Leo Aubel

Ellis Levin

Daniel Meyer

2009 was the year in which work started on a Herculean concrete repair project and a much-needed laundry room, but many unit owners will remember it as the year the condo board at Marina City went to war with residents.

First there were the citations issued by the City of Chicago against Marina Towers Condominium Association – and its management company, Draper and Kramer, Inc. – for not allowing a unit owner to inspect financial records within three days of her written request. By early January, the dispute had lasted a year between MTCA and Mindy Verson, who had filed a consumer fraud complaint against the condo association on December 18, 2007.

Just prior to a hearing on the complaint scheduled for January 30, 2008, attorneys for MTCA and Verson (left) agreed to a schedule for allowing her to see some financial records. Under the watchful eye of an MTCA attorney, Verson was allowed to examine copies of documents and summaries of financial records from 2006 and 2007. She was not, however, allowed to make copies of the documents or see detailed records of attorney fees paid by the association in 2007.

Through its attorney, former state legislator Ellis Levin, MTCA had denied the request, saying Verson had not given a “proper purpose.” Levin said legal bills are subject to attorney-client privilege and not available to unit owners, and that copies of his invoices to MTCA are not even included in the definition of “financial books and records” of the association.

According to an audit by an outside CPA firm, legal expenses incurred in 2007 by MTCA were 149 percent over budget. General legal fees were budgeted at $15,000 but $37,322 was spent. Legal fees related to collections were $38,405, or 54 percent over budget, and offset by legal fee income of just $19,624.

Verson said she was suspicious of amounts paid to Levin because she had heard Levin claim, on three separate occasions, he was paid three different amounts for work on a lawsuit Verson and six other residents filed against MTCA in 2006. The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice in October 2006.

Are invoices from attorneys protected by attorney-client privilege?

In March 2008, Verson’s attorney, Leo Aubel, accused MTCA of reneging on the settlement reached in late January. In a letter to Levin, Aubel wrote, “Exclusion of records from Ms. Verson’s examination of financial books and records for calendar year 2007 was never part of our settlement agreement.”

But letting Verson see invoices from the condo association counsel put the attorneys in a difficult spot, according to MTCA attorney Daniel Meyer. The law says a condo association must allow unit owners to inspect its records, but doing so could violate attorney-client privilege.

“They are attempting to put my client in the position of choosing between the lesser of two evils,” he told Administrative Law Officer Jacqueline Stanley Lustig at a hearing on January 14, 2009.

Aubel said an invoice for legal fees is “the last place you’d want to put privileged information.” He says the confidential information could simply be redacted – obscured or removed – from the document given to unit owners. Aubel said Verson just wanted to know “who was paid, on what legal matters, when and how much.”

On March 26, 2009, a settlement was reached between the City of Chicago and Marina Towers Condominium Association, ending the dispute. In exchange for the city dismissing its complaint against the condo association, MTCA agreed to allow Verson access to some of the documents she had been trying to see. Verson was allowed to see the records on May 7 and the case was “non-suited” at a hearing on May 12.

MTCA compromises on recording ban

Then there was the ban on unit owners recording meetings of the condo board. Though allowed by the Illinois Condominium Property Act, board members said allowing unit owners to record board meetings would hinder people from expressing opinions. The board banned recording of meetings starting with the meeting on September 24, 2008. Owners were not allowed to comment before the rule was put into effect, and a tape recorder in use at the time was confiscated.

On January 15, 2009, MTCA announced that video recordings of board meetings would be put on a web page accessible to unit owners only. The existence of video recordings, from discretely-mounted security cameras on the ceiling of a room leased by MTCA, was a surprise to many unit owners. (Right) Frames from four security cameras showing a meeting in 2008 in the same room used for condo board meetings at Marina City.

The next month, on February 19, 2009, the board decided to post financial records on the password-protected website. The records would include monthly financial data such as summaries of revenue and expenses.

MTCA takes aim at website about Marina City

Then there was the website. Started in 2007 by Steven Dahlman, Marina City Online was one of the first, if not the first, “hyper-local” news sites in Chicago. As the name suggested, Marina City Online was focused on Marina City, mainly its history and its current events, and the surrounding area in the River North neighborhood of downtown Chicago. Many believed that if indeed Marina City was a small town, Marina City Online was its local newspaper.

But the condo board was not buying it. Marina City Online, it claimed, was the website of a real estate agent who lived at Marina City and was the site’s only sponsor at the time, and that the site’s use of the name “Marina City” suggested it was operated by the condo board. The board threatened to fine the agent $1,000 plus $50 per day. The dispute appeared settled with a disclaimer on the website that it was not “sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated” with Marina Towers Condominium Association. (Left) Screen capture of Marina City Online home page on August 22, 2009.

Throughout the dispute, the condo association maintained it owned intellectual property rights to the entire complex, claiming “movie studios, advertising firms, and others” had sought permission from MTCA to use images of Marina City. The claims seemed to hopelessly confuse the association renting physical access to condo association property with granting permission to use the image of Marina City.

Details of parties obtaining such permission were never revealed. In 2008 and 2009 alone, Marina City appeared in commercial works created by Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau, Hyundai Motor America, and Paramount Pictures. When contacted by Marina City Online, none of these companies could recall any contact with Marina Towers Condominium Association, let alone seeking permission from MTCA or paying a fee. (Right) Rap artists R. Kelly and Beanie Sigel in a music video shot in 2007 on the roof of the west tower.

Marina City unit owners warned about Marina City Online

On October 21, 2009, unit owners at Marina City were warned about Marina City Online and the “factually incorrect and intentionally misleading” article it had published about convicted money launderer Gary Kimmel losing possession of his condo units at Marina City to the condo association. The article mentioned that 12 weeks had passed between MTCA sending a “30-day demand” letter to Kimmel and MTCA filing a lawsuit against him.

The memo to owners from property manager David Gantt referenced a letter from MTCA attorney Daniel Meyer to Marina City Online’s Steven Dahlman. While not disputing the timeline, Meyer believed that the mere mention of the 12-week time span suggested Kimmel “received favorable treatment” from the condo association.

Dahlman agreed with Meyer that the timeline itself did not tell the whole story, and based on information supplied by Meyer that was not available to the public, a new article was published.