On Tirzo's Bistro: The End Game, Part 1
David Berman must be congratulated for his capture of key events surrounding the drama of the 25 March board meeting on Tirzo's Bistro. While David aptly covered what did happen, including his providing a recording of Jack Troia's presentation, the board's discussion and vote, he provides us with few details on what had happened behind the scenes. If you have not already, you can read David's excellent coverage and listen to the board meeting here by Clicking on this Link.
Reading between the lines, one has to assume that matters did not exactly flow as the board had originally planned. I believe it is safe to assume that the board would have preferred to come into that board meeting with an agreement in hand. That did not happen. Instead, the board was forced to come in with only a proposed agreement, one that has important and costly contingencies for the lessee and his investor to ponder. That might suggest that there continues to be some uncertainty concerning the ultimate outcome of negotiations. That uncertainty depends largely on the willingness and ability of the parties at risk to come up with sufficient funding to properly finance the operations retroactively as well as on a continuing basis. And if gaming is ultimately approved, as I believe it will be by the board, if not by the unit owners, how will that needed reconfiguration and installation effort be financed?
On a positive note, at least from the board's perspective, one might reasonably conclude that Tirzo and company has been afforded a unique and favorable opportunity they can ill afford to walk away from. That, one assumes, is what the board is counting on in demanding a final all or nothing response from Tirzo and his investor by the end of March.
While the board was addressing past and presumably future compliance on the payment of state sales taxes, David Berman also made some reference to Tirzo's obligations to pay Federal payroll taxes. That amounts to 13.85% of earnings for the employer's share and 7.65% for the employee's share for FICA, FUTA (unemployment) and Medicare. Fortunately, according to Treasurer Dan Forgeron, he said he was able to verify that required payroll taxes were being automatically withheld and drafted from his payroll account. That's a relief, given that Tirzo must also account for and report on his employee's tipped income, which can be substantial compared to their base hourly wage.
After all, we must acknowledge that the lessee Tirzo Hernandez is but a child of the board's special creation, for better or worse. We can only hope that Tirzo's Bistro will live up to the expectations that David Berman is proposing to promote. Unfortunately, David's enthusiasm for Tirzo's did not seem to be tied to or dependent on any measured improvement in meeting the heartfelt concerns that were expressed by a number of homeowners and the considerable catering needs of the all important Women's Club and their hundreds of members. As board member Ann Small noted, she expessed her hopes that dining conditions will improve, but then added, at least for a majority of our homeowners.
Ron Johnson 28 March 2010
