3 11 2024 Housing Authority

welcome everybody I'm going to call the meeting to order the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners is now in session it's said that you never change the clock 4:35 from there we go to you're going to huh you want to do roll call First you want to do roll call okay roll call sorry chairman long here Vice chairman under Hill here commissioner Burns is absent commissioner Bentley present commissioner madas here

go to Citizens input we have anybody have Mr chairman we just we just have to read that I'm sorry oh you got to read the open meeting so the language for the open meeting law is as follows person 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 uh citizen input anybody have anything they want to uh bring before the board not we'll go to resident

input thank you Steve uh just a quick note stay your name please oh I'm sorry Ed gagon executive director for joint tenants Council just a quick note nice Michael last week we held our annual meeting Kevin attended he's said a few nice words about everybody everyone we had our election of officers we elected David Underhill as the chairman again Bill Walker as Vice chairman excuse me

Don Hamilton as Vice chairman and Bill Walker is secretary treasurer we discussed the uh upcoming Mass Union convention in Malboro in May Kevin was there what we're doing is uh they're taking the residents to Malboro for quick meeting and then over to the state house for a Lobby day to Lobby all the representatives to get more money for public housing we also held a couple of elections in our buildings we have a new

tenant association at homes and a new one at Duan and that's pretty much it thank thank you thanks sir anything else on Resident input okay we have the uh minutes of last month's meeting I'll uh entertain a motion to accept motion uh to accept the minutes of last month's meeting second motion made and seconded all those in favor I I opposed pass bills and Communications vouchers you report

on uh the packet is there um people had the opportunity to review it there's any questions anybody have any questions on a vouches entertain a motion to accept motion to accept second second motion made seconded all those in favor I opposed unanimous management reports same thing think anybody have any questions with the management reports entertain a motion to accept a motion to accept management

reports second second Mr chair we just want to I think with the practice we just read every one of them you want to read each one yeah just that that way we have them as a bundle all right under the management reports the first one we'll take up is the uh applications is any discussion on the applications I'm sorry no discuss we'll just read them out and then they'll collect collectively collectively do the

thing just read each one y okay the management reports we have the applications occupany reports tenants accounts receivable work order report monthly Section 8 vulture activity report monthly Personnel count and Report the director of modernization monthly report Bank investment and bond debt balance reports uh that's the entire management report for this month I'll entertain a motion to

accept uh motion to accept the management report thank you Mr chairman second motion made and seconded um all those in favor I opposed unanimous Financial reports for the period ending January 31st 2024 any discussion seeing none I'll make a motion to approve the financial reports period ending January 31st 2024 second anyone second motion made seconded all those in favor I opposed okay insurance policies for the

period of April 1st 2024 through 3 31 2025 I believe these are going to be the renewals is that correct yes that's correct we get the public officials Insurance that's held by uh Hub International would take it yes we got the commercial property insurance what is the hia group what's that stand for Housing Authority Insurance Housing Authority Insurance Group it's hiia what's that is that a HUD funded is that

HUD it's the self-insured federal federalized self-insured okay that's through the uh HUD Self Insurance Group uh that's commercial property insurance commercial liability insurance the automobile insurance the excess automobile insurance and we have a Travelers Casualty insurity Company any discussions if I may add uh chairman um we're waiting on the actual uh premium for the public

officials we anticipate it based on previous history of about a 5,000 increase the total premiums for all policies we anticipate roughly an 8% increase which has been the trend across the industry so and when we look at that that's a pretty hefty number yes it is we have quite the portfolio pretty close to a million bucks right yeah yeah seven something any other discussion see none Mr a motion to

accept motion to accept Insurance policiy second all those in favor I opposed unanimous we got update from the executive director Mr spella thank you chairman a few things for this month uh Human Resources we hired one Carpenter one maintenance mechanic and three um maintenance custodians uh to bolster our staff we had a couple of um retirements due to uh disability and one that

resigned so just trying to maintain the um the uh workflow uh training we actually had a couple of trainings uh for staff members for um managers uh m and its leaders uh some department heads the end of February we did a reasonable accommodation and touched on um vow violence against women's act training and then um in early March uh with attorney Jeff Driscoll uh we conducted a roles and responsibilities for some

department heads um maintenance leaders um M and uh managers property managers uh just to go over what's expected what's the roles and responsibilities and the uh duty of care and duty of loyalty to the Far River Housing Authority so that went very well uh Financial um we will be seeking bids for uh fee accountants um The Firm or person that we currently have is semi-retired and um we're going to be

going out again for more bids um we uh checked with um the ethics commission um we're going to be sending um a disclosure a conflict of interest statement to Mary Sahar former chairwoman um so that uh if she's interested her accounting firm can put in a bid for it um so once we get that back um we'll also copy the city clerk's office in my discussions with the ethics commission a vote is not required uh

only um to inform the board so um and lastly um it's with an extremely heavy heart that I inform everyone that I that we lost a dear friend and for River Housing Authority family member this past weekend Joe pental one of our directors of Maintenance passed unexpectedly Joe was an exemplary employee friend and man to all and he's going to be deeply missed and I would ask if we could take

a few seconds and just pause in silence in memory of Joe take a moment of silence in memory of Joe pental thank you that's all I have for this month just as a uh and aside from it's my understanding under the vowel which is the violence against women act that is somewhat of a misnomer that is available to anyone um male female however you want to be identified um

that act is uh out there for for all am I correct with that you are correct yes and then on the accounting that is a very specialized field and trying to get a bid on that type of uh can be somewhat difficult so I can understand why you would uh put in for the ethics to for uh Hagen Sahari um they're very qualified very good people um and again on behalf

of the whole board we we uh send our uh condolences and prayers to uh the Pento family uh next where are we go thank you guys modernization we're talking about change orders um trim and Ada improvements at the Elma corber Street project you want to do these all in one shot you want to talk about them what do you want to do you uh I believe you you uh mention it um make a motion

on it and then uh discussion and then a vote to approve it so the but these would be separate yeah not okay all right so the uh the motion would be to approve contingent upon the approval of EO H LC which is executive office of Housing and Li just formally DHC DHC dhcd yeah um so I will entertain a motion to approve contingent upon the approval of EO hlc that's going to

take a while to get used to that so I have a motion so this is um I'll make a motion this is to accept change order number two for interior flooring trim Ada improvements at Elmer Corbett Street and it's a credit change order in the amount of $300 for the deletion of shower rods curtains in two bathrooms I'll make a motion to approve that second approv and second any further discussion saying none all in favor I

right opposed it's unanimous now we get the certificate of substantial completion for the Reconstruction of fire damage departments at the beny Casta Plaza department number 301 we have a motion to approve motion to approve second discussion what was the extent of the fire you was it um a phone charger oh jeez was that was a it was a $150,000 15 right motion has been made and seconded all those in favor I I

opposed unanimous change order number one for the Reconstruction of oh that's the one we just did right no it's the same same project okay sorry change order number one for the reconstruct of fire damage department at Benny Costa Plaza Department 301 change order is an increase the amount of $3,582 71 and an additional 35 days of contract time um i p a motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve

change order number one which is an increase of $3,582 71 plus 35 additional days for apartment 301 at Benny Costa Plaza second second you put the motion out right yeah she made a motion I made the is there a second commission M okay all those any uh discussion all those in favor I I opposed we get the certificate of completion Consolidated for the Reconstruction of fire damage apartment

at Benny Costa Plaza Apartment 301 detain a motion to approve motion to approve second approve and second any discussion say none all those in favor I opposed right all right this is a uh contract award for the boiler and domestic hot water heater replacement at the George H cartel Heights Mass 610 uh commissioner uh long if I can uh intervene uh we're going to remove that from the agenda um the designer needs

more time to review those bids they came in late Thursday afternoon um tied up on Friday we were tied up here um they need additional time to review uh so we will put that uh as a new item back on in next month's agenda after we've had do you need any action from the board to do that or just need to table it make a motion to table it motion to withdraw it yeah we're not

going to table it yeah withraw it entertain a motion to withdraw motion to withdraw second in discussion see none all those in favor I any the miscellaneous talking about AT&T the rooftop and tenna um permission to advertise for 5year lease for the C Tower rooftop space at the James O'Brien Apartments Whipple Street um this was approved on the February 24th board meeting or uh and or second is authorized of the AT&T

rooftop Leaf extension same location for a period of 5 years so what happened um chairman long is we asked permission at February board meeting to go out to bid for a new five-year uh contract after the meeting attorney Souza received interest from AT&T to exercise one of their five-year options so now we're bringing it back before you to let you know that we still have the option to go out to bid or to renew um

reviewing it quickly attorney suer and I felt it would be more advantageous just to extend do a five-year option to extend because we know what the um rent lease amount will be whereas if we go out to bid we don't know um is that fair yeah it could be reduced significantly um more than likely um but where uh attorney suar and I will do a little more due diligence in reviewing the

numbers um but based on your vote uh we can do either or and so your discussion what you're saying is you want to renew the contract as is for the same prices because there's the reality that that contract would could be reduced could be reduced we go up to have we had any uh anybody asking to say hey I'd like to get that bid as of right now no and Over The Last

5 Years nobody said what's going on and type of stuff so there's really been no interest what's yeah no we have a we have a total of four uh four cell towers um AT&T covers two of them uh they were interested in renegotiating this lease not not renegotiating they were going up to Le because it's significant amount of money 4,000 it's um it's increased annually by the Wall Street journal's

Consumer Price Index y so this is basically just an estimate so I've estimated for what the contract cost would be um for the 10-year contract we you don't enter any more 10-year contracts HUD wants to limit it to five however this has a two fiveyear option to renew that they signed 10 years ago so the estimate for just an extension for 5 years would be 269 that's just an estimate I didn't

calculate the Consumer Price Index because I don't know what that would be and so um so that's why we would recommend the we you can see the trend it does increase based on the Wall Street Journal it goes up um and that's these numbers of bot correct so I gave you the annual the annual income would be the the bottom for 24 25 26 through May of 2029 uh that's what the uh that's what

the actual letter states that they they want to sign so I would have to have commissioner along sign that extension uh if the board entertains the fact that they want to extend by a five the the option to renew for five years and what you have here is you've got the fiveyear um EX mention without the Consumer Price Index correct correct and that's 53,8 2276 that's correct sir correct yes sir we in 24 the is the

minimum Revenue staying the same the minimum Revenue would be 269 $269,800 that would be the minimum revenue for the 5year extension so these numbers on this sheet are minimum revenues correct the one ones on the top just for clarification these are the actual revenues right through and I didn't put obviously we're not in April yet we haven't received April's price but the current revenue for that is 4,

48523 monthly that we get for O'Brien Apartments which is here and that's one4 Lo correct and the annual income generated from that is that last year last year's for 2023 well the the contract technically expires in April but if there there's a twoyear there's a there's two fiveyear options to renew they didn't elect to renew it until we we went before the board to put it out to bid because we need time to

put it out to bid um when we came back like probably a week later I received a request for an extension uh for the fiveyear so I don't know if there was you know I don't know what facts were out there that that uh you know that they that they wanted to extend that was a letter and this is for one fiveyear extension correct this is for the first of the first of the

two just put this together so we get a chance to really so when I'm looking at this okay and you look at the total annual minimum revenue for at 2014 was only 31 36961 yeah that be that was because they started in June and that was at $3,500 a month that's correct and then it increased um well it didn't increase the following yeah uh and now it's at the minimum revenue is 538 2276 correct so

when I yes so we when we're looking at the minimum Revenue at the 269 8680 that is definitely a minimal number but if you look at the numbers from previous the an this was an annual total at 455 we didn't have just so that you know we didn't have the the Fig did that they went back that far so they they were given us lump sum payments so what I did is I took the lump sum

payments cuz I couldn't figure out which to go back to the washing the Wall Street journal's Consumer Price Index I just you know gave you an actual of what we were paid out so so the actual was 4459 7263 correct and our over the 10 year p over the 10e period yeah so for those first like we didn't keep a lot of I mean we just got lump some payments for those so

that's why I didn't know the actual monthly amounts so it is in the contract that it does get increased annually by the washing uh the Wall Street journal's consumer price index of a c whatever percentage they published for that year um but these are actual figures but we're looking at a conservable increase in revenue from this yeah definitely yes us kind of you know what you you

have versus what you might not know and you would exceed any previous 5year payout correct so that's the way I read it wa can I get a a motion to you want what do we how do you want to put this as a uh approve the fiveyear extension it's up it's it's up I would make a motion to go with option two which is authorizing um thee option the extension The one fiveyear

extension so to authorize the AT&T rooftop Le extension at the same location for a period of 5 years yes motion there second you second motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I opposed commissioner long I'll have the uh the contract document signed uh not signed but I will have them prepared for you to sign execute okay now we have the on call Trade Services contract for coet tree and

plumbing recommended action is award a one-year contract to each of the various contct in in an amount not to exceed $60,000 and I will read you the five contractors uh so you know so similar to our previous on calls we've added an additional five more uh two in carpentry Shop's construction that's $100 per hour Colin's Contracting is $133 per hour then we have three heating contracts Miguel L heating and plumbing

$145 per hour distinctive Plumbing $125 per hour and leonti plumbing $125 per hour and these five contracts are not to exceed $660,000 have all these contractors been vetted and are able to uh do the work that might possibly come before them yes they uh have had previous onal contracts naturally um once you uh vote then um our procurement officer Tim McCoy will uh follow up on what's required bonding

and uh insurances things like that but again just to reiterate they've all had onon on call contract agreements with us in the past each of those companies they've all done work on our properties I thought we said we were adding five well these are the same five that last month from last yeah okay Entertainer motion I I just have one question is this is during regular business hours or this is like emergency

or it could be like Plumbing could be an emergency but carpentry might not be clearly it's it's typically these rates are all business hours I mean most emeres we we handle and we stem on our own we're not we typically don't have any anything related to carpentry but these are uh you know these are typically regular business hours aren't called work thank you CU as you as you know we

internal we're short internal plumbers right now going to ask so so we've had uh these on calls working for us let's say the past several months and um and it's just to ensure that we we did the large majority of those last month as you recall um but we thought it would be prudent to again to instill a few more this particular month that would start and coincide with April 1 our new fiscal

year I'll entertain a motion to approve uh so a motion uh to approve of one-year contracts to each of the various contractors in an amount not to exceed $60,000 second all those in favor I opposed unanimous three is the pre- react uniform physical condition inspection services and this is a recommended action would be to award a one-year contract to the US inspection group usig in the amount not to exceed 221 15870

770 can just to give us a brief uh what is it that these people do sure uh I'm sorry you want to go Tim uh I just yeah briefly um this is typically done each year it's prompted by our folks at Property Management uh but in conjunction with our uh folks in Maintenance and Facilities uh preparing for react inspections which are typically uh they're technically Federal audits but they're more of an assessment

of our physical sites as opposed to the physical condition of our sites as opposed to a financial what's thec sta real estate assessment center and and just to remind everybody and our new chairman um in the past I believe the anacronym was considered a univer uh um uniform physical site conditions of it and that is changing to a new inspection CR eria the anacronym are are funny and they change

consistently but that's changing to something called Inspire uh so health and safety will will pretty much uh be the nerve center of these particular physical site inspections uh but again there are uh uh access to units uh typically depending on a a percentage of the size uh for example Sunset Hill is ongoing now and I think there is a random selection of of 30 units uh for inspection these folks

will come in ahead of time we did our own pre- react inspections for Sunset Hill this company was solicited with uh two others and they were the responding low they've actually have W in the past but they will you know properties like this and other family developments they'll go in ahead of time and um basically look at what they think would be Point deduction violations and whatnot for us to

to uh to attack and and improve before the actual the actual federally sponsored site audit do they check all the units or do they randomly select units as well well like I said in in you know so what do we have 350 at Sunset Hill so this inspection group does every unit because this serves two purposes yes it serves where we uh according to the HUD regulations we have to inspect our units annually once per this

group will inspect every unit correct every unit and then produce a report and then that report is given to our maintenance side and they use that to prepare for any violations uh uh in preparation for our react inspection thank you and the actual assessment though would take a percentage right but I just specifically yeah no I want I miss the point question yeah it was that this group checks every yes yes and it

also meets again the requirements that Kevin alluded to for yearly inspections so this is annual yes yeah we typically solicit annually I wait for the nod from the property management folks to put it out there for two weeks is this all the sites yes under any outstanding conditions from last year outstanding condition I don't think there's anything out I mean they would give recommendations we go and I I

believe Kevin correct me if I'm wrong but I think Co also had a bit of an abeyance on some of these visits is that accurate that was a few years back but so um we had several through 18 19 20 I think even into 21 but it seems like last year I don't recall us having a we do it internally but again where HUD is doing the formal sight audits Eddie I

don't know if you want to elaborate I can remember father defario I think last year but we've done them all but just to let you know and this this comes through as an inspection work order and we have none outstanding as of uh one one of this year so as we when we get them done sometimes it takes up a lot of time Sunset Hill we could end up with three

or 400 work orders out of this inspection things can repair but if I we try to get them done as quickly as possible the emergencies get done right away but the inspection work orders we take care of within the Cal good information thank you motion to uh approve I make a motion to award a one-year contract to us inspection group in an amount not to exceed $221 58.7 second any further

discussions all those in favor I I I opposed now you want to make a motion that after um we come out of executive session will'll end the meeting we're going to uh be going into executive session I'll entertain a motion to adjourn from the executive session when it's completed I'll make a motion to adjourn from regular session in executive session in exec in executive session okay we would need a roll call vote to

go into executive session at this point can we take that motion first yes second that motion all those in favor I I all those opposed I'll make a motion to go into executive session need a second second motion made and seconded any discussion you need be a roll call call so I'm going to do the one to go into executive session first commissioner Underhill yes commissioner Medeiros yes commissioner Bentley yes

chairman long yes and the one to not go back into Open Session and to adjourn commissioner Bentley yes I'm sorry what's a question to adjourn from executive say to we're going to adjourn from the exective yes make a motion to adj ex yes commissioner Bentley yes commission Underhill yes commissioner mes yes chairman long yes the reason as executive the motion was made in second to go into

executive session the anticipated executive session pursuant to mgl Lords chapter 30A section 21 A2 to conduct a strategy session in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel or a collective bargaining session or contract negotiating with nonusing personel personnel that's a reason for our executive session and the item would be executive director contract negotiations and

executive yeah executive director contract negotiations thank you thank you