115 West 183rd Street

90-day eviction notice served

This notice is the final link in a chain that began with the July 2021 Levits letter.

Notice to incapacitated tenant V. Freimanis

LV100NY letter of intent to purchase

LV100NY submitted a formal letter of intent to purchase the DV building at 115 West 183rd Street. DV board members Kancāns and Zvārgulis, along with audit committee member Teteris, engaged in preliminary discussions.

After multiple exchanges and LV100NY's fundraising efforts, LV100NY's financier suggested that a land installment contract would be the best option. Kancāns responded that he would "be eaten alive" and that DV members would not agree.

LV100NY invited Kancāns and Teteris to a conference call with the financier. LV100NY raised funds for a downpayment and presented proof of assets. The offer was eventually rejected — perhaps never presented to the members.

"House must be sold" email to members

A mass communication to DV members stated the building must be sold. Voting was conducted through proxy mandates.

General Meeting — sale pushed via unverifiable mandates

Board restructured — Kancāns takes power

I. Kalniņš resigns as DVNY chairman — not announced to membership.

Kancāns assumes leadership. V. Rainey and A. Cirīte become board members. A. Vallens — who removed the accounting records in 2021 — placed on audit commission.

⚠ RED FLAG: No board protocol or resignation letter located.

Six memberships frozen without due process

On June 4, 2023, the board voted unanimously to freeze the membership status of six individuals for one year. The freeze letters cite: alleged assistance with tax avoidance (Valdmanis), the LV100NY loan and conflict of interest (Valdmanis, Freimane), and whistleblower letters sent to Latvian organizations and government institutions (Freimane).

The validity of the freeze was challenged in writing on September 8, 2023, questioning which bylaw article authorizes such a measure and whether the board has the authority to impose it without a court of honor.

📄 Freeze notice — Līga Freimane
📄 Freeze notice — Ingrīda Valdmanis
📄 Response challenging the freeze — September 8, 2023

General Meeting adjourned — bylaws deficient

The general meeting was interrupted and adjourned after the bylaws were found to contain procedural deficiencies. The board was not re-elected. Several members objected to the board's disregard of bylaws and standard procedure during the meeting. Those objecting included the same members who had written and signed letters to Latvian organizations, Latvian government institutions, and individual representatives — raising concerns about the board's direction, the push to sell the building, and the failure to follow the organization's own governing documents. These members were vocally opposed to the sale and had openly criticized the board's departure from established procedures.

The existing board remained in place. A committee for bylaw revision was announced. Those who had opposed the board’s direction were not permitted to participate and subsequently had their memberships frozen: Valdis Čirksts, Līga Freimane, Gilberts Kusiņš, Anita Rudā-Semerikova, Nellija Pagraba, and Ingrīda Valdmanis.

~65 new membership applications rejected

Approximately 65 people submitted membership applications. The board rejected them, citing that applicants did not reside in New York. However, the 2015 board meeting adopted a resolution on the record that with modern technology, frequent travel, and electronic payments, physical residence in New York was not required for active participation. A similar resolution was proposed during the delegate meeting for the DV United States organization for the same reasons — the local population is aging, while means of communication, commuting, and payment systems are advancing.

The new board later announced that tri-state area residency was acceptable — the board members themselves do not live in New York state, much less New York City. There has never been a formal resolution or precedent establishing tri-state area as a membership requirement prior to this. There are currently members who do not live within the tri-state area.

Meeting on building sale — just 9 months after takeover

On January 29, 2023 — just 9 months after the April 24, 2022 takeover — a board working group tasked with exploring the future of the DV organization made a recommendation to sell the building.

Kancāns invited all members to an informal discussion on February 26. A Zoom link was provided for those unable to attend in person — the same online access the previous board had offered but which the new board had since let lapse.

Not even a year had passed since the takeover.

A video recording of the February 26 discussion exists. The transcript was later submitted to the DV Zemes Valde by Nellija Pagraba — whose membership was frozen shortly after. It documents the working group’s composition and the reasoning presented:

Board Meeting — New control operationalized

Decisions: hire CPA, hire lawyer for SRO status. K. Kancāns collected all accounting records from the building the next day. Those records have never been returned to the corporate headquarters — they remain unaccounted for to this day.

Four days after taking control, the new board's first substantive act — after membership approvals and accountant hiring — was to investigate how to legally position the building. The push to sell followed within months.

April 24, 2022 · General Meeting — Full Transcript Excerpts

Context: 40+ membership applications received in the preceding 3 weeks — unprecedented. Non-members attempt to serve as vote counters.

HPD registration expires — never renewed

The landlord received an extension to January 25, 2027 to renew and pay fines. Even if renewed, the notice was served at a time when no valid registration existed. The burden rests on the landlord to establish compliance at the time of service.

🔗 HPD violations — 115 W 183rd St
🔗 DOB/ECB violations & fines
🔗 nycviolationsearch.com — aggregated violations

Violations screenshot:

Surge of membership applications with pre-assigned proxies

More than 40 membership applications arrived. Some with pre-assigned proxy votes to persons who were not yet members — no standing under bylaws.

This meeting was the first after COVID lockdowns. The then-board invited members in person or online — the organization had an operational website, active Mailchimp, and remote participation.

Board rejects President Levits — Čirksts signs

Čirksts called the emergency meeting in his capacity as event organizer. The unanimous board vote was for the letter draft only — final contents and decision to send were to be resolved by email vote.

▶ Video: Valda Rainey — most vocal opponent to Levits

Despite unanimous vote, Čirksts was later sole scapegoat. Some others who voted the same were kept and promoted.

At the April 24, 2022 general meeting, Kancāns cited the Levits letter as the driving reason for the mobilization against the existing board. He read the letter aloud and characterized it as an unacceptable stain on the organization's history.

Valda Rainey — who was the most vocal supporter of the 2021 letter, who used the word "genocide" during the board debate, who helped shape the letter's content, and who voted for it — was not elected to the board at that meeting. However, she was not reproached or scolded in any way either. She was later appointed to the board when Kalniņš resigned in August 2023, recommended by him upon leaving. The same standards were not applied equally.

Ansis Vallens — Audit commission & the missing records

Despite this documented history — the removal of records, refusal to return them, and three unanswered requests — Vallens was placed on the audit commission in the August 2023 board restructuring. By then he was actively advocating for the building's sale. The person responsible for the missing financial records was put in charge of auditing them.

Whistleblowers alert diaspora — board denies, then freezes

In early 2023, after the board's working group recommended selling the building at the January 29 board meeting, several members sent letters to Latvian organizations, Latvian government institutions, media outlets, and individual representatives raising concerns about the push to sell the DV house.

When confronted, board members denied any intent to sell. In a May 13, 2023 meeting, Kancāns stated: “There wasn't even a thought about selling the house.” This contradicted the January 29 working group recommendation and the February 15 email he himself had sent to all members.

In response to the whistleblower letters, the board demanded a written apology. The apology letter — dated May 2023 and signed by the five whistleblowers — stated the sale “had not been decided” and that the whistleblowers had “acted without investigating the facts.” The same letter acknowledges the whistleblowers’ motivation was “to prevent the sale of the house.”

The whistleblower letters themselves document a different account: the January 29 working group recommendation to sell, the February 15 email from Kancāns announcing it, and the concern that financial interests were driving the process.

📄 Board-demanded apology letter
📄 Whistleblower letter #2 to diaspora organizations

On June 4, 2023, the board voted unanimously to freeze the memberships of those who had sent the letters. The freeze notice to Freimane explicitly cited her whistleblower letters as a basis for the suspension.

📄 Freeze notice — Freimane
📄 Freeze notice — Valdmanis

Our Starting Years — How the Building Became a Home

The building at 115 West 183rd Street is far older — by 1899 it was already operating as a boarding house, meaning it was constructed some time before that. (Source: Building records document.)

Čirksts was not yet even a member, never mind a board member. He joined in 2013 and was voted vice chair after Marģeris Pinnis's passing.

The small hall hosted monthly board meetings. Every December the Christmas market took over all halls and the dining area. Regular cultural performances and commemorations took place. The building had not been renovated since 1974 — it was worn and Čirksts found himself spending more and more time on volunteer work.

A fragment in time — Freimane and Čirksts working in the kitchen; Freimane washing up.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, community activities stopped. The building fell quiet. The stage was set for those who saw the building not as a home, but as an asset to be liquidated.

Building appraised — $1.74M as-is

Domus Appraisals (Ronald McInerney Jr.) appraised 115 West 183rd Street for Daugavas Vanagi Latvian Welfare Association Inc. Effective date June 26, 2024.

As-is market value: $1,740,000. The building is an 8,500 sq ft, three-story brick SRO built 1920 (circa), Block 3225, Lot 40, Bronx. Assessed value $245,250.

The appraisal was commissioned for internal valuation purposes.

2025 member meeting — 18 attend in person

Only 18 members attended the 2025 annual meeting in person, representing 60 mandates. Ilze Kancāne reported 107 members as of May 10, 2025.

No meaningful discussion of the sale proposal took place. The general membership was never given the opportunity to hear the proposal.