Juan, your EC has obviously decided they want all correspondence to be filtered through the Strata Manager (see reference in Fred’s letter to the EC minutes) and, as Struggler pointed out, that way there is a paper trail of some sort if people deny ever having heard there was a problem.
We’ve also heard that some ECs prefer not to publicise their email addresses or phone numbers, while others do.
If you think your EC needs to be more directly accessible, then it’s something you need to bring up at your next AGM and, if you feel strongly enough, you could run a ‘ticket’ of more communicative candidates.
If you’re worried about the Strata Manager filtering out valid issues, that’s another thing you can raise at your AGM or by presenting a motion for consideration by the EC that the Strata manager has to at least provide the Secretary with a list of communications received and that list has to be noted at each EC meeting.
The EC can decide the way they want to run things and if you think differently, you can propose a motion at the next AGM insisting that they change their methods. I’m guessing here, but I would think you’d get mass resignations.
The one obvious problem in having the Strata Manager as the communications gatekeeper is where the complaints and questions are about the SM. It’s a bit like writing to a company’s website to complain about how the website is run – who gets to read the complaint first?
But there are plenty of other ways around that, including a direct appeal to the other owners who are, after all, the bosses of both the EC and the Strata Manager.