Shabbos Elevator Fight Likely Headed To Court

BALTIMORE, MD — There are certain things about the situation that everyone involved agrees on. It has gotten heated. It has taken on unpleasant racial and anti-Semitic overtones. There is talk of lawsuits. It is not going to be resolved quickly or easily.

Strathmore Tower is a 56-unit, nine-story condominium on Park Heights Avenue. In 2007, the condo association board voted on a contract for renovations to the building’s two elevators. The board voted to reject a contract that called for one of them to be a Shabbat elevator, which stops automatically at every floor during the Sabbath.

A letter sent to residents said the board’s decision was based on the cost. The price tag ran almost $28,000 more than expected, presumably because of the Shabbat elevator.

But some residents did not agree, either with the decision or the supposed extra cost. The building is said to be about 80 percent white and Jewish, and 20 percent African-American. But the board at the time was predominantly African-American, and these residents, all of whom are Jewish, saw the move as anti-Semitic.

Kenneth Lasson is a University of Baltimore law school professor who, once the original decision was taken, has been advising the pro-elevator residents. “I got busy on two fronts, legislation and litigation,” he said.

An appeal was made to Baltimore City Councilwoman Rochelle “Rikki” Spector (D-5th), who introduced a bill to the City Council. The bill required multiple-family dwellings to allow “reasonable accommodation” for residents’ religious practices. The City Council passed the bill, a gesture that had no bearing on Strathmore Tower since state law, not the city, governs condos.

At the same time, the Maryland Commission on Human Relations got involved. Last August, MCHR issued a report in which it found “probable cause” that discrimination by the condo board had occurred against its Orthodox residents.

Last fall, the situation changed. Condo board members serve two-year terms. At the annual election to replace three departing board members, residents who supported the Shabbat elevator were elected. On March 2, the new board voted to retrofit one of the elevators into a Shabbat elevator.

The vote was 5-1 for the elevator, with two members not attending and one member “storming out” before the vote, according to board president Yael Kaner. Mrs. Kaner, a Star K kashrut supervisor and a chef at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center, and her husband, Yosef, who owns a virtual office support company, have lived in Strathmore Tower since 2005.

“Our challenge was to find the silent majority and to encourage them to vote,” Mrs. Kaner said of the board election. While the dispute does not involve all the residents, since the election she said “some African-American [residents] have displayed overt hostility.”

Mrs. Kaner said the condo board is working to satisfy the requests in the MCHR requests — namely, that Strathmore Tower install a Shabbat elevator and that the bylaws be amended to reflect religious accommodation for residents. Unlike the Shabbat elevator, which came under the board’s authority, all the unit owners would have to vote on a change to the bylaws.

Mrs. Kaner said the board is now getting bids on a Shabbat elevator. So far, one bid has come in, at a cost of $11,000. Mrs. Kaner said she hopes to have it privately financed, commenting that developer Willard Hackerman, a unit owner, said he would cover the cost of a Shabbat elevator up to $10,000 per year when the issue first arose.

From a legal angle, the Strathmore Tower case is now in the hands of Glendora Hughes, MCHR’s general counsel. Despite the fact that there is now a new board, Ms. Hughes said the case would proceed against the condo board as an entity and Site Management Co., the management company at the time of the investigation.

“Probable cause means we can go to litigation,” Ms. Hughes said before an administrative law judge at the state Office of Administrative Hearings, an independent agency. Fines can range up to $10,000 in civil penalties. Compensatory damages to the victims can also be levied, potentially in the millions of dollars.

Ms. Hughes declined to give a date for a trial, saying that so far nothing has been filed. “A lot of cases resolve themselves before we go to trial,” she said.

If it happens, Haron Goodman and his wife, Danita, would be part of the MCHR suit. So would Mr. Lasson, of the University of Baltimore. The three are named as complainants in the MCHR report.

Mr. Goodman, an 11-year resident who was a board member at the time of the original Shabbat elevator quarrel, would like a public apology and $35,000 returned to the condo association that he said the “old” board spent on a lawyer. Mr. Goodman said that four or five Orthodox families are leading the fight, but the other Jewish residents, whose observance level is “in the middle,” want a Shabbat elevator, too.

“It’s a plus for the building to see or rent condos,” said Mr. Goodman, who indicated that he might file a lawsuit on his own, separate from the MCHR suit.

Calls to other members of the original board were not returned. However, Irene Dandridge, a four-year resident and parliamentarian of the then-board, was willing to talk about the situation. Ms. Dandridge, who is African-American, was formerly president of the Baltimore City Teachers Union, where, she said, she certainly witnessed her share of dissension.

As far as Ms. Dandridge is concerned, the new board’s decisions are illegal. The meetings do not follow Robert’s Rules of Order, which the condo bylaws require. The meetings are taped, which is illegal.

Ms. Dandridge said the Strathmore Tower Condo Association is operating with a deficit. She is distressed that the condo paid a lawyer to defend the board and is equally distressed that a Shabbat elevator will apparently now happen, although who will pay for it is uncertain.

“If they wanted a Shabbat elevator, they should not have bought here,” Ms. Dandridge said of the residents who are pushing the matter. “It’s not a black-white matter. It’s a matter of not having a few families get their way.”