Dear FH, ...You may owe back stupid taxes (which you may pay to Chris...)

Dear FH,

While I completely acknowledge that the military does not have to, by any law, provide housing for it's members' dependents AND that I do not HAVE to reside on post in your housing units, I have several grievences. And I'm about to air them. So DEAL!

1) Resident neglect of units is only resident neglect if the resident doesn't call maintainence to file a work order twice and no one shows to fix the problem. Nice that it took 2 seperate housing employees to see the problem with the ceiling in my bathroom before anyone would fix it. (And "we have no record of you calling to get a work order" may be true, but I did. To solve this problem, see #9) Very nice. And then you try to tell me that I am at fault? I don't think so.

2) I shouldn't have call in a work order for a rubber stopper for my bathtub. That's just stupid. I should be able to walk into self-help and pick it up! Especially since the water here is so full of calcium that it basically eats through the rubber.

3) And while I am on problems with the bathroom...I shouldn't have to dump draino down my shower drain every other week to allow the free flow of water so that I am not standing in a lake at the end of a 5 minute shower! There's a problem, and it's not my hair shedding that's causing the clog.

4) On the water subject, when you don't leave me a shut off valve for my kitchen pipes and they break and ruin my kitchen cabinets, you should think about replacing the cabinets...not just throwing a piece of plywood over the water-damaged and molding/mildewing bottom. EW..and stinky. But hey, it's not rotted out yet, so what do you care?

5) By the way, it's nice to now have a smoke detector that works...although I might be the only unit in my building that does. Who knows, right? You're doing safety upgrades as you have time.

6) As for upgrades, if you are replacing all horizontal blinds with vertical as people move out, even though you have 2 years to implement the change installation wide, you should be doing it to ALL UNITS AS PEOPLE MOVE OUT REGARDLESS OF THE CONDITION OF MOST OF THE BLINDS! Seriously. It's not fair to charge people for blinds that are going to be replaced within the next two years just because "most" of the rest of the home's blinds are in good shape and therefore you can't justify it because of the blinds' condition, don't have time, or don't have the money to do all the units as folks move out. That's lazy. And if it's a money issue, see #8 for a money saving tip. (If you are so concerned about the horizontal ones posing a stranglization hazard for children, then be concerned with every unit NOW! or quit using that as an excuse to spend more money.) Better yet, just change them out all ready and be done with it. This is especially true when it's YOUR door handles on the patio doors that are causing the damage to your blinds!

7) If the gutters on the 2nd floor are blocked and flooding MY first floor patio, I should be able to call in a work order for the 2nd floor gutters. This is just common sense. But of course I can't because I am not the 2nd floor resident.

8) Hiring contractors to mow the units' lawns -fenced in or not- was just a stupid idea and a waste of money. They do a lousy job. Period. Don't even get me started! If they are going to be able to drive heavy machinery on my lawn the day after a soaking rain and create ruts in the yard: a) don't even THINK about telling me that I have to have the yard back to what it was when I moved in. It's not going to happen. b) I should be allowed to drive a u-haul on my lawn to move in or out of my unit. It's not going to be any worse than what the contractors are doing. I'm not even going to START on what you COULD be allocating that money for!

9) I am sick and tired of dealing with people who are rude or don't know what they are talking about or lose paperwork. Hire decent people. Teach them customer service and secretary skills. Oh, and if I'm going to have to be transfered or on hold constantly, please consider investing in some hold music.

10) Yearly routine maintence is only "yearly" and "routine" if you are routinely doing it yearly. I bet that I won't see or hear of this program again for at LEAST two years!

11) Work with the MPs and figure out who rules what. I am sick of getting citations for stupid stuff that a) I didn't do. and b) isn't actually a violation of regulations. However, the ones that are parked on their lawns or the sidewalks, or violate other regulations get NOTHING because you say "it's an MP issue" and the MPs say "that's a housing issue". Get together, make up your minds and stick to it! And by-the-way, quit sticking notifications in my mailbox. If it doesn't have a post mark, or isn't outgoing, it's illegal to do so. Besides, one good wind and the notice is down the road!

12) And on the topic of the yard-nazis...I bet you that some of my hubby's BAH is going to fuel those little golf carts. Novel idea, get off your butt and walk! Oh wait, we haven't allocated money for sidewalks. Or people are parked on the sidewalks. Deal with it. A little exercise won't hurt anyone.

13) Oh yeah. My Christmas lights, which were down on the 13th of January thank you very much. I bet you weren't citing people who put them up November 1st, were you? What's the deal? Be consistant!

14) The Mayoral program. That's pretty much a joke in itself. Would have been nice to have had a job description and an idea of what the program was. Now that I am NOT involved, I get a phone call asking me if I want to be. Seriously? I'd love to, but....well, the last time I was involved (for almost a year), I did NOTHING, because there was no direction, job description, or communication. Have you fixed those problems?

15) Get in touch with DPW and get the street lights fixed! It's constantly dark on the resident streets. Isn't that a safety and security issue?

16) Provide the proper materials to residents upon move in. Most of us don't get a resident's guide, CAM PAM 500-1 (Emergency preparedness...which is SUPPOSED TO be in each residence), or a self-service center item replacement schedule.

17) Return emails and phone calls. It's just a common courtesy. You'd probably have a lot fewer pissed off residents if there was communication AND/OR the people on the lower end of the food chain who answer the phones were authorized to assist residents.

18) Who wallpapers a bathroom? Who puts beige-ish carpet in a home that will have multi-tenants over 10 years? Really? REALLY?!?!?!? C'mon now....

That all being said, I WILL continue to reside on post. Mostly because I enjoy a challenge...this one being: Work Reform On the Way Privatized Housing Is Being Run While Making The Housing Company Think It Was All Their Idea To Change Things And Improve.

Let's see how well this works.

Sincerely,
-N