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Marina City Online files complaint against MTCA attorney

  • MCO wants state agency to investigate Levin
  • Former MTCA president says Levin’s claims are a fallacy
  • Noted architecture writer suggests MTCA efforts will sabotage landmarking

27-Dec-08 – Marina City Online has requested an agency of the Illinois Supreme Court investigate former state legislator Ellis Levin for misconduct in his role as attorney for Marina Towers Condominium Association.

Steven Dahlman, editor of the web site, filed the complaint on Friday with the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission, which investigates allegations of misconduct by lawyers. In cases where misconduct is a threat to the public or the legal profession, the ARDC will prosecute the lawyer.

In his complaint, Dahlman says, “It is widely believed by Marina City residents that Mr. Levin has an unhealthy financial relationship with Marina Towers Condominium Association, generating for himself large fees for aggressively enforcing condominium rules that have no basis in law.”

The complaint alleges that Levin, who represented the 12th District in the Illinois House from 1977 to 1995, has threatened Dahlman’s Constitutional right to free speech.

“My web site is one of the most vocal critics of the MTCA board of directors, and Mr. Levin is using condo association fines and threats in an attempt to shut down or at least neutralize the site.”

The complaint describes how Levin wants Marina City Online to get permission from the condo association to use the name “Marina City” and images of the complex, both of which the condo association claims to own despite no clear legal basis for the claim.

It disputes allegations by Levin that MCO is trying to pass off the web site as officially sponsored by the condo association and therefore engaging in deceptive trade practices.

“As best as I can figure,” says Dahlman, “Levin considers the mere fact that I report Marina City news to be in conflict with his belief that the condo association can be the only source of information on this mixed-use complex, a concept that residents would find laughable, given the amateurish quality of the MTCA web site and its written communications in general.”

The complaint also summarizes incidents in early 2008 when Levin denied access to MTCA financial records to a resident, in violation of Chicago municipal code. The resident had to hire an attorney and file a complaint with the City of Chicago Department of Consumer Services, exposing the condo association to fines.

That story, reported by Marina City Online in February 2008, exposed efforts by Levin to conceal from unit owners how much he was being paid. He said at the time that legal bills are subject to attorney-client privilege and not available to owners. And, citing Black’s Law Dictionary, Levin argued that copies of his invoices to MTCA are not included in the definition of “financial books and records” of the association.

In 2007, legal expenses incurred by Marina Towers Condominium Association were 149 percent over budget, more than any other expense. Although MTCA has hired other lawyers besides Levin, he is the condo association’s general counsel.

And the complaint picked up a story first appearing in a Chicago Tribune column in December 2007 about an elderly cancer patient who was threatened with a fine by Levin for asking a custodian to get into her building’s package room after hours to retrieve a shipment of chemotherapy pills.

Former MTCA President says MTCA copyright/trademark claims are a fallacy

Meanwhile, former MTCA president Dr. Martin Flynn told Marina City Online he does not buy the argument by Levin that MTCA holds state and federal copyrights and trademarks to the name and images of Marina City. “Levin’s argument…is specious, and since all ensuing arguments flow from this flawed assumption, all arguments are subsequently moot. Levin himself seems not to know.”

While MTCA may own the name “Marina Towers Condominium Association,” Flynn says they do not control the name “Marina City.” “Moreover, unless one wants to count a group photo of the Board of Directors, there is no Association ‘building image.’”

Flynn, who was on the board from 2000 to 2002, says, “The term ‘Marina City’ is also fairly ubiquitous globally, as there are numerous developments in Marina Del Rey, California (Marina City Club, Marina City Towers, Marina City Marina), and massive developments in Wakayama, Japan (Marina City), Balchik, Bulgaria (Marina City Hotel), Indonesia (Marina City), Marathon, Florida (Marina City), and Singapore (Marina City) that all use the name.”

Flynn points out that nowhere has Marina City Online purported to speak or act officially for MTCA. “Any fantasy of such, hatched in the mind of Mr. Levin, does not therefore create a reality.”

Flynn defended an assertion in an MCO promotional flyer that it is “unquestionably the official source of information about Marina City.”

Dr. Martin Flynn

Dr. Martin Flynn

“[It] can be argued whether it is indeed the official source, but it is clear that the scope is much broader than the stories that may emanate from the activities of the over 900 owners of the MTCA. Even an uninterested website observer would grade MCO as merely a source of news relating to the neighborhood surrounding Marina City but which for obvious reasons includes the condominiums. Details of condominium unit layouts appear, but so did renovation plans of Dick’s Last Resort.”

And Flynn takes issue with Levin’s claim that a reference to former Illinois Governor George Ryan – as a former customer of the MTCA holiday party’s caterer – being intended to run down the value of Marina City condo units.

“[Levin] can no more blame [Marina City Online] for ‘negative’ reporting of the Association, than he can go after [Chicago Tribune columnist] John Kass for dropping the real estate prices of Chicago. Mentioning the name of George Ryan as a customer of the condominium association’s caterer, and having that fact somehow cause condominium prices to fall shows Levin to be seriously ill, drunk, or a combination of the two.”

Besides, says Flynn, according to governing documents, MTCA does not have an official interest in individual unit values. “The MTCA was created solely to run the affairs of the Association. Its directors are elected to act in the best interests of the Association. Their reach, legal or otherwise, does not go beyond the circumscribed duties of the Association.”

Architecture writer fears condo board may be sabotaging Marina City landmarking

Architecture writer Lynn Becker spent his Christmas Day responding to efforts by Marina City Condominium Association and its attorney, Ellis Levin, to fine Marina City Online, a web site that covers the mixed-use complex and Chicago’s North Loop.

“As we’ve written before, one of the world’s finest buildings, Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina City, is burdened with one of the worst condo boards, one that has repeatedly expressed contempt for the First Amendment, not to mention basic human intelligence, and deployed its lawyer, former progressive legislator Ellis Levin, to harass anyone who doesn’t buy into their delusions of grandeur.”

Becker suggests the fines are in retaliation for Marina City Online’s critical reporting of the condo board, “including its addiction to closed-door meetings and banning of recording of its sessions.”

Lynn Becker “Given the fact that nowhere else, other than Bertrand Goldberg archives, is there such a wealth of information on Marina City than on Marina City Online…and that we are living, not in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, where only one official version of the truth is permitted, but Barack Obama’s America, Levin’s actions are an outrage.”

Becker is concerned that while many residents are working to have Marina City designated an official Chicago landmark, the MTCA will sabotage these efforts by “raising the specter of a flood of lawsuits being filed to shake down any publication or website that publishes, without their permission or compensation, information or images of a newly landmarked complex.”

 Architecture writer Lynn Becker’s column, Is Condo Board sabotaging Marina City Landmarking?

 Letter from MCO to Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission

 More of Dr. Flynn’s comments