Elevator issue escalates at Strathmore Tower Condominiums

Posted on February 2nd, 2010 by JewishByte

JewishByte Baltimore – An in-depth look at the Strathmore Tower controversy and a comprehensive view of the real issues behind the story.

The state of Maryland has stepped in to deal with a controversy over a Shabbat elevator in a Baltimore condominium.

The Maryland Commission on Human Relations last week ordered the board of directors of the Strathmore Tower in Upper Park Heights, the heart of the Orthodox Jewish community, to rescind an order to remove the Shabbat elevator from the building pending the completion of an investigation. The order was a direct response to the recent vote by the building’s board to physically remove the Shabbat software and hardware. The Strathmore Tower Condominium building has two elevators, one of which was to be on “Shabbat mode”– every Saturday it stops automatically on each floor so Sabbath observant Jews do not need to press elevator buttons.

The MCHR delivered a letter to board president Mrs. Dandridge that said, in effect, that if she or any of the board members tamper with the Shabbat elevator or try to keep it from running, they will be subjecting themselves to legal action.

The building’s board led by Mrs. Irene Dandridge, had voted Jan. 19 to “reconsider” the installation of the Shabbat elevator. After that vote, they voted to remove the Shabbat elevator. Some on the board insisted that they must physically remove the “software and hardware” to make sure that it will not work, saying that the reason they want to do this is because they believe that the installation was done illegally. One board member suggested that the board just instruct the front desk to refuse to turn on the Shabbat elevator, because that would not cost the building anything, and it would keep it from running. But board member Mr. John Ward (a very vocal opponent of the Shabbat elevator) insisted that it must be “completely removed, the software and the hardware”, and that he has “very good reasons” why he wants it totally disabled, but that he cannot reveal his reasons at this time.

The elevator had been retrofitted as a Shabbat elevator a year ago to accommodate Sabbath-observant residents, and has been a major source of contention between Jewish residents and their African-American neighbors for about three years. About 75 percent of the building’s residents are Jewish, though most are not Shabbat observant.

To remove the “software” would require the removal and re-engineering of the control chip. Since the Shabbat function is a part of the mass produced chip, it is in many elevators, even if it is not used (similar to Sabbath ovens). Mr. Ward does not understand this, and his demand, besides being anti-Semitic, is insane and would be costly. One of their many arguments against the Shabbat elevator is that it costs the building more electricity to run. For the amount that they spent fighting it ($38,000 plus whatever they think they will spend on removing it) they could have run the Shabbat elevator for a long time.

A brief history of this controversial issue is in order.

Board elections are once a year, in November. The current president is Irene Dandridge. Mrs. Yael Kaner was president until November 2009.

After two years of struggling and in the face of delaying tactics by some of the board members and also the representative of the management company (WH Campbell, Inc.) the previous board finally got a vote through to approve the installation of the Shabbat elevator. It turns out that the software had already been installed when the elevator was upgraded in 2007. Although board member John Ward (a particularly vocal opponent of the Shabbat elevator), demanded in 2007 that the contractor not include the feature, apparently that was not feasible without redesigning the control chip, so it was installed despite Mr. Ward’s demands.

Incidentally, Mr. Ward has been claiming recently that there was some kind of Jewish conspiracy involving the elevator company and Jewish residents who somehow got them to secretly install the Shabbat feature during the refurbishing project in 2007.

Despite the previous 2007-2008 board’s spending $38,000 on attorneys to prepare a fight against the Maryland Commission on Human Relations, the MCHR found probable cause that discrimination by the board occurred against the building’s Orthodox residents. They held off filing the suit and waited to see if the new (2008-2009) board could actually get the Shabbat elevator approved. That board did, Mr. Willard Hackerman generously paid for the cost (about $3,000) and it has been in use every Shabbat since.

However, the hostile minority of residents who hate the idea of there being a Shabbat elevator kept up their strange fight. They even began to harass and retaliate against residents who supported the Shabbat elevator.

Here is one example. One resident, Jim Grant, who is not Jewish but who supports the Shabbat elevator on principle was targeted. The management company sent Mr. Grant a letter demanding that he stop painting his apartment, and stop putting new flooring until he got permission from the board. No resident has ever gotten such a letter. There is no requirement to get permission to paint, or replace a floor. Mr. Grant showed the letter to the board president, who assured him that there is nothing in the bylaws requiring someone to get permission from the board to paint, etc. A false complaint was then filed with the Housing Department, who sent a building inspector out with a stop work order. When the building inspector arrived and saw that nothing illegal was happening, he was quite frustrated.

A few weeks later, someone filed a false complaint with the MVA claiming that Mr. Grant had a vehicle from out of state that had no tags. The complainant left out the fact that the car was parked in the building’s underground garage, which is private property. Mr. Grant received paperwork from the Investigative Division of the MVA, which he had to spend time filling out. Mr. Grant believes that he is being harassed by other residents, solely because he openly supported the Shabbat elevator.

The question of how can a building in Upper Park Heights that is over two-thirds Jewish wind up in such a state of affairs is a good question. According to some residents, the recent elections were fraudulent. A resident requesting anonymity said, “When they counted the votes, there were 3 “observers”. When they announced the winners, one of the winners was Janet Hankin, the Assistant District Attorney. She’s Jewish and with her experience, she would have been excellent on the board, and would not tolerate parliamentary tricks. This news upset one of the other candidates. Two days later, Janet’s name disappeared and the other candidate’s name was listed as a winner instead.”

Story by AJ Bulua – for JewishByte.info. He can be reached via email aj@jewishbyte.info.