As
of September 13th:
Fiduciary
Trust International, custodian and disbursing agent for the DIT,
and formerly headquartered in the World Trade Center, is operating
from their disaster recovery center in New Jersey.
All
DIT fund and account data are intact and will shortly be accessible.
However, the DIT office, located 2 blocks south of the WTC, will
not be operational until power and telephone service is restored
and nonresident civilians are allowed back into the area.
The
DIT Income Fund manager, his staff, and most of the custody staff
handling DIT accounts were successfully evacuated from the 90-94th
floors of the South Tower. However, many of the other custody
personnel remain unaccounted for, including Ed Abad, the Senior
Vice President with prime responsibility for DIT accounts. Kindly
keep him and his family in your prayers.
[Harbor
Capital, in Boston, manager of our Equity Fund, were evacuated
on the 11th but are now functioning normally.]
As
of September 17th:
An
office has been opened close by the NYSE where restoration of
services questions may be addressed to representatives from Verizon,
Con Ed, the NYC Development Authority, and others.
I
visited there today, Monday, and learned the following:
- Restoration
of telephone service may be expected within 1-2 weeks. In the
meantime, Verizon will arrange within "2 days" for
calls to the DIT telephone number to be transferred to my home.
- Power
to the area is expected to be restored between Thursday morning,
9/20, and Saturday morning, 9/22
There
is a significant caveat, however, to the power restoration scenario.
The City has established a "no-work" zone into which
restoration workers, to insure their safety, are not permitted.
The map shown to me by Con Ed had our building, 74 Trinity Place,
just outside the southern boundary of the no-work zone. But the
map shown me by the Development Authority had 74 Trinity Place
just inside the zone. If inside, although there may be power
in the area, power within the building may not be restored until
the City has authorized entry.
Trinity Church, our landlord, reports that the building appears okay
visually, but are moving their offices to another of their sites
due to difficulty of access to the area and to the massive cleanup
required for their extensive, multi-floor operations. Fortunately,
with our one-room office, and no need for public access, these concerns
should not present insurmountable difficulties for us.
Once
power is restored and access permitted, we should shortly thereafter
be operational, although perhaps temporarily lacking direct phone
and fax service. If our computers are not functioning, means
are available for the restoration of all program and data files.
Trading capabilities in both the Equity Fund and Income Fund
are functional. Certain aspects of custody services at Fiduciary
Trust are not yet quite fully operational, due largely to their
loss of many custody and tech support personnel, but will not
seriously or permanently impair DIT's functioning. Direct shareholders
who had subscriptions or redemptions that normally would have
been processed by us and Fiduciary during the second week of
September, as of August 31, will still have these transactions
processed as of that date using the 8/31/01 net asset value per
share.
Mail
delivery to our zip code has been suspended indefinitely, but
is being held at the GPO, whence I will retrieve it periodically.
Please feel free to call me at home (201)798-7465 should you
have any particular concerns about our status or your accounts.
But I must ask in advance for your patience as I operate from
this "home office." Be assured that we are doing our
best to be responsible stewards in this crushingly sad and difficult
period. The sights (and smells) I experienced today from the
corner of Liberty and Nassau Street--2 blocks from ground zero--were
truly appalling and beyond comprehension.
As
of September 21st:
The
good news:
- Fiduciary
Trust has told me that distributions to trust beneficiaries
should occur according to their normal schedule; i.e. each
individual beneficiary should receive its distribution going
forward according to the same schedule it has received them
in the past.
- DIT
mail is now being held at the Bowling Green Station -- evidence
that, building by building, the Financial District is slowly
approaching 'normalcy'.
- A
contracted building cleanup crew is already at work at 74 Trinity
Place.
- I
have an appointment to make a police-escorted 15 minute visit
to our office this afternoon to retrieve essential business
materials.
The
less than good news:
- The
15 minute visit has just been canceled. Building management
now says access is sporadic and unpredictable and could not,
at the moment, schedule a replacement visit. A delegation from
Trinity Church is going to Police Headquarters to try to resolve
the access issue.
- A
fellow tenant on our floor has told me that he has been given
to understand that permanent re-occupancy may not happen until
mid-October. I have been unable as of yet to confirm this estimate
but hope it is a bit pessimistic.
Given
the above, I'll continue to seek access to the office; but, in
the meantime, I have requested overnight deliveries from San
Francisco of installation software which, coupled with our backup
disks, will assist in portfolio management from my home. Third
quarter dividends will be declared as usual. Individual portfolio
appraisals will likely be mailed to direct shareholders later
in October than would normally be customary.
As
of September 28th:
Finally,
there is some news that appears substantive and is not changing
daily, as earlier reports had. Access to 74 Trinity Place has
been somewhat eased, although the building is still guarded by
National Guard personnel. Cleaning crews have been readmitted
and are hard at work. There is no water in the building, but
it is "crawling with contractors," primarily plumbing
and electrical. Power has been restored throughout, but restoration
of phone service is many days away and impossible to reliably
predict at this time. Calls to the( 212-) and (888-) 964-2444
numbers are being forwarded to my Jersey City residence.
I
now expect to gain first access to the office--limited to 20
minutes--at noon on Monday, October 1st, to begin removing materials
essential to start setting up a satellite office at home. At
the same time, I'll be meeting with a project manager from Maxons'
Restoration, the cleaning contractor engaged by Trinity, to arrange
for professional cleaning of the DIT premises and equipment.
A temporary off-site facility is necessary because re-occupancy
of the DIT office is now estimated not to be likely until the
end of October, plus or minus a week or so. I hope soon to have
fax capability at home so that faxes sent to the office will
be forwarded here. Mail sent to the NYC office will continue
to be retrieved from the Bowling Green P.O., but to expedite
delivery, I recommend you address mail to:
Diocesan
Investment Trust
c/o Stuart Money
44 Sherman Place
Jersey City, NJ 07307-3028
Re-occupancy
of 74 Trinity Place will likely be delayed, not due to the building's
unreadiness, but to the continuing intense recovery and debris
removal effort at the WTC. Both Trinity Place and Greenwich Street,
at the rear of our building, are primary arteries for the flatbed
trailers carrying large structural elements--it's a constant
procession. Also, many utility cables and conduits have been
laid above ground in the area. And in front of our building is
an inspection station where every vehicle is stopped and
inspected by the National Guard--interior, exterior, and undercarriage
(3 Guardsmen actually roll under the vehicle to do this)--before
being allowed to proceed to Ground Zero. A grimly distressing
reminder of the reality of it all.
I
greatly appreciate your patience and understanding as we confront
the challenges of the next few weeks.
As
of October 5:
Success!
After going through several National Guard and Police checkpoints
and waiting in a block long line to be assigned the required
police escort, I arrived at 74 Trinity Place this week. I was
able to gain brief access to the office and to start removing
materials and equipment essential to begin setting up basic operations
at my residence. The condition of the office was not as bad as
I had feared, but there was a layer of dust over everything--quite
thick in some areas (I sneezed a lot). Arrangements have been
made at a very reasonable cost for professional cleaning. The
operating condition of the office equipment remains an open question.
The
building is still without water, as there have been some significant
plumbing problems. However, the building manager has told me
he expects all clean up and "mechanicals" for the entire
building to be in order by mid-month. Unfortunately, the building
is not high on the City's priority list for authorizing re-occupancy,
since it is in an area of the red zone that remains highly active.
Best guess for re-occupancy is now early November. Phone service
has been restored, but please do not send faxes, as I am unable
to retrieve them. Voice calls to the office will continue to
be forwarded to my home.
All
subscriptions and redemptions, including reinvested dividends,
will be processed as of the customary dates, but the mailing
of confirmations of these transactions will be delayed. The mailing
of third quarter dividend checks may likewise be somewhat delayed
beyond the usual October 15th. Buy and sell transactions within
the two Funds are proceeding normally.
Please
don't hesitate to call me should you have any questions concerning
the status of your account.
As
of October 19th,
I
had my second, quite brief, police-escorted visit to the office
earlier this week. There was a very brisk wind blowing and, within
a few blocks of ground zero dust was everywhere, including in
the office, which had not yet been cleaned. However, our building
manager told me today they expect cleaning to be completed shortly.
But I learned from him that, contrary to the best information
available from my last update, the timing of city authorized
access and building readiness now appear to be reversed. It is
hoped that free access to the site may happen this weekend; this
is clearly, however, a moveable feast. Building "mechanicals",
which were expected to be fully operational by now, are not and
will delay re-occupancy. When everything was powered up and turned
on, additional problems occurred which may take up to ten days
to correct. The date of early November for re-occupancy still
appears to be a good one, but no one is willing to fully commit
to it.
Fiduciary
Trust's custody section will be moving tomorrow from their disaster
recovery site in New Jersey to their permanent relocation at
600 Fifth Avenue; our Income Fund Manager and his staff will
follow around November 1. Their custody personnel have been attempting
to operate under very difficult conditions and have been extremely
difficult to reach. This should improve considerably after their
move, but of course does not replace all the people they lost.
Fiduciary's reports for September and the final reports for August
I received by hand early last evening, so I am now working at
completing closing the books for both months, establishing confirmed
net asset values, and processing subscriptions, redemptions,
and third quarter dividends.
Portfolio
appraisals as of September 30 and dividend checks to shareholders
not reinvesting should be mailed next week. A somewhat extended
quarterly letter to shareholders and beneficiaries should follow
thereafter. Reinvested dividends will have been subscribed as
of 9/30. Dividends to trusts should be posted by Fiduciary next
week. The Trustees are meeting Monday, the 22nd; joining them
will be the President and Chief Investment Officer and the Director
of Research from Harbor Capital Management, manager of our Equity
Fund--for a thorough review of the Fund's performance, positioning,
and market outlook going forward.
Unless
there are significant changes to the foregoing, this should be
the last update. Operating off-site without access to files,
including client files, is difficult; but all essential functions
are being covered. Thank you again very much for your continued
patience and understanding.
Note:
September net asset values will be posted on our home page as
soon as available.
As
of December 7th:
I
had hoped that the previous update given on this site was to
be the ultimate update. As those of you who read the last quarterly
letter to shareholders and beneficiaries know--it wasn't. Nor
was it the penultimate update, or even the antepenultimate update.
Since the re-occupancy date of 11/15 cited in the letter, we
were given a new date of 12/1, and have most recently been given
the date of 12/15. So, for those of you who might be interested,
let me bring you up to date.
There
are essentially three problems preventing re-occupancy at this
writing. In increasing order of difficulty of resolution they
are the following:
• Environmental
air testing is to be performed throughout the building again
this weekend. It's been done before and found to be OK, except
in the basement, where it is expected not to be in compliance
perhaps for some months (until debris removal is completed).
That will not prevent re-occupancy of upper floors, but testing
is being done again to increase the level of management's assurance
to tenants that the air is acceptable. It is somewhat less than
reassuring that all windows have been taped shut and covered
with plastic sheeting, and that cleaning of all air ducts will
be performed at least monthly until ground zero reconstruction
is begun.
• The
building's fire alarm system is inoperative. It uses Verizon
telephone lines which are not yet restored. Verizon has done
extensive work in the building, installing an entire new "hub",
so that virtually all interior lines are working; the fire alarm
problem is with unrestored lines in the ground zero area. Re-occupancy
will not be permitted without an operating fire alarm system
unless a manual fire watch is instituted. If necessary at 12/15,
building management is prepared to do this.
• Two
unimpeded street exits are required before re-occupancy will
be authorized. Our second exit is on Greenwich Street (the rear
of the building). This exit is blocked by an 8-foot high barrier
across the street--building to building--erected by the city
with no prior notice or consultation. All trucks carrying debris
from ground zero have to be washed down before leaving the area.
The washing 'station' is directly behind our building, and the
barrier was erected to secure the area, since anything north
of it is still considered part of the 'crime zone'. Had the barrier
been erected 10 feet further north, we would have had unimpeded
egress from the exit. Good planning, huh! Management has been
trying diligently to get the barrier moved for some weeks now.
Although the Mayor comes across as having all the answers and
being totally in control--and to a remarkable extent he is--apparently
confusion reigns among those beneath him with respect to allocation
of responsibility and decision-making authority. However, as
opposed to receiving assurances from the City that they would try to
move the barrier by a certain date, management has now been told
that the barrier would indeed be moved tomorrow. Keep your fingers
crossed, but don't hold your breath.
Needless
to say, continued lack of access to client files and other data
and supplies in the office continues to impede the efficient
functioning of DIT operations.
The
other significant impedance has been Fiduciary Trust's delayed
reporting, although transaction processing has proceeded reasonably
well. But there is improvement on this front. While Fiduciary
is still hampered by their tragic loss of personnel, all of their
operations have now been restored to Manhattan. They are, however,
working out of two sites: 55 Water Street and 600 Fifth Avenue,
which itself contributes to impaired responsiveness. Nevertheless,
their staff with whom I deal have been extraordinarily cooperative,
making every effort to respond to our needs in as timely a fashion
as possible. Closing our two Funds for November will be an interesting
test case to see if turnaround time can be shortened, with DIT
reporting restored closer to a normal time frame.
With
year-end just around the corner, we're entering an exceptionally
busy time for the DIT. In the hope that normality will soon be
restored (just moving back into the office and resuming operations
there will be a challenge), our annual outside audit has been
scheduled, as is customary, for the third week of January. Extensive
preparation is necessary, requiring use of materials both in
the office and provided by Fiduciary, in order to be ready for
the audit and to limit the amount of time spent on-site by the
auditors. Alternative dates have been discussed with them in
case it's not possible to close the year by the set date. But
I am hopeful that all will go as planned and that copy will be
available to be sent to the printer in time for our Annual Reports
to be in your hands before the shareholders' meeting in April.
I hope that you will hope along with me.
Meanwhile,
thank you yet again for your continuing patience and understanding.
No further updates will be posted unless there are significant
changes to any of the above.
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