They sat around the table in the facility's conference room and looked at him with the particular expression that experienced trades people reserve for someone they've decided doesn't know what they're talking about yet. Marcus didn't make a speech, didn't try to establish himself with words. He sat down, opened his notebook, and said, "Tell me what's not getting addressed. The things you've flagged that nobody's acted on. " A pause. The HVAC contractor, a man named Greg50s.
Big hands, the kind of tan that came from being on rooftops, glanced at Patricia and then back at Marcus. The unit on the west roof line," Greg said. "I've been saying for two seasons it's going to fail before winter. Nobody's authorized the replacement. " "What does replacement cost? " Marcus said. Greg named a figure.
Marcus wrote it down. "What does emergency repair cost when it fails at 11 at night in February with tenants calling? " Greg almost smiled. "About three times that. " "Then we replace it," Marcus said. I'll have authorization from Mrs. Bennett's office by end of week.
The electrical contractor leaned forward. There's a panel issue in the east stairwell. Write it down, Marcus said and pushed a legal pad toward the center of the table. Everything you flagged that hasn't been addressed today. I need that list.
The meeting lasted 90 minutes. By the end of it, Marcus had a list of 14 deferred maintenance items and a clear picture of why the building had been running in reactive mode for months. Everyone waiting for authorization that moved too slowly through channels that were too long. He called Viven's office that afternoon and made the case for a standing pre-approved budget for items under 8,000 with documentation submitted after the fact. Viven's assistant put him on hold, came back in 3 minutes.
She said yes. She also said she's going to want a monthly summary of every expenditure. She'll have it, Marcus said. He went back to the facility's office and told Patricia. Patricia looked at him over her reading glasses.
Two weeks, she said. Two weeks? What? That's how long it took you to get what I've been asking for for 8 months. She shook her head slowly.
I don't know if I should be grateful or angry. Be both. Marcus said I would be. She looked at him for a second. Then she went back to her tablet.
HVT contractor is available Thursday. I'll confirm. It was the closest thing to approval he was going to get from Patricia in the first month. And Marcus understood that. He understood it because he'd spent 9 years being the person who knew what they were doing while someone else held the authority.
He knew what it felt like to watch a less experienced person get something you'd been asking for simply because they existed at a different level. He wasn't going to pretend that was easy for Patricia, and he wasn't going to pretend it was something she should just get over. What he could do was make sure every decision he made gave her evidence that he was worth tolerating. That was the goal for 30 days. Just that.