Volume 1:2 - 29 August 2000
Ethnic Discrimination. Historically, ethnic minority groups have united through their mutual experience of oppression and their quest for social justice. However, the ethnic relationship between landlord and tenant, or the powerful and the powerless, remains volatile. Ethnic discrimination in housing lingers like a bad habit: it encourages ordinarily neutral people to become bigots. Ethnic mix remains morally and legally irrelevant in employment practices. Consequently, the US congress decreed that landlords may not use their power to impose their ideology or religion on tenants through coercive persuasion. Those laws remove the power usurped by bigoted landlords who despise tenants from ethnic groups different from their own. Consequently, Council House directors must appoint the most qualified administrator that they can find for the job after a nationwide search. They must decide only on merit and experience not on grounds of race, color, creed, national origin, gender, age, or familial status. Nmesis [039]
Full Text - [Ethnic Discrimination]
Alcoholism. Another recent incident involved a persistently drunk resident whom a staff person had to help from her automobile to her apartment. She has evidently become a menace to herself and other drivers. She has injured herself several times and will probably injure others if she continues to drive. Her bizarre behavior frequently annoys other residents. She denies that she has a problem. Moreover, the administrator promotes a counseling service yet has apparently done nothing to insure that this woman receives counseling. These incidents give a perverse delight to the self-righteous and vociferous minority that perpetually inhabits the lobby. The bizarre behavior gives them something to gossip about besides their neighbors, the food service, and the weather. Nmesis [021]
Pigeon Feeding. Despite Mullen's repeated warnings about feeding pigeons, several gullible residents continue to feed the resident stool pigeons with information instead of keeping their own counsel. Stool pigeons or decoys gain personal confidences then inform upon their victims to obtain special favors from management. HUD regulations forbid administrators using stooges to stop residents exercising their rights. However, Mitchell has grand-fathered in this unlawful practice by employing a personal stahl-pigeon. He must now provide equal employment opportunity. Moreover, he must advertise this lucrative position and give all those residents experienced from a lifetime of informing on spouses and friends an opportunity to apply for the job. He must offer them the same unlawful inducements: employment, preferential transfers, rent abatements, favored repairs, and other benefits. Mitchell must not compound his crimes by denying equal employment opportunity to people who have spent many years perfecting their conspiratorial skills. Nmesis [026]
Residents' Association. One has heard muted and timid debate about the nature and character of the Residents' Council also its purpose. Many sense that the present association, by its lack of goals, is too elastic and too ambiguous to be effective. Others resent its subservience to a management that imposes how it should function and who will run it. Certain ethnic groups feel justifiably excluded from the whole while other groups arrogate the right to run it. Some individuals in search of power over others exert an overbearing influence on the affairs of the collective. Maybe, the time has come to organize a Residents' Association properly and to allow it to knit diverse people together effectively. Freedom consists in choosing one's destiny without interference from others: a right guaranteed by the US Constitution. Felippe Jacques [031]
Is Good Will Enough? Steve Mitchell, has candidly stated more than once that he lacked experience in accounting and administration. He said he would concentrate his energies to palliate those deficiencies. However, HUD calls for confirmed experience in: billing, operating expenses, vacancy rates, resident turnover, rent collecting, accounts receivable, physical security, physical condition, maintenance, and resident relations. I have no reason to doubt his ability and in time he will probably master those duties. However, one wonders if that warrants the price that residents will pay for his enlightenment. He is forced to continue Mark Mullen's policies. Those policies recently allowed Mullen to pass to residents a $24,328.00 (23.41%) food cost overrun. That absurd overrun had nothing to do with inflation, shortage, or a sudden increase in consumption. It was essentially the result of management blunders. Are there more cost overruns that residents do not know about? Felippe Jacques [036]
Alcoholism Revisited. Mitchell and the directors evidently took no notice of a warning about a resident suffering from advanced alcoholism. Later, the same woman locked herself in her bathroom, defecated uncontrollably, then broke a plate glass mirror. She lay in her excrement and the glass shards until another resident discovered her. The ambulance took her to a hospital. Her daughter apparently exists in a state of denial and will not listen to residents who tell her about her mother's condition. Another resident arranged alcohol counseling for her but she did not accept the offer. If this woman dies then the administrator and the directors will have her blood on their hands through their indifference. American Medical Association has classified alcoholism as a disease that requires immediate psychosomatic treatment since 1936. Buying her a walker does not answer the problem. Nmesis [039]
Care-Giver. I have now reached the age where I need the special care of a qualified professional and the admissions agent has approved my new care-giver. She will move into my apartment effective the first day of next month. The candidate comes well recommended and has impeccable qualifications, a loving disposition, and will give me a spiritual uplift. Perennially well connected, her curriculum vita lists her work with some of the country's leading politicians. Clean and well educated, this attractive twenty-two-year-old has graced the lobbies of leading hotels in both America and Europe. Besides looking after my needs she will also provide loving care to any other Council House resident who asks her. This shows her generous nature. I thank the directors for authorizing this new service and hope that they will allow all residents to participate without regard for sexual proclivity. Nmesis [040]
Thespian Smile. Behind the thespian smile lurks the extortioner's cunning. Mitchell has used private information recorded in a personal file to intimidate a resident. He called an emergency contact person then tried to obtain information by slandering the resident. Subsequently, he unlawfully used his official position and power to threaten the resident with eviction. Dunbar and Ramsburg, both unqualified administratively, access the same files then misuse information recorded in them. The law requires residents to provide only financial information for HUD certification purposes. Moreover, the US Privacy Act 1974 protects those documents from misuse by prohibiting management agents from disclosing information without written consent. Residents should not provide any other personal information to Council House managers for fear of misuse. Daily networking with friends outside the residence confines will better serve in case of an emergency and protect individual privacy. Intimidation, blackmail, and extortion rank as criminal offenses. Nmesis [041]
Noise Makers. A resident has spread rumors that the recently published list of names identifying noise polluters listed three dead people. Apparently, that person tried to discredit the veracity of this publication by using a time-frame ploy. An investigator checked the apartments inhabited by noisy residents on the day that the article went to press. He found them all alive and well with their emergency cards turned to show it. He also heard them making the sounds of hell. They evidently had a last fling before they left to visit it. Nmesis [042]
Replacement Administrator. The report (28 July 00) about advertising for a replacement administrator evidently prodded Bradley K. Spear (a director) to act. The directors must advertise in a way that provides equal opportunity to all qualified people notwithstanding race, color, creed, national origin, gender, age, or familial status. This means that they must advertise nationally and show that they have complied with all state and federal laws. Spear placed advertisements in The Jewish Transcript (Seattle, 11 and 25 August 00). One wonders how many goyim read that paper and would reply to an advertisement that has obviously biased intent. As an attorney, Spear knows that he must follow the letter also the spirit of the law. Nice try Brad! Try again before you get hauled before the civil rights commission and the bar association disciplinary committee. Nmesis [043]
Noise. Nighttime noise has lessened since publication of a list of offenders' names. The list originally contained thirty names and now has nine. Recently, a resident called "security" during the early hours. Earl Br-nn-n responded by approaching two repeated offenders on the eleventh floor. They have now ceased to make noise during the night and gained some respect for their neighbors' quietude. His action improves upon the previous neglect by Mitchell and Cowdin who appease offenders by doing nothing. Now meet the repeated noise makers from whom several residents have heard already (22 August): Elliott #211, Finely #1210, Mandel #407, P-ll-dius #915. The remaining five people have their names withheld pending publication in the next edition if they offend again. Nmesis [040]
Freedom of Expression. Audrey Dunbar, formerly designated "activities director" has now added the title"admissions agent" normally reserved for lunatic asylum and prison staff. She continues to censor bulletin board postings despite a warning by certified mail about HUD regulations. Mitchell has removed lawfully distributed newsletters in censorship attempts. His actions construe as theft. The directors must give freedom of expression to all residents, without exception. Apparently incapable of performing their assigned duties, Mitchell and Dunbar, try to manage the residents instead. Mitchell must take immediate steps to end threats of violence against residents who assert their constitutional rights. Moreover, Dunbar must not threaten to withhold ice cream and other favors from residents. Instead, she must treat them respectfully as adults with astute minds not as childlike wards of her self-aggrandizing court. She has no qualifications to opine on residents' mental capacity and must not act upon her personal assumptions. Nmesis [018]
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