6.12.23 Housing Authority

welcome everyone welcome to tonight's meeting this is the four of a Housing Authority regular session it's Monday June 12 2023 and it's 4 35.

um roll call Omaha please chairmani here Vice chairman Underhill here commissioner Burns is absent commissioner Bentley present commissioner Medeiros here thank you attorney Souza the open meeting law please 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 our agenda is Citizens input seeing none residence import good evening sir ah thank you Mary thank you good evening good evening two quick things farmers market has already

started it moved Outdoors at Cardinal it's going very well from what I see I've been home for a couple of weeks but while I was here when I come back this week it was doing well the Farmers Market at Sunset Hills starts Thursday it'll be from two to six it'll be in the playground area as far as I know that's where we usually have the uh Joey has his event so it'll be in that same

area from what I understand and that's all we have oh and the tenants have cost it from the Housing Authority attended the mass Union conference in Marlboro and it created a lot of interest as Kevin knows you know I've had conversations great wonderful that's about all thank you thanks Ed the next item on our agenda this evening is the minutes of the regular meeting 23.

I make a motion to accept the minutes of the regular meeting second thank you any questions with regard to them hearing none all in favor item three is bills and Communications the vouchers are included in the packet do I have a motion to accept the vouchers as prepared motion to accept the vouchers second any questions regarding the exposures hearing none all in favor aye item four other management reports it's

the application report the occupancy report the tenants accounts receivable report number 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 modernization's monthly report and eight is the Bank investment and bond debt balance report do I have a motion to accept these reports as presented

any questions with regard to any of these reports included in your packet hearing none all in favor item five of the financial reports this is for the year ended the housing authorities year end is March 31 2023.

foreign to accept the financial reports motion to accept Financial reports questions with regard to these Financial reports that are included it's the con operating statements for each of the locations hearing none all in favor okay good evening everyone thank you madam chairwoman a few things um we there was a citation given to one of our residents at Mitchell Heights Tilly Lima she turned 100 years old

and Rita Deb and Katie uh coordinated a little get-together in the Community Hall to celebrate her 100 years of life so thanks to our Management Department for getting that done and coordinating that uh once again we're collaborating with Fall River Recreation for our senior concerts we're also contributing 3 300 that go toward the expense of those concerts and that also uh funnels to the

local Musicians Union so it supports the Musicians Union each elderly site will have a senior concert we submitted our unaudited financials to HUD on June the 7th um the date that they put on the regulation is May 31st but you have until June 16th to submit um that's when the penalty phase kicks in and you can lose points on your fast score so we submitted without penalty we won't lose any points

that was done by neller Finance director and her team and I want to acknowledge her for her hard work and long hours that she put into getting this done and also getting our uh year-ren financials to the board so she had quite a quite a workload there for a while so I want to acknowledge her on that let's see we also submitted two designated housing plans one was our renewal we submitted that and we did get

approval already from the local field office in Boston that covers Us six elderly sites that are existing now as elderly only we also submitted a revised designated housing plan to Washington D.C to include Bates and Doolin Apartments as elderly only that's going to be more of a heavier lift and scrutinized a little more but nonetheless we wanted to put a strong effort into trying to get those

two sites with the other six as elderly only and with that submission I also want to acknowledge Martha because she did a tremendous job with Gathering all the statistical data communicating with Kathleen with Tim the police department our local elected officials so that was also submitted as well thank you Martha and the last thing I have is once we get to the Police contract on the agenda

I'll go into a little more detail and explain what that's all about and that's all I have thank you okay thanks next item on the business item item it's a certificate of substantial completion for the roof roof replacement and roof Penthouse slash balcony repairs at Cardinal Heights recommended action is approval motion to approve I'll make a wishes to approve substantial completion for cartel Heights second

any questions with regard to this certificate of substantial completion hearing none all in favor aye Item B is a contract award for the new lighting protection system at Cardinal Medeiros Towers the recommended action is to award the contract to the loan bidder Smoke Stack lighting Incorporated in the amount of thirty four thousand six hundred and forty dollars motion to award contract second

any questions with regard to this award hearing none all in favor aye item 2A is the um is an amendment number six to the Cooperative agreement dated April 10 2023.

this was a definitive clarification of a line item which was approved at the April 10th 2023 board meeting The Cooperative agreement between the city of Fall River and the floor of a Housing Authority is an agreement for payment in lieu of taxes referred to as a pilot payment to the city from the four of a Housing Authority this update revised the number of federal units from the November 9 20.

2009 Cooperative agreement by reducing the number of units from 2128 units to 2040 units a reduction of 88 units and Kevin this is all based on the calculation it's a chemical form correct and it's based on the calculation of the number of units is how the pilot is calculated to the city that is correct it's based it's a unit based and it hasn't been updated in a while attorney Souza worked on that to reflect the

accurate amount of units because over the years we've reduced the units have been reduced Madam chairman the reason why we clarified that was because of the the media that was a that was the subject of the open meeting law complaint there was not enough information in that line item that's why I clarified it so we put the exact facts in perfect thank you so do I have a motion to ratify the

board approval on April 10 2023 with this additional language

does anyone have any questions hearing none all in favor Item B is the open meeting law complaint filed by Patrick Higgins dated April 10 2023 on the recommended action is to respond to Mr Higgins and the Attorney General's office regarding the open media law complaint filed by Mr Higgins on the same date April 10th 2023 and this would be for attorney Souza to respond subject of that open meeting law was

there was not enough information in that in that particular item that line item that we had just discussed in the original vote in the original correct do I have a motion to um have Mr Souza attorney Souza respond for us

do I have a second thank you any other questions regarding this hearing none all in favor I item C is the plumbing supplies inventory contracts the recommended action is to award a three-year contract to Fall River Wind Supply Supply New England and plumber supply company in an amount not to exceed fifty thousand dollars each Madam chair Mia clarified sure they are three separate one-year contracts not one three year

so so it was a one-year contract Alexander is not to exceed to each of the three vendors excuse me I have a question is it 50 000 per year or 50 000 total per vendor not in fifty thousand for one year for one of the three vendors correct we do this year supplies and inventories because as you as you know we have uh trades tradespersons and even supervisors with plumbing background but we have our

internal tradespersons who resolve work orders so we try to get the vendor contracts in place as recommended by Hud several years ago back in 2017 so again we make sure that their supervisors also oversee the cumulative buying and we work with the AP and finance department to track those contracts so when we put it out we reserve the right to award multiple contracts and they are given the prices of what was

received back from your three major local vendors and they have that and they see who is the lowest on particular items and whatnot but again you may have depending on the nature of the work order could have something that's a little bit more of an emergency if you turnaround time of two weeks at one place you're in they're allowed to go to the second to uh to get the item quicker to resolve

the work issue again the Nuance of being a landlord as opposed to not necessarily overseeing people's homes but something that would be more generically considered a public building you know where all of our all of our buildings and our inventories and classified as public buildings by virtue of the fact that be a taxpayer funded but they're not public buildings in the traditional sense of a city hall a

firehouse things of that nature to follow up on commissioner Bentley not to exceed 150 000 because it's 50 each each is yeah not to exceed 50 at each vendor government correct okay thank you do I have a motion to award the contract to these three um vendors I'll make a motion to award three one-year contracts to the plumbing vendors second all in favor item D is an amendment to the contract

for the supplemental police services for October 1 2022 to September 30 2023 increasing the contract amount by 80 000 is 90 000.

um it's just under 90 000 so just to clarify and this is for discussion and informational purposes only you will not be required to vote on anything so last month deputy director Tim McCoy and myself were asked to attend the meeting at the city hall with the mayor and his financial team we really had no indication what what the details were what it was going to be about uh so we really weren't we kind of

were caught off God it was a last minute thing I can say this sure yep should I wait should I wait okay um so in the meeting we find that there's a shortfall in the city budget as it pertains to the police department and and their funding so our contract for the five police officers comes up we've been paying four hundred and ten thousand dollars for five offices for the police department since 2009. it's

never been increased obviously the step increases Kohler increases pension other fringes that go along with that they initially were looking for to double that contract but we obviously had to push back a bit and we took the the position that we assumed that the 410 was covering salary and fringes for all five patrolmen five police officers so I wanted to take it back this information to the board

um sorry when we when you look at the copy that it was distributed to you of the city's budget um if you look at the highlighted areas that's we took five patrolmen salaries and we added 50 for fringes and it comes up to a just under a hundred thousand per uh police officer uh we're paying for ten if you do the math they need 4.99 220 so in essence just under ninety thousand dollars

so I just wanted to get that um on your radar to discuss it I'll remind you again this contract has four months remaining we didn't feel that we should alter the contract now or do an addendum to the contract no one ever approached us to say that there was a shortfall I assumed we assumed the amount we were giving them was the correct amount covering everything so um again I'll bring it up again in a few

months when it gets time to renew this I think the extra 90 000 roughly is fair we've been paying the 410 since 2009 almost 15 years so I think it's fair we have a very strong relationship with the chief Garvin with um the sergeant of the police unit whenever we have an issue a crisis they're right there for us Deb Kathleen Tim have a great relationship with them in management they do Supply monthly

reports of the offices on duty where where they're assigned to what's going on attorney Souza gets police reports if there's serious incidences so we have to be fiscally responsible but I I feel it's a needed and a welcome service that they provide I think they do a really really good job and I I would hate to lose that or strain that relationship in any way and I I think if

we agree uh when the contract comes up for renewal for another roughly 90 000 I think that's fair so again this is just for discussion if you have any questions if you want more information for me to gather I'm happy to do it but that's the purpose of the agenda item any questions any thoughts um one question I had which I believe you answered was the way it was written

on our agenda it looked like it was I just that was being asked to put in a payment ahead of the contract renewal but you seem to have answered that that this is going to take effect at the next uh yeah that's October that was my my era commissioner because initially we were thinking about do we want to make an amendment to help the city with this shortfall or do we wait

the four more months and do it then and I ultimately decided let's let's wait till it so that that was my era that if it was a little ambiguous on the on the agenda but I clarified that I hope you're comfortable with that answer yeah no no I'm just happier hearing that than and of course you know we want to be a good neighbor in the community we want to work well with our

other brother and sister agencies within the city so but again you know my main responsibility is to the board and to the Housing Authority so anybody else I just just one quick um question so if I'm looking at this right the total salary is 66 563 correct yep and work for five and we would get five yeah so I highlighted the five patrolmen in essence it it wouldn't be fair for us

to be uh supporting the salary of a lieutenant or a captain so I based it on the the five you know patrolmen and the fringes that they showed in their budget so I'm going by what their budget is so although orange is five oh it's 50 or 5 percent 50. 50 is a rough number that we use it could be anywhere from 40 something percent to just over so I I know in in

the finance department we and then when I was in the modernization we basically as a as a a an industry number we use 50 for fringes and uh have you gotten any indication that they are comfortable with that number when when October arrives and we are asked to renew the contract well I don't know that they'll be comfortable they always municipalities always need more money right um

the number that they well because now with this budget that was passed I'm utilizing their numbers so it wouldn't be fair to us to pay more than what's needed so to speak and wondering whether number I think you had more pension contributions things of that nature to be honest with you and it in our opinion the number needed to be worked down and differently you know so yeah and Tim certainly if I've missed

something you can weigh in if I've said anything an error no I think it's I think it's accurate this would be adding their their fringe benefits which primarily is their pension contribution as well as their health care yes

well we're doing it based on we don't know if who we're getting if they're going to have a family plan or a single plan so we're trying to be yes cautious in terms of the 50 and the other issue it should be more but it's it's also again trying to get a boilerplate base amount because I mean obviously these special op units have supervisors and so you know what's going to be a number if

are we going to be charged at one point for a captain one point for lieutenant one point for a sergeant so this seemed like a bait a nice basic Foundation to be at and to go from there rather than doubling the contract say hey this is where we are customarily as as late people and whatnot you're typically adding on another call somewhere from let's say 45 to 55 to cover the fringes

I'm just I'm actually not quite sure when you take the police department in its entirely if you randomly take five people if that would necessarily cover all of the pension contribution but again we needed to get to a like understanding of five police officers so what we did was if you were if if tomorrow the Fall River Housing Authority was asked to contribute to five new officers there's your comparable cost

to the city and obviously so two meetings with City officials and also discussions with Finance discussions with property management folks who get the reports review the bill are comfortable that we're getting at least the you know entire week's work that's related to housing obviously sometimes it's desk work sometimes it's field work the other thing that we have here in fairness to the police report Department

we've had such a good rapport that you also have a situation some you know at times it just happened on Friday where you get a resident who calls here on something that maybe isn't an emergency but they think there's potential criminal activity we send an email over to the police department and not only is the housing unit responding but they're having their sector car you know come

for backup That's Unique with some of the housing authorities that we spoke to so I think this this would be a drastic change if we just went strictly to in-house security that doesn't have the same rapport with the general counsel doesn't have the same rapport with Debbie and now Tim is breaking into that um certainly the money would be spent in outside security guards and whatnot that

also again and not law enforcement they don't have a resting capacity things it has worked well here we just we had to come up with some sort of a foundation to say okay you know nine hundred thousand dollars is a little bit different I mean now we'd be coming back with a variety of do we want to go private do we want to have our own internal police force the whole

nine yards and in our second meeting with this city folks there was there there was a what I believe is a a verbal agreement that that makes sense this makes sense going forward and also it doesn't make sense to alter a contract now that's been in effect for a year and ends because again we're in our budget process our our budget cycle goes back from April you know starts April 1 goes

to March 31st we understand that this is coming up on the city side and they're also going to the sros in the school department are looking for compensation and whatnot where obviously that school becomes that office's fee so they're reviewing all sorts of intergovernmental contracts because it's their time of year now we know that this the numbers that we were using just get adopted by the city council on Tuesday

or last Tuesday I should say so we think it's a fair approach here and and you know we had we had a verbal agreement the second meeting thank you so would this be more of an offer of what the increase is going to be or you you're sure they'll accept uh again in the second meeting you know it was in a sense that that that's fair so the nice thing was

at the first meeting the city budget wasn't approved by the council as of yet so these are their numbers so if you do the the simple math I think we're we're pretty close as I said and Tim said you know the contract isn't to pay for captains and lieutenants it's we're doing our fair share and we want to continue to do our fair share and be fair but obviously for whatever reason if they're short

false elsewhere the Housing Authority can't be expected to make up those those gaps um and obviously commissioner for some reason something changes we're not asking you to vote on this thing this has to come back whether it's actually September or October so you will be the first to know and you will know prior to that but I believe we haven't accepted counter offer okay thank you all right thank you

next next on the agenda is Personnel item a is the retirement of an employee the recommended action is to accept the retirement of William Primo maintenance mechanic effective June 30th 2023.

I'll make a motion to accept the retirement of William Primo June 30th 2023.

all in favor Item B are two clerk interviewer positions so ratify the appointment of first Chelsea Cody oh do I have a motion sorry make a motion to ratify the appointment of Chelsea Cody second now met Monica Mr Medeiros yes Commission on the hill yes commissioner Bentley yes yes um the second ratification is Christine Jordan do I have a motion to gratify per clerk interviewer I'll make a motion

to ratify the appointment of Christine Jordan for clerk interviewer position

yes item C is the management department support assistance position this is to ratify the appointment of laissez gilders galendez glendis sorry didn't mean to butcher that name do I have a motion to ratify this appointment

yes is sure man thank you just wanted to hit the Jack um individual number one highlighted in V1 Miss Cody and Miss galindas are also uh residents so it's nice that is nice we and I believe there may have been some movement today on another uh tenant higher so to speak so you know helps us when we send in section three numbers and hiring numbers and whatnot is having residents accept employment here so so

just wanted to add that thank you you're welcome thanks item D is the rental Integrity program specialist position this is to ratify the appointment of Stephanie lenez do I have a motion to ratify Stephanie I'll make a motion to ratify the appointment of Stephanie Lanier's second yes item e is temporary maintenance mechanic one floater positions there are four of them it's to ratify the appointment of first Ryan Dory

I'll make a motion uh ratify the appointment Orion Dory Commission on the hill yes commissioner Bentley yes Jones yes individual number two is Lawrence Fonseca this is a temporary maintenance mechanic one floater position

commissioner Medeiros yes Mr Bentley yes Mr Underhill yes yes the third individual is Cody Medeiros same position make a motion to ratify the position of Cody Medeiros for temporary mechanic maintenance temporary maintenance mechanic floated position of Bentley yes Mr Underhill yes in the fourth individual is Alex Volpe it's for the temporary maintenance mechanic one floater position

I'll make a motion to ratify Alex Moby as a temporary mechanic lord of the position yes

that is the last item for our regular session um we are going to go into executive session it's um litigation status for Superior Court filing civil docket number 2173 cv00570 the anticipated executive session pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 38 section 21a3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on

the bargaining or litigating positions of the public body and as the chair I so declare do I have a motion to go into executive session I'll make a motion to go into executive sessions second oh yes yes yes that will be the end of tonight's meeting we will not be coming out of regular sessions so we need a motion to adjourn we'll make a motion to adjourn and not come back into regular session

after executive session ends second all in favor aye thank you