B.B. from Fairfield County writes:
Dear Mister Condo,
Do the unit owners of a condo village in Connecticut that pay the salaries of their employees through their common charges have the right to know what the salaries and benefits of those employees are? We do not have a management company. We have our own manager and maintenance department, and office staff.
Mister Condo replies:
B.B., the answer is “yes and no”. The employees of the association work for the association, not the individual unit owners. The democratically elected Board of Directors has full access to all of this information and acts as the employer in this situation. Technically, all association records can be inspected by individual unit owners but the private information of the employees cannot be disclosed due to privacy and security concerns. That being said, you can inspect the budget which should have line items for salaries and benefits. While your common fees are used to pay their salaries, this is no different than saying your taxes pay the salaries of city employees. As a taxpayer, you have no right to inspect individual city employees’ salaries or benefits. The same concept is in play here. You have had a say in the election of the Board members, whose duties include all business functions of the condo. In this case, that includes keeping an eye on the salaries and benefits of the association’s employees. All the best!