One of the reasons Krissy is no longer onsite at Uptown Place is because two of the board members (Onelia Codrington and Bertrand Fonji) highly disliked her. From November 2023 – January 2024, Onelia and Bertrand secretly worked together to make the case for having Krissy removed from Uptown Place. I, as the Board President at the time, was not aware that any of this was going on because I was intentionally excluded from all of the communications. They informed Dean Asher and Christy Ramon (the Don Asher leadership) that a majority of the Board wanted Krissy removed immediately – and I as the Board President was not included on any of the communications regarding this?
Here are some direct quotes from some of the emails I received weeks later (when I first became aware of this) to give you an idea of how things went down:
“As discussed with Dean… the current resource must leave the premises. She can be replaced, and that person can remain on premise. However, Kristina cannot stay in the building. It is not about the role and instead about the person.” (Brennan Comment: So, as indicated previously, Krissy was specifically being bullied and targeted by Onelia and Bertrand and the items discussed previously were in retaliation for Don Asher not firing her).
“Dean, you are doing it again… questioning our honesty, integrity, and authority. You did it on Friday and again via this email. On Friday, we pointed out to you the concerns and issues with the rental side and later the HOA side at Uptown place… You said you would talk to the other board members as “we have only two board members” as if Bertrand and I, went rogue and decided arbitrarily to reach out to you. A total disregard to the fact that we were the two board members tasked to complete the actions required.” (Brennan Comment: What Board action and what task? I knew nothing about this for weeks. So, there was no official Board task/action. And of course they were being dishonest, did not have the authority, and went rogue – no other Board member was a part of this and proper Board processes were not followed).
“What we will not do, is to have a service provider of the association question our honesty… It is, however, our place as representatives of the board, that the integrity of the BOD is not arbitrarily questioned by a service provider not understanding the reality of the situation on hand.” (Brennan Comment: Again there was no official Board task/action and they were not tasked as representatives of the Board. So, yes, their honesty was very much in question).
“We as the board representative, and the board majority, have already made the decision that we no longer wish to provide space for the rental manager in the building. Therefore, she must leave the premises ASAP. Please provide us with your plans with an execution date and time, to have the rental manager space vacated. The targeted date was for today Monday, December 4th. We are aware that she is still in the building.” [Brennan Comment: So, these two board members dishonestly and illegally created the appearance of an “official” Board (and Board majority) action, and falsely communicated that to the Management Company leadership to force them to act in accordance with their self-serving wishes. However, per the Florida Statutes governing Condominium Associations and the Condominium Documents governing Uptown Place, the Board operates as a collective, governing body – not as individuals on the board. As such, individual board members or multiple board members cannot team together to initiate or direct actions or make decisions – only the full, entire Board as the collective, governing body can make decisions after discussions and debates are properly held – and ALL board members must be given the opportunity to participate. However, none of that happened].
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS FROM JOE BRENNAN REGARDING THIS TOPIC:
I contacted the Board multiple times over the past several months about some of the complaints I received from owners/residents regarding some rental issues being experienced because I wanted the Board to take an active role in addressing the Rental Management issues. However, each and every time the Board majority communicated that we needed to stay out of the Rental Management side of things and just focus on the Association Management side of things. So, I thought that was the end of it but then, all of a sudden, Onelia and Bertrand decided it was time to tackle their specific Rental Management issues because they did not like a certain employee performing the Rental Management function? Again, I believe the Board should be taking an active role in addressing Rental Management issues, but it needs to be for everything and certainly not for select issues just because certain Board members do not like someone.
This illegal decision made a huge impact on not only those who rent out their units but also to resident owners. You can probably imagine situations where a renter experiences a water leak or fire hazard in the unit and has to first contact Krissy or their Rental Management person (both of which are offsite) who would then have to try to get in touch with the office to coordinate inspection of the unit and the follow-on actions required (or worse – the renters initially call the office who tells them they have to first contact the Rental Manager and such). And all of these delays and potential communication problems due to multiple parties being involved in a serial fashion – each providing their own interpretation of the situation – can create much slower response times and much bigger problems for the units themselves, the surrounding units, and the overall building. Having direct access to the Rental Management staff in the office (as was done for 20 years at Uptown Place) would minimize these kinds of delays and communications issues, and better ensure prompt, correct attention is taken each and every time towards getting all of the issues resolved. These kinds of delays can cause small problems to get much worse.
Now, please understand that I have no issue with removing a staff member if a proper, thorough investigation was performed in coordination with all of the Board members and Management Company leadership and a determination made that it was the correct action to take. However, that did not happen, and, in fact, this was really about harassment and retaliation against Dean Asher (Vice President of the Don Asher Management Company) for not firing Krissy as insisted on by Onelia and Bertrand. Don Asher as a Management Company, however, cannot fire employees just because certain Board members do not like them. Employees are protected by labor laws and company standards.
There are so many things that disturb me about what happened here – not the least of which was bullying and targeting an employee and illegally creating the appearance of an “official” Board (and Board Majority) action and communicating that to the Management Company leadership to force them to take action in accordance with their self-serving wishes. Anytime “Board” decisions or actions are selectively and secretly carried out without the entire Board’s knowledge, or worse – with the intentional exclusion of certain Board members (as was the case for me as the Board President for this particular matter) – it is a key cause for concern. Board members cannot be excluded from communications regarding Association matters and all board members must have equal access to this kind of information. Per the Florida Statutes governing Condominium Associations and the Condominium Documents governing Uptown Place, the Board operates as a collective body.
However, that has not been happening and I ponder how much more has been going on behind the scenes that I have not known about. I have no problem with actions being taken by the staff or individual board members for those decisions which have been properly discussed, debated, and decided upon with the Board’s full participation and awareness – but any actions taken must be solely limited to those.
Per the Florida Statutes governing Condominium Associations and the Condominium Documents governing Uptown Place, the Board operates as a collective, governing body – not as individuals on the board. As such, individual board members or multiple board members cannot team together to initiate or direct actions or make decisions – only the full, entire Board as the collective, governing body can make decisions after discussions and debates are properly held – and ALL board members must be given the opportunity to participate. Anytime that does not happen, we are in direct violation of the Florida Statutes and the governing Condominium Documents we are all (the Licensed CAMs and the board members) rigidly required to support and uphold.
Hopefully the above provides you with at least one example of why we need to make Board changes in the coming election.