25-Mar-17 – A fine for sending a letter urging fellow unit owners to attend an annual condo association meeting has not materialized as threatened more than three months ago.

Michael Novak said last December he had been threatened with a fine of $50 to $500 by State Parkway Condominium Association for dropping the letter in person to each door in violation of one of the association’s rules. The one-page letter, dated September 26, 2016, also urged unit owners to vote against the incumbent board of directors. He says they are responsible for a $10 million shortfall that owners must make up through increased assessments. Depending on ownership percentage, the amount each owner could owe, says Novak, is between $32,500 and $258,400.

Novak says he hand-delivered the letter only because the condo association refused his request for a list of unit owners and their addresses. He suspects the policy was added so he could not distribute written materials at board meetings – necessary, he says, because he is deaf and some people cannot understand him when he speaks.

In its November 23, 2016, letter to Novak, State Parkway Condominium Association, managed by Lieberman Management Services, told Novak he was charged with violating association rules concerning deliveries. The letter gave instructions on how to contest the violation notice and request a hearing, which Novak says he did.

“This violation notice didn’t cost me any money, but it did cause a lot of grief for my family and I,” said Novak (left). He believes he was not fined because State Parkway realized it had not followed procedure as defined in the condo association’s rules and regulations.

“State Parkway knew there wasn’t strict compliance, especially since Lieberman Management employees often do door drops from time to time, including solicitations for holiday contributions.”

State Parkway’s property manager, William Southall, did not respond to a request by email for comment.

City cited condo association over records requests

Novak has filed 13 complaints against State Parkway with the city’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection department over document requests. Although State Parkway has complied with some of his requests, Novak says he is still waiting for tax worksheets from ten tax years and audit work papers from two years, plus other tax returns, reports, and information.

He says his condo association’s certified public accountants, CondoCPA of Elmhurst and Picker & Associates of Buffalo Grove, “are clearly not cooperating with the records inspection.”

He says Picker & Associates, which prepared tax returns for State Parkway for 2014 and 2015, under-reported gross income both years by “several hundreds of thousands of dollars” but offered to let him inspect tax worksheets if he paid a $600 fee. He believes the tax worksheets are being withheld “due to massive criminal federal and state tax evasion.”

After the city completed what it called “an exhaustive investigation” of the complaints, State Parkway was cited for failing to allow Novak to inspect 2004, 2005, and 2006 tax returns per his request on December 11, 2015, the association’s 2015 variance report requested on April 1, 2016, and item stratification reports from January 2008 through May 2015.

Ten complaints remain and, according to Novak, they will be addressed at a hearing scheduled for May 24. (Right) Administrative Notice of Ordinance Violation issued by the City of Chicago against State Parkway Condominium Association on September 7, 2016. (Click on image to view larger version.)