Letter to Clients about Stay-at-Home Order COVID-19
March 22, 2020
Dear Valued Clients:
As you are aware, the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the world has continued to change the way we all go about our daily lives and has caused everyone to take pause and make further adjustments to daily routines, social interactions and operating parameters that are unprecedented in American History. Please know that Prime Management, Inc. is here to support you through this trying time.
On Saturday, March 21, 2020, NJ Governor Phil Murphy issued the Stay-At-Home Executive Order, which mandates that all non-essential businesses close or remote/telework wherever possible. Prime Management supports the intention of this order, which is to minimize person-to-person contact as a major tool to minimizing the spread of this dangerous virus. We believe the health and safety of our employees, our employees’ families and our clients is of paramount importance. Therefore, effective immediately, ALL Prime Management employees will work remotely until further notice. Please note that a few of our part-time employees are unable to work remotely and will simply stay home during this time. Prime Management is compensating all its employees their normal salaries during this difficult time.
The Executive Order issued by the Governor does allow for minimal maintenance/custodial/janitorial/administrative staff to work, only to the extent that it is necessary to maintain essential business operations and those individuals cannot accomplish their tasks remotely. As such, we recommend each of our clients decide staffing levels of onsite personnel on a case-by-case basis. Should you have a question on how the Governor’s Executive Order affects your community, please discuss with Association legal counsel or ask your manager to contact them on your behalf.
As we will not have any staffing at our Corporate Office during this time, we have setup an automated attendant for our phone system during normal business hours that will allow callers to be routed to their community manager or our accounting department, as needed. Despite this, we encourage everyone to use E-mail whenever possible. Our staff members normally located in onsite community offices will have phones forwarded to them during normal business hours so calls may be answered. For all communities that have websites or portals that we manage, a message will be sent out about these changes.
As we work with you to address your operational procedures and protocols going forward, I would like to make a few recommendations based on the information we have as of the time of this letter (3:00 PM on Sunday, March 22nd):
- If you have a Clubhouse/Pool House/Common Area space that is not essential to operations and have not already closed it, please do so.
- The Executive Order calls for the cessation of all non-essential businesses, social gatherings, use of gyms, etc.
- Please cancel any meetings/gatherings that have not already been canceled until further notice.
- All gatherings are now illegal and may be issued a disorderly conduct summons, which carries a fine of not more than $1,000 and/or up to six (6) months imprisonment.
- Prime Management can facilitate conference calls/video conferences for any Board wishing to do so at no charge.
This situation is a challenge for everyone. Never has an entire workforce been required to change how they operate so quickly on such a large scale before and we are all navigating these waters together for the first time. We are all in this together and it will take all of us working together to push through this situation successfully. We thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation as we make these necessary operational changes — we remain committed to providing each of you with world-class customer service during this unprecedented situation and are doing our part to contribute to public safety in our communities.
Please be safe and stay healthy.
Sincerely yours,
Christopher Nicosia, MM, CMCA®, AMS®, PCAM®
Vice President & Chief Operating Officer