GHI Board's Hands Tied by Lawsuit in Dealing with Smoke-Free Proposal

The Greenbelt Homes, Inc. (GHI) room overflowed into the hallway during the   board's regular meeting on Thursday, March 8. to make their homes smoke-free was one of the items drawing members—and Greenbelt Mayor Judith “J” Davis—to the meeting. 

David Schuman, has generated discussion on the issue of secondhand smoke in Greenbelt, made an appearance, but did not speak.

The petition asks GHI to change the Mutual Ownership Contracts (MOCs) of the members of eight units in one row of the U-shaped 13 Court Ridge to ban indoor smoking in perpetuity in their row.

One of the petitioners at the meeting, Linda Curtis, told Patch that this is something she and others in the court talked about long ago.

Judy Bell, who started the petition, agreed, telling Patch before the meeting started that the topic had been floating around, with Schuman’s lawsuit overlapping previous discussions. She also said she thought the petition would probably end up on the agenda of the annual membership meeting on May 17.

Because Schuman’s case is ongoing, having had his appeal accepted by Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals, GHI Board President Tokey Boswell kept reminding board members to be careful and not to respond to certain comments.

Boswell told members that the board had received legal advice before the meeting. He said an attorney had advised that there were two ways for members to make changes to their contracts: 

• Through bylaw amendments, requiring the approval of two-thirds of voting members.
• By GHI making the changes individually, with a signed agreement with each member, without the approval of the membership at large.  

But Boswell said the legal opinion on the latter option was not totally clear, and was something the board needed to research further.

Throughout the meeting Boswell compiled a growing list of questions that members of the board and audience suggested needed to be answered before bringing the proposal to the membership at large, including:

• How would violations be handled?
• Is denying a sale to smokers legal?
• What about people who smoke marijuana for
  medical reasons?
• What if future owners or inheritors smoke or
  sell to smokers?
• Does the ban apply to contractors doing work in a house?
• Does a housing unit include the yard or common areas?

Board Member David Morse said, “We are only scratching the surface of what the complexities are.”  The proposal is likely to be a template for all of GHI, so the language must be the same in all cases, according to Morse.

Yet the board can’t participate in formulating the proposal because of the lawsuit, he said.

Boswell suggested the petitioners could talk to ex-board members who would be free to advise them. 

Board Member Irv Wartell said the ban could hurt sales as well as attract buyers.

After the meeting, petitioner Elizabeth Jay, 74, who lives on the row seeking a smoke-free status, said she remembers the day in 1979 that she put away her last cigarette, as though it were yesterday. 

She was a 2 and 1/2 pack-a-day smoker who stopped cold after she got
sick, eventually diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Jay said that individual rights stop at another person’s nose—and her lungs. She believes the anti-smoking drive in her court is just the tip of the iceberg of a movement that is sweeping the country.