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By Root 717 0

his rival's supporters was slightly lower. But his principal foe claimed to have won the majority vote required to name a new administrator under the condominium rules; "the partners," he observed with gentle irony, "are fifteen in number; eight are against [this decision]"; according to his reading of the procedural rules, the eight out of the fifteen members present, representing at least 5o percent of the shares, constituted a legal majority. There was a brief argument about the exact definition of a majority, but it soon fizzled as it became clear that the younger faction had made sure of their grounds in advance. Their leader then seized the opportunity: "The same people who voted 'no' to Giuliani [the old administrator] are disposed to vote 'yes' for another person," he demanded, and went on to say that, in that case, they could nominate a new administrator because-he hammered his point home-they constituted a majority. He then turned to his candidate for administrator, who-perhaps not surprisingly, but also with evident respect for the rules-concurred in his reasoning. To cap his triumph, he asked, "Is there anyone who would argue the contrary?" One woman protested, "The administrator," but was silenced by mention of the code of procedure, which required the administrator to accept the majority view.

Much more seriously for future relations within the condominium, there was a tremendous row about a proxy vote. The merchant had-obviously not without self-interest-agreed to serve as proxy for a foreign woman resident who had claimed she was unable to attend the meeting, and, he said afterward, had she really stayed away, the old administrator would have had over half the votes and could not therefore have been censured. In the end, however, apparently under pressure from the younger group-"They brainwashed her!" stormed the merchant-she did come to the meeting, and voted with this group ("She changed her face!" he raged). There was a furious exchange; the leader of her faction demanded to see the proxy document after the merchant had protested that she could hardly write a proxy and then expect to show up and vote.

In response to this act of distrust, which the merchant thought the younger man had no legal right to insist on carrying out, the merchant-who later threatened that "at the next meeting he would give him a good kick in the head"-told him that the proxy document was for the woman herself to show; she initially denied that she had given anyone a proxy, but the old administrator finally produced his copy of the document and she retracted her denial, especially after the merchant said he would sue her if she failed to do so and that he would demand that she submit to a handwriting test to prove that she had signed the proxy. There was a tense moment when the merchant challenged her to claim openly that the signature on the proxy was forged; while someone shrieked-from despair or outrage was not clear-the surprisingly imperturbable administrator simply handed the proxy to this woman and allowed to her retract her signature. The grumpy old merchant could be heard muttering, "Idiot!" (deficiente!) just loudly enough to ensure being heard. (Later, in private, he again threatened to take action against the various illegalities of members of the younger faction, thereby exposing their civic stance as disingenuous. He also admitted that he had signed another proxy, for another of the old administrator's allies; the latter had in fact not wanted to come and had authorized the merchant to sign his proxy for him, but became so concerned that the old administrator was about to be fired that he, too, decided to show up.)

Interestingly, although the critics rehearsed a whole series of complaints, it was the administrator who, most of the time, held the meeting to procedural rules; and it was he who enabled the one woman to retract her proxy and vote against him. Not that he had much choice; but he may have hoped to convince the younger group of his devotion to principle as well as to good manners; and he probably also