12.11.2023 Housing Authority

good evening everyone welcome to the regular session of the for of a Housing Authority board meeting it's Monday December 11th 2023 and it is 4:40 p.m. Matha roll call please Shan sah here Vice chairman under Hill here commissioner Burns here commissioner Bentley commissioner M here thank thank you attorney Susa the open meaning law thank you madam chairwoman the language for the open meeting law is as follows

first went 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 first item on the agenda is Citizens input do we have any input this

evening seeing none next item is residence import please thank you welcome careful won't be able to come in tomorrow okay quick update we uh have held two elections at this point we have one new officer at Mitchell Bill Walker is still there we had we had the election here with the same four officers on Tuesday not tomorrow but next Tuesday we're running an election at duelan it looks like it's going to be

an interesting one okay people were putting app were putting paperwork in as I was putting them out and in January we'll be running three elections we'll be doing Cardinal catel and baressi and then we'll go from there and then Mass junion has their conference this coming spring in May and 19th David yeah 19th of May so imagine I'm that's ni quiet month yeah thank you thank you thanks

said the next item on the agenda this evening is the minutes of the regular meeting that was held on November 13 2023 do I have a motion to accept the minutes I'll make a motion to accept the minutes second any questions or corrections to the minutes hearing none all in favor I I item three is bills and Communications you have the vouchers in your packet I have a motion to accept the vouches as presented motion to

accept present second any questions with regard to the vouchers that are included hearing none all in favor I I item 3B is the response from HUD regarding the for of a Housing Authority submission of the designated housing plan dhp for inclusion of Duan apartment apartments and Bates Tower Apartments this is for information only thank you uh commissioner Sahari um this is just a followup I I think I

briefed you at last month's meeting um and quite some time ago we submitted an application uh to include Bates and Dulan with our six other uh elderly only uh designations and it was denied uh I had two Zoom meetings one with the fair housing office and um one with uh uh a Woman by the name of uh Tanya Murray uh in the HUD office in Washington and basically the uh reason

for the denial is I our waiting list um the statistics don't bear out taking two more additional sites and making it elderly only our mixed population waiting list is about 1,200 and our elderly is about 800 um so we kind of thought the way the waiting list and the population and the other statistical data that goes into this was trending that it would be an uphill battle um but we we gave it our

best effort um we had hired a consultant to help us with the application process but unfortunately um it did get denied do we have an opportunity to reapply you always have the opportunity to reapply um so I I think uh the best thing at this point is to monitor uh our waiting list the trends of the city um and then decide it some point if it looks like it may go in our favor um

apply again and and maybe reduce it to one site rather than the two um but it is an extensive application it requires a lot of statistical data um covering a lot of different areas populations um crime statistics um so it's not something that a full-time employee at the Housing Authority could just take on and uh there's a lot of information that goes with it and that's why we we contracted

with a consultant so if we do decide to do it again I'll I'll put it on the agenda for information and if if we feel it's a good time to reapply and you can ultimately decide if you want to go forward or not okay thank you any questions if I could ask uh do they consider factors other than the applicant uh situation like you said for was it 1,00 or so that were disabled uh versus 800

elderly uh there is um there's statistics on age on disabilities um uh income levels uh there there is a lot other than just that but that's that probably holds the most weight is what what what your waiting list bear out how many people do you have on your waiting list for mix pop sites versus your elderly sites currently uh taking putting baits and dueling aside we have Cardinal and

baressi are mixed population sites now and then you have six elderly sites so we have already got six elderly sites to two but then we try to convert Tulin and duelan and baites uh so you if you add those to we have four and six but and to reapply does that have to happen in a certain time frame or can we reapply at any time we choose there's no there's no deadline

to to apply for that there is when we want to renew our current elderly only which we've done and we were approved for that uh that's every two years and and there is a deadline to get that application in uh but to um redo your plan and add additional sites there's there's no deadline for that because have has it been tried in the past for these two sites well there was an application sometime

ago um that for whatever reason in this a lot of stories to it it went to the wrong HUD office and it sat there there was no follow up on our part there was no followup on Hud's part um looking back and looking in the position I'm in now and and I I think Tim uh would agree with this we've submitted different uh appeals and other applications for certain things and you

don't hear from anyone and then you get caught up in work and the you know you try to follow up and a lot of times it's it's silence you don't you don't get a concrete answer um we appealed uh an audit that we were late on like two years ago we still we not received any response from anyone um so that and if I may that was I think around 2012 then there was a formal

shot another bite at the Apple maybe 2018 rejected 2018 right and then we just tried now and rejected so if if I could just add in a little bit of a a little bit of a caveat um you know you lose the battle the war is not over but I don't think you necessarily you you obviously keep doing your your two two-year um uh renals renewals to keep make sure you keep your six and I don't

think there's a sense that that would change but until still you start until you start win winning they're clearly putting so much emphasis on that amount of the size of your waiting list in the applications um as soon as you get that maybe that Trend to change a little that analytical data to change a little then I would suggest you hop right on it again but right now the way that it is

trending I mean there is a sizable longer way and your inventory is arguably not the although Cardinal and baressi are big right I mean cardal has a lot of units but if you're just looking at it like locations and the amount of applications we need that pendulum to swing a little bit back and and I don't know if it ever will Commissioners other than God forbid we ever lose one of the six which I don't

anticipate happening but to to to just kind of okay we're going to appeal it send it back down where there hasn't been enough time for the data to kind of Swing I mean you know you're wasting your time well and that's why I was asking if the data of those those statistics is the only thing they look at because um in the past year we had many conversations and took a lot of actions at duelan

because of uh concerns of sure and they're aware ofies that were there and and I was hoping that would have gotten more consideration they're very aware of that that stuff commissioner madas it's just like I said they keep kind of falling back on and I'm not suggesting it's not an important aspect but they clearly falling back on that weight list or heavily waiting that that weight list

so I think was more in my mind when I was think you know if you say well we did it five years ago and at that time our weight list was X for elderly you know and and it's increased twofold since then but that that's really only where I was Wonder commissioner time if you had applied for these before what was the weight list at that time ironically from 5 years ago I mean much

of it was prompted due to the problems but that elderly weight list has grown and we know that so many of those folks utilized the local preference you know so it was something that you 5 years later I mean why not give why not give it a shot even if it may be considered not even quite a 50/50 but a little bit of a longer shot you've had five years that elderly weightless has

grown exponentially you know maybe it was four to 6 months to get in here now it's probably in excess of of the year you know and combined with what we all know the things we've tried to do to to to to offset some of the issues at duelan we're all aware of that and so that clearly is relayed to HUD both in convers even conversations prior to the formal filing because we had

conversations with Miss Murray even prior and she was fantastic but it's ultimately that's what seems to be carrying the day sorry for the oh that's fine great aler yeah everybody's getting that I think Bridge cler alert everybody alert so uh commissioner Medeiros I'm not sure I think it was you that asked the question so I would say we monitor the weight list any specific Trends and again just

decide you know 6 8 10 months from now do we do we give it another shot put another strong effort into it because again you know we we did contract with Consultants it wasn't cheap um so we don't we don't want to throw good money at a bad situation either uh not a bad situation but a tough tough uh how often does the list get updated that like we would know or

you would know well it's in your packets each month okay and I could be off that that um mix pop could be up to 1,400 right uh you know so you'll see it every month in your packet what the what the waiting lists are bearing out thank you thank you okay moving on item four is the management reports um so in the management reports we have the eight reports applications that's what we were

just speaking about um item two is the occupancy reports three is the tenant accounts receivable reports four is the work order report five is the monthly Section 8 voucher activity report six is the monthly Personnel count report seven is the director of monetization report monthly report and eight is the Bank investment and bond debt balance report if I could just add Madam chairwoman sure the tenets accounts

receivable report is not included this month um our director of field operations has been out the last few weeks uh she had a a medical procedure and she usually compiles all that data and puts it together for these reports we expected her to be back today and then we were going to have a handout today but she had a little setback and is not to back now till Wednesday so next month you'll

get the both months okay thank you do I have a motion to accept the management management reports as presented I'll make a motion to uh approve the reports as presented second do I have any questions with regard to these reports report two is the a report one is the applications we were just talking about okay um all in favor I item five are your financial reports so you have the seven months ended October 31st

2023 um for each of the projects as well as the um combined Consolidated um central

office do I have a motion to accept these reports make a motion to accept the report second any questions with regard to these reports so again this is for the seventh seven months ended October 31st item six is an update from our director thank you madam chairwoman just a few quick things for this month I will be meeting on uh Wednesday with the um we we we we put on the we put on the

floor we didn't take a vote the financial oh I'm sorry I really apologize do I I have um all in favor hi so we have a motion with Joanne second with David and all in favor thank you okay good catch yeah thank you chair uh I will be meeting uh Wednesday morning with the uh local business agent from the plumbers Union um Ed mausi and I uh we set up a a meeting for Wednesday

to discuss a direct hire agreement similar to what you'll be uh voting to approve or not uh in your packet with the brick layers um just again um another tool in the toolbx to um uh bridge the gap uh with our our vendors that we do have and uh while we go through the uh application and hiring uh process for full-time plumbers so that's going to happen uh Wednesday morning um and again same as the other

one the goal would be to hire um someone from the union to support the unions and hire local uh people from the local area uh Joey D Silva from our resident service department is once again coordinating Christmas parties throughout our elderly sites so that's uh been ongoing and um a nice event for our elderly residents um they get a turkey dinner uh some music and it it's festive and it's something that they

they look forward to we've been doing that for quite a few years now and he does a great job with that the last thing uh I have I would like to acknowledge and congratulate uh commissioner Bentley I got word that she received an award a couple of months ago from the Massachusetts facility management association as the uh member of the year so it's always good for one of our own to receive these Awards so

congratulations congrats thank you all right and that is all I have uh for this month thank you thank you moving on to new business item one is modernization we have a change order number one for the roof replacement phase five at Sunset Hill um this change order is a credit in the amount of 13,650 to the contract and a contract time increase by one day yeah I'll make a motion to approve

second any questions or concerns hearing none all in favor I I Item B is a certificate of completion consolidation for the roof replacement phase five at Sunset Hill the recommended action is approval NE a motion to approve second all in favor hi I and item C is a contract award for the fire alarm control equipment replacement at Frank B Oliva apart Apartments motion to award contract

second any questions with regard to the contract award for the fire alarm system hearing none all in favor I I item two on the agenda is miscellaneous 2 a is the four of a joint tenant Council Incorporated executive director contract its recommended action is to award a one-year contract to the loan responder at gon in the amount not to exceed $25 an hour or 20 for2 hours per week make a motion award the contract

second any questions all in favor hi I congratulations Ed Item B is cleaning um routine Services of boiler contracts it's there are 63 boilers at Sunset Hill the recommended action is to award a one-year contract to Old Glory boiler Mechanical Incorporated in the amount of $18,900 I'll make a motion to award a onee contract for Old Glory boiler theal ink second any questions all in favor

I item three on the agenda is personel 3A is the proposed agreement between the four of a housing authority and asme Council 93 local 1990 this is unit a this is for the period for 41 April 1st 2022 through March 31 2026 year 1 beginning April 1st 2022 is a 0% wage increase year two beginning April 1 2023 is 25% wage increase that is going to be retroactive to April 1st

of 23 year three beginning April 1st 2024 is a 2 and 1 12% wage increase and the final year year four beginning April 1st 2025 is also a 2 and a half wage increase Kevin do you want to provide us with any additional thoughts sure so um as you know and you're aware this has been ongoing for almost two years now um I do want to acknowledge Judy madus the new president she worked hard to um

explain this to un today and get this over the goal line along with uh sheia lurs the new asme representative so um both Judy and Sheila worked extremely hard um we finally which what I think is a really good deal and I I think the uh Union leadership felt it was a good deal we finally convinced um the unit a members of this and they had another vote and voted in favor of it so um as

you mentioned it will be a 25% it's zero for the past year 2 and a half% retro than two and a half and two and a half um I think it's it's good for both sides um I'm happy that we we got to it um one of the things I would like to clarify if I could was the uh sick leave uh section Article 19 So currently for unit a members uh the policy is you

get full payout 100% of uh your first 25 days and what we found uh historically that uh sickle was being abused and when people were nearing retirement being it was Whitted down to close to that number because they were going to get 100% uh by out so what we changed we proposed and and changed and agreed upon was you need to have at least 50 days on the books to receive

50% of that which is 25 days and then for people who really diligent with their sick leave the next 50 days you would also receive 50% of that whereas the current um policy the second 25 days you get zero so there was no incentive for people to to accumulate sick Lea and then anyone with over a 100 uh sick days on the books would get 25% of that but uh not to exceed a total

package of 75 days of of a a buyou at at retirement or or death so um we felt that the the change in the sick leave will just deter hopefully some of the abuse and encourage people to to accumulate and save their sick leave so that when they reach retirement they would they would get a decent uh payout um so uh I don't know so for example you have employee

a that has 50 days uh on the books at time of retirement they'll get 50% of that employee B may have over 50 up to 100 they would get 50% of the first 50 days and 50% of what they have uh up to 100 days employee C that has well over a 100 days would get 50% of the first 100 days and then 25% of what they have after not to

exceed 75 days I know it's confusing I was hoping our human resource director would be here to help me but unfortunately there's some family situation and she wasn't able to attend but if anybody has questions I can try to put it uh uh in an easier way to explain if if if if need be um but I think it's a change and it and it it helps the Housing Authority in managing

sick time and for employees who are diligent with their sick leave it it's a benefit to them and it somewhat deters the abuse okay but that was that was one of the uh things I wanted to kind of go into a little more detail and explained but other than that it's pretty uh self-explanatory we uh we put in some stronger language for the stiens for the vehicle stip in the

cell phone stip in we added an on call stip in basically uh telling employees in that unit if you receive those stiens you you have to adhere to that section of another policy it's not at your discretion it's at uh the collective bargaining agreement it's spelled out for example the cell phone you have to answer it you must answer your cell phone you must use your vehicle so do I have a motion to approve the

proposed agreement between the for of a housing authority and asme Council 93 local 19 90 Unit A I'll make a motion to approve the contract second thank you any questions other than the descriptions that we just had from our director regarding sick Le and a few of the other articles that have been amended hearing none all in favor Madam chairwoman should we maybe take a roll call V just to sure okay commissioner

Burns yes commissioner underill yes commissioner Bentley yes commissioner madas yes Shah yes Item B is the Break um Brick Layers and Allied Craftsman Union contract we spoke about that a little bit earlier this evening do I have a motion to approve this contract motion to approve the brickers and Allman second thank you any other questions with regard to this contract hearing none all in favor I

item C is a I'm sorry I would just for that for the contract I mean why re reason why we did the other one I I don't know that's just like a draft of a contract oh okay all right I'm sorry yeah this is for I thought it was additional yeah help support help when we need it okay just be on the safe side that's all okay I understand item C is a

maintenance mechanic um first and second shift position this is to ratify the appointment of Arnold SS have a motion to ratify this appointment I'll make a motion to ratify the appointment no second thank you now definely commissioner Burns yes commissioner Bentley yes commissioner Underhill yes commission madas yes Shah yes thank you at this time we have no additional items on the agenda if no one can I make

a com sure you certainly can chairman sah thanks for indulging me I just want to thank everyone and I Kevin and I discussed this today the folks who were here here diligently at every meeting and the Commissioners I wish you a merry Christmas but on a on a personal level um and so folks um also understand at home you know these meetings are business meetings for the housing authority and they're so important and I

just want to thank the board you know for their attendance I thank the board for their intention and and moving along the items that were whether it's from a regulatory standpoint a statutory standpoint that we have to do in public with transparency and move uh and move forward and again it's they business meetings which a lot of people don't realize they're not to conduct with on

conjecture or Facebook stuff or drama or this and that and I'm also well aware the diligence that the board does prior to their meetings and reaching out with questions to the executive director and uh and you know whether it's when you get your backup or whatever and so everybody works hard throughout the year and I just want to I want to thank everybody and thank our department heads

who come every month and thank added uh and just it's very very much appreciated so I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy holiday happy New Year so thanks for indulging me appreciate it thank Youk you do I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor hi happy holidays everyone Christmas