Condo Media - April 2017 - 44

SENSE of
SECURITY

the idea that it will assist in limiting
exposure and liability. In some of these
cases, the association considers this
installation the end point. In reality,
the installation is actually just the
beginning. Does your association have
written policies and procedures that
speak to how to manage these systems?
For example: How long do you store
video images? How do you handle issuing key fobs to residents, vendors, or
others? How do you handle requests for
information captured by your access
control system or your video system?
Do you program access credentials
such as key fobs or access cards to correspond to a resident's lease dates? Are
residents allowed to acquire as many
key fobs as they would like or are they
issued individually and assigned to a
specific resident by name only? Having
a system in place to assist in access
control and creating a historical record
of activity can be a tremendous benefit.
However, if these systems are not managed properly through the creation
and adherence to specific policies and
procedures, they can become a great
liability to your association.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANS
Does your association have established emergency response plans
for things like weather emergencies,
natural disasters, or internal events
(i.e. such as localized loss of utilities,
temporary loss of occupancy due to
fire, etc.) which may create a significant disruption at the property? If
so, are your residents aware of those
plans? More importantly, do your
residents know where the line is
drawn between what the association
will be doing during these events and
what they should be prepared to do
for themselves when the time comes?
Having those discussions and communicating those details prior to an event
taking place will significantly improve your
association's and
your residents'
ability to deal

with the event when (and I say "when"
rather than "if," because all properties at some point, to some degree,
are faced with one of these events)
it occurs. Remember, what might be
considered an emergency will vary
from association to association. For
example, I was recently speaking
with an association that had its own
wastewater treatment plant on-site.
The potential loss of that plant posed
a number of challenges that the association needed to address in its plans.
There are a number of great sources
for general information regarding
emergency planning. Check with local
government, NEMA, FEMA, and the
CAI library and community forums, as
there is a lot of great related information available through these resources
to get you started.

■ CHRISTOPHER R. LANNI CMCA,
AMS, CPP IS THE FOUNDER AND
PRESIDENT OF SECURE RESIDENTIAL
SERVICES, LLC AND A CORPORATE
RISK ADVISER FOR BARKAN MANAGEMENT COMPANY. HE ALSO SERVES AS
THE DIRECTOR OF SECURITY AT THE
HARBOR TOWERS CONDOMINIUM IN
BOSTON AND IS A PAST PRESIDENT
OF THE ASSOCIATION OF RESIDENTIAL SECURITY DIRECTORS (ARSD).

44

CONDOMEDIA
MEDIA
Condo Media - April 2017

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