Shareholders, property managers and a minority of the board of directors at the Fordham Hill Owners Corporation are outraged because they say a united majority (six out of nine) of board members are making sweeping changes to the co-operative housing complex without approval or even input from anyone but themselves. Some shareholders have even dubbed the majority group the “Fordham Hill Mafia.”

Lena Townsend, Fordham Hill’s former board president, grew so frustrated with the group’s unilateral and secretive decision-making process that she resigned in December. A month later, the assistant property manager resigned because of the deteriorating relationship between the board group and management.

Most disconcerting to shareholders is a board plan to drastically revamp the security system, which residents say is Fordham Hill’s defining feature and major selling point. The plan, as presented to shareholders during meetings in December and at the end of January (without time for discussion), calls for a switch to a system based on electronic entry cards and turnstiles, as opposed to a rotation of 24 live security guards.

Safest Place to Live

Built in University Heights more than half a century ago, Fordham Hill has 1,100 units of middle to upper middle-class housing, homes for close to 3,000 people.

Fordham Hill, with its gated entrance and security team, is widely considered the safest place to live in University Heights and is home to prominent Bronx politicians, including Assemblyman Jose Rivera, State Senator Efrain Gonzalez and former State Senator Israel Ruiz.

The new electronic system, which calls for a cut in security forces by more than half, has many shareholders and residents saying they would leave the complex because of safety fears. Longtime board member Elizabeth Errico, who is also a member of Community Board 7, said the new security plan is a “nightmare scenario.”

Just last month, a female Fordham Hill resident was saved from a would-be attacker by a security guard who was on duty. No one at the housing complex can remember the last time there was an incident in or directly outside of Fordham Hill.

When Fordham Hill residents elected a board of directors last June, Townsend and five other board members – Charles Williams, Lanier Hollie, Griselle Diaz, Pereta Rodriguez and Franklyn Duporte – ran as a “progressive slate” and won, Townsend said.

Over the next six months, Townsend, who was chosen as president of the board, made an extra effort to reach out to all the board members, including holdovers Errico, Linda Brown and Nancy Alvarez.

“Lena Townsend made a valiant effort to include everyone in the process,” Errico said. “She ran a good board.”

Out of the Loop

But Townsend said she increasingly felt like she and other board members were being left out of the loop. In her resignation letter, Townsend wrote that despite her insistence on inter-board communication, she was stonewalled by the slate after requesting simple information like meeting dates, agendas, committee correspondence, and committee minutes or notes.

“You could just tell,” Townsend said. “You would show up to a meeting and you just knew everything had already been decided [by the slate] beforehand.”

Townsend said she took her responsibility as a board member seriously and couldn’t understand the rationale behind all the secrecy.

“You are there to represent the best interests of the corporation,” Townsend said. “They were more interested in being slate members.”

The Norwood News made several attempts to contact the slate of board members – through a series of phone messages, faxes and e-mails – as a whole and individually, without success. Errico even approached Williams to ask if he would respond to our questions. She said Williams told her he “absolutely would not respond.”

Williams, a former District 10 school board president, once held political aspirations, but has stayed largely out of the public eye since losing a City Council race in 2001.

The beginning of the end for Townsend came in October when the board approved a motion, five to four, to approve the security restructuring plan, without any discussion among the entire board or without consulting any shareholders.

Finally fed up with the slate’s tactics and to show her disagreement with the new security restructuring plan, Townsend submitted her resignation letter at a Dec. 11 shareholders meeting. The slate then consolidated its power. Hollie became president and John Ursini, a slate supporter, replaced Townsend.

At that same meeting, the board introduced the security restructuring plan to shareholders. Though the board said it was still only an idea, they had already spent $2,000 for designs, which, in addition to cutting staff, would require renovations of building and complex entrances. Without offering details or cost estimates, the board said they would need to take out a line of credit for $15 million to $23 million to complete the renovations and other capital improvements and repairs. Shareholders say the numbers just don’t add up.

The owner’s corporation is still repaying a $19 million loan for repairs and capital improvements from 1999, according to board members, shareholders and property managers.

‘We’re Gone’

The general reaction among shareholders was: “If these security guards leave, we’re gone,” said resident and shareholder Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter whose comments were echoed by everyone interviewed for this article. Pilgrim-Hunter added that security guards don’t just provide safety; they help the elderly and disabled and look out for the kids. It’s their presence that makes residents feel comfortable, she said.

“[The board group has] taken the posture that they don’t care about the other shareholders,” Pilgrim-Hunter said. “They’ve effectively hijacked the board.”

In response to the board’s plan, Pilgrim-Hunter, a feisty bulldog of an activist who owns three apartments at the complex, started a group called Concerned Shareholders of Fordham Hill. She wrote the board a letter on Jan. 8 to express shareholder displeasure with the plan and to request a meeting. The board did not to respond to the letter.

The Concerned Shareholders held a meeting on Saturday, Jan. 27 to discuss a plan of action.

Moving quickly, Pilgrim-Hunter collected 480 signatures of residents and shareholders who opposed the new security plan and submitted it along with a letter to the Buildings Department and other city agencies. The board still needs approval from Buildings to implement any structural changes to the housing complex.

In an effort to placate the riled shareholders, the board conducted a hastily arranged shareholders meeting on Jan. 29. The board, lead by Treasurer Charles Williams (Hollie deferred to Williams at the beginning of the meeting), presented the security plan in a power-point presentation. Shareholders were not given anything to read or take home with them to evaluate.

At the meeting, board members hinted, even mentioning Enron, that the property managers and past board members had stolen, or at least grossly mismanaged, $4.3 million. Property Manager Everton Moore and former board president Elizabeth Tillman dismissed the charges as ridiculous and have since hired lawyers.

The charges prompted the resignation of one of Fordham Hill’s assistant managers, Eddie Ramos, later that week.

“[Ramos] resigned because we feel attacked right now,” Moore said. “They’re cutting staff and overworking us. We’ve seen terrible things here that have taken place.”

Despite the siege, Moore plans to “see the process through.” He also said that despite shareholder sentiment, the board has wide-ranging powers to institute building and security changes. The only action that would require approval by a shareholder vote would be the sale of a building.

Skepticism

When pressed, Williams advised the rest of the board that the security restructuring plan would be put to another board vote, Errico said. But she and others are skeptical this will happen.

“There are over a 1,000 people living in this community and if they aren’t behind this, then it shouldn’t be done,” Errico said. “If it’s such a great idea, it should be sold on its own merit.”

Rumors are flying through the Fordham Hill hallways about why the board is pushing the restructuring plan so hard, but nothing can be confirmed because none of the six slate members have offered explanation. Townsend, Errico and the Concerned Shareholders are calling for a new board, but elections aren’t until May.

Already, Piligrim-Hunter says one of her neighbors, an elderly woman who had lived at Fordham Hill for years, has packed her bags and moved to Florida after hearing about the security plan. If the plan goes through, residents predict many of her neighbors will follow.