City Owes Condo Fees, Council Not Ready To Approve

The city must pay condo fees for the Senior Center, but Corporation Counsel David Minchello said the question of other costs is moot.

In a discussion Monday, Finance Director Al Restaino said he provided the City Council with excerpts from the master deed for the Senior Center that spell out the city's obligation to pay for maintenance of common areas. When Councilman William Reid questioned whether there was a contract, Minchello said the master deed "acts as a contract."

"We in essence agreed to pay our condo fees," he said.

Councilman Cory Storch recalled some disputed matters in the building's construction, including solar panels and a rooftop garden, and asked whether that affected the fee payment.

"Are we in litigation?" he asked.

Minchello's predecessor, former Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson, had alluded to talks with the developer on other costs before Williamson left in 2012 to become executive director of the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority. But Minchello said Monday, "My position is that we do not owe anything above and beyond, but that we are obligated to pay the condo fees."

The city has occupied the center since late 2009 and a prior bill from the developer included back payments of condo fees as well as fit-out costs, but the proposed resolution Monday was just for condo fees in 2013 at the rate of $2,750 monthly. The $33,000 annual fee was proposed for payment earlier this year, but the item was not moved to the agenda for a vote.

Council members questioned the formula Monday for the fee. The center is counted as 13.94 percent of the building, which has three floors of residential condos above and also a small ground-floor portion reserved for a veterans' center. The city will also be liable for condo fees when it takes possession of the veterans' center, which is currently being used by the developer as a sales office for the condos.

Restaino said he would contact the developer regarding the formula for assessment of maintenance costs.

Minchello repeated, there is no pending litigation and no arbitration. His position, he said, is that the city will not arbitrate.

With failure to get a consensus of four members to move the item to the March 11 agenda, it was dropped, at least for March.

--Bernice