone with half a brain what they were up to. Why was that? Well, they see the trustees, lawyers, actuaries, consultants as their natural peer group. These are the guys who might give them a cushy job somewhere down the line or put a good word in for them with someone else who might. They don't want to piss in their own well or to boldly enforce the law because that will piss a lot of their peer group off. Then there's the fear of failure. If you take on a big case and lose all the other bureaucrats will shit on you and use your loss as leverage to climb over you. I'm sure this is also to some extent why the City isn't chasing after Joe more vigorously. I mean, Joe has a lawyer and other guys in suits in his corner and if your the Director of this or that at City Hall, you don't want those guys crapping on you. So the rest of us keep looking to these people and hoping that there are a few that haven't gone over to the dark side little knowing that it's dark as soon as you walk in the door. Having said that though, I don't think the situation is hopeless. I do think though that the solutions are not going to be found in broad mass movements. Things have to affect us on a very personal level before we get excited enough to actually do stuff. I think the future of activism may actually lie in small localized groups that are tackling very specific problems involving specific people. Kind of like what hawk is involved in and kind of like what we took on with the ccwipp boys. The work is painstaking and slow and there's no msm attention. There's no major bust either but little by little, progress can be made. Beats railing against global conspiracies of political theories or other more distant more nebulous stuff. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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hawk	Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 7:16 am
Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 268	Quote: You have a deliberate deficiency, a whole new concept! Richard We never thought of it that way. Yes, of course; our condominium deliberately does not have any disabled parking. Westmount Condominiums and our present board of directors did not fail to provide services for the handicap by oversight or negligence; they did it deliberately. That is not the only deficiency our condominium suffers from and it seems most likely they were all done by design including the poor maintenance and landscaping. However failing to provide designated disabled parking for commercial units that hold a very large medical centre and failing to repair broken power assist doors shows a lack of decency on the part of all three of our board of directors. Their lack of shame reflects badly on all the owners of our condominium. You can see the photos at: http://www.westmountcondoslife.com/handicap.html
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wm pasz	Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 4:22 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	It seems that this building is mired in so many deficiencies and the owners have reason to wonder whether these are deliberate or, to put it in a different light, whether the developer ever had any real intention on delivering what was promised to the original buyers. If that's the case, then I think it may be worth exploring the possibility of the f-word - which brings up the possibility of civil as well as criminal remedies. Let me see now, just going off the top of my head, I seem to recall that at the time the condo units were first offered up for sale, prospective buyers were promised: 1. Retrofitted plumbing, electrical, HVAC and mechanical systems. The plumbing obviously never happened or you wouldn't have the multitude of leaks. 2. The building exterior was to be redone in stucco for a "Tuscan villa" look. This never happened. Instead the building got a coat of cheap paint. 3. The parking garage was supposed to be renovated, enclosed and done over in stucco. Not done. 4. The main entrance was to be moved to the front of the building (facing Keele St.) Not done. 5. There was to be an indoor swimming pool. Not done although there was an intriguing story about how Joe had some contractors in at one point to dig a hole for a pool in the basement. They dug a hole and then filled it in again. I wonder how much the contractor got paid for that pointless exercise? But that's a whole other matter. 6. There was to be a fitness centre (one that residents could use free of charge - not a commercial fitness centre where you have to pay and that is open to the general public). So that promise wasn't kept either. 7. There was to a party room, games room. Obviously these promises were never kept (although there is a room with a mattress, a lectern and a drum kit - which makes me wonder what kind of recreational activities are being carried on - but that's a whole other matter). 8. There was to be an outdoor patio. So far - there isn't one and I wouldn't hold my breath. 9. I believe there was also to be some kind of security in the building and obviously there is none as good ol Karl's company is not registered as a security company. I'm sure that there were other promises that similarly have not been kept. So all this begs the question, did Joe promise all these amenities and because of various unforeseen circumstances has been unable to deliver or did he never intend to deliver these goods in the first place but only said he would because it would encourage propsective buyers to sign on the dotted line? If it's the former, that might make for a lawsuit but if it's the latter, that's a whole other thing. If you look at the circumstances, it's not IMHO, a stretch to suspect the latter. The number of promises that this guy has broken is pretty significant. In fact, it seems as though buyers who paid for a whole package of condo style amenities have found themselves with little more than they'd find in a lower end rental building. Put that together with another big broken promise - that the building would operate like a condo, with an elected board accountable to the owners, and you have even more cause for concern. Joe and his buddy's tenacious hold on the board, refusal to produce financial records and intimidation of owners who ask questions all point in a certain direction. Was this condo conversion just a scheme to produce an income stream for certain individuals and interests? If there's enough smoke - and I'd say there is - the appropriate authorities need to be brought in to investigate. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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SharynS	Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:09 pm
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2883 Location: the 'puter	Maybe holding off on the big repairs is not such a bad idea. Cadaver-Sniffing Device Could Find Jimmy Hoffa Quote: Unlike other methods, this one can find a body buried under a concrete slab. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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hawk	Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 6:17 pm
Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 268	Quote: The law, in all its majestic equality, forbids all men to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread - the rich as well as the poor. Anatole France Your list of broken promises is accurate with the exception of number six as we were promised a fully equipped aerobics room, not a fitness centre. We got the aerobics room although only half of the machines work. Joe just had to supply the room and he could furnish it at his discretion. Perhaps a third of the present owners bought their units as re-sales so they cannot complain about what they bought into. They should have had open eyes, especially if they bought within the last couple of years. The purchasers of the re-sales are inexperienced first-time buyers or small-time investors who are renting out their units. Some of the original owners have a lot to complain about. They cannot get Westmount Keele or the board of directors to fix defects in their apartments let alone fix the common elements or complete the building. As far as what business plan the owners of Westmount Keele and Westmount-Keele (Terraces) are following we can only guess. To see our theories on this look at our Business Section. http://westmountcondoslife.com/theories.html
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wm pasz	Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 11:37 am
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	hawk what are the options - if there are any - for the owners to compel the Board to fully disclose its financial statements? The reason I ask is that in the most recent CCWIPP annual report there is yet again mention of a mortgage to Westmount Keele. I'm going to go way out on a limb and assume that this mortgage is not in default and that some payments are being made on it. If that's the case, I wonder if Joe' dipping into the condo fees for this purpose? Oh yeah, it's possible that perhaps WK has other assets and revenue streams but on the other hand it appears to be a single-purpose entity incorporated for the purposes of the condo conversion. So if there's $$$ going to pay the CCWIPP mortgage and various other "fees" this might explain why there's little left over for things like building maintenance and the non-existent amenities. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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hawk	Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 8:44 pm
Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 268	The only way we can force George Marchi, Peter Leone and Joe Ieradi, who are our board of directors, to open up the financial records is to go back to court and have a superior court judge find them in contempt of court for ignoring the Condominium Act and court orders. We do not have sufficient evidence to say there is fraud involved but we certainly can show irregular financial dealings, unusual movement of funds, illegal depleting of the Reserve Fund and irresponsible financial management. We hope to be able to prove willful blindness and sufficient irresponsible management to have a judge declare them personally responsible for their actions as board members. To remove their protection from personal responsibility would be a big win. We definitely need a court appointed administrator to put the condominium's affairs in order and to determine what has gone on for the last four years. If Westmount-Keele has an outstanding mortgage with the union pension fund our condo has no direct interest in it. We have no evidence that hints that funds are being illegally taken from our condo to pay off any such loan. However, we have serious concerns that our financial affairs are not in order and that money is being transferred to Westmount-Keele without proper safeguards in place to insure that all such payments are in order. The payment of the utilities for the commercial units and the commercial units common element fees are areas which we wish to investigate as the auditor's reports and the limited financial records we did get to see give us reasons to believe not everything in these areas are as it should be. The listing of "offsets" with no explanation in the auditor's report for what they are for is another concern. Our present board of directors has no interest in giving us owners transparent governance. Last edited by hawk on Fri Apr 08, 2011 10:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Elvis	Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 11:35 am
Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 661 Location: Toronto	Hawk, your pictures of the Party Room had a few jaws dropping. It's to be expected from Joe and friends, but to see decades old bread baskets and the bar lounge chairs still on site... caught us slightly off guard. Tell Joe to never serve bread without a cloth liner in those baskets. Very unprofessional. Very Joe. I'm wondering why the photocopiers are still there? Those would have to be worth at least a few hundred bucks, even today. The lounge chairs are interesting. The blue one is the more recent version, probably circa 1995. The flowery looking one predates it and was probably found in one of the hotel rooms at the time. I actually took two of those when the place shut down (or possibly earlier). I don't have 'em anymore... but Joe kept his! The guy just can't let go of the past. His love for antiquated stuff is unmatched! Now we didn't use Kelly's Pub too often. Sometime in the 90's there was a huge Irish convention here in Toronto (the hotel was booked solid) and this room was put into service. Unlike some of the guests who were falling asleep in and under any nook and cranny in the hotel... a few of us found refuge in this kitchen. It was a tad cleaner at that time. Thanks for the Joe time vortex smiles! _________________ Henri Ducard: Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share. Bruce Wayne: That's why it's so important. It separates us from them.
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