[sudo-discuss] Fwd: [omni-consensus] Urgent: Omni Commons Community Meeting – Action Required by 12/21/23

thank you Silver for bringing this to everyone's attention! I just want to clarify a few things in Silver's email, and humbly suggest a "plan" for this meeting. It would be more accurate to say "Omni decided it needs to make a big decision" rather than "a decision was made" ... no major decisions were made at last night's meeting. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Sarah Lockhart, and I've been Omni's bookkeeper and tax consultant for almost 3 years. Prior to being paid by Omni, as a volunteer, I helped resolve the dispute regarding fiscal sponsorship funds between Omni and The Village in 2020, and I have worked with David Keenan at Safer DIY Spaces, (originally fiscally sponsored by Omni, now its own 501(c)3 with paid staff) for the past 6 years. I also work part-time for Pro Arts, which rents a small room in the basement of Omni. In terms of facts of the current situation: - the foreclosure process generally results in an auction of the property. So it won't necessarily "be sold to housing developers" ... though that is a likely outcome. - the "return agreement" would have been 20 years. 30 years is standard for a residential mortgage (person buys a house and lives in it), but commercial property (like Omni) has shorter loan terms. 20 years is the longest for a conventional lender. Because the loan period would be shorter, the loan payments would have been higher. Omni's current mortgage is based on a 30 year term, but that was an act of generosity, rather than what one would expect from a bank or other institution. - Omni was not making consistently high enough revenue to meet the criteria for the conventional loan payments prior to the boycott. In terms of a suggested "plan" for the meeting, I would like Omni to consider its priorities. Here is a list of things to consider and what would you (any and all of you) be willing to accept, or what would be a total dealbreaker. 1. losing control over managing the physical space of the building (e.g. having a property manager that makes rules) 2. losing control over determining who can have space at Omni and what the financial arrangements are for that space (e.g. having a property manager that makes rules) 3. having a 3rd party take over the ballroom and event spaces 4. the political alignment / activities of a partner / owner / management entity 5. losing ownership of the building with no compensation (Omni currently owns approximately 55% of the appraised value of the building debt free) 6. losing the building but potentially getting paid to relocate from sale proceeds Feel free to email me with any questions regarding this or Omni's finances! I love answering them (or trying to)! Sarah L On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 8:00 AM Z Silver Zahn <natashazahn27(a)gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ consensus mailing list consensus(a)lists.omnicommons.org https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/consensus