Member Column

by Jeri Dolch

LW contributor

I am Jeri Dolch, president of Mutual 8 and also president of Presidents’ Council. I received a request from a shareholder asking why my Mutual won’t sign a contract with Superwire, allowing it to be here in Leisure World. A little history may help shareholders understand. Spectrum has been the bulk Internet provider for many years in Leisure World. The broker who represented Spectrum was Superwire.

The bulk billing was a part of the GRF billing on your monthly assessment (approximately $30 a month). As years went on and there were competitive companies in the market, shareholders would go with them. Some of you may remember wondering if you were still paying for Spectrum on your monthly bill, not realizing you needed to go to the GRF Finance Department to have it removed.

The Mutuals asked GRF to find possible cable providers that would offer a bulk discount rate (such as we had with Superwire) and report back to the Presidents’ Council. The cable provider could not require 100% participation of the residents in the community. In July, the findings were presented to Mutual presidents at a roundtable meeting. There was only one cable provider at the time—Interact Solutions—that did not require 100% participation. It was then up to the Mutuals to decide what they wanted to do.

A contract was entered into with Interact Solutions for it to enter the property, meeting all required terms. I believe there are three or four attorneys representing different Mutuals.

Mutual 8 was advised to have its attorney review the contract. Many changes were made by my Mutual’s attorney, who also represents eight other Mutuals. I then signed the contract that the Mutual 8 attorney approved, and it was forwarded to Interact Solutions.

Meanwhile, I was contacted by a representative of Superwire to come to the Presidents’ Council meeting in August to make a presentation. This was the first meeting I presided over, and I did not realize that the time to make a presentation had closed several months prior.

Now, there are nine Mutuals who have agreed to have Interact Solutions come into LW to install equipment. There are more than enough shareholders interested in Internet Solution’s product to approve the contract. I cannot sign a contract with Superwire or any other company as a bulk provider for liability reasons.

Residents in Mutuals that have signed contracts with Interact Solutions are welcome to attend presentations to see what is offered. If your Mutual Board did not approve Interact Solutions, then you can keep Spectrum, Frontier or Direct TV and negotiate with them, but you, as an individual, will not have the option to go with Interact Solutions. There will be many new offers from companies, but I believe prices will increase as they need to cover overhead and make a profit.