Winthrop’s largest housing complex, Governor’s Park, is caught in prolonged turmoil, with its diverse working-class residents emotionally divided over their management’s handling of rising costs in their aging facility.

The facility’s manager, Dalibor Konchar, was given leadership of the 55-year-old complex in 2023 and said he immediately understood the need to address a prolonged neglect of repairs at the 11-building compound in the northern end of Winthrop.

The unattended work, Mr Konchar said, included the need to replace most of the buildings’ roofs and fix at least nine old elevators, along with deteriorated roads and failing heating systems. “In 2023, when I took over, this complex was already in bad shape,” he said.

Evidence wanted

His critics at Governor’s Park largely agree that their spartan collection of red-brick buildings needs substantial amounts of attention. But they argue that Mr Konchar’s management team, after raising condominium fees this year by 10 percent, has been slow to carry out the repairs, has cultivated ethnic and political favoritism, and won’t clearly share the details of costs and expenses.

“They keep talking about increased prices, inflation, capital needs,” said Alena Kuzub, a Governor’s Park resident helping to lead the opposition to Mr Konchar and his team. “But none of it is supported by documents and calculations. They have not provided transparent proof.”

The conflict broke out into the open last month when Mr Konchar’s critics produced a petition against current leadership that they described as representing 54 percent of the owners of the 392 rental units at Governor’s Park.

Governor’s Park is run by a seven-member board of trustees, who are residents nominally elected by all residents. Mr Konchar is hired by the trustees, though Ms Kuzub and other opponents have suggested Mr Konchar and the board are now closely connected, after several years in which inadequate voting processes effectively have allowed the trustees rather than all residents to choose the new board for the coming year.

Election rules

The petition leaders include one current trustee, Blerta Balla, and it seeks the removal of all six other board members, accusing them of a pattern of misconduct in areas of oversight and management, democratic rights and public sharing of data.

“Basically his attitude changed toward the trustees,” said one opponent, Ghizlaine Karcouche, a former trustee who was part of the consensus in favor of hiring Mr Konchar in 2023, believing promises he would do as residents wanted. “Our concern has never been whether an increase was necessary,” another resident, Xhensila Kalemi, said of the fee hike. “It has been about transparency and accountability.”

The rules of Governor’s Park allow for an annual election in November to choose the trustees. But the complex’s working-class residents have been unable for years to gather in sufficiently large numbers at those November meetings. The rules then allow a month-long petition process, but that too has been mired in allegations of interference and exasperated residents. Therefore, for years, the trustees have named their successors.

An immediate result of last month’s opposition petition is that the Governor’s Park trustees have scheduled a meeting for July 13 at which they plan to hear the complaints and possibly allow votes on their removal. But the complex’s history, opponents said, leaves little confidence that enough people will attend. “We are a community of hard-working individuals, we are working class, and it is very difficult for us to take time off a night shift, when we’re trying to get by,” said Arthur Natella, an owner of his mother’s unit at Governor’s Park.

Questionable tactics

The petitioners have accused Mr Konchar and the board of practicing and tolerating tactics that include tracking and rewarding residents based on their political leanings, including Governor’s Park staff lobbying residents during maintenance calls, and management obstructing the petition process for choosing trustees.

And the entire argument has been colored by intimations of ethnic social division and even tribalism. “I believe personally that there is some ethnic alliance going on here,” Ms Balla said. Mr Konchar, ethnically Serbian, said he sees the diversity of Governor’s Park and understands it can bring complexity, but feels that any allegations of improper politicking could go both ways.

Governor’s Park was built in 1971 and often is regarded in Winthrop as representing the lower end of the socio-economic scale in town, with its robust ethnic mix distinguishing it from the largely white population of the rest of Winthrop. The average home value across Winthrop is about $700,000, while unit sale prices in Governor’s Park run about half that much. Crime rates are relatively low across Winthrop including Governor’s Park, though some residents of the complex describe being concerned by such matters as domestic violence, drug activity and car-related theft.

Mr Konchar said he recognizes frustration at Governor’s Park but suspects some of the more vehement complaints may involve personal concerns over matters such as unit-specific repair histories and the complex’s chronically overstuffed parking lots. “There’s all kinds of stuff, and I don’t think anybody here has clean hands, honestly,” he said.

Frustrations build

The parking issue may be emblematic of the distrust. The complex has 550 car spaces for nearly 400 units, many owned by families with multiple vehicles, raising questions about how many permits are actually sold, who gets the rights to them, and where the revenue goes. The opponents also contend that some units were sold with an understanding they included two parking spaces, that time limits for visitors have shrunk, towing has increased, and permits can’t be tracked.

The overall animus may have hit a high point in March, when Mr Konchar in an online meeting offered sarcasm to suggestions that he cut fees for a trustee who flipped sides in the conflict to support him, and the opponents called it an admission. In another case, a current trustee, tired of resident complaints repeatedly directed to his personal email, responded by asking about ethnicity. Critics of management have complained about being penalized for taking pictures of what they regard as problem incidents, while Mr Konchar has described such activities as harassment. Both sides have talked of misleading arguments and unsavory acts by the other.

The larger atmosphere – residents recognizing that Governor’s Park needs a serious amount of maintenance and upgrades, and feeling perpetually unable to document and confirm what the management team is doing about it – defies any simple dissection.

Unavoidable problems

The two sides acknowledged that the 10 percent fee increase means that unit owners now pay an estimated $530 to $550 per month, with the amount varying by unit size. And that fee covers heating and water costs, plus insurance for the overall facility. Together, Mr Konchar said, those costs consume about two-thirds of the $2.4 million that the fee generates each year.

And the rest of the money from the fee, Mr Konchar said, has helped pay for work that has included replacing roofs at four of the 11 buildings, one of the elevators, and interior carpets across the complex. But the list remains long, Mr Konchar said.

“It’s a simple fact that you cannot do projects and complete all the things unless you have money,” he said. “And that’s going to be a problem for any board, any management company.”

Mr Konchar acknowledged that his team doesn’t make directly available to residents all of the basic financial data of Governor’s Park operations, such as all water bills from the town, and he described a necessity to charge search fees to people who ask him for what he regards as detailed requests.

Escalation possible

The critics question the degree of progress on repairs and the necessity of the data restrictions, and said they cannot trust Mr Konchar’s assertions about those needs and bills without seeing the numbers and accompanying audits. Already, Ms Kuzub said, a new elevator is breaking down, and problems with water service and quality remain widespread.

The critics also have complained that the Town of Winthrop has not fully responded to requests that it produce its own records on matters including the water bills, to help the residents compare the numbers to their own charges.

The trustees hired Mr Konchar and his team in 2023, at an annual fee of $130,000, because he offered the lowest price among five competitors. Mr Konchar said he looks forward to talking directly with Governor’s Park residents at next week’s meeting, and said he is willing to leave if they don’t want him. “I don’t really need this,” he said, describing the conflicts. “I have other things in my life.”

People on both sides of the divide conceded that the public airing of the dispute is hurting all of them, including the value of their properties. But it may get worse before it gets better, if the trustees aren’t removed at next week’s meeting. “If they don’t,” Ms Kuzub said, “then we will be looking for other ways to deal with this.”