Double Dippin' Dave

One of our board members and former treasurer, David Nicosia, a nationally recognized icon of rectitude and impeccable scruples, is a principal with Aegis, the company our association has contracted with to provide bed bug detection services to our building.

This is a violation of city code and our condo declaration, as well as a conflict of interest.

Our own legal firm, in an opinion written by Katherine Griffith, stated:
In general, Illinois courts have held that ‘duties imposed upon a director of the corporation as a fiduciary require him to manage the corporation with undivided and unqualified loyalty, and prohibit him for profiting personally at corporate expense or permitting his private interests to clash with those of his corporation.’

See Weiss Medical Complex, Ltd. v. Kim, M.D., 87 Ill.App.3d 111, 115, 408 N.E.2d 959, 963, 42 Ill.Dec.250, 254(1980).
Scout, Aegis' bed bug dog, is living in Dave's apartment, which, given the Parker ruling, constitutes a contempt of court.

Superceding our condo declaration and bylaws, there are ordinances that regulate home based businesses in Chicago. As they relate to Aegis:

Businesses that may NOT operate from a home: The City of Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, Enforcement and Investingations Divison, issued a zoning compliance finding against Aegis:

The business is violatiing zoning ordinance by a business that uses an animal from a residential location....

The Chicago Zoning department never followed up on this matter, most likely due to influence from the office of our alderman, Harry Osterman. Keep in mind that our official PTCondo web site home page has a permanent link to Mr. Osterman's weekly update and that Harry has used our party room, free of charge, whenever he seeks re-election. Richard Daley himself paid a visit to our party room when he first ran for mayor back in 1988. My wife shook his hand. I briefly considered filing for divorce.

A building of our size has enough voters to sway any close aldermanic election and is a highly sought venue come election time. Our board and Harry scratch each other's back, just as board members do for each other.

Consider also from the Illinois Condominium Property Act:

Sec. 18. Contents of bylaws. The bylaws shall provide for at least the following:

(paragraphs 1 through 15 skipped)

(16) the board of managers may not enter into a contract with a current board member or with a corporation or partnership in which a board member or a member of the board member's immediate family has 25% or more interest, unless notice of intent to enter the contract is given to unit owners within 20 days after a decision is made to enter into the contract and the unit owners are afforded an opportunity by filing a petition, signed by 20% of the unit owners, for an election to approve or disapprove the contract; such petition shall be filed within 20 days after such notice and such election shall be held within 30 days after filing the petition; for purposes of this subsection, a board member's immediate family means the board member's spouse, parents, and children;

Notice was never sent to association members and a petition was never filed nor signed by 20% of the unit owners.

Page 15 of our condominium declaration states:

No animals, livestock, fowl or poultry of any kind shall be raised, bred, or kept in any Unit or in the Common Elements, except that household pets, other than dogs or cats, may be kept in Units, subject to rules and regulations adopted by the Association, which rule or regulation may exclude any kind of pet by type or category, provided that permitted household pets are not kept, bred or maintained for any commercial purpose;

Finally, a notice was posted on our bulletin board by Draper and Kramer:

The bed bug dog resides with the handler on site.....These animals are not pets.

The disconnect between the policies of our administration and the law is astounding.

Our board has used the bed bug hysteria to further their own business interests, ignored both the laws and our condo dec regulating their behavior, harassed several residents and litigated (and lost) against at least 2 owners in this building over this issue, while providing Aegis with both a cash flow and a great house pet at our expense.

I'm personally annoyed with Dave's condescending eye rolls at anyone who dares to disagree with him at our association meetings. He should be removed from our board and Scout should lose his boarding privileges in our building.

Do you really want one of your neighbors literally snooping around your home on a regular basis?