Meet Your Board Member: Mort Gitter

Having spent close to 12 years serving on the North Shore Towers Board of Directors, Mort Gitter has returned to his previously held positions of Treasurer, Finance Committee Chair, and Chief Financial Officer of the cooperative.
A resident of the Towers with his wife Suzanne since 1988, Gitter first ran for the Board in 1995. He said he did so because he wanted to be active in protecting the investment he had made in the corporation while also having a voice in the activities of the co-op.
Gitter remained a Board member until 2004. He rejoined the Board in 2006, was reelected in 2006 and was recently re-elected this past June. Along with having chaired virtually all of the committees, Gitter served as the Board President in 2006. Gitter stated that he continues to serve since he believes “he can still make a meaningful contribution for the betterment of the community.”
Gitter, a father of two and grandfather of four, brings to the Board a broad background in business and finance. He is a lawyer who was a partner at a firm that specializes in high profile business bankruptcies and finance. Gitter indicated that with his background in accounting, corporate finance and business bankruptcies were fields of law to which he could readily adopt.
Although now retired from his law firm, Gitter still spends three or four days a week practicing law pro-bono with organizations such as the Legal Aid Society, City Bar Justice Center, and Queens Bar Association. He predominantly handles consumer cases relating to credit problems, individual bankruptcy filings and predatory lending in residential mortgage foreclosures. Gitter said that the most rewarding part of such work is to receive “genuine expressions of thanks” from those he has helped.
Gitter also devotes some of his time as a paid and volunteer arbitrator in various courts and he resolves disputes for the stock exchange enforcement agency.
He and his wife Suzanne spend several weeks each winter in Israel with the Jewish National Fund, at their own expense, working as volunteer mentors to public school students and also working in the main hospital in Tel Aviv.
“We think it is imperative that Israel survives,” Gitter said, adding “we do our part by volunteering our time and services which are badly needed and appreciated. We think that what we do is every bit as important as making annual donations to worthy charities.”
As the new Board begins its term, Gitter said that one of his goals is to make sure that the financial affairs of the corporation are “conducted in a prudent fashion.” He said that in these difficult economic times it is necessary to do a balancing act, meeting budgetary needs to maintain a luxury facility while addressing concerns of shareholders who are of modest means or are living on fixed incomes. Gitter, a golf member, also stated that dealing with the issues of declining golf membership and a significant loss of revenue to the Country Club also needs to be promptly addressed.
Gitter also noted that it is important that the Board continue to work with shareholders in a “harmonious relationship” through frank and open discussions of the subjects of most concern to all residents. Gitter believes that resident shareholders now hold the dominant position in determining how our coop functions. He believes that more shareholders are now actively expressing their interests and concerns, knowing that their views now will have more of an impact than in prior years. Gitter also believes that Board members are now prone to expressing their independent views without concern for adverse political consequences.
Gitter concluded by stating that if the co-op is to flourish, we need “new blood” to step forward from our shareholder group, to present progressive ideas and dynamic leadership so that our community can remain a first rate facility.