The Fall River Housing Authority held its regular session on July 11, 2022, at 5:05 PM. The board approved the minutes from the June 13 and June 22, 2022 meetings, as well as bills, communications, and various management reports. A significant discussion occurred regarding the year-end top five compensation certification for fiscal year March 31, 2022, where the Director of Finance clarified details about the previous executive director's compensation, including base salary, mileage, stipends, longevity, and sick time payouts, noting that several actual compensations exceeded budgeted amounts due to retro payments and additional stipends for specific roles. The Executive Director provided updates on the Summer Lunch Program, which kicked off at Pleasant View with the Fall River Recreation Department, utilizing five family sites for meals and activities. He also reported on ongoing phone system upgrades and mentioned an upcoming agenda item regarding the DHCD Regional Capital Assistance Team. The board approved several modernization certificates for substantial and final completion, including boiler and water heater replacements at Cardinal Medeiros Towers, site improvements and a new video security system at Bishop Joseph Eid Apartments, and basement renovations at Maple Gardens. A contract for smoke alarm replacement at Sunset Hill was awarded to Breit-Lite Electrical Company Incorporated for $226,888. The board also received information on a DHCD ARPA Target Award for Federal Pacific Panel and Fire Alarm System replacement at Maple Gardens, a special funding initiative for state unit developments. In other business, a six-month HVAC on-call service contract was awarded to Advanced Air and Heat for up to $25,000, and the purchase of two John Deere tractors for $24,518 from United A.G. and Turf was approved, after a previous tabling to consider more expensive electrical alternatives. The board voted to waive its participation in the DHCD Regional Capital Assistance Team for three years, citing the authority's sufficient resources. Personnel matters included accepting the resignations of Brian Montelvo, a Clerk Interviewer, and Bobby Bailey, the Minority Outreach Coordinator, and approving the posting for a Clerk Interviewer and a Deputy Executive Director position. The meeting concluded with a motion to enter executive session to negotiate the contract of Mr. Spadella, the appointed Executive Director, with the understanding that the board would not return to open session.
AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Watch the video to verify.
Council
City Officials
Public / Other
good evening everyone as everyone this evening welcome to the regular session of the florida housing authority meeting it's july 11 2022 and it's 505 pm attorney susan the open meeting law please thank you madam chairman the uh 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
0:31transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible thank you here vice chairman underhill yeah commissioner burns yeah commissioner bentley here commissioner medeiros here first item on our agenda this evening is citizens input do we have anyone here
1:02seeing no one residence input next month so no residence input this evening either item two is the regular minutes of the meeting held on july 13 2022 in the special meeting on june i'm sorry june 13 2022 and a special meeting held on june 22 2022 the recommended action is to accept the minutes i make a motion to accept the minutes of both meetings second any questions regarding the two sets of
1:41minutes hearing none all in favor all right item three is the bills in communication um the vouchers they're included in your packet the recommended action is to accept them as presented motion to accept those in communication second any questions with regard to them hearing no questions all in favor item four are the management reports the eight management reports are included in your packet
2:21item one is the applications two is the occupancy reports three is the tenants accounts receivable four are the work order report five is the monthly section eight voucher activity report item six is the monthly personnel report item seven is the director of modernization monthly report and item a is the bank investment and bond debt balance reports the recommended action is to accept the reports as presented
2:54motion to accept the monthly management reports second any questions we have our director of finance and our director of modernization here this evening
3:14hearing none all in favor aye item five is the financial reports the um item a is the year-end top five compensation certification it's for the fiscal year um 2022 that's march 31 2022 and the recommended action is approval
3:44motion approved second any questions or concerns yes um i do have a question uh only because it seems relevant to our discussion later this evening um i see we have the previous executive director's compensation listed here is this correct yes um so could could i get a um a breakdown of what this reflects sure amber do you have did you prepare this can you can you help us
4:28hello um so so i guess one of the very first questions not to interrupt jack is um this is broken out into the columns i'm assuming that have to be filed with dhcd correct so i guess we're looking for some explanation as to both the base salary and the other compensation column and then maybe the comparison of that to the budget yes so the way that this works is anything that anyone is reimbursed for
4:59that through a paycheck would count as other so any mileage that's reimbursed anything um i know that there's like a mileage stipend that he would get for his car so those types of expenses would go in so his the budgeted seller would be 160 for um that's listed on here however obviously he was paid more because when you add in the column where it says other compensation that's what's included in
5:23there like so any of the um i'm trying to think of what it's called it's any like i said any additional info funds that anyone receives but like cell phone stipends if somebody has like a beeper charge that goes through your paycheck so that comes through so that would be what the extra amount would be for so the the second to last column is what we budgeted for and what was approved for his salary
5:50and then the difference between the two would be the other compensation line the seven six six six so from the 164 899 to the 171 114 correct um what is what is the uh the difference between that yeah what what what are those items that caused that difference so if he was reimbursed for literally anything to do with his hours so if he ever like worked extra hours i obviously i wasn't here at that
6:30point but when it came down to what he was paid for that that time being it ended up being 171 so i don't know at any point if there was an increase so if he received any additional funding whether it was through the contract negotiations at any point in time if he received that which i know at last year i'm assuming that he must have gotten something to that effect any bonus structures anything to that effect
6:52that's what that comes from um but then also with the mileage any additional um fringe benefits that he would have gotten i know we had paid him for the longevity also is oh no no it's okay didn't we pay him the amounts that we had sent the chairman's chairwoman to hardy sent him on the letter and we we paid out a bunch of his sick time and i think that was paid
7:15before the end of the calendar year because he left january 28th so that final number is the 178 correct 780.
7:24okay yeah so like i said a lot of times we budget for those things with any type of increase or like i said anything that's paid out using explaining to kevin when it comes to like if anyone pays anything out of pocket if they get reimbursed through their paycheck that also comes up just because the payroll report when we pull is just anything that we've paid them throughout the year we obviously
7:43back out the um and it's the gross pay as well so that's the gross figure okay thank you i think and i and i could be wrong but you sort of um pointed this out they're all higher than the budget in the base so i think that might have been the negotiations is that potentially correct it's the retro yeah because it looks like all five of these are higher than the actual is higher than the budget
8:16correct so the only one that would be um there are two positions on here that would be higher and that would be number four which i apologize the um the title is incorrect i couldn't update it prior to this because they have to revert it back but that would be the director of field ops she was given an additional stipend for additional work with section eight so that is why that one would be higher and
8:39then the asset manager was paying an additional stipend for the um the overlap between the absence of a finance director so for the last um as well as any retros is being paid so those are those two are higher because of additional funding that they received for work that they were putting out um but then for the rest of them they would be for retros and then like i said any type of stipend that
9:05would be paid out so amber a question so like for under the fringes the amount that was used for personal use that he would have been taxed on is that added correct that's what that is correct just what for his personal use yes not the benefit correct of the housing authority yes so it increases the salary because if he uses the vehicle for personal use then we tax the person
9:37on the personal use which gets added to their income because or or for instance if you drive your car we reimburse you for that mileage that would also be in here because it's just something that we're paying to you okay okay thank you you're welcome any other questions all in favor item six is an update from the executive director thank you madam chairwoman i only have three items
10:10to update the board and the audience on last week tuesday at pleasant view we kicked off the summer lunch program with the fall river recreation grace girling runs that program we met down at pleasant few the mayor grace myself joe de silva the kids that will be working over the summer the housing authority is collaborating with them we're offering five of our family sites as locations for the lunch
10:45program and and other activities arts and crafts sports so it's a great thing for our residents especially uh the youth every day from 11 to 1 they can go there and have a meal during covid it was grab and go because of covid there was a meal they took the meal and then they would go back home but now we're encouraging them and their families to stay in the park
11:14eat the lunch in the park participate in some activities get them in uh some outdoor stuff so um we did that last tuesday it was uh filmed by fred tv so if you wanted to see the coverage of that you can go on and look at that we're still working on our new phone system upgrades we had to do an extensive audit of different lines that we had at all of the locations um
11:46we did experience some locations had some static so our new software um our new information technology uh preventative maintenance vendor uh is looking to correct that so we're still uh working on those those phone systems it's it's a slow process but we're hopefully we're going to be there soon and the last thing is on the agenda you're going to see an item for a dhcd regional capital assistance
12:22team and i can explain that in more detail when we get to that agenda of item for anyone that's not familiar with that that's all i have thank you any questions hearing none moving on to new business item one is modernization a is a certificate of substantial completion for the boiler and domestic water heater replacement at cardinal materials tawas the recommended action is approval
13:00jason and joanne any questions all in favor aye madam chair i'd like to have a steam from that role of course thank you item b is a certificate of completion consolidation for boiler and domestic water heater replacement at cairo madeira's taoist the recommended action is approval make a motion to approve a second all in favor aye thank you item c is a certificate of final completion for site improvements
13:38slash new video security system at your bishop joseph eid apartments the recommended action is approval motion to approve second any questions with regard to the certificate hearing none all in favor item d is a contract award for smoke alarm replacement project at sunset hill the recommended action is to award the contract to the low bidder breit dash lite electrical company incorporated in the amount of 226 888
14:18i'll make a motion to approve second any questions with regard to this contract hearing none all in favor item c is a certificate of substantial completion completion for the basement renovations upgrades at maple gardens the recommended action is approval oh general approved second any questions all in favor all right item f is a dhcd opera target award for the federal pacific panel and fire alarm system replacement
14:58this is round one for maple gardens this is for information can you give us a little bit more background on this please yes so dhcd awarded us another round of funding through opera but geared specifically for these federal pacific panels that are in the state unit developments only we do have a few in the federal but this is geared just for the state and also the the fire alarm systems many of the state developments
15:35throughout the state have these antiquated panels they don't meet meet code we had that issue during the basement renovations for maple gardens the electrical inspector would not allow us to tie into these panels because they're old and somewhat dangerous so dhcd is well aware of this they're allocating special funding to housing authorities across the state for specifically geared to replace
16:04there's not even a dollar amount limit on it they're kind of saying whatever it costs to replace them that's what we're gonna we're gonna fund so it's a good thing so we don't have any other specific information other than that we're not out to award yet or anything like that sure anyone have any questions with regard to this award item two is miscellaneous a is an hvac on-call service contract the recommended action
16:33is permission to award a six-month contract to advanced air and heat in the amount not to exceed 25 000.
16:46we got motion to approve i also have a question if that's appropriate sure six months is that what we normally do is there a reason is there a benefit for it being six months hi good evening everybody commissioner we um i'll reiterate what was uh we talked about last month i understand i think you you may have been absent last fall when i do these for the calendar year have never been able to
17:22get bites on the hvac on-call contract i have no explanation why we do the same thing that we do for our other internal trades and for the additional trades glass indoor what not class fabrication i should say things of that nature we've been able to get bites as we want to i would say probably late spring working with the director facilities putting together a routine maintenance changing of filters things of that
17:51nature one company expressed some interest so the purpose of the sixth month is obviously we have a half a year left i figure i'll align it with the other on calls the other on calls typically and not to exceed 50 so we cut it in half and we were able to actually secure two bids obviously we're gonna we'll you know due to procurement rules and then uh physical prudence will go with the with
18:17the lower quote so but that's that's the reasoning for the half year now those will match with the other maybe dozen that we hand out but then the next round will be probably in november for 2023 calendar year 2023. perfect reasonable explanation thank you call in favor aye aye item b is the john deere subcontract tractors 2023 tx recommended action is permissioned to purchase two tractors
18:47from united a.g and turf in the amount of twenty four thousand five hundred and eighteen dollars
19:04any questions i just wanted to add to that some of you who are here may have remembered back in november of last year we had this on you approved it the executive director at that time the night of the meeting said maybe we should look into electrical tractors so it got tabled uh the director of facilities did his due diligence the electrical tractors are actually more money um and there's still
19:35information out there that we're not sure of how what's the charging capacity uh do we have the facilities to install a a machine or device to charge these things so to be consistent with our other facilities machines we want to stay with the gas fueled tractors so this was on before was approved in the past now we're just coming back to it again is dhcd regional capital assistance team
20:13rcat the recommended action is waiver out of participation in the regional capital assistance team for three years so what that is dhcd put this program together quite a few years ago it's to assist small housing authorities they kind of piggyback on a larger housing authority for purchasing power for maintenance to their sites for capital improvements you have some small housing authorities that may only have
20:48one or two maintenance people an executive director does everything so what the state did is for example the taunton housing authority collaborates with a couple of smaller cape housing authorities as a team the fall river housing authority is always opted out we're very large we have our sufficient human resources financial resources and every three years what i had to do in the past was just submit a letter
21:22stating that the far river housing authority wishes to opt out now they've changed it where they actually want a board vote that you're opting out and also a letter from the joint tenants council that they're in agreement with the particular housing authority opting out so they've just changed the way you do it now it's every three years and from the start of this program the four
21:49river housing authority didn't need any assistance from other housing authorities it's geared toward small housing authorities is so we've never participated we've never participated in it and i would assume yeah we don't need assistance but is there any benefit that goes to our would go to our housing authority for providing assistance for the smaller ones at the time when they initiated it
22:19i didn't see any benefit at the time i was in modernization at the time and was asked by the executive director to opt out of it from researching when they were putting this program out so to answer your question i don't know of any benefits to us to anticipate do i have a mojo i'm sorry do we have a motion to wave out of participation in the regional capital assistance team program ocean waiver out participation
22:58second all in favor aye aye item three on the agenda is personnel a is the resignation of an employee the recommended action is to accept the resignation of brian montova montelvo montava he's a clerk interviewer and the effective date of his resignation is july 1 22.
23:30thank you all in favor aye aye aye item b is a clerk interviewer position it's a set for the section 8 department the recommended action is to ratify an in-house posting and outside advertising on the website motion ratify and post second all in favor aye item three is also a resignation it's the recommended action is to accept the resignation of bobby bailey he was the minority outreach coordinator and the
24:03effective date was june 28th 2022.
24:09make a motion to accept the resignation of bobby daley second on paper hi item d is the debit deputy executive director position the recommended action is approval of an in-house posting and outside advertising on the website motion or quote all in favor item a um is for executive is for executive session um as you all know mr svadela's appointment by the commission is here um was at the
24:57last special meeting on june 22 2022 and at this time the board will be entering into a contract negotiations with mr spadella in anticipation of executive session under mass general law 30a section 21 a2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel in order to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel
25:26it's anticipated that the board will come to the terms and conditions of mr svadela's contract will be negotiated and finalized once that's done um the contract will be developed and drafted by our attorney attorney michael souza and it will be then signed and forwarded to the dhcd for its final approval and endorsement so at this time we will go into executive session we will complete hopefully our negotiations this
26:01evening and um at that time the board will adjourn its meeting so we will not be coming back into open session so thank you everyone for coming this evening i need a motion to go into executive session motion to go into executive stage