March 10, 2009 – Documents and witness lists apparently were not exchanged soon enough for a hearing to proceed on Tuesday with attorneys representing Marina Towers Condominium Association, accused of not allowing a unit owner to inspect financial records.

Saying they had not received anything from the city’s Corporation Counsel, attorneys for MTCA and its management company, Draper and Kramer, asked for and received a second continuance. A new hearing is scheduled for March 26.

Administrative Law Officer Jacqueline Stanley Lustig scolded the city’s representative for mailing the documents on March 3. At the previous hearing on January 14, Lustig said discovery documents had to be received by both parties no later than seven days before the next hearing. Vera Elue, the city’s Corporation Counsel, told Lustig she had received documents from MTCA attorneys on Monday.

Elue said she was ready to proceed, and the list of documents contained nothing new, but attorney Daniel Meyer, representing both the condo association and its management company, said there were documents on the list he had not seen.

A motion by Meyer to require Department of Consumer Services director Barbara Gressel to testify at the next hearing was denied. He wanted Gressel to speak about conversations at an informal hearing last June, to avoid “hearsay” or second-hand testimony. Lustig explained, however, that city investigators and mediators are not allowed to testify at such hearings, and that hearsay is allowed.

On December 2, 2008, MTCA and Draper and Kramer were issued notices of a violation of city ordinance involving condo association records. The citations resulted from a consumer fraud complaint filed by a unit owner at Marina City, Mindy Verson (left), over claims MTCA had not provided financial documents she requested.

 Related story: Continuance granted in condo records dispute