Co-op City’s official newspaper serving the world’s largest cooperative community. © Copyright 2012 Co-op City Times
Vol. 47 No. 41
Saturday, October 13, 2012
$950,000 identified in water/sewer overcharges to Co-op City by city’s DEP BY ROZAAN BOONE An independent audit authorized by Riverbay’s Management of the community’s water and sewer bills have so far identified $950,000 in overcharges by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). In a memo to the Board this week, Management reported that they regularly hire audit firms to do comprehensive analyses of the corporation’s bills in order to determine whether all charges are accurate. “Companies specialize in different areas and they are compensated only if they are successful in recovering funds and we actually get reimbursed,” Management explained. American Utility Consultants, a cost recovery and reduction company based in White Plains, N.Y., was retained by Management to analyze Riverbay Corporation’s water and sewer bills, and even though the audit is only about halfway complete, $950,000 in overcharges
to date have been identified. Michael Lockhart, President of American Utility Consultants, this week commended the Board and Management for hiring his company pointing out that had Riverbay waited any longer, they would have lost a good deal of the refunds since there is a 4 year look-back period with DEP, although there are some instances where you can go back beyond that time, but it’s a more difficult process. “We’ve been doing this for 22 years and therefore we are very familiar with DEP’s rules, rates and their billing practices and I think that’s how we’ve been able to achieve the high success rate we have for our clients,” said Lockhart, a certified energy manager and Electrical Engineer by training. “I think the other reason for our success is in the writing of very persuasive technical complaints. It’s one thing to identify these mistakes, but (Continued on page 4)
Open Management Forum on Tuesday in Dreiser On Tuesday, October 16, the second in the series of monthly open Management Forums will be held in the Dreiser Auditorium promptly at 7 p.m. Please make every effort to attend. The topic of the presentation will be the Co-op City Public Safety Department.
25¢
Board to meet next week if HUD delivers commitment letter BY JIM ROBERTS The Riverbay Board of Directors plans to meet next week regarding the potential refinancing for a new $621 million mortgage to save the community millions of dollars in interest costs, but only if the federal government produces a commitment letter that would allow the deal to move forward. Riverbay Board President Helen Atkins has informed Board members that a meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. regarding the mortgage that will be underwritten by Wells Fargo Bank and guaranteed by the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency. The refinancing deal must be completed by Oct. 31 because of a deadline set by New York Community Bank, which holds the current Co-op City mortgage, which is set at interest rates that will rise significantly in the future. The HUD commitment letter, which was expected last week, has still not been received as of press time despite an understanding that it would have been delivered by now. According to Atkins, the Board will not meet next week without having a document in hand from HUD to discuss. Wells Fargo representative Cathy Pharis has said the bank expects to obtain the letter from HUD shortly. “Cathy Pharis from Wells Fargo will attend and has been advised that we will not meet if we do not have a commitment in hand at the beginning of (next) week,”
Atkins wrote in her Oct. 11 memo to the Board. Wells Fargo bankers and Riverbay Management have been negotiating with HUD for nearly a year over the proposed terms of the government’s guarantee of the loan, which is required by Wells Fargo to make the loan. As the Oct. 31 deadline approaches, the chances of completing the deal could be in jeopardy if HUD doesn’t produce a commitment letter next week. “Members of the current and previous Riverbay Board of Directors and Riverbay Management have devoted lots of time and energy toward producing a fair agreement that will save cooperators millions of dollars in reduced interest through this proposed refinancing,” said Board President Atkins. “However, we are now approaching the midnight hour. If Wells Fargo cannot present a commitment letter from HUD next week for the Board to review, we will face a difficult task in completing this deal before time runs out,” Atkins said. The Riverbay Board of Directors must approve any loan deal that is negotiated with Wells Fargo and HUD. The proposed HUD-guaranteed Wells Fargo mortgage is projected to drop Co-op City’s mortgage interest rate to approximately 3% for the 35 years of the loan, which will then be paid off. The deal guarantees a set mortgage rate and eliminates concerns over the current (Continued on page 2)
Report shows Co-op City remains affordable BY JIM ROBERTS While housing rents keep rising in New York City and across the nation, the recent carrying charge increase in Co-op City was significantly lower than the average rent increase that most people paid last year. Apartment rents in New York City rose by 4.6% in the past year, more than 50% higher than the 3% carrying charge increase that Co-op City residents paid beginning in October as ordered by New York State Housing and Community Renewal (HCR). According to figures compiled by Reis Inc., a real estate information firm, rents in New York grew at an even faster pace in the third quarter of 2012, going up by 1.7% for the quarter, which would average out to a 6.8% increase over an entire year. Reis reported that the average effective rent in the New York metro area was $2,990 a month in the third quarter of
2012. That figure blends the rents of various size apartments to produce the average rent. New York had the second fastest rising rents in the nation in the third quarter, according to Reis. Only San Jose, with a third-quarter increase of 1.9%, topped New York. The other three fastest rising rent areas were San Francisco, Seattle and Palm Beach. While Co-op City residents received a modest 3% increase this year, other Mitchell-Lama residents in New York are facing increases ten times higher than that. Residents of Masaryk Towers, a 21story, six building Mitchell-Lama cooperative on the Lower East, have sued the New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development to try and stop carrying charge increases of 30% over 16 months. (Continued on page 2)
Workers from Laborers’ Local 78 Asbestos Handlers demonstrated against CAC of New York on Co-op City Boulevard last week. CAC handles asbestos abatement work in Co-op City under an existing union contract with Riverbay Corp. The workers are protesting disputes over pay with CAC on other job sites not connected to their work in Co-op City for Riverbay. Another contractor, Atlas, is working under CAC ‘s permits to continue keeping restoration appointments for cooperators. Photo by Jim Roberts