10.17.24 Housing Authority

going to open tonight's meeting um at 4:34 roll call I gu you want to do the uh roll callman long yeah Vice chairman under Hill here commissioner Burns is absent commissioner Bentley pres commissioner madas here language for open meeting thank you Mr chairman the language for the open meeting law is as follows person to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public

meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible thank you citizens input are there any citizens that wish to speak at tonight's meeting see none we'll move on Resident are you citizen or a resident res okay residents come up now

resident input just state your name and the address please um Nelson Vasquez uh 210 uh Sunset Hill um before I go into my comments I'm probably in the minority but uh let's go Yankees I think it's time they finally won one it's been a long time but uh your time's up uh but don't worry stto will not be coming to Fenway Park well let's hope but um uh two topics uh the online portal that's uh it

was up a few months back and it's no longer up now um I'm just wondering when is that going to come back up into uh 100% I've heard um some concerns from residents who really want that service to be up it gives them the uh flexibility to pay their rent on online instead of just uh the oldfashioned way with the money order uh because as we all know they probably work and that gives them that

flexibility so uh so that would be a great um opportunity for this board to address that concern especially mind with that and also as a recommendation for all the housing units for like the offices I was wondering if it's ever been considered to probably install like a rent Dropbox so that um some people are not pretty pretty much computer literate and do still do the oldfashioned way where they could just

drop it off during off hours because it's very hard to go into the office when it opens at that time and they they could already be at work so I was also wondering if if it's a recommendation to possibly get those installed to better accommodate residents to pay their rent in many different ways so the first question uh Nelson yes the portal yes uh did you you address that with your site

manager I've asked questions and they said um that the off the department that works with it is working on it but it's been some that was many weeks ago and I'm just wondering what's the status is of what you guys know as to where that is as of today so that's part of our software program uh so I'll have to look into that further because I was not aware oh yeah uh that it was down that's

why I always uh ask our residents start at the office they can follow up with the with the right people hopefully get you the answer find out what's going on and then get that uh communication back to you so I will look into that uh I'm assuming the site office has your phone number to get back in touch with you yes um it's been more than six months I think towards the beginning of the year

is when this thing has been down so it's been quite some time and uh it has the has a message that says you know it'll be up and running but it's it's been months Mr McCoy um director spadella since you're off tomorrow if and I don't want you to say it uh Live while we're being recorded but if one of the folks at that table if you could leave your cell phone yes and

then you'll hear from me tomorrow awesome so I'll look into it I'll follow up with you awesome and then you know the other the other item probably next week I can at least yes discuss with various folks and whatnot but I will call you about the first item tomorrow and give you a status oh that's that's great that's greatly appreciated no problem and the last thing I'll say is with the recommendation uh I think that

would also help residents too if that's something that they can just do it just it gives people more options you know having just doing things one way uh it confines people you know we yeah I'll I'll discuss that with management we used to do that at one point but it opens up the door I left the rent there the rent's not here yeah if there's someone there and you're putting it in

you know the proper envelope and your handing it that's different yeah but to have a little box well I mean it's just like a mailbox you just go go sign into the office and it can't you know but if it's a a long weekend and nobody's in the office I I'm just we're not all right 100% but I'll I'll follow up with management see if there okay all right thank you please leave

them yourself all right and I'll grab it after welome thank you for your time thank you thank you Nels thank you any discussion over the minutes from uh last meeting if not I'll uh entertain a motion no make a motion to accept the minutes from the September 9th meeting second motion made seconded all those in favor I I

opposed bills and Communications the

applications we doing these as a whole uh yeah just uh the recommended action is to accept the the vouchers these are all the vouchers okay so we'll start with the vouchers that we want to do y recommendations any discussion on the vouchers make a motion to accept V second ma second all those in favor I all right opposed adopted management reports yeah that's the next one and then just

read them then make a motion going do them all once yes yeah y all right under the management reports we have applications occupancy reports tenants accounts receivable work order report monthly Section 8 voucher activity report monthly Personnel account report director of modernization monthly report Bank Investments Bond debt balance reports any discussion on any of those areas if not I'll attain a

motion I'll make a motion to accept the eight management reports second motion made in second all those in favor I I I opposed we go to uh Financial reports Director of Finance is that just accept this to rate it's any discussion on the uh Financial reports for the five months ending 8:31 2024 there's none I will accept a motion uh motion to accept the uh Financial reports second motion made seconded all

those in favor I oppos okay update from the executive director thank you chairman long uh few things for this month's meeting um new hires um we hired a new director of Maintenance Roger Sal Petro um he's a current maintenance leader and 29-year employee so he was promoted to that position we also hired a new legal liaison Katie Roberts Uh current uh property manager and 9-year employee and lastly we also hired a new

supervising senior accountant Lori Amarante amares she was the accounts payable clerk prior and a 9-year employee and I do want to make note that these were all internal promotions which I think is is important because we would we want to send a message um and build morale within the organization that if you work hard you work ethically and you have the qualifications we definitely prefer to

promote from within um versus uh going outside the organization sometimes we have to but um as I said if somebody works hard and ethically and have the qualifications um it lets people know that they have the opportunity to to move on uh under our resident services um we will start up our partnership again with the boys and girls club um we will be picking up uh some of our residents for

a reduced fee membership fee uh two nights a week we'll be uh making pickups at Sunset Hill Benny C Riley Plaza fory Street Apartments Maple Gardens and we're looking into Pleasant View uh in the North End um that can always be tweaked based on signups and attendance we currently have seven uh residents that signed up for it so uh we're excited about that to start that up again we also had seven residents

sign up for piano lessons that I mentioned uh last month so um Joey D Silva uh our resident service coordinator will be coordinating both those activities he does a great job and uh I'm excited about the the piano lessons uh did you sign up for no those days are gone for me um deputy director McCoy and myself uh we also met with uh Laura Washington current city councelor um she is taking

over the former um road to recovery uh counseling services um and expanding that to two locations uh one on Pleasant Street and one on eastn Avenue and just kind of explain the services that they will be providing and uh if any of our residents are in need of um any type of counseling or Services uh they they will be accepting different uh uh health insurance providers so I can just in the early uh

stages of the startup and she'll probably uh be schu scheduling with us some um information sessions at our at our different sites for our residents so Tim and I thought that that was a good service if uh we can provide that uh under our Management Department we are currently um planning our annual plan and Five-Year Plan submission to HUD the annual plan just as it is is done every year uh Martha does a lot of

work behind the scenes coordinating the uh resident uh meetings prior and then our um public Hearing in in uh January the beginning of January and then it's due to HUD on January 17th and as the name of the plan is every five years uh you have to submit that and in that in those plans um we outline our goals our objectives our policies any changes to the policies any significant uh amendments to it um has

to be discussed agreed upon by the uh resident Advisory Board and then submitted uh to HUD so that is in the works um Tim and I also attended the first annual Mass narrow uh Galla uh there were some awards given we it was at the Sheridan in Norwood uh Mass narrow is a a state and a uh a federal agency uh with all kinds of housing authorities across the country uh members and uh

we're happy to say senator Rodricks um what received an award as the legislator of the year for his hard work in um obtaining additional funding for uh the state eohc so he was uh given an award so it was a nice event uh had a cocktail hour for a dinner and then and then the awards so it was nice to be part of the first the first Galla the last thing uh I had is Joey D

Silva from our resident service department did want to thank the board and uh the staff uh their kind support um during the time he he lost his mom recently uh was I think it was the end of last month and uh as as we always do we send flowers hours and a card on behalf of the board and the staff so he was very appreciative that so he wanted me to pass that along to the board

so uh one last thing um as we discussed last month the uh projected November board meeting falls on the Veterans Day holiday so we need to uh pull out our phones and pick a date for November um see what works uh yeah it's all right we have four good um we can do like we did this month uh the Monday holiday go the Thursday go the Wednesday before go the following Monday whatever the

pleasure and the uh schedule is of the board members I'm at a away at a conference 12 13 and 14 so that's the Tuesday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday I'm I'm coming back Thursday but not to late back Thursday I'm also out of town that days and you're out of time yeah I'm out of time I W be back on Thanksgiving so um how about third Monday how about we do the following

Monday that looks good which would be 19th 18 18th 18th David that's fine that's fine yeah that's fine okay um I'll I'll get in touch with uh commissioner Burns and if uh there's a conflict with him I will let everyone know uh Steve has a conflict with that so it will just be uh the four so Matha the 18

Y and we'll bring the champ that will conclude my 33rd year at the B River you wait till I'm away for that more for the rest of us yeah so that is all I have uh so we can continue on thank you thank you for all your information um moving on new business modernization change order number one is a credit of $2,800 to uh contract due to deteriorated plywood sheeting and counted during the work therefore the

unit price allowances of 2800 were not used so the building was in better shape than we thought I guess yeah so um just need a motion to accept I'll make a motion to approve second motion to approve has been made seconded all those in favor I opposed certificate of completion Consolidated for the roof replacement at Riley Plaza general contract of WPI construction completed all work items the final

contract amount was $150,200 I'll make a motion to accept the certificate of completion Consolidated for roof replacement at Riley Plaza second motion made in second it all those in favor I opposed change order number two for the boiler and domestic Water Heater replacement project at catel Heights change order number two is an increase of 39,6 341 to the contract for revised piping

modification requested for the domestic hot water system for insallation of the existing buffer tank and the relocation of the new expansion tanks there is no change to the contract time discussion motion discussion uh I'll make a motion uh to approve the change order number two for the boiler and domestic Water Heater replacement project at Cal Heights second motion being seconded all those in favor I I

oppose permission to advertise for bids for indefinite quantity and delivery service for all federally aided developments I'll make a motion to give permission to advertise for bids second motion made seconded all those in favor I I procurement voice over IP systems Management Services recommended action award a five-year contract with two one-year options to renew at the sole discretion of the for ofer housing

authority to MTS I in the amount of $2,923 120 discussion motion I I have one question so does this this could end up being a seven-year contract correct if we exercise the options correct correct which I believe we did we already got permission we did permission a couple months ago to do this at a prior meeting before I put it out there publicly you know I get the board just

like you would do at a city council level or whatever you know typically you get a you get a three-year uh term for 30b services unless you go to your governing body so if I was in City all at you going to city council to do a 5 six 710 here HUD uh gives you a fiveyear window so federal law is a fiveyear window but again go to your governing

body so we did that a couple months ago for both this and I'm sorry maybe and and and um our operational software I think we did it both at the same meeting but again it doesn't necessarily mean that the options are automatically renewed you know you could be having problems with the vendor something drastically has changed over the five years within that particular industry or you know for a variety of reasons you

know could have some Innovative thing that comes out three years from now and you end up changing course or or whatever so and the management Computer Services is on tonight's agenda to correct which is the same thing yeah questions motion uh make a motion uh to award a 5-year contract with two one-year options to renew with the sole discretion of the far of a housing authority to mtsi in the amount of

$320 second motion may seconded all those in favor I grass cutting services recommended action offer a final one-year option to renew for grass cutting services to Paul noon and Sons in the amount of $105,000 a lot of grass it is I'll make a motion to offer the final final oneyear contract for the grass cutting services second motion B seconded all those in favor I man written imp implementation of the

integrated web-based software recommended action award a 5-year contract with two separate one-year options to renew at the sole discretion of the for River housing authority to management Computer Services Inc in the amount of $333,000 n 33

$950 this will be the same type of contract we just voted on same thing any discussion motion make a motion uh to award five-year contract with two separate one-year options to renew at the sole discretion of the power of housing authority to management Computer Services Inc in the amount of $333,900 second motion made seconded all those in favor I I opposed miscellaneous HUD Section 8 payment standards effective

125 we just have to adopt them basically

any discussion motion I make a motion to approve I'll second motion made and seconded all those in favor all right opposed pass any other business believe that's it that concludes our business motion to adjourn in order motion to adj second second motion been made and seconded all those in favor I I Jour that thank you commission say 25 no five five 5 455 4555 not bad