The Fall River Housing Authority held its meeting on Monday, March 21, 2022, at 5 p.m. The board unanimously approved the minutes from the February 14, 2022 meeting, as well as the bills and communications, management reports, and financial reports for January 2022. The FY33121 March 31, 2021 audit report and its corrective action plan, with Mr. Spadella designated as responsible for implementation by March 31, 2023, were also unanimously approved. Additionally, the top five compensation certifications for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, received unanimous approval. Deputy Executive Director Kevin provided an update, acknowledging Deb Morrissette for securing over $400,000 in SHARER reporting funds, Joey De Silva for facilitating 109 resident vaccinations, and Elizabeth Burns and Tim Burke for initiating an employee recognition program. He also reported on the transition to the new PHA Web software and upcoming union contract negotiations. A significant discussion centered on streamlining the hiring process for routine positions, allowing for quicker posting and filling, with board ratification still required. The meeting included a special recognition for Dave Machado, who retired after 39 years of service, receiving an engraved gift and a gift certificate to TJ's Music. In new business, the board approved DHCD Amendment #11 for $1,005,313.92 in FY2024 formula funding and Change Order #5 for Maple Gardens basement upgrades, which was a credit of $53,517.21. They also approved advertising for bids for a $300,000 structural study at Cardinal Medeiros Towers, Change Order #3 for O'Brien Apartments (an increase of $16,000), and Change Order #3 for The Homes Apartments elevator modernization (an increase of $687,000). Contracts were awarded to LCP Tracker for certified payroll reporting software ($17,687.50) and PHI Inspections for Section 8 unit inspection services ($197,000). Personnel appointments included Ed Majewski as permanent Director of Facilities Management and Joseph Pimentel as permanent Director of Maintenance, both approved by a 5-0 roll call vote. The board also accepted Melanie Bouchard's resignation, approved Paula Eaton's retirement, ratified several in-house postings and appointments, and discussed the need for a formal vaccination policy for new employees before adjourning to executive session to discuss the Executive Director's contract.
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good evening everyone welcome to the uh monday march 21st 2022 um housing authority meeting um it's 5 p.m market will you call the roll please chairwoman sahari here vice chairman underhill here commissioner burns here commissioner bentley here commissioner medeiros here thank you attorney souza the open meeting wall please thank you madam chairman the language for the open meeting law is as follows
0:28first 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 this evening is citizens input do we have anyone here
0:53for citizens input seeing none the second item is residence input
1:08thank you thank you mary okay quick and dirty uh we have two elections one here and one at cardinal madeira's towers we have some new offices in both locations and some existing officers we continue to give out soup on a regular basis we did cardinal cattell and holmes last month and we just took in a new shipment and we're full and we're going to hand out some more this month and mass union our end their annual
1:35conference will be april 29th through may 1st at the best western in marlborough we'll be taking the board members up you guys will have to approve paying for david since he belongs to you we can handle that i hope so and the farmers market as you know is coming to carnival darius again this year they're coming down on friday to visit with us take a walk through for whatever reason we provided
2:01southeastern mass agricultural with a mailing list of all the residents everyone will be getting a postcard and following with the three farmers market locations cardinal medeiros health first and saints hospital one on wednesday one on thursday and one on friday we're on friday from 11 to 2. i was going to say we were able to change the time yes we were it changed 11 to 2. so i think and
2:23i personally think we'll we'll do well with the residents and with the aides that come in to visit them and all and the you know the resident folks because it'll be earlier and easier it'll be a lot more people floating around and it'll also be easier for the truesdale clinic people to come over during their lunch hour excellent and i think that's it i told you quick any questions questions
2:50thank you thank you thank you item two on the agenda is the minutes of the regular meeting held february 14 2022. the recommended action is to accept the minutes as presented motion to accept the minutes second all in favor aye item three is bills in communications you have the vouchers in your packet the recommended action is to accept ocean accept second any questions on the vouchers no questions
3:41all in favor all right four are the management reports included in your packet is item one applications item two the occupancy report three is the tenants accounts receivable report for the work order report five is the monthly section eight voucher activities report six is the monthly personnel count report seven is the director of modernization's monthly report and eight is the bank
4:14investment and bond debt balance report do i have a motion to accept the reports as filed motion to accept second any questions or concerns with regard to any of these reports in this monthly reading hearing none all in favor aye aye item five are the financial reports these reports are as of january 2022 the recommended action is to accept the reports as presented to us do we have a motion to accept motion to accept
4:58second any questions with regard to these reports we have amber here this evening no questions hearing no questions all in favor aye all right item 5b is the um fy33121 march 31 2021 audit report and the corrective action plan
5:31do i have a motion to approve the report as presented you have a number of items in your packet you have the financial statements themselves and then the housing authority is required to have um an agreed-upon procedures report it's a report that gets filed and is included in the format that the federal government requires so that's why there are two documents there's the report we were getting the
6:04emails on about tim being involved in this no it's not actually no it is not so there will be a third report i'm sorry that's my accountant there'll be a third report which is also an audit report but it's the what's referred to as the single audit so the auditing firm is required to test the major programs within the organization and father if there are any findings they need to report on them so in this particular
6:30year they had a particular finding on internal controls over financial reporting and the government requires the auditor so the housing authority rather the rt rather to um present a corrective action plan so that's what the emails were back and forth about but they have been resolved the authority determined that it would make sense to correct it by march 31 23 which is the next fiscal year end because obviously
7:03getting it done for march 22 doesn't make a lot of sense and the personal person responsible will be um mr spadella as the interim so those are the requirements um do i have a motion to um approve the audit report and it says and corrective action plan um you have the single page but that will also be in a document at some point and that correction i know there's a correction that will be made on that
7:34with regard to the person who will be responsible okay but i know i see his name on here oh okay so you're just looking to have a motion to accept the auto report yes please okay motion to accept the audit report thank you second all in favor aye aye item c is the top five compensation certifications the recommended recommended action is approval of the form that needs to be submitted
8:07and this too is for fiscal year ended march 31 2021
8:26do i have a motion to approve it a motion to approve second any questions or concerns with regard to this form it's an annual form that needs to be submitted and as you can see on page two that's a listing of the top five um individuals by title not necessarily by me all in favor item six is an update from the deputy executive director okay a few few items i wanted to discuss good evening everyone um
9:05few acknowledgments first uh she's not here tonight but uh deb morrissette our associate uh director of property management has been working diligently with her team on the sharer reporting and retaining funds we're currently over four hundred thousand dollars in uh funds received that would go towards our tenants accounts receivables so she's been doing a great job with that with her team and that program
9:36is due to end i believe it's april 15th so we'll actually should be uh collecting more funds as we approach the end of the program but i just wanted to acknowledge her hard work on that that was a big job to do it's very tedious but with those numbers it's well worth it and she's worked very hard on that i also want to acknowledge joey de silva tenet service coordinator once again working collaboratively with
10:11the city's health department and health first we had four additional clinics at our family sites and 109 residents were vaccinated so it was successful i was surprised i didn't think we'd get that many more residents vaccinated i also want to acknowledge elizabeth burns and tim burke they came up with an idea and worked worked hard on it what we're going to start doing is for any employee long-term employees
10:45retirement will be giving them a gift and presented it at a board meeting as well as any long-term staff member or someone out on extended sick leave we'll be sending either a fruit basket or a plant and i think that was a good idea tim and liz worked worked on that and it just shows as an organization that that we do care about our staff members so we'll be doing that going forward we
11:18started the transition to our new software program pha web training began last week everyone reported to father the feral village community hall where we had the demonstration some time ago and each department has been getting individualized training and that will continue through the month and we'll be making the transition to that so that that's been going well i'm sure there's going to be some
11:48hiccups along the way but we'll get to where we need to be uh what else we've got a meeting scheduled for wednesday with the union for contract negotiations that will be the first meeting i'm very optimistic about that i think we'll get a good get a good contract done that everyone will be satisfied with so i'm really optimistic about that looking forward to doing that uh one other thing i wanted to
12:21mention to the board if if possible we routinely fill clerk positions managers positions custodians managers and routinely in the past we come to you with permission to advertise and then ratify the position um it's a day-to-day operational thing and with the turnover uh in this culture we have one person one clerk that will be leaving the end of this week and another one possibly leaving so we would like the ability
13:02as going forward the interim executive director in human resources we can post these positions internally and then outside if we don't get a response and then fill them and then you still have the opportunity when you're asked to ratify the appointment any questions make sure we followed all the procedures which which we always will but it just if we have to wait each month and get permission for normal positions
13:34uh it really it ties our hands in getting things done uh in an efficient manner obviously any new positions or an upper level management position we would we would discuss it further ahead of time before any posting or filling but these these routine positions that have existed for many many many years at the housing authority it's just we can operate more efficiently by getting them filled uh sooner rather
14:07than later if if the board is okay with that um and i don't know tim if if there's anything i'm missing regarding that that you wouldn't want to add uh it's yeah no again it's just the entry level positions it seems like lately we're having an increase in turnover and we're getting commissioned one and then a week later someone else is resigning we need to come to get commission again and post again so we can just
14:37become more efficient uh let us do it closely and then always come in front of the ball for a gratification of the highway will be employed so it's just does anyone have any questions with regard to this i just want to be clear kevin you're asking for permission for posting but not for hiring or for both well uh just that we can post as needed as tim said rather than if there's a vacancy we
15:08have to wait for the board meeting ask for permission to post it then we do um the interviews and then we come back the following month and ask you to ratify it so that's that's that's a two-month turnaround as as tim said uh people have been either leaving or resigning taken other jobs seems more frequent nowadays than in the past and for example we have one clerk leaving uh friday's very last day and another one
15:42that's on the fence about resigning so that could be two positions um that we and we already have some uh applicants that we thought we had that changed their mind and backed out so we just it's just counterproductive to come before you every month hey can we fill this position can we fill that position their entry level their you know clerks managers maintenance custodian positions and again
16:14we follow all the personnel policy guidelines all the union uh we'll certainly honor that we'll always post internally and then go outside if there's no applicants for example we posted internally for clerk position no one applied so now we're going outside and it's an entry level so who's going to apply but we want to follow the the union contract and do what we're supposed to do
16:45um but those are the type of examples okay thank you so i just wanted to mention that to you and bring that up and see what i feel comfortable with that going forward um and excuse me the last thing i have is as i mentioned earlier about uh honoring uh retirees and stuff i have a gift here and and dave machado who was here for 39 years with the housing authority we have a nice
17:20gift and a gift certificate for him so if you want to come up david we'll give it to you david work very hard i think he was always a team player did what we needed him to do thank you come you couldn't make 40.
17:52do you mind david showing the uh what uh liz and tim decided to go with i i think it's it's it's nice very nice oh look at that very nice all engraved too it's engraved and uh what we're doing is um we asked david where he would like a gift certificate from so he's now getting back into his uh music so he wanted it from tj's music so we got a gift card very nice very nice
18:36and with that that's all i have thank you david good job dave thank you
18:48okay next item on the agenda is new business it's modernization item a is dhcds amendment number 11 to the contract for financial assistance amendment number 11 in the amount of 1 million 5 313 and 92 cents is for a formula funding award for the fiscal year 2024.
19:14the recommended action is approval make a motion to approve second any questions or concerns hearing none all in favor aye item b is change order number five for the basement upgrades at maple gardens this change order is a credit in the amount of fifty three thousand five hundred seventeen dollars and twenty one cents to the contract that's a nice credit instead of an ad yeah recommended action is approval
19:55motion to approve second any questions what created the credit we were supposed to install i believe it was boiler room doors in the basement okay okay so in essence it'll be pushed to another project at some point all in favor aye aye
20:32item c is permissioned to advertise for bids for the building entrance structural study at cairo madeira's towers the estimated value is three hundred thousand dollars the recommended action is approval to advertise sure i just have one question is the estimated value for the study or for what you think the work will be worth
21:12make a motion to approve for permission to advertise for bids second second thank you on david item d is a change order number three for the exterior building envelope slash balcony repairs and roof replacement at o'brien apartments change order number three is an increase of sixteen thousand dollars to the contract for additional costs due to issues with rigid insulation supplied for the roof replacement the
21:44recommended action is approval motion to approve thank you second any questions all in favor all right item e is a change order number three for elevator modernization at the homes apartments change order number three is an increase in the amount of 687 000 to the contract to provide two phone lines to elevator list motion to approve second any questions all in favor aye aye item f is a certificate of completion
22:26consolidation for fire alarm panel upgrades at cardinal madeira's towers and mitchell heights the general contractor m-v electrical contractors inc completed all the work items so the recommended action i'm going to recuse myself from this thank you motion approve second all in favor item two on the agenda um 2a is certified payroll reporting software contract the recommended action is to
23:01award a two-year contract to lcp tracker in the amount of seventeen thousand six hundred eighty seven dollars and fifty cents
23:18motion to approve second any questions item b is the housing quality i'm sorry all in favor aye item d is the housing quality standards hqs section 8 unit inspection services the recommended action is to award a two-year contract to phi inspections in the amount of 197 thousand dollars
24:02motion to award second any questions we have a letter in the packet from tim mccoy recommending the 197 900.
24:22all in favor item c is a family self-sufficiency fss program grant award in the amount of 165 000 and this is informational only does anyone have any questions or is this a grant that we would normally get so it's recurring yes item three is personnel item a is director of facilities management the recommended action is to approve the appointment of ed majewski from interim to permanent emotional approach second
25:07martha roll call please commissioner underhill yeshua madeiras yes commissioner burns yes commissioner bentley yes chairman zahadi yes item b is the director of maintenance the recommended action is to approve the appointment of joseph pimentel from interim to permanent motion to approve second commissioner medeiros yes commissioner bentley yes commissioner burns yes commissioner underhill yes shalom sahari yes
25:40item c is the resignation of an employee the recommended action is to accept the resignation from melanie bouchard effective march 25th 2022.
25:51motion accept the resignation second all in faithful all right item d is the retirement of an employee um approved the retirement of paula eaton effective may 1st 2020.
26:11motion to approve the retirement second all in favor aye item e is the coordinator of modernization slash development position the recommended action is to ratify an in-house posting motion to approve ratifying in-house posting
26:44all in favor item f is the coordinator of modernization slash development position the recommended action is to approve the appointment of scott elves second author will call please commissioner underhill yes commissioner burns yes commissioner bentley yes commissioner medeiros yes chairman sahari yes nmg is the rental integrity program specialist position on the recommended action is to ratify
27:18the appointment of joyce sherling motion to ratify appointment of joyce shirley second commissioner medeiros yes christian bentley yes commissioner burns yes commissioner underhill yes yes item h is a clerk interviewer position public housing department recommendation is to ratify outside advertising on the website
28:01i is a temporary director of maintenance position it's part-time the recommended action is to ratify the appointment of jason fossea could i ask one question is it uh temporary because they're only going to be here for a certain amount of time so what it is commissioner um jason is currently one of our maintenance leaders and we were notified in the beginning of march that we had
28:30three sites that were going to receive react inspections one where we've been struggling was heritage heights so ed majewski myself joe pimentel mike lanez decided to try somewhat of a pilot program take one of our leaders have them work 20 hours a week as a director of maintenance and supervise all the trades and the maintenance mechanics in preparation for the react it's just from uh it's only for four weeks
29:04from the day we've got notified to the end of the inspection which i think is tomorrow or wednesday see how we do and if we're successful in it we may continue to try this again every time we get notified of a group of react inspections coming up and we'll probably rotate select another maintenance leader but jason has been very successful at his sites so for the first time we wanted to go with
29:38jason and select him but it's it's strictly uh like four weeks and it's on a part-time basis 20 hours as a leader 20 hours as a director of maintenance and we're hoping it it proves very successful for those 20 hours that he won't be a leader he won't be falling behind in his work correct no because in one of the reasons selected jason he's his sites are run so well and so tight that
30:06we're very confident that he can do both so i had a question um kevin uh in terms of the success like what is the measure um is it getting through all of the uh locations passing or like what is that it is so we have the first one was today was cardinal ladarius we received day 74 on the last inspection we're hoping to improve there but uh heritage heights um i believe we go to 62
30:42so we're really looking to improve there that's where we've stationed stationed jason for most of the time for his 20 hours is there with the trades and the maintenance mechanics and the score that you're referring to what what in your opinion is is this i mean i don't know is it 100 that it's based off of or is there a number that is very reasonable and accepted is 60 is passing
31:09but they'll return the 60 to 80 they'll return the following year 80 to 90 they'll come in two years and 90 and above you'll see them every three years so the higher the score it shows and it proves that we're doing we're running our facilities correctly in our buildings they'll come back in three years if we have a 90 hour or better but if you're struggling they're going to be back the following year so um
31:38we're really hoping to improve upon heritage's score we passed but just barely so we wanted to try this approach see if it works hopefully it does if not we'll put our heads together and we'll try something else okay thank you do i have a motion for um ratification of this appointment motion to ratify appointment jason forcier second author please commissioner medeiros yes commissioner bentley yes commissioner
32:15burns yes commissioner underhill yes sherwood sahari yes adam j our leadership positions leader positions there are two of them the recommended action is to approve the appointment of patrick orban and joseph schoelenberg functional approve commissioner underhill yes commissioner burns yes commissioner bentley yes commissioner medeiros yes chairwoman sahari yes item k is a vaccination policy for new employees kevin
32:48so what's happened with colvit and vaccinations obviously current employees you can't force them to get vaccinated so the executive director previously probably going back a few months instructed human resources well any new employees they have to be vaccinated but that's actually a change in the personnel policy and you can't arbitrarily change the policy that has to be agreed upon and voted upon
33:27by the board of commissioners because it's a change to our personnel policy so in discussions with tim as we had recently had a new hire that uh imposed their religious beliefs where they didn't want to get vaccinated but agreed to be tested so i just think it's it's we need to have a clear policy i believe this is for discussion if you agree we'll put together a policy a vaccination policy and bring it before you
34:04personally i i believe in vaccinations however i don't want to impose on i want to do what's what's the law and what the policy states not what i feel is right and wrong um it's a it's a change in the policy the board always has to uh a vote to approve a change in the personnel policy or should always um so uh we're just i want to go we're going forward it
34:34seems like we're we're exiting out of covet so to speak hopefully but we still should have a policy so going forward in the future if if on if this should come back again um i just want to do what's legally right what's ethically right and what's in our what's in our policy one way or the other not just pick and choose who we're going to say you need to be vaccinated or not
35:03has hud or dhcd provided any guidance on policies that they're suggesting would be acceptable i think they haven't but you didn't see that but they've provided some recommendations as to cdc has yeah i got you you mentioned that a new hire was tested no so uh what we've been directing from the past few months new hires oh you have to be vaccinated before you can stop and most agreed but we
35:46had a position that we just recently filled that was vacant for a while and it was hard to find someone as qualified as this person but didn't want to be vaccinated you know for religious reasons which we need to respect that but because we should have a policy one way or one way or another and then if they're going to impose that religious freedom then what's the criteria that they provide
36:13so they didn't have to take a test to get higher yes they got tested right no not vaccinated tests getting vaccinated don't test it yeah is that in the policy there is no policy okay okay all new hires have to be vaccinated or have an exemption religious on medical exemption but all new hires um as of january 3rd so that was put into policy that was put into policy as of january 3rd yeah it
36:53went out it went through the unions too as well that's the other thing we would have to mention that to the union so i'm not opposed either way i just want to have something clear and concise in our policies so we're doing it doing it right going forward what is the pleasure of it i'm not sure what you're asking me what i think the policy what the policies should be so oh i uh so if
37:24that's the question absolutely let's let's put pen in the pad and have a formal policy bring back a formal policy that we can right this is just for discussion just to get right you know there's so much out there that there definitely needs to be a policy on vaccinated non-vaccinated testing weekly testing what but you definitely should have a policy on it i agree i agree we should that's why it's just uh
37:52open up the discussion and then uh tim and i and liz will work on a policy and we'll bring it to you next month and excellent yeah we all seem to have the same opinions yeah yeah great idea okay that was the last item in on the regular agenda and we have executive session now item a um is the executive director contract update um it's anticipated that executive session pursuant to mass general law chapter 30a section
38:2921a2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for the negotiations with non-union personnel the recommended action is to go into executive session for this discussion motion to go on executive session and chairman you want to also uh add that we would adjourn from executive session as well oh yes exactly i'm sorry i apologize we've just started doing that so um after executive session we will be
39:02adjourning we will not be coming back into open session