Fall River Housing Authority 1 9 2023

good evening everybody Welcome to the Fall River Housing Authority meeting it's Monday January 9th 2023 and it's 4 33 P.M attorney Souza the open link meeting law please thank you madam chairwoman I'm open meeting 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 Martha local channel here Vice chairman Underhill here I'm just going to put a bent leak here here thank you um any citizens input this evening seeing none any Resident input please thank you quickly

thank you Mary uh two things quickly first one is we're planning on running some elections in some of the buildings but we don't have anyone I just talked to Eddie Majewski we'll be getting a new tenant assistant at Mitchell and you're all invited the farmers markets started again Fridays Cardinal Medeiros 11 to 2. but a great turnout this past Friday everybody should come down and buy some

fresh fruits and vegetables thank you thank you thank you thanks Ed item two is the minutes of the regular meeting held on December 12 2022 the recommended action is to accept the minutes do I have a motion to accept second all in favor aye item three is bills and Communications a are the vouchers the vouchers are in your packet um do I have a motion to accept the vouchers as presented

the make a motion to accept the vouchers as presented second all in favor aye item four is the management reports the eight reports are included in your packet report one is at the applications two is the occupancy reports three is the tenants accounts receivable four is the work order reports 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 recommended action is to accept the reports as presented

motion to accept reports second any questions with regard to any of these reports seeing none all in favor aye aye item five is the financial report it's for the period ended November 30 2022 um included in your packages the operating um statements for each of the programs do I have a motion to approve these reports as presented I make a motion to Pres erve the reports as presented

second second thank you any questions with regard to the operating reports for the eight-month ending 11 30 2022 thank you all in favor item six is an update thank you madam chairwoman good evening everyone happy New Year just a few uh quick items our resident services department uh Joey de Silva will be coordinating with South Coast Health and they'll be conducting a community of community wellness program at our

elderly sites throughout the month of January some diabetes testing things like that so positive program for our elderly residents uh Wednesday of this week we will be meeting with the unions Unit A which is the facilities department and begin negotiations again I'll start this Wednesday afternoon and the last thing I have next week I will be meeting with the city council committee on Human Services they they

invited me to one of their meetings to discuss housing and homeless issues that's next week next week that's all I have for this one quiet month with the holidays in between any questions hearing none um next item is old business item a is the contract award for the elevator modernizations number three and four at Cardinal madera's Towers four bids were received and opened on October 27th 2022

the recommended action is to award the contract to the low bidder Coletta construct Contracting Company Incorporated in the amount of one million three hundred seventy six thousand seven hundred dollars do I have a motion to award this contract I'll make a motion to award the contract to Coletta Contracting do I have a second the second okay any questions with regard to this contract

or the bids on this contract Madam chair I'm going to abstain okay no questions all in favor aye under new business item one is modernization a is a change order number one for the bathroom Renovations project at Heritage height the change order number one is an increase of forty nine thousand seven hundred seventy five dollars and two cents to the contract for unforeseen conditions and additional changes

the breakdown is included and the contract duration is going to increase of oh an additional 255 days is that correct or two 255 days 200 200 an additional 255 days over the current contract sorry I wanted to be sure I had that correct do I have a motion to approve this change order motion to approve the change order second any questions on this change order or the extension on the time

I I just have a question regarding the extension or was there a delay um in The Ordering of some of the materials this project started during covert then there were some delays um additional materials tub surround kits that was I think the biggest delay in getting that and there was insulation there was some metal studs but that wasn't as bad that was more readily available but the PVC

tub kits there was a delay in order in that but that did that wasn't the only thing it was getting in and out during covid if if there was a scheduled bathroom and somebody had tested positive then that had to be put on hold so so once this is approved and the contract is back on site they'll just finish the job it's just about done it's just about done okay the 255 days

goes back goes back okay it's not like just starting now and then another 200 5 is going back almost a year ago oh okay thank you thank you all in favor aye item two is miscellaneous a is the core of a Housing Authority 20 24 agency plan certification for the five-year annual plan it was executed by myself and the director and the certified certification of the state and local official official

of the PHA plan consistency with the Consolidated plan that was executed by the mayor and the dhcd fiscal year 2024 annual plan this was for information only this is the big packet that you have included in the package does anyone have any questions with regard to the presentation seeing none Item B is an open meeting law complaint filed by Patrick Higgins in reference to the 2012-2022 regular board meeting and the

recommended action is the review the general counsel's initial response requesting an extension for the board to meet beyond the statutory 14-day meeting requirement and two to review the AG's approval three the designated general counsel to respond to the open meeting law complaint do you want to add to this at all it's just basically yeah thank you thank you just a basic um response uh to

the open meeting law complaint would have required that the board meet in special session within 14 days of the complaint being filed which would mean that we would have had to have convened so I requested an extension so that it could be addressed on the board agenda this evening you could designate me to write the response that's why I haven't prepared one because we want to go by

the book and then I'll respond to the open meeting law request the complaint alleges uh two things that I don't know if you remember at the last meeting we had given several citations out and I think that there was a misunderstanding but I'm going to review the uh well I've already reviewed the video footage and I believe that I don't believe that um I believe that we were in the in the right

so to speak so I'm going to respond to that put it in writing send it out to the Attorney General's office for clarification and then uh they will they will approve or and dismiss the complaint or they'll require further uh initial further issuance of activity for us so we'll do it that way so what we're looking for this evening is approval for attorney Souza to respond to this complaint all right

so motion to approve thank you second thank you all in favor aye thank you item C is the Community preservation commission this is for discussion um executive director do you want to discuss the issue at hand here sure so uh this committee currently Commission of burns sits on this um but I believe his term was expiring but I'm not sure if it got renewed but I know commissioner Bentley you expressed interest in this

so with commissioned appearance not being here I wanted to put it on so we could discuss and rather than we kind of appoint someone so volunteer so I'm not sure what Jason being absent if he he expressed that he wanted to stay on it but if he changed his mind you were here but he's not here so so a communication to come through from the city clerk's office which I believe

was prompted by a discussion with the chairperson of this group so as you all may remember when it came to me I wanted to put it out there for your pleasure or whatnot uh commissioner Bentley responded that she'd be interested a day or two later commissioner Burns responded that he was under the impression he was on it so just with further classify clarification with Inez because we've had a lot of

vacation time from uh cleric bullshot over the holidays and whatnot was back briefly back on vacation apparently commissioner Burns their three-year terms had retired in August it's not a problem on the city side because they typically do I may not be using the right terminology or phrase but it's almost like it's an automatic six-month race period which carries which would carry into February so as

far as Community preservation is concerned there's no violation of city ordinance or this or that or whatever it is this but obviously we're at the point now this will probably be our last meeting prior to the expiration so I I'm not sure if he expressed to anyone a desire to stay he had expressed to me that he was under the impression he was on and he in fact was but that term expired in August

so it's the pleasure of this board whether you want to stick with commissioner Burns although I'm not sure if he stated to anyone that he truly wants to stay he was under again he was under the impression or what I gleaned from his email was he was under the impression that he was still on or if you want to go to commissioner Bentley again it's solely the pleasure of the

board here right Kevin and I don't have a recommendation one way or another the city clerk didn't have a recommendation one way or another they just were hoping that we could assign somebody tonight that's why I put it on for discussion so we don't have to force someone to do it you can be discussed and hopefully I think there was a time Kevin I mean these type of things would come up over

decades past and whatnot and if there was no interest then you would typically take the newest person on the board and say hey you're going to do it so I was awarded that awarded that so at least uh commissioner Medeiros you don't have to worry about that at this point uh you're in the clear but I guess um the board has to decide which way they want to go here um I would suggest appointing

commissioner Bentley due to her expressed interest and unfortunately commissioner Burns being absent tonight so I was gonna say I think it's Jason's if he's on it my opinion would be if if he no longer wants to stay on it I'd be happy to do it but I would I would give him first rider for refusal since he's already on it okay so we will speak to commissioner Burns if he wants to remain on it that's

what will inform the city of our choice and if he does not you'll be the alternate to take that slot yeah my feeling is it I didn't know that he wasn't and I didn't either so if if he's on it that's I think it's his decision if he doesn't want to stay on it or if he doesn't when it came to my attention I took the attitude well there must be a

vacancy that's why I emailed that you said it was a three-year term right because I thought this is what I was told by the assistant clerk I thought Jason had only been put on that last year that's what I was I kind of remember that coming up they said they said it expired maybe he just maybe he saw this term yeah maybe he finished he may have finished a term

that was I do remember talking about it so that Bible that makes sense but I do remember last year the question coming up in him expressing the interest and so it sounds like though if he has the desire to stay the board's comfortable with that if he has the desire to leave commissioner Bentley has no problem serving that sounds fair enough and I misunderstood I thought we had to make

do a vote on that tonight or some approval I don't know what has been done in the past yeah no I think somebody I was just going to say some of the either volunteers or it's the low man on the totem pole so yeah it doesn't require when I first got on the board I was yeah so we'll leave it at that if if Jason decides that he'd prefer to stay

then fine but it's not perfect we are very grateful for you Joanne to take his spot and by tomorrow we'll get his response and we'll let the clerk know and I'm sure he'll pass on whatever materials he has to date to get you up to speed that's fine that's fine perfect item D is electrical inventory supplies the recommended action is to award a one-year contract to the lone bidder Electrical Wholesalers and the amount

not to exceed fifty thousand dollars do I have a motion to award the contract motion to award one-year contract to loan bidder Electrical Wholesalers bid all in favor aye item e is security guard service contract for Cardinal dearest towers and beresi Heights the recommended action is to extend the current contract with us entra for a month for a one month period do I have a motion to extend this

security contract for another month um I'll I'll I will make that motion but I do have a question about it I'm a second a second any questions Joanne yes um is there any reason it wouldn't be more than one month commissioner we put out a request for a proposal where the proposals would due Tuesday the 3rd one o'clock in the afternoon as you know to comply with open meeting

law the agenda needs to be set by no later on Thursday giving us two days uh to review check references what was unexpected to me I was pleasantly surprised because I did Force this out to I want to say eight or nine companies um I was pleasantly surprised that we get three proposals back one from the existing which is this particular company and two to additional companies basically I pivoted to this because I

wanted to make sure that we gave the proposals due diligence as far as references you know research as much as we can get on the background so this is extending the current contract while you do that and we already have them in I'm not waiting for a due date um had an in-person interview today with one of the three have another phone teleconference schedule Thursday at noon so the current contract goes to January

31st extended to February 28th have a recommendation for you all of the February meeting and go from there it seems like the most prudent course of action as opposed to again try to make a quick recommendation in 48 hours coming back the first week of the new year and making a mistake you know as you know by using the proposal process I mean yeah we look at price but unlike a bid process you're not necessarily bound

to the lowest response responsible to sort of speak you can consider in fact is in addition to price via the technical proposal when checks and references and things of that nature all the department the bottomless and all that which again I don't anticipate that being a problem for any of them it seemed like the more prudent thing to do the more Kevin and I banned it back and forth over it it just

seemed like the spotter way to approach a White Russian decision into a three-year security contract and again this is this is our traditional one commissioner Bentley so uh perezi and Cardinal what we've always had that as you know we're uh so far so good I believe that at uh at Doolin but this is the traditional three-year one all right thank you can I speak on this even though I'm

gonna have to recuse myself from the vote uh you said you had two other proposals yeah so three attention to this one yeah two in addition to the can I ask are they local companies uh one has an office in uh two offices Dedham in Pawtucket and the other is is well the corporate office I believe is Windsor Connecticut so you basically Warwick you have another one with Dartmouth and uh and uh

I guess excuse me excuse me uh Denim and Pentucket for one company Warwick for the existing company and uh and Windsor it's either Windsor of South Windsor I apologize Connecticut it just seems that one of the problems we have with this company that we have now is that somebody does call in sick or even a cover of a vacation it's very hot to get somebody to come from the Warwick area

into Fall River to cover an attention you know and part of the reason uh commissioner Underhill that I was pleasantly surprised by getting the three proposals at least to have someone to vet and whatnot because it seems like it's an industry that is become a little bit notorious with staffing issues I think a combination of and I know we're coming out of coven but income a combination of increased security needs

and also a uh you know the typical uh Staffing shortage issues that you're kind of seeing in various Industries everywhere whether it's anything from School departments to I don't picking industry you know manufacturing whatever it may be service industry obviously we've seen that so um I think you know I I think we we they're all they're all you know Quality Companies there is those those staffing issues they have a

hard time backfilling and whatnot but I think you know I think we're going to make an informed good selection it's all I can really say at this point because I'm not that's my plan anyway just speaking as a tenant rep I'm not very happy with or whatever they're called now very too comfortable at their positions and they just you know I I think a change would probably do as

good then so as long as the you know the money's right and everything I don't want to get blindsided but just for the sake of changing companies but I think you know as commissioner of Medeiros is you know security is a big thing with us and uh I don't think these guys are important to build anymore they did at the beginning but they just so that's you know you're going to discuss it further

though when you you know talk to the other two companies so I hope you you know I hope one of them can come up with a strong proposal because I think we need a breath of fresh air in that so and just so you know I've had them reviewed by um I've gone through them our executive director Kevin and also Debbie Morrison so it's obviously not just my decision right you know we'll use sound judgment and

you'll get a you'll get a recommendation that'll include price and whatever fact there's the that seem to that uh that maybe created a situation with a selected company stood out okay so you're welcome okay I have a motion in a second on Taylor bye I can't understand okay thank you item f is the compact replacement at Mitchell Heights the recommended action is to award the contract to the low bidder

Maguire Equipment Incorporated and the amount not to exceed 24 384 dollars do I have motion to award this contract and make a motion to award the contract any questions or concerns about this contract award and hearing none all in favor aye item three is personnel a is a resignation of an employee the recommended action is to accept the resignation of John Frank he's a maintenance custodial floater effective

on December 16 2022.

except Mr Frank's resignation motion to accept invasion second thank you all in favor aye all right Item B is a maintenance mechanic slash Florida third shift position the recommended action is to approve the appointment of David Souza of motion motion uh to approve appointment David Souza second thank you yes yes commissioner Bentley yes sure Mr hardy yes itemc is the Director of Finance

position the recommended action is to ratify the in-house posting and the outside advertising if necessary I make a motion to ratify in-house posting and outside advertising if necessary all in favor aye and item four is the election of the offices for calendar year 2023.

um we can do it one of two ways we can do it individually or you can elect the same sleep a motion from the floor to elect the same slate of officers that you had for 2022 rather than take them individually so I don't know if that's the pleasure of the board and it's the pleasure of the board

I make a motion thing the offices and teach you second that Martha roll call please commission Underhill yes yes commissioner Maderos yes and just for the record the Slate of officers are chairwoman's a hearty it's a Hardy uh Vice chair chairman would be Mr unhill and the treasure would be Mr um all right thank you at this time we have nothing further coming before us so do I have a motion to adjourn

motion to adjourn second thank you thank you everyone thanks everybody