The Fall River Housing Authority held a meeting on September 12, 2022. Key discussions included updates from the Executive Director, Kevin Spadella, on Narcan training for staff, the establishment of a Safety and Security Committee, and a significant improvement in the REACT inspection score for AMP 6 properties (Cattell, Aloe Vera, and Mitchell) to 83, up from 72. Spadella also outlined his goals for the organization, focusing on improving customer service, maintaining high occupancy rates, and reducing tenant accounts receivable. Several contracts were addressed, including the award of a $400,750 contract to DDC Construction Incorporated for apartment conversions at Cardinal Medeiros Towers (Phase 2, 13th floor), which passed with one abstention. A proposed $410,000 supplemental police service contract was tabled for 30 days to allow commissioners to meet with the police department regarding deployment and effectiveness, though an interim per diem payment was approved. Contracts for animal control services and security camera installations at multiple plazas were also approved. In personnel matters, the resignation of Jasmine Bainez, a Leased Housing Support Assistant, was accepted. Union negotiations saw different outcomes: the proposed agreement with AFSCME Council 93 Local 1990 Unit A, which included a 3% annual wage increase, was rejected by the union, leading to its withdrawal from the agenda. However, the agreement with AFSCME Council 93 Local 1990 Unit C, offering a 2.5% annual wage increase, was ratified by a unanimous 5-0 vote.
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good evening everyone welcome to um before of a housing authority meeting it's monday september 12th 2022 and it's 5 15 p.m um attorney susan will you read the open meeting law please thank you madam chairman first went to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting to any medium attendees are therefore advised that
0:25such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible thank you martha the roll call please chairwoman sahari here vice chairman underhill here commissioner burns here commissioner bentley here commissioner medeiros here thank you first item on the agenda agenda is citizens input we have anyone here this evening seeing none
0:53the second item is residence input and there are no one here from madame chair i just ed asked me he's not feeling well but he asked me to remind everybody that uh bill king memorial tribute is gonna be friday just anybody that's interested in coming it'll be friday at noon time at cardinal madeira thank you thank you and to remind everyone about the farmer's market which is excellent good thing yeah
1:24yeah doing doing really well with that thank you item two is the minutes of the postponed regular meeting held on august 15 2022. do i have a motion to accept the minutes as presented emotional accept second any questions all in favor aye aye thank you item three is bills and communications 3a of the vouchers the recommended action is to accept the vouches as presented in your packet motion to accept
2:06second any questions with regard to any of these vendors or vouchers hearing none all in favor item four are the management reports the eight reports are included in your packet report one are the applications two is the occupancy reports three is the tenant accounts receivable four is the work order reports five is the monthly section eight voucher activity report six is the monthly personnel count report
2:43seven is the director of modernization monthly report and eight is the bank investment and bond debt balance reports does anyone have any questions with regard to any of these reports to have a motion to accept the reports as presented motion to accept the reports as presented second all in favor aye aye item five is the financial reports presented by our director of finance this is for the month of may
3:22the recommended action is to approve the may monthly financial report and i believe those were emailed to everyone they were motion to accept thank you to the second second do we have any questions with regard to the report our director of finance is here this evening questions no questions amber all in favor aye aye item b is the state quarterly operating statement and it's for the period ended june 30 2022 the
4:09recommended action is approval of the operating statement that also was emailed to everyone so do i have a motion to approve the state quarterly operating statement as of june 30. emotional approval second any questions with regard to that report seeing none all in favor all right thank you item six is an update from the executive director thank you madam chairwoman a few things this month
4:51the community development agency cda of mike dion's office is offering narcan training for staff members for the housing authority so we have our monthly managers meeting tomorrow following that will be the first training uh from the city with on the narcan and then on wednesday the maintenance leaders meeting and following that there will be training uh as well and then we're going to
5:23schedule a couple of other trainings for other staff members but that's a start and they offered it it's a free training just to educate us on what we could do uh if we come across a situation like that kevin i have i just i'm just more curious than anything else are they are they going to give you cans of narcan that you keep at the different sites if
5:51if we want it if you want okay we want it i figured we'll do the training uh get some feedback from the training see how receptive everyone is and but they do actually have the narcan to supply us that we could keep thank you the next thing is we established a safety and security committee i know some of the commissioners of question that and we're looking in to see if we've completed that will be attorney souza
6:27deb morrissette myself tim mccoy and one of the police officers assigned to the housing unit and um starting later this month we'll be getting together to meet whether it's zoom phone conference or in person whatever works for the members and then coming up with a report and that will get back to you so you're aware of what's going on at our sites so that's in the works the next thing i have to report is we
7:01had a react inspection at amp 6 which is cattell aloe vera and mitchell and i'm happy to say that kathleen and her staff and ed and his staff did well in the preparations we received the score of 83 up 13 points from last year 72 and 83.
7:26so with that score that puts us where we won't be inspected for two years so kudos to them and their staff you'll see on the agenda a recommendation um on a vote for the union negotiations we had a unit a and a unit c vote uh late friday so we weren't able to put that on the agenda however the results came in unit c accepted our proposals so when we get to
8:05that item i would ask i would recommend that you ratify that unit a did not so i will be um speaking with attorney's essen uh tomorrow or on wednesday and seeing what direction we'll go from there regarding you know unit a that's our maintenance facilities division uh and the last thing as was requested a few months back some goals that i put out as the new executive director there's a one page
8:41outlining those goals in your packet so that's what i and we as a organization will be working on always looking to improve customer service to our residents our applicants our vendors and landlords improve react scores maintain vacancy turnover in 29 days or less maintain occupancy rate of 97 or higher reduce tenant accounts receivable to 2.5 percent or lower um maintain our section 8 management
9:19assessment program our cmap score of 95 percent or higher improve on our faz public housing assessment system and improve on our dhcd pmr performance management review so those are some of the goals that i've outlined that i'm going to be looking to achieve and work on and continue in the right direction with our dedicated and hard-working uh department heads for the remainder of this year and then
9:55we'll set something for the following year that's all i have for this month thank you anyone have any questions mr spadilla hearing then we'll move on to new business item 1a is modernization a is a contract award for apartment conversions phase three at cardinal madeiras towers on the 13th floor the recommended action is to award the contract to the low bidder ddc construction incorporated in the amount
10:28of four hundred thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars do i have a motion to award this contract motion to reward the contract second any questions with regard to this contract man i'm cheering around i'm going to abstain from that vote certainly thank you all in favor aye aye this can i'm sorry can i make just one mention just for the notes that this says phase two yeah we so a couple years back
11:05we did the 14th floor the goal is to do one to two floors uh we would have had 13th floor completed but it was tabled by the previous administration or uh nixed but now we're back on track so is this phase two or phase three phase two phase two okay oh yes you're right thank you commissioner on the agenda it should have been phase two and i read facebook oh yes so it is phase two
11:47so that is the correction here the contract award is for apartment conversions phase two at conor Medeiros on the 13th floor no worries please item 2 is miscellaneous a is a supplemental police service contract the recommended action is continuation of a contract for a one-year period beginning october 1 2022 to september 30th 2023 for five offices in the amount not to exceed 410 000 do i have a motion to
12:23continue this contract for an additional year i'll make a motion to approve it but i would like to make con uh comment one or have a question once it's on the floor officially sure do i have a second second questions so my my colleague to my right has often brought up at the meeting kind of concerns with what we're doing with police and some issues at different establishment some of our property so um
12:56i don't know that we've had a gathering with pd uh try to figure out some of those concerns so prior to approving it my motion would be to table this until my colleague to my right gets to have his say for the residents and kind of figure out what we're doing i brought this up before it does say in the article it says the housing authority will have the ability to assign um for targeted and um
13:28specific periods and i've never been a part of that i'm not asking to be a part of it but i feel like my colleague to my right uh wishes to have a say on that so i would like to see that happen before i'd blanket uh write the check for the ten thousand dollars so i would make a motion to table until that meeting happens so i need a second all right second um
13:57so so i believe that's parliamentary correct yes i would uh make a motion to withdraw that and i don't know if we need to approve that yes so my first motion would be to withdraw the motion to approve okay okay and dave you're going to second that one okay and then you're going to make a motion i think we have to i think we have to approve that motion first to withdraw the motion
14:27and then i would subsequently make a motion to table this issue until a meeting with the police department and the chief and just to try to figure out what we're doing right i know i know there's some questions about the exact areas and times and all that we're doing and and um i've heard my colleagues speak up a couple times about that specifically academic eras but i'm sure there's other issues so um before i
14:54approve the and i'm willing to approve it because they do a great job but i want to make sure we're on the same page with our board so that's that's my motion allow that meeting to take place and i think david had agreed he would uh jump in on that meeting and if i if i can commissioner madaris also said he'd like to be part of that so that's uh we will get together through michael kevin
15:19so i can set up i understand correctly do you want me to set up a meeting with the housing unit or are you referring to my safety and security committee so so what i believe what i think i need has to happen you know remembering my colleagues uh points is have a conversation with pd what does this look like yeah what do these positions look like what are the time
15:47frames do we have any say it does say that the housing authority has influence on targeted and specific difficult times right and and so i think he's brought up some specific issues and i would like to at least allow commissioner on the hill to have that moment to say hey this is what i'm really concerned about these times and if it works for us i want to support him
16:07and if it doesn't then i want to have that conversation with him too so i think he has you know basically asked for the right to have those conversations with pd himself not necessarily your committee pd with so with the pizza you want me to set up a meeting that commissioner underhill can attend in the community okay okay with the chief specific i would support uh commissioner
16:37underhill i don't know that it was chief specific it was that group but i'm i'm supporting whatever he feels inappropriate as only i only say that as i'm speaking with commissioner medeiros earlier and mr mccoy and myself are waiting for an answer we are going to be meeting with the chief however i can set up a meeting with the police unit with a separate meeting with the chief whatever your pleasure is just so
17:08i i'm clear on what i'm doing yeah and well i guess my my concern is and it's the same as what commissioner burns brought up but we're being asked to approve a pretty large sum of money that i know has been an ongoing thing and i know it's i'm not questioning uh whether it's right or wrong but are we getting the maximum results from it i guess and is my question and
17:39we don't have any reports to base our decisions off of we don't know anything of where the efforts are being placed how are they being placed what kinds of results are we getting so i think having at least some of that information so that we can start to make some informed decisions uh would would go a long way in uh you know coming to a confident vote on on this money and
18:07i think uh so would be helpful if that meeting is with the chief or if it's with the person who is responsible here at the housing authority for dealing with the police department um i'm not sure but i think some conversation or some reports uh would be helpful so commissioner underhill will you be comfortable if i set up a meeting with the director of the housing authority unit and maybe another officer
18:43and deb morrissette who is our point person as long as like commissioner mcdavis brought up that we can talk to somebody who's responsible for giving those reports that we're looking for to the housing authority so we do go ahead we do get reports we do get monthly reports for assignments for payroll purposes what what they're doing we also get um police reports if there's any incidences of crime so we do receive
19:18that that does go on a monthly basis to uh deb marcette set but i can definitely when i meet with the chief go into more details and then maybe set something up so your level of comfort is good okay because both commissioner madeira said obviously i get a lot of complaints because i'm there sure but he gets calls and we we want to be able to give some kind of answer to the residents like that well
19:49you know in the past three months the the incidents have been going down or they've been going hopefully not going up but we want to have some kind of facts and figures that we can give to them right now if we're like you know i don't know that's that's what yeah i don't so um do we want to table this for next month so i can coordinate this and then you'll have what you need
20:12the information you want depending on when the meeting is going to be like couldn't we just table it for now and then if once we have that meeting can we just have maybe a phone call and approve this so we have the table for a period of 30 days after that ever would die okay so so if we table it for a period of 30 days it gives them the opportunity to
20:36look into it and then have an answer for you by the next board meeting that's not going to interrupt any service or anything is it okay well technically this begins october 1 so it may depending on what's right i guess my question is is are we looking because we do get reports so are we looking for more of a schedule like we've got five offices i'm just using an example five offices and they're reporting to these
21:06um units on this day and these units on that day are they rotating is that i think i think some of that is because we get at the root of these questions yeah like how many you know what was the four hundred and ten dollars paid for what what does the four hundred and ten dollars exactly and could it be could it be directed with more uh benefit to other areas if they're
21:31if they're spending x amount of time at sites that are not don't have issues that is do they not have issues because of the time they're dedicating there right or would they know that and do we want to be directing some of that to places where there's more uh concerns so we don't have anything to base any decisions off of when approving this money so just something some basic information i think would be
21:59helpful to start so i think if if i'm correct if we table in the next month i think i can turn this meeting around and get the information and coordinate a meeting and then you will have that prior to october's meeting and then you can make a more informed vote i think i think if you table it for 30 days it's on the agenda for next month and then we discharge of it or wait
22:28right positive or negative right you just charge it you approve it i think it and according to attorney it has to be it would have to be a period of 30 days do we want to approach the police department and see if we can pay per diem from september 30th or october 1 until the next meeting wouldn't we have the ability to do that anyway though with attend with with the
22:51contract we could extend a contract for a certain percentage and i don't think that that would be a problem by doing it well first first of all this isn't this isn't really it's not a procedure not subject to 30b it's not a profit it's an intergovernmental contract i would assume on a common courtesy could be a phone call or an email say listen you know we realize that uh typically the contract commences
23:14every october first we're not having a meeting until october 11th you know can we pay you on a per diem for those 10 days potentially or potentially two i mean can you do you mind just you know can you hold off for the ten days because we have to have something in place right obviously uh with a contract like this so in other words can you even just hold off because
23:39i'm not even sure we'd be initiating a payment within those 10 days anyway michael but that's just my opinion i'm not sure the accounting side of it right but again a courtesy you know advising them that we're probably going to be the second week of october before a random ratification pending a meeting and can we pay you per diem as long as chairwoman sahari suggested for the first two weeks of october
24:08do we need a motion to pay them accordingly in the interim is that we need to do because i'm okay with that i don't i don't want to drastically change what we're doing but i think it's it's appropriate that uh our commissioners if need be i'll probably know more in the next couple of days after meeting i mean i could tell you this we haven't we having a noon on wednesday with cheap call
24:34so the first stop at 11 o'clock where the advanced i'm sorry may i have the floor the first meeting at 11 o'clock was not solely about the police contract but having 11 a.m teleconference with the mayor where some of the coverage issues were going to come up and then there's a moon between kevin myself and chief corbin on wednesday so two days from now but again i understand that the board is asking um
25:02if i understand it correctly you know again mrs marsett gets those reports probably have someone again from the actual unit itself the housing unit would be relegated michael would two board members be okay to me without violating me so again we can also after discussing the chief morgan wednesday we can also ask him to set up you know to have his folks be available for a meeting with with uh both gentlemen both
25:32chairman medeiros and um chairman underhill uh commissioner under hill commissioner medeiros with a member of the housing unit preferably their supervisor and debbie morrissette and that way you'll be able to see what she gets each month privately in a way where you know that and i'm assuming to allow for the free flow of discussion when we're discussing security matters and police informant
25:57police enforcement and things of that nature and we can go from there so i i can't i can't answer to the the next question specifically i think commissioner underhill regarding a a phone ratification similar to maybe what we just did on the security contracts i think the tabling will force you to wait for the 30 days we'll have to wait so you're gonna have so that gets back to let's advise them that for based on
26:24chairwoman sahari suggestion we'll do a per diem for the first two weeks and then whatever that meeting is the second week of october obviously we have columbus day however it falls then you'll be able to take a more informed vote
26:48there's also a motion to pay a per diem for the first two weeks i think we got a discharge of the first motion right so motion on the table the motion on the floor right now is to table it we have a motion and a second so mother we need a roll i mean uh yeah all in favor for tabling now okay so now you need a motion to continue
27:15with the per diem equal to what we've done in the past again prior to our official meeting in agreement that was a long motion i apologize no that's okay i'm thinking and talking okay and i have a second on that all in favor contract okay we're all set martha do you have all that thank you thank you sorry thank you item b is the animal control office officer contract the recommended action
27:45is the continuation of a contract for a one year period beginning october 1 2022 to september 30 2023 in an amount not to exceed 17 500 do i have a motion to continue the animal control offices contract motion to continue second chance any questions with regard to this contract all in favor item c is the security camera surveillance system installation at benny costa plaza ford in the apartments
28:22north right cliff apartments in raleigh riley plaza funded through the safety and security grant award the recommended action is to ratify the contract award to km security solutions for bene costa plaza at sixty thousand six hundred eighteen dollars and eighty four cents according the apartments at fifty 52 419 dollars and 16 cents north radcliffe apartments at 45 779 and 22 cents in riley up plaza at 33
28:55that was in 649 and 49 cents do i have a motion to ratify this contract motion to ratify the contract awards to km security solutions second second thank you any questions this was the contract that we got the information on earlier all in favor all right item d is the hud flat rate schedule it's effective for october 1 2022 through january 1 2023 and the recommended action is approval
29:35and we have that in our packet as well i believe
29:47do i have a motion to approve the hud flat rate flat rent schedule rather i make a motion to approve second any questions with regard to the schedule none all in favor item e is open enrollment for blue cross blue shield dental blue effective october 1 2022 do i have a motion to approve the open enrollment emotional fruit second all in favor item three is personnel a is the resignation of an employee it's to
30:35accept the resignation of jasmine bainez leased housing support assistant effective on august 26 2022 i do make a motion to approve i like to make a comment too after it's second to the second if i may it does seem like the last few meetings we've had several people resigning and i don't know so my only question is not that it's not warranted do we do like exit interviews do we do a process where we
31:08understand why people are leaving you know is it is it a financial issue is it a uh you know a distance from work you know what i mean just wondering if we have a sense of and i could be wrong i don't know my colleagues think but i feel like every time out now i'm getting a resignation or two so um that's the case then so be it but inquisitive mind right i'd like to make
31:33sure that we address why they're leaving so uh the department that the person may be resigning from the department head will try to inquire why you know what the issue is and some choose to give feedback some will send an email sometimes it's money sometimes they're not happy with the working environment what they're doing in their roles it's a function of the department head yes so if we ever get any reports
32:09positive negative whatever it may be i'd love to i'm just trying to get an understanding of what i sense as people choose we've received uh both where we it was a positive experience for a few years we had um one clerk that resided in new bedford and was able to get a job in bedford completely makes sense forever we had someone that was not happy with the pay and went to dartmouth housing authority
32:40and got an increase in pay we've had others i think this one in particular was at the school department came over here wasn't happy with the environment and chose was able to go back to the school department so i appreciate it i know it's it's runs the gamut i'm sure i didn't ask you personally on the phone before we we spoke but it was a question i had in the future i will ask you
33:10directly but it is something i think is important that we all understand why people leave and and it may be completely rational reasons and there may be something that we can try to fix so that's all i'm looking at so i appreciate it i didn't mean to put you on the spot i'll ask you next time but that's uh that's certainly a focus and make sure that we know why people are leaving
33:29and you know if i can just segue a bit as a next item in these negotiations with the various units that this is nothing is perfect no organization is perfect but i'm trying to foster a positive environment with equitable pay and workload and decency among staff members and in any negotiations right it goes your way sometimes it doesn't and you got to keep working at it but you know we've heard for many years and
34:10sometimes it's legit sometimes not you know the morale and the atmosphere so i can tell you um in every department i worked in i've always tried to foster a positive atmosphere they get fairness they get transparency you know some people you can't please sometimes it's legit you know they get a better opportunity you can't fault someone for a better opportunity somewhere else you know you wish him the
34:37best you hate to lose him but you wish him the best so for various reasons and yeah i'm not suggesting there's anything negative uh but just for my edification when we're signing people out and approving resignations i think uh it's important for me to understand the overall concept of why people are leaving you know and if there's something i can fix i want to you know and i know you're the same way and i'm
35:02not uh challenging you on that it's just something uh personally i would like to know so uh whether i ask you individually because i think it's probably more of an individual conversation rather than you know put it on the microphone and be in public with it but that's up to you any other questions all in favor of acceptance of this resignation item b is the proposed agreement between
35:28the floor florida housing authority and the asme council 93 local 1990 unit a it's a three-year contract from april 1 2022 to march 31 2025 it includes a three percent wage increase each year year one is retroactive to april first of 2022 year two begins april first of 2023 and year three begins april 1st of 2024 the vote took place on friday september 9th 2022 and our director spadella is going to fill us in
36:09so we had two votes on friday this one here unit a and they voted against the memorandum of understanding that we came to in the proposals so i'm not sure if we would draw it if we table it because um i won't know till um sometime this week uh on what direction we're going to go in i'm going to reach out to attorney's zessen our labor attorney confer with tim burke human resources tim mccoy and
36:49come up with a direction we want to go in regarding this felt it was a very good package but again people their right to vote it up will vote it down they voted it down so a attorney souza should i would recommend that we withdraw the item that way when there is some discussion between the housing authority administration and the union then you can put it back on the agenda at any time
37:21so that you wouldn't be required to address it again in 30 days if it's not completed and this was realistically the way it was written for information only anyway so i don't know that we need a vote to withdraw it correct i don't know that it was formally on the table because it said right that's my point i guess a recommendation would be forthcoming but right now the recommendation is we
37:48don't have one because we don't have an agreement okay so i'm okay with that we just leave it as is right we could leave it it would uh technically it would just die on the table so to speak that's right that's what i believe okay all right so we're good um item c is a proposed agreement between the four of the housing authority and esme council 93 local 1990 unit c
38:08it's for a three-year contract april 1st 22 to march 31 25. it includes a two and a half percent wage increase each year year one retroactive to april 1st 2022 year two beginning april 1st 2023 and year three beginning april 1st 2024 on the vote on this contract also took place on friday september 9th 2022.
38:37okay as i said unit c did vote on this and approved our proposals and our moa so my recommendation would be to ratify this by vote and accept it emotional approval second second any questions of the director no i'm just hearing none say that i support collective bargaining you guys both came to an agreement so i i stand in support of your agreement so thank you martha can i call on this one please
39:13commissioner burns yes commissioner medeiros yes commission underhill yes commissioner bentley yes chairwoman sahari yes that is the last item on the agenda um does have anyone have anything do you want to bring forward there are none a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting motion to adjourn thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you