The Fall River Housing Authority held a regular session on Monday, November 11th, 2022, at 5 PM. The meeting began with an Open Meeting Law disclosure and roll call, noting Commissioner Bentley's absence. Residents' input included an update on the approved farmer's market, scheduled from June 26th to October 28th, and news that tenant leaders would attend a public housing tenants conference in Marlborough. The board approved several routine items, including the minutes from the March 21st, 2022 meeting, bills and communications, management reports, and financial reports. They also approved federal write-offs totaling $80,921.69 and state write-offs of $14,913.00 for the quarter ending March 31st, 2022. Discussions around write-offs confirmed that outstanding debts are recorded in a HUD database, preventing future housing assistance until settled. Insurance policies for the upcoming fiscal year were also approved. In new business, the board awarded a roof replacement contract for Sunset Hill to Leading Way Construction Inc. for $557,600 and approved a certificate of final completion for elevator upgrades at Cardinal Medeiros Towers. A change order for $25,000 was approved for basement upgrades at Maple Gardens to address water infiltration. A contract for a new trash compactor at Cardinal Medeiros Towers was awarded to McGuire Equipment Incorporated for $25,924. The appointment of Alex Volpe as a temporary maintenance custodial/floater was ratified. The employee vaccination policy and vehicle use policy were introduced for discussion, with formal approval expected at the next meeting. Finally, the board unanimously approved a salary adjustment for Interim Executive Director Kevin, raising his salary to the previous executive director's level, retroactive to April 1st, 2022.
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welcome everyone welcome to the floor of a housing authority regular session it's monday november 11th 2022 at 5 pm um attorney sousa the open meeting law disclosure please thank you madam chairman the language for the open meeting law is as follows person went to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium
0:26attendees 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 arthur chairwoman sahari here vice chairman underhill here commissioner burns here commissioner bentley is absent commissioner medeiros here the first item on our agenda this evening is citizens input
0:49do we have anyone here from that community seeing no one the second item is residence input ed
1:06good evening just one quick item we've been approved for the two quick items sorry we've been approved for our farmer's market the start date is june 26th runs through october 28th signs will be going where we discussed i saw some pictures of them they look nice and second the tenants all attendant leaders from the various buildings where we have offices be attending the mass union of public
1:31housing tenants conference getting a look getting some training in marlborough the end of this month nice nice thank you thank you any questions for ed no hearing none item two is the minutes of the proposed regular meeting which was held on march 21st 2022 i have a motion emotional except the minutes a second any questions or concerns no all in hi item three is bills and communications
2:11the vouchers are in your packet the recommended action is approval of these you vouchers a motion to approve the vouchers motion to approve second any questions regarding the packet hearing none all in favor item four is the management reports the seven reports the seven monthly reports are included one is the applications two are the occupancy reports three is the tenants accounts receivable
2:49four is the work order reports five is the monthly section eight voucher activity report six is the monthly personnel account report seven is the director of modernizations monthly report and a is the bank investment and bond debt balance reports recommended action is to approve these reports motion acceptor reports any questions we have some of our staff members here if you have any questions
3:23for any of these reports hearing now all in favor aye item five is the financial reports the financial report is for the period ended february 2022.
3:41that's 11 months into our fiscal year um the recommended action is to approve these reports motion to approve second any questions we have our director of finance here this evening no questions all in favor item 5b is the federal write-offs for the quarter-ended 331 2022 in the amount of eighty thousand nine twenty one and sixty nine cents and for your information the twenty twenty
4:21one write off was eighty six thousand eight o six o three you have included in your packet the list of those write-offs the recommended action is approval motion to approve thank you second any questions hearing i actually have one question i'm sorry so uh we have individuals listed here who are um apparently in arrears we're writing it off uh what happens going forward do we have a database if you will like so we
4:56you know we keep these names going forward so we do um would you like to describe what happens with them please oh can you
5:11um so for the finance piece of it we do keep record of their names and if they do try to apply or end up popping up or try to come back this is something where we let them know what their balance is and tell them they can't move forward until this is paid off um i don't know if there's anything from your from the lieutenant selection side that would flag anything but i know that's the
5:34finance piece of it if they want to move forward does that impact uh selection if you will for apartments in the future yeah it does um there's basically hud requires all housing authorities to report any debts owed from vacated tenants in their database so uh on a quarterly basis usually i'll go in take any kind of the roster of um even regardless of whether they've been written off or not i'm reporting those
6:01debts also the outcomes if they were evicted if they've entered the unit there's a certain checklist that you go through for each tenant that has ended their participation in our program that actually should also go for section 8 as well so that what that means is when it comes to screening an applicant whether they're applying reapplying here or they're applying um you know somewhere else in the country
6:25one of the pre prerequisites or one of the pre-admission steps that every housing authority is required to do is to check that same database um punch in the social of all the adults in the applicant household to check to make sure they don't have any outstanding debts with another housing authority because that would be caused for denial or at least to hold on the admission until the debt had been settled
6:48i appreciate the answer thank you thank you thank both of you all in favor of the write-offs for the federal program hi the same is true item c is the state write-offs the quarter rented 331 2022 is 14 913 cents that is down from 2021 which was 27 705 and 48 cents so i have a motion to approve those write-offs emotional for the state write-offs second all in favor item d is the insurance policies
7:32for the period beginning april 1st 2022 through march 31 2023 that's our next fiscal year the public officials insurance is with hub international our commercial policy insurance with is with hai group our commercial liability insurance is also with hai group automobile insurances with hai group and the excess auto insurances is with hai group recommended action is to approve these policies going
8:08forward do we go for bid for these or are they just reloading
8:19one of them one of them is three years the last one the rest of them are one-year terms do i have a motion for approval motion to approve second all in favor aye aye um item six is an update from yourself okay executive director thank you good evening everyone um just a few acknowledgments uh first uh general counsel attorney souza in your packet we're gonna get to a vehicle policy
8:55with all the recent events we felt very strongly that the time is now to get a vehicle policy in place for the floor of a housing authority and attorney souza worked very diligently on that as he does with everything he works on including those uh insurance policies and other items so thank you i want to acknowledge and thank mike um also bobby bailey minority uh liaison he's working with our vendor to update
9:26and improve our website for the fall river housing authority he's been doing that for the past few months gathering information from the different departments and working with the vendor to get a more modernized website liz burns tim burke tim's not here tonight but also for them working on the vaccination policy that you'll have in your packet tonight for review the union has also has that and they're
9:54reviewing it as well last wednesday evening the far river housing authority participated in a rental housing fair at the government center catholic social services southeast legal and the foreign housing authority we were there we had a table set up kathleen povar marie souza and shayna cavallo from our tenant selection myself uh we were there till eight o'clock last wednesday and uh assisting families in need and
10:28there's there's quite a bit out there you really get a taste the reality of what's going on and the problems that people do have and it just really solidifies why we have to raise our level of customer service to our current residents and any future applicants they depend on us and we provide an important and valuable service joey de silva from our resident services is coordinating senior concerts at all
10:58our elderly high-rise buildings that's starting this week and it's running through may and the last thing contract negotiations are ongoing with the union so far very good and positive dialogue uh between us so that's been going well and that's all i have for you fine people tonight thank you any questions of the interim director thank you very much next item on the agenda is new business
11:32item one is modernization a is the contract award for the roof replacement phase four buildings 14 19 and the admin building at sunset hill the recommended action is to award the to the low bidder leading way construction inc in the amount of 557 thousand six hundred dollars do i have a motion to award the contract motion award the contract second any questions regarding this contract hearing none all in favor aye
12:07aye item b is a certificate a final completion for the elevator upgrades phase one at cardinal madeira's towers the recommended action is approval motion to approve thank you second madam chair i'm going to abstain from this vote sure all in favor
12:35item c is the chain joiner number six for basement upgrades at maple gardens change order number six is an increase in the contract not to exceed twenty five thousand dollars for labor and materials to address the water infiltration in 48 basements and for the purchase of six dehumidifiers at a cost of twenty five hundred dollars each and the recommended action is approval this is the ongoing
13:03issues that would be part of it yes yes it is motion to approve thank you second any other questions item two two a is the trash compactor at cotton madeira's towers removal of the existing compactor and installation of a new compact compactor the recommended action is to award the contract to the lone bitter mcguire equipment incorporated in the amount of twenty five thousand nine hundred and twenty four dollars
13:39emotional approve the uh contract alone better second i'm going to abstain from the vote but can i ask a question sure uh how how long is this going to be before they take it takes place at six weeks six weeks okay is that going to coincide with the shoot being opened up again okay
14:14okay okay great thank you thank you everyone i'm all in favor accepted item three is personnel three a is a temporary maintenance custodial slash floater the recommended action is to ratify the appointment of alex volpe motion to ratify the appointment second call in favor all right do i need a little call him that one i'm sorry martha that's up there commissioner burns yes commissioner
14:47madeiras yes commissioner underhill yes shalom sahari yes item b is the employee vaccination policy um that policy is included in your packet this is for discussion only for this evening
15:08i don't know if everyone had time to read through it it's very comprehensive which is excellent where are we with that with the union is it just something that we have and then we're going to present it to them have you presented it to the union or i presented it to the union already so they're doing this they're looking they're looking at reviewing it discussing it among themselves
15:30they'll get back to me we're hoping that they'll be completed they won't really have any changes you'll have some time to discuss it and then we can formalize it next next month's board meeting put it into policy okay that'd be good too because um joanne i think she's already got one at the college so it'll be helpful to see what she has to say with regard to input for us absolutely and
15:56there's some attachments there from kp law does that in regards to that attachment i see it's dated like december 17th of 2020 is that the most recent information they have regarding this type of law and uh policy it seems a little outdated in in regards to the status of the pandemic it could be i can see if they have something more updated i know from past experience whenever there's
16:38something put out by the cdc or the federal government they they're kind of in tune with what's going on being a labor law firm um and then we'll get updates from them on occasion but i can i can see if there's been anything more recent i can check that was the only thing that stood out to me it seemed like a time it's a little uh yeah we probably received this some time ago back then
17:06and um tim put it together with the policy just okay for the discussion thank you any other questions if we got to it i'll assume we'll have time to read it and if we have any one of us have any questions we can reach out um otherwise you'll put this back on the agenda at the next meeting for her hope is that fair enough perfect perfect okay excellent um the next item is the vehicle use policy
17:42again it's it's been written it's been recently written by attorney souza it's on the agenda for discussion slash approval we could do the same thing with this particular policy is you know review it if anyone has one maybe compare it to what they have for either themselves or another entity and come back next month for approval for we could do the same if you'd like yep definitely my only two
18:05cents would be that i want to ensure um that you know the the miles are reported for which work related activity um just without going too far down that road i want to tighten up so what we did in the past and i know everybody here is on on board with that so i'm thrilled about that i didn't get a chance to send you the cities but it also has the information
18:31attached to it and when terms when the employee signs it for the personal use who would i call to get a copy of that copy of the policy um the city administrator probably but i'm sure i have one okay that i could follow it to you that would be great we just wanted to start setting some standard protocols if anything happened with a with the vehicle even during the course of use of a personal vehicle
19:01make sure the police are called things are there yep things are documented and we established that protocol and there were a couple of different methods within the irs code that allows you to do it either by the mileage or by the day i know the town of seacock i believe chose to do it by the day because i think i have theirs as well okay okay so i'll send you what i have on okay do you
19:24want me to take over mary are you all right i'm trying to survive uh we act we have one item but thank you for offering item d is a salary adjustment for the interim executive director so as you all know kevin has been taking over the reign since tim has left mr barrows was on the books until august 31st so we were only allowed to have one august 3 march 31st oh my god we're not really
20:00losing it march 31st we're only allowed to have one executive director at the time but at this particular point until we go forward and appoint an executive director it was it's our opinion and i had asked them to put this on the agenda to move his salary at least in a stipend or an increased salary for the time being if i could just add one thing i forgot to put on there the previous director
20:28was required to do 40 hours currently i'm at and a half i routinely do 45 to 50 every week so but just for full transparency if you want to put it say you got to do 40 i'm fine with that if you're in agreement but
20:58you know as a board we can certainly increase the salary to something less than what the prior director was making if that's the will of this commission as well it would have been my assumption that we would have increased it to the previous executive director's salary but it doesn't have to be so i don't know what everyone's pleasure is thoughts don't have any objections no i don't have any object so you're
21:33doing the job that's what we're paying that's what the cost of the position is you assume the position and the duties so i'm okay with pain level um is everyone okay with doing this retro to april 1st i am yeah do you need a motion um yeah why don't we have a motion on that to approve the salary increase to the previous executive director's salary effective form it's a whole different story effective 4 1 20 22.
22:04so as long as i get the right date right right do i have a motion for that i'll make the motion second just in case commissioner underhill uh yes commissioner barnes yes commissioner madeiras yes chairwoman sahari yes thank you you're welcome i don't see any other items before us this evening does anyone have anything else to add do i have a motion to mature emotional adjourn second thank you
45:37you