The Fall River Housing Authority convened its monthly meeting on December 13, 2021. A primary concern raised during resident input was a widespread bed bug and cockroach infestation across several senior developments, including Cardinal Medeiros and Father DeTerio. In response, the board unanimously approved a motion to declare the pest control issue an emergency, authorizing the immediate negotiation of extended hours for the existing exterminator contract. Financial discussions included the approval of various financial programs, with the federal program deferred due to a reported spreadsheet error. The board authorized Amber, the Director of Finance, as the signatory for the Massachusetts Municipal Depository Trust (MMDT) account, and further decided that any actual fund transfers to this account would require board evaluation in February. An increase of $243,000, or 9%, was noted for the FY 2023 appropriation to the Fall River Contributory Retirement Board. The Executive Director provided updates on holiday employee benefits, a new employee newsletter initiative, plans for a zero-emission vehicle fleet by 2035, rising COVID-19 positivity rates in Fall River, and the ending of HUD waivers. Modernization efforts saw the approval of several change orders for projects at Maple Gardens, Raymond D. Holmes Apartments, James A. O'Brien Senior Apartments, Cardinal Medeiros Towers, and Sunset Hill. The board also approved significant technology investments, including a web-based software system, a new computer server, a VoIP telephone system, and interactive kiosks for the Section 8 department, all funded by CARES Act money. Personnel actions included accepting the resignations of Keith Bettencourt and Sherry Mello, and approving the retirement of David Machado after over 30 years of service. Three internal candidates – Ruth Andino, Carlos Rodriguez, and Shayna Cavallo – were approved for clerk positions. However, applications for Maintenance Custodian Floaters were tabled due to concerns regarding the proper posting and advertising protocols. The meeting concluded with the appointment of a negotiating committee for upcoming union contract discussions and a motion to enter executive session to address the Executive Director's performance review, litigation updates, and contract strategies.
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good afternoon everybody and welcome to the four river housing authority monthly meeting it's december 13th uh attorney souza can you read the open meeting thank you mr chairman the language for the open meeting law is as follows press 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
0:23such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible thank you miss gallagher could you read uh make the roll call please sorry gentlemen sahari is absent vice chairman underhill here commissioner burns here commissioner bentley is absent commissioner medeiros here okay the first item would be citizen
0:50import um there's anybody here which i don't see next item will be resident input canyon
1:04good evening okay good evening merry christmas to everyone okay june smiling uh okay as we normally do every month we've been distributing soup to the senior developments we just got a brand new shipment in so we'll continue that but it's been helping joy with his christmas parties in a process what we're trying to do is find some tenant volunteers interested in helping us to put up flyers help joey put up flyers in
1:30the senior buildings save everybody some time keep every keep the residents informed on what's going on we're also planning to conduct some elections after the first of the year we had hoped to do them in december with joey having a christmas party every day and ties up rita and joey doesn't allow us to have a an employee or a housing authority employee to assist us with the election which our bylaws require and okay
1:59we've received several complaints lately gentlemen ladies about bed bugs and cockroaches in particular cardinals one here is another one the only place who hasn't told me they have an infestation of some type is bishop eid i can tell you firsthand in our office alone we were cleaned or bombed about three weeks ago i think and they're already back i moved the box this morning to put some
2:31soup away and they scurried everywhere we really need to we really need a better plan to attack this bug infestation because what happens is you clean unit a or excuse me unit b they go to unit a and c when you clean unit a1c they go upstairs they go downstairs they're just moving around guys they're very they're a very resilient creature so we really need to have a better plan
2:57to attack them if we're really going to eradicate this problem thank you thank you kevin would some of that be due to the elevator work at cardinal it's possible yeah it's possible any disruption uh on the internal walls it could be i can't say for sure we've got them here too sure sure what uh we'll get together on it yeah we've got a couple yeah thank you thank you eddie i was talking uh tim
3:30i was talking to uh mr medeiros and mr burns about it and i was thinking of starting some kind of a subcommittee for us that i'd be happy to chair so just to look into it just to talk because like here it's it's true the meeting is not the place for the resident a lot of residents wanted to come tonight and voice their opinion about what's happening and some of the people at work
3:55too i've heard from different developments some of the workers so i think it's something that we really should address we got it under control before right and i'd like to try to revisit if i could work with whoever is the one to work with that we can go back and research what worked before right because we did get it on them i think that's a great idea i know uh dev heads up the effort yeah so
4:19maybe kevin and deb okay i don't want to put anything extra on you guys i just i'm willing to do all the work and so because i got i got all the time sure sure and then maybe get the um you know the president of the sites together and have a you know a meaning to kind of listen to what the issues are and then from there uh you know we can research what we did in
4:43the past um you know we had it under control i know all it seems forever yeah would you like to say a few words on it or i don't put you on the spot i just like to say that during colby we weren't able to go into any of the units and unfortunately with not being able to treat a lot of the units it multiplied so now we're dealing with the after
5:06effects of colvid we've also had a change in the ownership of the company um and we have a meeting tomorrow with the new company reps and our staff to maybe voice some concerns and also come up with a game plan oh because as far as towers we've actually given the exterminator more hours there in order to be able to get the problem under control we are doing much better than we were before
5:32but it's going to be a process okay so you've started whole process of you're aware of the issues and working towards it okay but while this is going on though i would endorse your plan okay and i i do want to apologize i didn't even realize about the kovitt and everything that really threw a monkey wrench into things so seven or eight months at all yeah but okay but it's still it's still a problem
6:02i just we gotta work on okay thanks
6:12so really for my own notification what are we doing right now to um clear up the we have an exterminator that's under contract what so so what what do we have for hours what do we have what is um the current procedure if you will excuse me could you brief us on the current the um pest control company is here about 40 hours a week no maybe more like 35 hours a week i
6:37believe each um grouping has a full day of treatment and what we do is we gauge the schedule based on the demands right now there's a demand from all the property managers so what we're doing is maybe putting off some assessments to get the treatments done and then once we get everything under control we'll assess all our properties again just at the risk of sounding uninformed what are
7:01you referring to as a grouping a grouping would be for example um has the lion's share of the elderly site so she has the exterminator for one full day the six properties what we did in part of her grouping is carmel medeiros tower so i was able to pull half an afternoon off another property to give her those hours so in your opinion anyone's opinion actually is our issue that we don't have
7:27enough hours into it is it the access to the apartments like what where where are we missing it right now
7:41so is there a way right now where i can increase the activity if you will which would mean hours in my mind um is that a function of the negotiation of the contract i mean clearly i don't want anybody to deal with this issue right no one does no one here does so how do we fix it right that's that's that's the conclusion i have so is it a function of giving them
8:03negotiating more hours is it more access is it uh what is it anyone it would be giving them more hours so so would that be an increase in contractor that we're talking about right right so we just have to look at if there's any procurement issues if it can be done um but we can look in that path i think that's something they can explore you know financially that's not an issue
8:27so so i appreciate uh commissioner on the hill's thought process and um i can only imagine being a resident who is dealing with the issue i don't want to wait for a meeting i think we should do everything possible in the meantime to fix it right and if that means more issues i want to give you the opportunity to get the exterminator here for more hours and to fix it immediately so that's that's where i stand
8:48um right and we'll go i'm all on board with the meeting and i'll go to it if if you wish let's increase the hours let's fix it let's get it done thank you thank you thank you guys okay anything else mr mccoy i don't need to go to the mic with you um you know what i would appreciate could i get the commissioners to um entertain a motion to consider it
9:20an emergency or at least for us to negotiate under the under the umbrella of an emergency extended uh extension to the existing contract and then let the appropriate experts who are dealing with this in-house to say okay what's going to be enough an additional 10 hours 12 hours something like that but if i could just get the board to acquiesce to that consider that i think that's a good idea
9:46i would uh ask for a motion that we do what mr mccoy said about getting the emergency funding and hours to take care of this bug problem again here's the motion um whatever uh we need to go sorry i would just say no i don't mind i would just say that the board recognizes that there's an emergency nature of your pest control circumstances and that the board is recognizing through this emergency that
10:10you extend the hours and you ratify an emergency posting for hours or for funds correct amazingly similar to what i was going to say thank you thank you that's exactly what i wanted i probably wouldn't have articulated it well so that's my motion okay i have a motion now second second all in favor aye thank you okay now we can move on to the minutes of the regular meeting held november 8th 2021.
10:38the recommended action is to accept i have emotion motion accepted minutes second all in favor all right bills and communications a vouchers recommended action is to accept
11:07motion to accept second without any discussion or motion to accept those any discussion i didn't have any questions any questions of anybody saying anybody that has to speak motion was made and seconded all in favor aye next item number four the management reports which include applications the occupancy report the tenant tenants account receivable work order reports the monthly section 8
11:36voucher activity report monthly personnel count report director of modernization monthly report and the bank investment and bond debt balance reports the recommended action is to accept and we have some of the department heads here if you have any questions i would discuss anybody in charge of any of these reports if they have anything that kind of brings back to what's specifically out of the ordinary
12:00anything you want to bring back to us i mean it looks uh fairly normal but anything out of the ordinary if not i'll make a motion to accept second motion made and seconded all in favor aye item number five the financial report director of finance motion is to prove yeah if i can just yes amber excuse me for a second the federal program uh was still doing a little work on we
12:34think there's a there was an error in a spreadsheet so what i'd like the board to do is approve all the other programs but the federal program and until we look into it and just see if there is anything that really needs fixing now i have an inkling it's in the operating subsidy so i would just we would defer that if you will till next month but go ahead and approve the other programs
13:01would you like to add anything was going to bring up is um for the second eight reserves we did pull some reserves down that we received in november so that will reflect on so there will be some additional reserves for our uh
13:32all in favor aye next uh is the item b is the s p global ratings pre-publication document the recommended action is for its information only tim what's that about uh
13:55so this is basically just our bond rating through s p we ended up getting the same rating that we got last year they did specify that we were in a better position this year however there were a few things that they were um that they just didn't know exactly what they should do with um when it comes to um our staff i'm trying to think of how to say it so because of my position um
14:20having turnover in that position several years in a row and then also they said that they don't we don't have a clear succession plan for the executive director they said we may have rated a little higher this year but they ended up keeping us in line but in the future they want to make sure that the housing authority does have a clear path when it comes to their faculty and um or
14:39their staff members um other than that they said that our bond rating was really good and they didn't really see any issues just to clarify they want a plan a succession plan so when we had a meeting tim had said that he was going to be retiring but there was no plan on who was going to be taking over so that was something that they were fearful for the authority that there was no direct
15:00plan for what was going to happen once he leaves um and then also having the director of finance turning over several years in a row or having it being vacant then having someone and then having to hire someone new they had said that that was something that would not rate well okay i understand the uh just my two cents i always have two cents by the way i understand the change over i
15:21completely get it i don't know that i recognize the pre-plan if you will on the exit because he doesn't have to exit as far as i know you're not required to exit if you are i should have a plan i don't think you are that may be the case he may as may have indicated he's leaving but that's not a requirement so i i don't think i would have a plan in place for someone who's
15:44not required to leave and and i've been involved with the rating agency for the last four years this was the first time that has ever come up in my with them okay yeah i think it's good in theory i just don't know the practice i don't know that we are uh in stone that uh the executive director is leaving and it just seems a bit out of place but i understand we've had the financial um
16:08director kind of in and out so i do understand that one yeah so in the meeting he had the only reason why they said that because he had specified that he was so that's just as i got it yeah okay but other than that they said the housing authority so what prompted what would did tim's comment prompt the question or did did the rating agency ask the question that prompted the answer um i don't
16:31really know how it came up i think he just mentioned that he was leaving and then that came then they came up with the well what's the plan and there isn't one as of right now if he was to leave in march so they're used to dealing with these large corporations you know citizens wells fargo you know who have ceos and assistant ceos and there's a succession plan so they're putting that model on public housing which
16:59and for all practical purposes it's not practical that's not the way public housing works so and i think they indicated that this year's review was a little different than last year's it was about a 45-minute conversation but you know this is limited to our bonds so it's kind of what is normally done in the private world so they take that model of reviewing an agency or a company and they put it on us
17:30so it doesn't affect our current interest rate i guess for all practical purposes i get it i think it's rational to have a uh succession plan but um i don't think this situation fits that so yeah could it have possibly had an adverse effect on our rating i think if not having people in the position could if we were vacant but even last last year or two years ago i was filling finance director deputy
18:04and executive director and they didn't bring anything up then so that's why i just say it's maybe a new requirement they're looking at but it's
18:20and just out of curiosity does this meeting happen at the same point every year yeah same yeah summer so it could be a topic for the board prior to that meeting to make sure that we have uh our eyes dotted and t's crossed ahead of that yeah so they basically said that this typically happens the the conversation will start around july but the the rating will come out in november
18:46um so we had a meeting together which was about 45 minutes and then i had probably three other separate meetings with them um via zoom going through our financials and having them ask any questions that they had and like i said they said our debt profile is very strong it was just key little things that they were concerned about but other than that they did say that we were doing well as a housing authority
19:11thank you thank you anything else okay item c the massachusetts municipal depository trust account or the mmdt the recommended action is that we authorize the director of finance to be a signatory for the mmdt the mmbt is where we deposit our excess cash and we started this fund when i was finance director and i was the authorized signatory and that has never been changed so we want to remove myself and
19:50place it on the new finance director yes jason do we have any concerns with the current situation so so have we uh missed an opportunity if you will so we're changing it right what are you telling me the sign yeah so so did we uh fail at something did we um not appropriately do so so you're looking to move it so i'm i guess i'm asking why right uh just because it
20:15belongs in the department of finance not the executive director so if we have excess cash like right now we have some extra money that we want to put in there and that's what really brought this up is because they required me and i said well amber you should be able to do that it's like every day finance will move money from our revolving fund to the federal funds and all these other related cash transactions so
20:43it just belongs in her realm i believe so and i may agree with that i'm just trying to get to the bottom of the change right so um we're looking for a change here you said they thought we should have moved money who's they no no no if i said yeah i'm trying to clear it up no we feel we should oh okay all right so we just have extra money sitting in say a
21:03regular checking and what is considered quote unquote extra money 500 000 700 000 and that is coming from where uh that would be coming from the central office and this is just a move to get more return on that money without any risk correct okay there's no bonds in the fund what what is the i'm sorry um what is so if it's 500 to 700 000 what what is the percentage of that pot
21:36if you will the the capacity thank you sorry um so i looked into it so for october the regular um coc cocc account our um return was.0089 and then the mmdt is five.01357 um so it's pretty much just kind of a savings account just in case fund if we wanted to move it um my i had brought it up to him because i just wanted to know exactly what the threshold should be um because
22:11that 700 000 is kind of a lot of money so i wanted to make sure that the board was okay of us moving those funds um and just to a savings account so if i could ask a question is this request to assign someone the authority or is it to request the authority to move the amount of money i guess it's for it's for me to be able to be able to move the money but then
22:35also just for my own knowledge a threshold because there doesn't seem to be one in place okay so we don't have one that you're aware of no okay wait wait there's not we could establish a threshold policy amber could bring it to the board next meeting okay you know that would increase your comfort so i guess that's not to cut you off uh commissioner that would be my thought process that there
22:56should probably be a cap um and this is post budget so it seems like and i could be wrong this so if i approve approve the budget this transfer wasn't part of the budget it seems like i should be a part of this process so although she may be allowed to be the signatory i think it's appropriate that this board has a say of like hey that makes sense do you know what i mean um
23:17so i don't know if we need a motion to amend what you're doing or bring it back next month it's a table i don't i don't really know how we handle it going forward but well the request tonight is just to make her the signatory and i'm uncomfortable with that based on sign for whatever you want and whenever you want right so at that level i'm uncomfortable with that and so if that's
23:37where we're at i'll table it right but if you feel comfortable or it's appropriate i can amend it and say like hey we'll give her the signatory but here's the cap and the board still has to approve it i'll i'll do that right now okay do you get is that fair to say sure i think so can we amend it with a captain if that's what you're thinking and what what was i mean
23:59i guess is there a need to move this on a daily basis or so it's an infrequent type of yes i looked back through the history and i honestly went back probably up to two years and i couldn't find the last time that a transfer was made um probably three or four years ago of the monthly interest we were getting was anywhere from a thousand to eighteen hundred dollars a month now it's at about
24:20i think last month it was 186 dollars so it's very it's obviously lower um but i just wanted to make sure seeing as it hasn't been done in a really long time being newer i wanted to just make sure i came to the board first and i can understand the the rationale to gain the extra interest but there are no penalties to move money back out of it like i know some accounts you know you
24:40have to leave money in it for a certain amount of time to take advantage of that this has no restrictions in in that regard i do not know that um i did ask and they i was informed that we could move it in and out as we please but i haven't talked to anyone at the actual bank to confirm and okay amber indicated the activity is two years ago so maybe i'd say once a
25:06year would be what we'd look to do you know again depending on how the year end is in terms of increase or decrease the reserves i think there could absolutely be value into what you're you're uh proposing i just want to make sure there's some safeguards in there for everybody that's all so so so currently what did i suggest to you seven hundred fifty thousand or five hundred it was seven hundred so why don't
25:31how about if we propose that um a cap of seven hundred fifty thousand what was that what what is so 750 000 out of what and you may have already answered that but what's the central office account but what's that what's that number so 750 of there was about 1.4 in it when he had initially so that'd be approximately 50 of the money so so if we proposed a 50
26:03cap so if whatever is in that fund you don't move more than 50 percent of it is that reasonable or does it have to be a uh a numbered a dollar amount yeah i would i would just come up with a dollar amount i i would rather i would be just more comfortable that anytime she wants to transfer money she comes to the void yeah because in my eyes there would never be a need
26:30to do it immediately right so so it could it has the luxury to wait until the board approval right yes and i think it honestly should happen at every year your fiscal year end just to see where we're at if let's say we have a million dollars still sitting in that account we get the money for our new budget that million dollars we could probably take half of that put it in this account and
26:49then keep the other half as a just in case so that it stays in the account so is it more appropriate sorry to amend to say we'll make you the um signatory and then to make another motion that we make it part of the procedure we do this i'm making it up every november right is that what you're suggesting um it should be part of the regular process correct i
27:14would probably do it in february or more no no that's that's what i'm looking for i'm looking for your advice on that so i would probably do it at the end so you can sign on it your position can sign on it but we're going to evaluate that in front of the board in february yes that's that's a fair motion that's where we're amended to did you pick up on that martha so we
27:34have two votes yes yes one is to uh yep yep so i'll make a motion i'll make a motion that uh we assign the position of um director of finance to be the signatory okay i'll second it okay motion made in second date all in favor second one it would be to i guess bring it before the board in february and evaluate the the actual transfer in front of the board yes is that fair
28:05okay let's see motion second all in favor i'm just gonna stay here just in case for the next one next we go to item d which is the fall river contributory retirement board fy 2023 appropriation pim or amber um so we did the calculation for this and it is a 243 um thousand dollar increase which is uh approximately nine percent increase year over year um obviously i'm newer to the housing
28:40authority so i don't know if that's a typical increase for the retirement board but that is what it is for this year and this is based on the total fund available out of the fall river retirement board so it's combined if you will with the cities as far as the assets but as far as expenses we are separate so the increases range from four to nine percent a year i'm sure
29:10everyone's familiar on this side of the table with all this pension so the other thing is it represents about 40 of our wages so it is a big benefit cost goes up hopefully next year now with the stock market doing so good this year
29:37i do have a question obviously i support pensions um happy to have our workers have that benefit my question is i believe on the city side we have a schedule of what our payment is you know they've kind of forecasted for 20 years out so we can be fully funded do we have a uh we do in the actuarial report that's like a we're adhering to are we a little less a little more we like um
30:08we do have an actuarial report showing what it would take to get to full funding and i believe it's as a result of the same audit with the city we kind of flow with the city meaning as the city gets more years then that just accrues to us because we're part of that big plan i'm just asking about the schedule i i think the idea of of a schedule to be
30:30fully funded as a fallacy in and of itself that people who love beans who want to count them in front of you are fantastic are telling you all about i think it's important to have a schedule but there's a process and the money's in the system i just want to make sure that we're like hey that's the goal and here's our work towards the goal right i don't think it's an absolute
30:52i want to make sure we're kind of working towards it yeah and again these numbers are provided by the retirement board we don't have any input into it the only one we have input into is our oped liability you know the contributions to that trust but this is all determined on the uh payment schedule the city has i just didn't see the full schedule and that's all that's i wanted to make sure we were
31:16attempting to meet our obligation that that's really what my focus is so if the obligation was exactly what's listed here and we're meeting that 100 i'm thrilled if we're not as long as we're having that conversation and moving forward but i'm okay with that okay information uh now we move to item number six which is our update from the executive director tim yeah thank you um just a couple minor things to start with
31:47we have an extended lunch for employees for an hour we typically do every year for the holidays so employees can have an extra lunch maybe excellent christmas lunch with some of their colleagues you know vacation time annual time use has been up since the holidays of thanksgiving so we have more employees out everyone is required to use their annual time by the end of december employees can carry over one full
32:17full year so a lot of employees taking vacation time i had one employee come up to me and suggest that we put out a employee newsletter you know i thought that was a great idea just something that would maybe go around quarterly informing employees of things that are going a long round in the authority things they should have heard but if they have not from other departments maybe even do a uh
32:43you know an interview with a board member once a quarter once every six months kind of an introduction or you know what a lot of people don't love our employees don't actually know who you are we might even expand to the residence a resident newsletter which we did years ago but i think that that was a really uh nice thing to see someone coming forward saying hey why don't we do something like this i think was
33:09beneficial so we're going to be looking into that uh last meeting we talked about getting some electric maintenance golf cart types vehicles well it's interesting i read a couple weeks ago where president biden now has required the federal government to be zero emissions by 2035.
33:29so i also talked about us looking at a policy moving our fleet in that direction so i think that would be a good thing to to proceed with as we head on down the road as we look at our next vehicle needs whatever that is uh regarding cobit i think everybody's aware kovitz starting to creep up again in the community we just looked early this afternoon the city of fall river is at a nine and a
33:56half percent positivity rate which is fairly high so you know we'll have to see where if any new mandates come down and we'll have to see you know we do track anecdotally what's going on in our sites so we can let maintenance know and management know you know this apartment has reported they have governed so be careful we still have a lot of preventive measures in place everyone must wear a mask on into a unit
34:27when we meet in the office resident management this is on the heels of hud is now looking at well they've decided they're going to be ending a lot of covert waivers things that they issued during covet you know maybe inspections as deb was saying they weighed you know going in uh doing unit inspections so things of that nature are going to be ending december 31 so we'll just have to
34:57wait and see if because of the delta if they're going to be reinstituted so this is just the wait and see i think it's out of our hands pretty much but we'll have to be ready to react if something does come down like that on the art funding that the state received they've allocated 150 million to dhcd that helped with our state public housing units primarily the infrastructure whether it's electrical
35:29plumbing water lines we've done a lot of that and kind of edited it off but we still have maple gardens doing phases so this may help alleviate that and 150 million statewide i think that could be a million dollars to us six hundred thousand million dollars not sure about it we'll see how that that plays out too but that money will be there and uh kevin's been having the grad meetings along with kathleen deb and the
35:59other directors the third meeting will be held wednesday and that's for our annual plan going over changes to policies any new hud regulations coming in and then there's a public meeting in january and then that'll come before the board for approval to send off so that's about all i have any uh any other areas of uh tim the last meeting i had suggested that you work with a union based on any
36:28potential vaccine mandate um has anything come down as far as um that applies to our organization nothing has come down nothing right nothing all
36:52position to be vaccinated but nothing as far as current employees being required okay and can i just uh jump in tim have you talked to the union we've mentioned to the union after the world has passed after conversations iterate if you will i want to work with them right so if we have to um mandate it then i want to give them the time to get it i want them to have the time to
37:18recuperate if you will i know personally i got my bubble up vaccine so just give the workers the opportunity to uh kind of get it get the time to get it and heal from getting i think that's covered in some of the federal laws or state laws where we have to give them a week or two weeks off with pay not to come out of the balance of the crew okay perfect that's that's uh my focus
37:40if it's a mandate it's a mandate you gotta get it so and in terms of residents getting access to vaccines like as the housing authority set up uh you know vaccination sites here on the we have in the past and kevin's been working on that kevin would you like to expand maybe on some of your communications sure so we did the vaccines um earlier in the year february march april to two shots we had
38:11excuse me had one clinic with the one johnson johnson shot and i've been in communications with uh health first and the city's health department about uh possible booster clinics um this time of the year short weeks through the holidays staff using a lot of vacation time so we're going to circle back in january and see what we can do as far as conducting clinics and has that been set up at each property or
38:44do you set it up at one and encourage residents to attend so the first clinic was um with health first and um the band club on quarry street that was our very first they were gracious enough to allow us to use they have a big banquet hall there and that clinic was very successful joey the silva uh who uh does a lot of work in the resident services uh coordinated a lot
39:19he did you know we help with transportation and things like that we well we coordinated all of that yes we had buses we contracted the bus companies so we picked up residents at certain elderly locations brought them to and from um to be vaccinated and it went really well and conducted several others we had one here we had one at sunset hill we had one at father deterio mitchell heights cardinal medeiros so we really
39:53got it out there um and do we have a way of tracking how many of the residents are vaccinated is that yes it's all recorded yeah that's all recorded and we also worked with ems from the city uh so it they were quite successful do we need to do something similar for the boosters or so we're going to look into doing okay all right as i said uh health first then
40:20the city has reached out to me and i said that we'll circle back in january to try and coordinate joey who does a lot of that coordination and does a great job with it is using a lot of his annual time the first part of the day and then he's conducting christmas parties at all of our sites in the afternoon so uh we've all agreed that uh january we'll open up the lines of communication
40:49and see what we can do get those booster shots out and the state is also dhcd is kind of sponsoring that as well just just on a personal line i know at least at my building a lot of the residents have already gotten them gotten the booster shot it seems like it's a lot easier to schedule a booster than it was to get the actual dose when they first came around and uh
41:15like you asked if we had a count on uh who in a particular building we know who got vaccinated through was for the people who signed up but there were other residents that got it on their own through their doctors or they you know found the cvs or walgreens or something so i don't think we actually have an actual figure as to how many of our residents have been vaccinated
41:42not totally we have the ones that we did yeah yeah okay because i was surprised i remember speaking with that about it when was it beressy came to bursa those people came to our building i expected to see like a whole busload of people get off because i figured people were saying i got a chance to get the vaccine but we had what 40 20 30. 20 30 40 which surprised me i thought but that not
42:09taken in account that they could have they could have gone down on their own so you know that's what i'm saying i don't think we'll unless we put out an information i just want to make sure we're doing our part to help them get it if they want it and right and they're some people are less mobile than others let's give them the opportunity it went fantastic their housing did it yeah i
42:27think i remember it going very well so sort of make sure we're looking at the boosters in the same manner and helping if you will i think it'll be easier to coordinate because there's an ample supply of the boosters yeah we're dealing with the vaccine right true that's a good point what was available now everybody's available yeah good point i appreciate it thank you okay is that
42:48any other discussion on the director's report you guys all set okay next item is item i it's modernization and under new business says uh information yeah akita contract for maple gardens status update and that recommended action is for information only does anybody have any questions okay give us an update on what's going on over at maple gardens is such a large good evening uh hello this is a contract
43:30that we've been working on for about eight months with the state we issued a contract to william stark architects they finished their contract document the authority has signed that contract and submitted to the state the state has several questions associated with some of the details in that contract so there is a they have reconvened the designer selection meeting for wednesday of this week
43:55so we just wanted to make sure that everybody was aware that although we had signed the contract there are still some questions that have to be answered and that's between the state and william stark architect in reference to their minority uh business subcontracts that they have in that they require a certain percentage of that 900 000 contract to be a minority contractor so we'll be uh involved with the zoom
44:23meeting on wednesday to follow up on that and again it was just to make sure he was aware that we're still working on that contract and if that goes okay should construction start in the spring or the summer if that goes okay i think construction is going to start the following year there's an awful lot of details that have to be it's it's a 8 million program so there's a significant amount of
44:48design that has to be completed and that has to go out to bid and award a contract so i would think it's going to be at least a nine month effort once we get to that point so but we are continuing with the basement project over at maple garden so we have quite a bit of activity that we're working on now over at maple gardens so i'm sorry um we're looking at this work
45:14are you saying beginning in 2023 i believe so yes and that's a function of i think it's this process of figuring out it well not so much the immediate process it's just the scope of work it's such a large project that five million dollar program that has to go through design that has to go out to bid and we go through that whole process it's going to take a little bit of time to get all
45:38that organized and be ready out at maple garden so i played naive that sounds like a long time to get that done are you welcome to come over here and have help i'm pleading guilty it's not my world it just seems like a long time if that's standard then so be it but it's just hcd okay several um redos with this because there were some errors made um this again which
46:09we felt was just a small technicality was turned into something more okay where they wanted to defer to the designer selection board there's several divisions of work there's several engineering sub-consultants so as as arthur said there's electrical work gas work kitchen and bath work hvac possible raising of a building to construct a new building there's quite a bit involved quite a bit involved so with that
46:46there's a lot of details and then with a project that size there's other uh laws that kick in and what the glitch is the percentage given to an already business owner enterprise there's also women business enterprises stock has agreed to meet all of that but the state has some questions on it i understand it's disappointing it takes a long time obviously we've identified a need and to talk about like hey we'll start
47:32it in 13 months earliest right that's a long time so i'm not blaming you guys i'm just saying as a as someone on the outside looking in that seems like a long time thank you thanks the next item b is change order number three for the basement of upgrades at maple gardens which include change order number three is an increase of two thousand three hundred and forty two dollars and eleven cents to the
48:05contract amount for additional electrical wiring and new led lights at the stair landing in 45 buildings recommended action is to approve i'll make emotional approval second have a motion in a second all in favor aye aye item number c change order number one for the elevator modernization project to raymond d holmes apartments the change order number one is an increase of two thousand two hundred and seventy dollars
48:37to the contract amount and includes contract time extension of one day and the recommended action is to approve i'll make emotional proof second motion made and seconded all in favor next is item d change order number one for the exterior building envelope slash balcony repairs and roof replacement at james a o'brien senior apartments the change order is an increase of 22 759 dollars to the contract amount to be
49:12complete to complete the revised roof edge detail and the recommended action is to improve make a motion to approve second no motion was made in second date all in favor aye aye okay item e change order number two for the boiler and domestic water heater replacement project at cottonwood dearest towers and that'll change order is an increase of one dollars and 5091. six cents to the contract for two items
49:47and the recommended action is torque proof motion to approve second motion made and seconded all in favor all right item f change order number one for the hvac modifications at sunset hill that change order number one is a credit of 984.50 for eliminating the installation of a new aluminum exterior awning and item g goes along with it its certificate of substantial completion and certificate of completion
50:25consolidated for hvac modifications at sunset hill each one individually okay we go back to item number f which is the change order and the credit of 984 dollars so is that a motion to accept the credit yes yeah all right second motion made and seconded all in favor all right okay and now item g the certificate of substantial completion and certificate of completion consolidated for hate track
50:56modifications at sunset hill motion motion to approve the uh second date all in favor second hi item age certificate of substantial completion and certificate of completion consolidated for emergency generator improvements at nicholas w mitchell heights the recommended action is to approve motion to approve second motion made and seconded all in favor hi now we go to miscellaneous
51:29item a nerc narrow midwinter conference from 26 2 9 20 22 at mohegan sun the recommended action is approval for commissioners and authorized staff to attend tim so we sent out the information about the conference if any board member would like to attend let me know and get you registered so the agenda is also online usually they're very informative you know they cover several areas of public
52:05housing as well as they have workshop usually for commissioners very beneficial on that topic i just wanted to let you know i just completed a commissioner's fundamentals uh training with uh narrow last week and it was amazing uh twelve three uh four days three hours a day and um i'm so thankful to uh hear of from the the moderator but also the other participants who were sharing in
52:36some of the same issues that i've been encountering but they gave me some great uh insight and things to look for so i'm hoping to become a much better commissioner as a result of it so great yeah they're very beneficial yeah this particular one i've been to two of the last three years and they've been very informative they helped a lot so okay is that it any any other approval do we need emotions
53:07approval for anybody who indicates they want to go okay i'll make a motion for approval for any commissioner who indicates they want to go to this conference motion made second promotion was made in second date all in favor aye aye okay next is item b the forward joint tenant council incorporated executive director contract the recommended action is to renew a one-year contract to edward ganion of edward gang
53:32and associates in the amount not to exceed 25 dollars per hour at 20 hours per week a motion to renew second emotions made and seconded all in favor aye okay item c contract awards on the on-call trades for plumbing carpentry electrical painting glass fabrication and repair asphalt slash concrete flooring repairs and the recommended action is to award one-year contracts to all faiths paul nunes and sons
54:12fox painting and wm painting incorporated painting during glass innovation for glass fabrication repair o'brien plumbing and heating for plumbing ejr properties collins construction for carpentry joe bednarik electrical joe's carpet all phase flooring repairs and industrial concrete solutions for asphalt concrete in the amount not to exceed fifty thousand dollars you have any questions on that i don't
54:52mind making a motion put it on the floor but i do have a question okay so i'll make the motion okay mike well a second second so my question would be and i think i believe bring this up every year so i want to ensure that we're not usurping any specialty employees that we have here this is in addition to who we bring to the table what we bring
55:12to the table when we need it right yes this does not take away from any of our trades i mean perfect just want to make sure this is to enhance what uh product we bring to the table thank you all right anything else i don't have any ash motion was made second second one favorite all right item d integrated web-based software installation and maintenance for call for all programs the recommended action is to award a
55:41three-year setup and service contract to management computer services incorporated in a in an amount of 154 462 dollars this is in general is the information system that we use to run our public housing program section 8 program all the other state programs are recounting finance kevin would you like to add anything to it uh no just other than uh that's the parent company for pha web and you made it towards that
56:24name in previous meetings as
56:42will this decision and service that they provide integrate with the kiosks that have been talked about is this all part of that yep
57:08thank you anything else is there a motion to award that already i don't think so if not i'll i'll make uh that motion toward the contract second motion made and seconded all in favor aye okay item e computer server for housing information system the recommended action is to approve the purchase of a hewlett-packard enterprise ml 350 gen 10 server dual intel exxon 2.30 gigahertz cpu 32 gb dd r4 ram 3 year 24
57:577 hp support 6-1 6 tb solid state hard drive configured and raid 5 with hot spare microsoft windows server 2019 32 car from local computer store in amount of 21 589 dollars this thing can go from 0-60 commission on the hill i was going to wave the reading and just approve it but i thought it was fun to listen to you read it so i like you give me a break you forgot the terabyte though
58:38the vendor we're purchasing it from is called local computer store believe it or not that's their name okay yeah i just they're okay i hadn't heard it i got that from the roadrunner cartoons acme you know i see for clarification we can have uh the chair re-read everything i'll do another reading about midnight tonight okay thank you the local computer store is also our computer consultant
59:07okay well when we go out for hardware sometimes he can get it at a better price than say a best buy or he can actually get it yeah that's important so uh these are competitively sought after so it's not just awarding the team and uh mr mccoy has done all the procurement on this and the other items great so it's motion uh to approve the purchase in order there you go there's a
59:36motion a second motion made and seconded all in favor hi okay item f the voice over ip telephone system for all programs the recommended action is to award a three-year contract to purchase setup installation labor and support to vertical communications for a complete voip telephone system in an amount of eighty four thousand two hundred and seventy seven dollars and fifty cents any questions what is that at all
1:00:25thank you okay it's been around for several years with technology it's just well your own system is quite anticipated so i can't i can't speak definitively to the technology but i'm sure you recall from the last meeting that uh there was a variety of areas where we were seeking to spend cares money at this point i have not heard of any plans to extend the deadline or to let entities keep it or
1:01:04whatever so we scrambled to get these uh numerous um solicitation packages on the street specifically for voip we did it as a request for proposal i want to thank the evaluation team of kevin martha gallagher and dawn palmer we received seven responses on the voip which was expected the prior uh the one that you approved two items earlier we received two uh we technically received three but i had to deem one
1:01:37non-responsive because they didn't follow the proper protocols for an rfp uh process and just to remind our commissioners typically responses to a request for proposal come in a technical aspect in a price aspect the technical aspects are evaluated with not without the knowledge of price unlike an invitation to bid with typically the low bid low bid rules uh again it's got to be from a responsive
1:02:06responsible vendor in the bid process but that price is typically governing where you're allowed to evaluate the pro proposals you receive and you're allowed to rank them and categorize them without knowledge of price then the about the evaluation team figures they can finishes their comparative scoring and uh in research and then they ask me for the price envelopes i provide that that information to them
1:02:38up until that point it stays with me and and then i receive an overall recommendation and that's what you have in front of you so these uh proposals that you're approving tonight have been considered the most advantageous to the uh four river housing authority based upon comparative criteria and price so again we expected obviously operating systems and software for housing that you approved earlier is
1:03:11a little bit more of a niche you don't have a ton of competition in that as opposed as opposed to these voip telephone systems where i can only assume decades ago when you have the deregulation of phone companies and whatnot and then technology improves and you could literally have mom-and-pop communication organizations respond to an rfp as well as one of the seven responses we got was from verizon i would say
1:03:41price wise range from 81 000 to 113 000 so you're roughly in the middle uh by assuming you wish to approve the recommendation of the evaluation team and go with vertical communications the uh main office would be out of time and our local rep would be working out of bristol rhode island so once i got the recommendation from the evaluation team i did have some further extensive confidence conversations with uh
1:04:14mr medeiros who was his offices out of bristol rhode island and they will be coming in with the implementation again assuming uh the sport approves a contract with them but they also have their own site engineers and whatnot that they come in and and do this so as you know we don't really have the uh internal expertise but um the evaluation team was was high on their proposal or ranked it highly i should say
1:04:44i don't know if so from a technical aspect i can't answer anything but anything about the process i'm willing to entertain any questions questions i don't have any thank you for that information so we just need a motion to accept we're pushing toward the three-year contract second motion awarded and seconded all in favor aye aye item g the interactive kiosk for section eight department two
1:05:21recommended the recommended action is to approve the purchase of two kiosks the initial installation with a three-year service agreement and a two-year bumper-to-bumper warranty from dyna touch corporation in the amount of 65 135 dollars yeah um we had uh discussed at the last meeting or two minutes ago these will be for the section eight department for people coming in off the street uh to utilize
1:05:57our thought is initially to put them in the section eight department conceivably you know once we have them we could actually put one somewhere else in the city if we feel there's a lot of traffic you know maybe it's that uh uh talent selection tenant selection well kind of selection but i was thinking warm in terms of maybe one of these other social agencies that gets people in off the street
1:06:21and i have no way to live well here's your kiosk you know we can determine that but definitely section 8 because they are public section 8 equipment and being purchased with section 8 funding so they should support that although they could use the use of public housing that's our intent but so that'll be up for the management to decide you know kevin and his staff will see how they work how they're getting utilized
1:06:55if they're getting utilized to extend so again this will be paid with cares money so it makes sense stephanie to go for it and uh if i could just ask um items d right through to g are all covered with cares act money correct right yep thank you so do we have a motion to award uh motion to award second motion made and seconded all in favor hi hi now item number three personnel we have their
1:07:32resignation thank you we have the resignation of two employees i guess we take one each mic separate you can okay the first one is a recommended action to accept the resignation of keith bettencourt effective november 19th 2021.
1:07:52motion accepted resignation 78 and the second one is sherry mellow effective november 12th 2021.
1:08:02motion accept the resignation second motion made in second date all in favor aye okay item b retirement of employee recommended action is to approve the retirement of david machado effective on february 14 2022.
1:08:20motion to uh prove second motion made and seconded all in favor hi kevin if i could just add um david has been here with the housing authority for over 30 years a very good and valued employee slowed down a little bit like we all do but i had the pleasure of working with him for many years way back when at sunset hill and always cooperated and we worked well together so i wish him well um
1:08:53he's a he was a good worker and he's a good friend and keeps you laughing yeah i just wanted to ask well thank you thank you okay item c applications for positions of housing choice voucher support assistance the hvc clerk interviewer and public housing clerk interviewer the names are ruth andino shayna cavallo michelle franco jennifer hall carlos rodriguez susan costa and elizabeth homan the recommended action
1:09:32is to be made at the board meeting um this is a topic that i had spoken with the executive director about earlier um and and my comment here is nothing to do with the names here but i do have a concern on on the process since we we were not approached to advertise these positions so i feel a little uncomfortable moving forward on on this matter for the sake of adhering to our proper protocols when it
1:10:09comes to filling and advertising uh for positions so i just wanted to make that point known and ask that we ask that we table this item to next month and we resubmit it in the proper manner so that you know we're adhering to those protocols so i understand your your point there let me say though that the the first process we would do is post the position internally before we advertise
1:10:47so what we would do is we come to the board seeking permission to post or advertise many times because there's a vacancy that happens will actually post the position then at the next board meeting have the board ratify that posting or that advertising it's not a requirement of a state law or federal law for the board to approve that um it's something we have done in the past but it's pretty much routine if you will
1:11:23unless we're talking about a high level position then as a course of action we would slow down or if there's a completely brand new position being created we would never ask we would never proceed without the board approval of that position so in this case we did properly post the positions inside for the current employees to apply for and as it turns out we are recommending tonight three employees
1:12:00current employees to fill these positions so by delaying the action tonight really would be fruitless because we're gonna really hit more hinder our operations i think just to be consistent with what we've done in the past so so these positions that are being filled were vacated in the past month since the last meeting yes they were part of the retirements so the seven uh eight seven positions
1:12:34it's not seven positions because we're making a recommendation at the meeting open meeting losses we have to list all the candidates that were interviewed the recommendation is only going to be requisition okay um and those were vacated in the past month so now again we had we had three three vacates uh excuse me um we had the public housing ship we had public public housing one left section eight one left and then
1:13:06uh we created a new position which the board did approve last meeting for the second time actually so we had two vacations is that right tim wait terrain was not on the agenda it was received but we did have three people resigned two in section eight one public uh sorry two in public housing and one in section one okay and then we and then we have the um temporary uh not contemporary excuse me
1:13:30the assistant least housing support position that one was approved by the one last month we just had that we're not recommending recommending a candidate tonight since we're still holding uh continues for that position so so according to the open law meeting because we did not have the interviews done and a recommendation internally by the time we posted the agenda we have to list everybody we
1:13:57interviewed so what you're seeing here is everybody we interviewed okay we're not recommending we're recommending three individuals out here which i haven't gotten to yet because i'd rather we resolve uh and these were all um just to remind me these were all posted internally and all these candidates are from within the actually there's one two three are from within which are the recommendations tonight
1:14:25forthcoming if we decided to go that route the other four were from a pool of applicants we had from a prior advertising and from the from the message board we have a almost an open advertising what the career center yes and on my website and on our website okay so we're adhering to all of our um protocols in terms of uh filling these positions okay that that's what my concern is
1:14:57the only oversight was we did not have the board ratifying that we were going to do this okay um and i'll make the motion to to approve approve that so the recommendations would be tim would you like to read me
1:15:23so the three positions we'll be recommending tonight will be ruth andino for clerk of public housing carlos rodriguez clerk of public housing and shaina cavallo clerk of housing choice voucher those are three of the internal candidates that applied for the posting okay and our only um normally they will start say right away but because all three of these are from our tenants election department
1:15:51we can't decimate that department right we just can't take three employees out of a department of six move two to public housing one to section eight so we'll figure out the timeline that works to move these you know as we bring in people to the tennis election department which will be ratified at the next meeting because we can't wait and we'll sit down and go over that i'll let you know our plan but that's going
1:16:15to happen because we're searching right now to fill these soon to be approved positions they're going to have three vacation selections right so we'll post for the openings and tenant selection internally we assume no one's gonna it's an entry-level position that no one will apply for and then we'll move to the external candidates for recommendation okay i usually don't have this many turnovers
1:16:38i think it's just a status quo of what's going on in the economy so again just my little point was that you know these three people won't be moving right away we're going to have to work with the department heads of tennis election public housing section 8 and probably move one from tennis election first bring on a new employee into tennis election have them be able to work in before then
1:17:04we move you know say the second one i would suggest i've been part of ratifying decisions that have been made at your level in the past and and i respect and appreciate my colleagues opinion that we don't want to just show up where it says hey we'll tell you on monday night you know what i mean but this is a process that you followed you adhered to all the procedures and this
1:17:28is uh a function of it wasn't done in time to put it on the agenda right like that that's all we we adhered to everything right that was thank you that's basically my paraphrasing but i was yes thank you no and no employee has been harmed meaning they've missed an opportunity or something yeah i just don't want to make sure we're not opening a can of worms and somebody is
1:17:51going to come back and say well the proper process didn't occur i was passed over for this and so forth um just trying to avoid any of that going forward the embarrassment and whatever other things come along with it so so those are the three employees okay so anything else jason no i just wanted to make sure i was on the same page as this uh so i guess i can motion
1:18:22motion approve the recommendations do i name the three people uh yeah yeah no but should i do it for the motions okay so we for the three people ruth andino carlos rodriguez and china collabo motion to approve all three of the recommendations second motion made in second aid all in favor aye hi should we have done a roll call on that man yeah so we have to do that commissioner burns yes commissioner yes yes
1:18:53okay item d applications for maintenance custodian floaters the two names are cody madeiras and mark amarentes same the same deal so my the same concern i had applies here as well um is that the same factors uh at play here uh yes we we posted for one at the time um as you saw in the retirements we were just notified you know that we have a uh david michelo's retirement okay so prior to that
1:19:32we didn't know until we we posted insight for one maintenance custodian to give every employee an opportunity to apply for the maintenance custodian no one applied for it okay so then we have our contemporary employee has applied okay they don't have the same rights as a unionized employee that considered an outside so they applied they retired we had uh two other employees well not
1:20:02now we had one from the outside and another temporary employee applied so one of those employees was disqualified they did not have a driver's license i believe so because we have the two employees the two positions now we want to fill both of them so one is a temporary custodian and the other was recommended by all members of the interviewing committee so again though we posted internally
1:20:36and nobody applied for no employee has been harmed by the fact that we didn't ask board permission to uh go out and fill them same as but one one of these is an outside higher yes so um from posting internally to accepting an outside applicant how does that process occur well we have do you want to go through the process sure so normally we would post internally for any position once no one applies we
1:21:02would go outside in a case like this we have um resumes on file and the three people showed interest in the position once the uh posting expired so we already had their resumes and applications on fire so the outside person's resume was on file is what you're saying submitted to a previous posting yes okay and then he issued a letter intend to and again like in the last situation there's no ramifications here for
1:21:35this process you know circumventing the board ahead of time and accepting outside applicant an outside applicant there's again it wasn't circumventing the board it was we normally would when we have um resignations or retirements we can't wait for the board to approve it so we would post and ask for permission to ratify okay so it was just an oversight you're not having it on the agenda for your permission to verify
1:22:00what did we originally approve you haven't approved that we haven't proved anything right we haven't approved any posting right like this is backfield we were going to as we've done in the past on the agenda be ratified in desire to cut you off so i'm just i'm a little slow sometimes so in you processing this hey we have a need you put it out there for one position at the time we had one person resign
1:22:29right and then variables changed and oh we need two right we didn't put it back out there to say hey we need two but we're now remember recommending if you will too high because no one showed interest in the first one same position and only a matter of one or two weeks is best so why post it again really only because the procedure should be like you post it right you put it out
1:22:56there people yeah we did and no one applied right we put out there one right yeah so now we're hiring two and i think that that is a variable that may change someone putting in um i said that as an entry-level position and if if somebody was interested they would have applied for the first time and they did not so one could assume that one could definitely assume that i agree
1:23:17with you yeah one could assume it changed someone's thought process you know hey two hey i have a better shot here right i just want to make sure we're doing all the the right things right i certainly want to do right by our internal employees i think what i just heard was this is an external applicant one of them i don't even know yet one time second yes so which is fine um technically they're both extraordinary
1:23:41because they one temporary click temporaries technically like yeah so i get that so um i just don't want to bypass any internal employees who were like hey there's two of them i definitely have a shot right that changes your percentages if you will um well no employees i i don't mean to turn up but no no employee did no employee applied for the one position right i understand that right but what i'm
1:24:03saying is if we put it off for two you may actually have someone who say hey i have about a chance i'm gonna i'm gonna stick my neck up there and what are the um criteria that you would hire from internally seniority uh i assume is a factor uh yeah kevin can address that that's one of the factors the qualifications are the first factors so again we're talking custodian entry-level employee position okay so your
1:24:30maintenance mechanic isn't going to apply for it your plumber's not going to apply for it so we usually with the custodians there's two attempts and then as a permanent position arises two permanent positions arise and they both have a good evaluation from facilities will advance them to both being permanent so i understand your point we had we posted for one and i i respect what you said jason so maybe
1:25:04the second temp might say well the other temp has got seniority over me so i'm not gonna reply he's going to get hired and doesn't apply right but then now we're saying we're going to hire two that person might have said well if i know i'm just going to hire two i would throw my hat in the ring we bid by seniority in the fire engines and if i know the senior guy is bidding i'm not
1:25:28bidding right if i find out afterwards that there's two guys going to engine blah blah blah i might have put myself in the mix you know what i mean that's all that's just a variable from my position that's all i'm looking at so it changed all i'm saying is whatever the variable is variable just put it up there that's what we're doing we're hiring too i don't care put it out there but these guys were not
1:25:48attempts are not employees so there was no seniority they were they're outside they have as much right to apply as the person we're calling an outsider so so a temp and an outsider are in essence the same correct with the exception that the temp has visibility of the opening where the outsider wouldn't correct and maybe he's changed maybe he's swept the floor in fall river housing versus swept the floor over in a
1:26:18business on quarry street he's a custodian you know i mean i'm like well the qualifications are different but the job duties i mean and these these individuals have more qualifications than sweeping excellence yeah i don't mean to defeat that and the position is isn't irrelevant it's the process that i'm more concerned about that we're not you know uh going by the protocol and opening
1:26:43uh a potential issue where someone could say wait a minute how did this get filled without without me being made aware or so forth so i think that's just a little uh dangerous and i would just suggest going forward if we could do this even though someone's a temporary employee here and they're not permanent i think they should have the right to bid for a job like a permanent employee should because they're in between
1:27:14so they're not permanent but they're really not an outsider they are working and being paid by the housing authority so some courtesy should be extended uh facilities and when you're talking custodian definitely knows regardless if they're temporary or not if they're good what not and to have to wait for an outside posting and be treated like someone off the street i just i don't i don't think that's that's fair
1:27:42degree one slight opinion i think it's a function of the collective bargaining between you know maybe the board and the union if that's what they want like i don't i don't know if i'm missing it here i don't want to attempt sidestepping anybody so if the union agrees to this i give you permission if you will one one board member go do it i just don't i want the union to be on the same
1:28:06page you know i mean they're in agreement of hey this process is beneficial to our internal employees we like that aspect i think that's fair i'm okay with that and i don't speak from many years ago when the housing authority used to hire from temp agencies we've got a few employees still here that we hired from the temp agencies that when we posted for a position they obliged and we hired
1:28:31um versus someone completely friendly outside and again i respect with both everyone's opinion i just want to do what's there and equitable one of the other sides you got to look at is you can have two temporary employees now you get an opening in maintenance and you've got this all-star outside here who wants to apply now you've got an all-star and you've got two okay guys you're going to automatically
1:29:04give that opening to the okay guy when you've got an all-star and you're going to tell the all-star well you got to come and be a temporary first but but if we're talking about all-stars and we didn't publicly post the position then we've we've restricted other potential all-stars from seeing that there's an opening is that not also true well we picked from our all-star system but that was uh from from a resume that
1:29:29had been on file correct right right yes so but i just my point is we just i can't see basically we're grandfathering these people we're almost saying you're uh you know making it you're making it a union position if you will a custodian that's right i um i'm comfortable saying that's a function of your negotiation with the union and if you come to an agreement that's great i'm going to speak specifically to
1:29:56this i'm less comfortable with just saying these are the guys we're hiring too we only put it out didn't put out for anything we only wanted one just put it back out there just we get rid of all the hard feelings we do things transparently everybody's happy maybe not everybody's happy but we figure it out um aboveboard and that's what i would prefer so either it's tabled or we make a specific motion that this gets
1:30:18posted for two positions i don't know which is more appropriate kevin kevin i i agree uh table it and the only thing i wanted to add and going way back again my earlier years here this by giving a temporary person a shot being considered a housing authority employee there were a lot of favors done for outside people that weren't qualified just to the opposite of what you're saying sometimes there's
1:30:55all-stars and sometimes there's not and they trump someone that's here temporary because it's a favor by allowing this process that can happen a lot going into the future we could have really good temps and they never become permanent because of some favor for some outsider and and that's happened in the past and it was it was wrong then and it would be wrong now and i i just don't and i'm
1:31:23sure the favor can still occur but at least we've gone the right route in advertising and trying to level the field as much as we possibly can i just want to be fair and equitable i don't want to be a part of any uh i would agree i think that means tabling it to write it then what do we do in the meantime though is it posted is that what we're saying it
1:31:46needs to be posted both positions we're hiring for two that's what we're saying right technically again if we post that's just for employees so we have to you're saying really advertise for two well i'm saying advertised because we ended up taking an outside candidate we'll end up posting for two and advertising at the same time well if i could we may we're probably gonna need to increase that number because if
1:32:12one becomes permanent then you have to replace a temp right correct so we would want to fill that so however we hire a permanent however higher temp yeah we'll have to look at that only because attempts we we had some people on long term leave like for years so that's why we brought into temps so at some point we'll have to go over the numbers and see our thought is backfill them but you know we'll just
1:32:38have to see how many so is it fair to say without a concrete answer the appropriate answer right now is to table this issue yeah table and then you come forward with whatever needs to be come forward and if you have to post a position we'll ratify whatever we'll do that right so correct the motion of table second okay motion table two correct portion of the table the the the action the recommended action what table
1:33:01okay emotion was made and seconded all in favor hi hi that was on item d commissioner correct yes okay item e to ask me afscme correspondence regarding union negotiations recommended action is to appoint a negotiating committee so we received a letter from the um well she's a steward she's the prior education coordinator and vaccine but she also is the representative for units amd and they are interested in starting
1:33:42negotiations the contract in place expires march 31 so she has sent a communication that she's wishing to start negotiations so i indicated a few days uh she i haven't heard back from her of availability but what we do is uh typically set up a negotiation committee typically that's been the executive director the deputy executive director and the personnel director i would like to propose and
1:34:13open it up for your thoughts discussion of maybe adding a board member to the negotiating committee this year so basically having a representative on the floor so any discussions okay historically we've just had the staff but um maybe it would be good to add a board member you know i know commissioner silhati is on leave for a while uh but she i know she won't be from my understanding she may
1:34:56not be returning to the city so just maybe something she does have an extensive finance background and law background yep so i haven't talked to her about it at all so i would not know but i would suggest personally i'm okay with the process that we've we've followed and i'm not looking to insert myself into a negotiating committee so i've done plenty i i don't i don't think we need to change it i think
1:35:24for me personally you reporting back to us what happened in negotiation is sufficient i trust you we got a team out there if you feel differently and you want to be part of that i'll support you on that i'm just asking individual i'm saying not for me yeah the perspective that a board member would bring how do you envision that added participant in this in this negotiating board there's a lot
1:35:49of nuances that go on in negotiations so just to make i think would be a good check to make sure we're communicating that back to the board you know the more ears as they say you know the better so you think in terms of funneling information back to the board having a board member would help that process don't think i would argue that um yeah as i think as commissioner burns has indicated we
1:36:21we've done it for years which is fine i just you know i think it could be an enhancement i'm open to it you know it's just never been proposed before and how do those negotiations typically go do they go fairly well with the procedures you have in place um i think so so kevin what do you think um they're slow moving um the first one or two is the feeling out period throwing things out there um
1:36:54not necessarily going to change having a board member present i would can i just voice i just just want to say that i just the commissioners are not supposed to get involved in the day-to-day operations so i'm just putting that airing on the side of caution just saying that if a commissioner does get involved what is the extent of the involvement and and what what would their participation bring to the table
1:37:16i do and then we get questions of open meeting law issues if we appoint a special committee and posting requirements and agenda i just think that we open a can of worms or have the potential to open i would have to agree as well based on the perspective that attorney souza has shared with us so i guess my motion would be to appoint the same positions who have uh been a part
1:37:41of negotiations so again it would be the executive director deputy executive director human resource director and we have our outside labor council uh kp law okay let's get the same team in there that's okay good so i make a motion looking good as is a second okay motion made and seconded all in favor aye okay item f it's a carryover of annual leave the recommended action is for approval
1:38:09for the director of facilities management and director of maintenance to carry over unused annual leave due to the director of buildings and grounds absence this is under general because our policy is that everyone must use up all the leads save one year at december 31 and as as you know we have a director of maintenance who's been out of work for a while so these two individuals have been spending extra time
1:38:44covering that so they have not been able to use all their necessary leads so carrying over next year is not extra pay it just means they'll take more leave next year when they can fit it in any questions do we have an idea of what this looks like how many days what is that hours how do you do it uh kevin i believe it's two weeks each future first okay i'm okay with that 80 hours
1:39:20that's fair so i'm making a motion to approve it it's on the floor if you want to discuss it or question it that's why i second it okay motion made in second date all in favor aye aye okay item g performance review for the executive director
1:39:48start the ball kicking yep it's all step in here uh number one uh the valuations uh that we received the board received um focused in on several different categories i'll go over them real quick knowledge ability application dependability communication human resources flexibility initiative problem solving leadership and judgment on a form here i did give it to the commissioners i can make it available to
1:40:17anybody else here we went over several evaluations some of them the evaluations were more critical with the level of the score and some of them were in the middle and some of them are a little bit increased there if you look at the average they're they're pretty much except for knowledge which was a three everything else is a two so these are the reports that i got back um
1:40:53i don't i did not meet with tim that was one thing uh tim reached out to see if i was gonna meet with him i didn't think that's what i was charged with it was kind of to wrap up these evaluations and come up with some summary so that was my summary i don't know if there are any specific questions if you want to take that report that we just made publicly
1:41:12and bring it into executive session and kind of do anything different but i would suggest that's what we do jack um so the suggestion is to move this into um executive session yeah um i would second that any other discussion okay i agree with you guys does that need a motion is that what we're saying yeah need a motion to bring it into executive special i'll i'll make a motion to move that into executive
1:41:41session sorry just for clarification purposes you're bringing the uh evaluations evaluation to discuss the actual adjustments what it correlates to for an adjustment correctly sorry okay so emotion was made and seconded all in favor aye now we go executive session very seriously i read all of these um you can read uh you can read one and um i can i can clarify which ones are different but commissioner i just wanted
1:42:09to state for the record that um if we do go into executive session we are in the end uh in the under the um understanding that we will be adjourning an executive session if you would just want to state that for the record okay yes once we go into executive session once we adjourn we will not be going back into open session so everybody you know it ends publicly as we go into executive session
1:42:34the meeting will officially be adjourned in executive session so but before we do that can i just say from the board that we like to wish everybody merry christmas happy holidays to all the residents and all the employees and thank all the employees for all the hard work they've done for this past year just officially okay thank you all right so just read the first one like um sure recommended action with
1:42:58tupper heights litigation update sorry recommended action is anticipated executive session pursuant to mass general law safe 30a 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 position of the public body and the chair so it declares which as acting chair i do declare
1:43:27okay and you so declare on item i which is also um a litigation issue yes item i item j and item k um so collect on item j it's a collective bargaining issue okay sorry okay and then item um item k would be uh cola increase and that would be a contract strategy as well as l right so now we need a motion to go into executive session correct correct motion to go on executive session
1:43:56second motion was made and seconded all in favor aye aye thank you merry christmas and good night thank you