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MTCA board incumbents re-elected Proxy votes believed to have significant role 28-Apr-09 – The Marina Towers Condominium Association board of directors remained an exclusive club on Monday as all eight incumbents won re-election. Harold Bellamy, Ellen Chessick, Peter Desch, Phyllis Hartford, Gautier Laude, Donna Leonard, and Dr. Michel Louvain were elected to two-year terms. Daniel Starr, appointed in February to fill an empty seat, was elected to a one-year term, which means he received the fewest votes of those elected. According to the CPA firm of Picker and Associates, 50 percent of unit owners voted in the board election. Michael Michalak, a real estate broker and contributor to Marina City Online, who wanted to improve relations between residents and commercial property owners, received the fewest votes. At the MTCA annual meeting, Michalak encouraged the condo association to foster “a greater sense of community.” “Too often, MTCA has worked to obstruct and intimidate owners that may disagree with them. Ellis Levin sent me a wonderful Christmas letter a few months ago,” said Michalak, referring to a December 23 letter from the MTCA attorney accusing MCO of deceptive trade practices and violating condo rules for not getting permission from the board to use the name “Marina City” and images of the complex. “I’m just sorry I didn’t get him anything.”
On the Marina City resident blog Marina Watch Dog Sound Off, reaction to the re-elections was entirely negative and mostly unprintable. It’s believed that a significant number of ballots cast in this election, perhaps as much as one-third, were proxy votes, in which one person votes on behalf of numerous unit owners. Responded one blogger, “Any unit owner that gives their proxy vote away is an idiot. If you don’t have the brains to know how to vote by yourself, you might as well just go jump in the river.”
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