ONE EXAMPLE OF MY LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

One thing I’ve learned in running for Dearborn, MI. City Council is to overcome my dislike of talking about myself.  My wonderful father who passed away in 2007, used to drill it into my head that people don’t like it when someone brags or talks about themselves.  He used to tell me that others love to talk about themselves, and that you learn a lot when you allow others to talk about themselves and their accomplishments instead.

Perhaps that is why I’ve been so involved in public service, because I like to listen to others tell me what their wants, needs and desires are, and I like to hear about what others have accomplished in their lives.  I also love to get to know and make new friends. This is always a learning experience for me.

However, I do know that when one runs for public office, you have to talk about yourself and your accomplishments.  Therefore, here goes.

Other than moving home to Dearborn to be my wonderful dad’s full-time caretaker when he was at the end of his life with his Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, there is another event that I am most proud of where I played a significant part in making peoples lives much better.

I lived in a beautiful condominium complex in Modesto, CA. called Timberlake Condominiums that was operated by the Timberlake Homeowners Association (THOA) from 1983 through 1988, and then moved to San Diego North County Coastal.  In 1993, I moved back to Modesto, CA. and moved right back into Timberlake, and I was shocked to see how badly Timberlake had deteriorated since I had left in 1988.

The place was falling apart, vandalism and graffiti was rampant, criminals were living all over the property, and it was not a very nice place anymore, which made me sad.  To me, Timberlake and its 14 acres was much like a miniature Camp Dearborn, and to see it in this condition just broke my heart.

In 1996 I bought a unit in Timberlake, renovated it and starting attending homeowner association and board meetings.  I was shocked that the THOA Board of Directors was ignoring the wishes of the homeowners and doing what they wanted.  Furthermore, in board meetings the board was not letting homeowners speak on topics before they were voted upon, which was legal, but in my opinion, not very wise or democratic.

So while operating a full-time, newly founded business, from 1996 through late 1999 I began to investigate to find out why Timberlake was in this condition, and found out that a management company that was owned by two THOA Board members was running the property.  It seems that these owners had bought a large majority of the complex in bankruptcy sales for pennies on the dollar and were mostly renting to Section 8 Housing candidates, many who turned out later to be part of the criminals who lived in the complex.

I befriended the managers and many other employees who started feeding me more and more information for my investigation.  I also befriended a neighbor whose son-in-law was an attorney who helped me investigate this management company further.  He found out that while they were legally renting their own properties, that they were renting other peoples properties for a fee without a broker’s license.  Therefore, I immediately turned them into the California Department of Real Estate (DRE), and within a few months, the DRE made them close their property management company.

They attempted to open a new management company on two occasions operating off another broker’s license, but my continued calls to the DRE resulted in the DRE denying them the ability to open the new management companies.

I also found out that this company was buying materials on their own company credit card, and marking them up while selling them to the association, which they needed a California resale license to do.  They did not have a resale license, so I turned them in to the California Board of Equalization.

I also formed a large group of homeowners, we pooled our money, and I hired a legal firm to represent us as Homeowners for a Better Timberlake.  I studied to death the THOA governing documents, and the California Condo Bluebook to see what further action we could take, and learned that we could call a Special Election, more commonly referred to as a Recall Election.  Then I put together a team of five board candidates, and we started.

I still pursued the management company and their owners.  By the time I was done, the following had taken place:

·         -The management company was never reopened under the old name  or a new name

·         -The former management company owners each had to pay over $30,000 in attorney’s fees

·         -They also paid the THOA a penalty decided by an arbitrator, but due to the written legal agreement,  I cannot discuss the amount they paid

·         -They both lost their real estate license for 6 months

·         -The former management company they owned lost approximately $500,000 a year income they used to refer to as “gravy”

-In the meantime, I became a board member, then almost immediately Vice-President, then Secretary-Treasurer, and eventually President of the THOA.

From 1999 through 2007, we managed to turnaround this complex in the following ways, with most of the out-of-the-box ideas being mine:

·         -The first thing I did unlike the old board, was insist that homeowners be allowed to speak in board meetings, which the board wholeheartedly agreed with

·         -I came up with the idea to put in a 5-hole professional putting green to lure more desirable homeowners

·         -We completely renovated our two tennis courts and built a professional volleyball court, small inline hockey rink, and added 2 tether ball games and other floor games for kids

·         -We renovated our 2 racquetball courts and bought an NBA basketball net for one and made it an indoor basketball court

·         -We took out all of the gardens inside the main pool area, and cemented it and then had it stained with a beautiful southwestern design, and put the gardens outside, surrounding the pool

·        - We installed solar heating at our main pool, to save the expense of gas to heat it

·         -We tore out the old single charcoal grill, and installed an electric start, large, stainless steel grill, and installed 4 other BBQ grills all around the main pool

·        --In our room at the pool, we installed two refrigerators, a microwave, food storage areas and more.

·         -We rid the property of the criminals and made rental requirements strict

·         -We raised our reserve account, which was on the verge of bankruptcy when I stepped on the board, to the highest reserves ever recorded to this day

We did far more as well, and Timberlake became the place that fine people wanted to live, and to this day, most refer to it as the Taj Mahal of condominium complexes.

Lastly, I want to mention that during all of this time, I was receiving very threatening calls, my car had the windows broken out of it, the tires slashed, it was keyed, and on numerous occasions, the air let out of the tires.  To make matters worse, I had threats on my life, and one time a neighbor found shotgun shells outside my front patio.

For quite some time, on and off the property, I had to be very careful, and thankfully, nothing bad ever happened to me personally.

I was a man on a mission, and accomplished something that I had never accomplished before in my life.  However, most of the credit here I have to give to my wonderful RIP dad, because he always taught me to fight for the little person, to help people who cannot help themselves.  He also taught me that no matter how hard the going gets, it is easy to look great when everything is going well, but a real man is defined by what he does when the going gets tough.

I want to take those lessons from dad, and what I learned in Timberlake and in running my own business, and with my business start-up and turnaround experience successes, and do the same for Dearborn, a city that raised me, and a city that I love by being your newest city councilman. 

If you need further information about me, visit my official city council campaign website at http://www.albanoforcitycouncil.com/