https://otter.ai/s/J9RSZQtWRYa8T9U5N3rNMA
0:00
Good morning. Welcome to the regular monthly meeting of the Longmont housing authority for Tuesday, September 15. We will start today with the call to order which I guess that was just the call to order. And now I’ll turn it over to Olivia if you wouldn’t mind doing a roll call for us.
0:17
Logging.
0:18
I am seeing Chairman Cameron grant, Vice Chairman Tim waters, commissioners Harold Domingo’s Jean Christopher, Tom to be Lauren Kelly, Arlene zortman. We also have Karen Maroney, Kathy fetlar, and Polly Christiansen
0:37
Thank you. And this is a public meeting. So if there is anyone watching the live stream that would like to be heard during the public invited to be heard portion of the meeting, which is item number five, you’ll need to watch that live stream on the city of Longmont YouTube channel for instructions about how to call in and provide public comment at the appropriate times. We’ll give instructions during the meeting. And they’ll also be displayed on the screen when it’s time to call in to provide your comments. Just as a reminder, your comments are limited to three minutes per person. So each speaker will be asked at the beginning to state their name and address for the record before proceeding with their comments. And then we’ll let you know when you hit your three minute limit. Also pretty important, please remember to mute the live stream when you’re called on to speak. And that’ll come up later in the agenda. We’ll we’ll let you know when that’s happening. We’re now moving on to item number two agenda revisions and submission of documents. Are there any changes we have to the agenda?
1:46
Or any additional documents?
1:49
Seeing nobody wave their hands, we’ll move on to approval of the agenda. I’d entertain a motion to approve today’s agenda.
2:03
Got a motion by Tim and a wave by Polly.
2:07
advisory viji actually weighed by Jean. We’ll go with that.
2:13
Any comments? Polly? Did you want to comment?
2:19
You’re still on mute. I believe
2:21
we’re dibela gets a shit ton. You know that word? Just fix that.
2:25
You say that again? Paul, you are on mute for the very first part of that. Oh, pick it up.
2:31
I’m sorry. Just chain correct the spelling on item six B of the real a bit taste ton.
2:39
Yeah, just correct the word.
2:43
I do that. I’ll say when I started on this board, there were a lot of acronyms and words that I had to learn. But that’s a new one to me.
2:51
So we’ll correct that. Thank you.
2:55
All right, we’ve got a motion a second, all in favor of the approving the agenda. Aye Any opposed? Seeing none. We will move on to approval of the minutes of since our last regular board meeting, we’ve had two meetings. We had a special joint meeting with the Longwood Housing Development Corporation on August 13. And then we had our regular meeting on August 18. We actually had a special meeting after that, that I think will approve those minutes. Next time. So you should all have received those draft minutes in your packet. I’d entertain a motion to approve both of those minutes.
3:41
So moved.
3:43
Moved by Tom. Second, Second. Second by Lauren.
3:49
All in favor wave your hand
3:53
unanimously approved so we will move on. So now we’re at item five, which is public invited to be heard. So if there’s anyone from the public watching, what you need to do is dial 1-833-548-0276 that the toll free numbers don’t worry about the long distance. When you’re prompted, enter the meeting ID which is 84755489100. And those instructions should also be on your screen including that phone number. When we’re ready to hear public comment, we’ll call on you to speak based upon the last three digits of your phone number. Again, each speaker must state their name and address for the record and they’ll be allowed three minutes to speak. And again, most importantly Remember to mute the live stream when you’re called on to speak. So what we need to do now because there is a delay between the zoom version of our our chat, our conference and the live stream We’re going to have a five minute break, and then we’ll come back. So it’s 806. Now so we’ll come back at 811 to see if we have anyone queued up to call me before we break. Yes, sir.
5:13
The number you read is different than the number on the screen.
5:18
Oh, that’s a good point.
5:21
And Chairman, the chair, the number on the screen is the toll free number, the number you read is not.
5:29
Alright. So let’s go back. And so the number on your screen if you’re listening and not on the screen is 1887880099. My understanding is both of those numbers will work. In In either case, when you get in you have to enter the meeting id 84755489100. We’ll take a five minute break now. We will be back at 811 to see if we have anyone queued up.
9:30
Welcome back. It’s 811. Can someone who’s monitoring the waiting room? Let me know if there is anyone who was queued up to speak.
9:42
Yes, chair. We have one caller in our queue. And when everyone’s back on camera. I will begin. Great. All right. We have one caller your phone number ends in 187. I’m going to ask ask you to unmute.
10:03
You are,
10:04
can you please state your name and address for the record? You have three minutes?
10:09
Yes, my name is Michelle Newman. And my address is 320 homestead Parkway, Spring Creek apartments, Longmont, Colorado. 80504. I’m in unit 119. And some of you’ve heard from me in the past, many have not. I have been with silence last year with a restraining order. I won’t go into that right now. My main concerns are the integrated partnership and love the comments that have been made since the first of the year by Tim waters and about getting a professional mediator to Spring Creek to handle the situation. Even upon Julian Baldwin’s departure, things have changed minimally, residents still feel like they’re a prisoner of their apartments. And now, Julian is come back to haunt us again. Because all residents, especially the original residents, who came into apartments in 2016, signed an eight page lease, we are now being forced by Tory Sanders. To win we renew recertify and renew our leases this year to sign a 27 page lease that is on legal paper, small tight where residents are being called in after their recertification is approved to meet Lee sign no discussion, this lease is a joke. I mean, it is not even legally written. It is does not pertain to the type of housing we have. It is like a generic globalise. And it puts all the demands on the resident, the agent or Li j has no responsibility or accountability in this lease, and there’s no recourse for residents. If la j, actually, or the agent does not abide by their end obligations. And this needs to be rewritten and discussed. I don’t know how many board members have seen this new lease that we are being instructed to sign. And it’s it’s very concerning. And I’m to the point that I want to go month to month when I renew. But then the problem is that they’re going to probably check up my rent because I’m month to month. And with that last moment, at the August meeting, you mentioned that you have at our Housing Choice vouchers available to distribute to the community. I had submitted a 2018 Housing Choice Voucher lottery entry form. And I want to know what the likelihood is that I might be a candidate to receive one of those 80 Housing Choice vouchers, especially if I go month to month and do not sign this new ridiculous lease that’s being forced on the residence.
13:18
If that, is that my three minutes.
13:21
I think we can hear you just fine. Thank you for your comments. I think as you know, you’ve presented before spoken before, this is the opportunity for you to give us information and it’s not there’s not a lot of back and forth here. But I would suggest that you call the the main line and discuss that with someone.
13:42
Okay, all right. Thank you. Thank you very much.
13:49
And was that our only caller today?
13:53
Yes, chair. That was it.
13:55
Okay, thank you. So we’ll move on to item number six A, which is review and approval of a final draft letter to the city of Longmont. Regarding the value of city services to the Li J. We circulated a revised draft based upon some comments that we had at our special meeting a week ago. Hopefully you’ve all had a chance to review that and it’s included in the packet. So this will be the final draft unless anyone wants to discuss it and suggest some revisions. Polly
14:35
I would suggest just one change. I think this is a good letter. I really do. I think you did a good job of summing up everything that was discussed the word unpalatable, which I know James suggested and I have a great deal of respect for Jean, but I would suggest changing it to a different word like unaffordable unpolished implies that they kind of have a choice and they don’t really know rent increases ever palatable but when I would just suggest a different word like unaffordable or steep or something like that, that’s all okay.
15:25
So I so I think to follow Robert’s Rules to get further into discussion or no no discussion we had to have a motion to approve or Motion to approve with with Polly’s suggested change. Anyone wants to go that direction?
15:39
I would motion to approve the letter with with Polly’s change. I agree with her assessment of that word.
15:45
Okay. We have a motion from Lauren.
15:49
And second, or second from Arlene.
15:54
there any discussion?
15:59
No discussion? All in favor? Raise your hand.
16:04
All opposed do the same. No one opposed with motion carries. So we will finalize that letter and get that off to the city. Immediately for inclusion in tonight’s discussion.
16:20
Well, Karen Cameron, I couldn’t get mine off mute. I needed to recuse myself from that vote.
16:26
That’s what I was.
16:29
Duly noted.
16:33
Let’s move on to item six be resolution 2020 dash 13, which is a resolution approving the closing of various sources of funding for the redevelopment of a rib Here we go. redevelopment and rehabilitation of Aspen Meadows department. That resolution was circulated. I think separately from the agenda. You should all have that.
17:01
I’d entertain a motion to approve that.
17:06
Arlene moves to prove
17:07
can wear this one. In fact, it asked a couple of questions.
17:11
Absolutely. I think I think Yeah, go ahead. Discussion would usually wait until we have a motion in a second. But
17:18
okay. Oh, wait. Oh, wait.
17:21
I’ll move. Approval of resolution 2020 days. 13. Thank you.
17:30
We have a motion. And I didn’t catch you that second last. Second. Second from Jean. All right. So now let’s turn to discussion. Arlene, would you like to ask your questions?
17:40
Well, because I’m fairly new at this. And some of this legalese is a little intimidating to me. I wondering if this is the project for the rehabilitation of Aspen Meadows apartments? Is that correct?
17:58
Yes, it is.
17:59
Okay, so I understand the bond for $8 million. And then the all of the other amounts of money that are in here total up to a little bit over 6.6 million. Is that in addition to or is that to go against that bond? So in other words, are we Is it a $15 million funding we’re doing here, or what exactly is it?
18:30
It’s okay, it’s about half of that. So yeah, so some of those sources are going against the bond, and some are not. So it’s about a seven $8 million project altogether, because there’s acquisition, transferring the property from one end to the other, considered to be acquisition or a sale. So the value of the property and the land and then about a five, just under $5 million
19:04
renovation included at that. Okay.
19:09
Thank you.
19:14
Thanks for that clarification, because in some of our communication, we refer to the project as a $5 million rehab project. So it’s helpful to understand that.
19:24
Any other comments or questions?
19:28
are seeing none. All in favor? Please raise your hands.
19:35
Any opposed?
19:38
And should I note, Harold, that you recuse yourself from that one as well? Or did you not wait? Raise your hand?
19:44
Oh, I’m raising. I’m bored. I’m having computer issues right now. Okay.
19:50
So we unanimously approved Thank you. Let’s move on now to item number seven Executive Board Member report.
20:03
Sorry, it is, um, I’m having a world of hurt right now, with my computer,
20:12
send it to me that,
20:14
no, I’m like, I don’t have a presentation. It’s just, okay. It’s locking up on me. So it’s doing some wonky stuff. A couple of things that I wanted to update you all on in terms of the fire that we had at the lodge, everything seems to be coming back together.
20:39
As of last Friday,
20:42
the team that 24 seven, they came in for the rehab, they move units one on one and one or two, they were two of the last ones that were in play, they were allowed to move back in, they cleared the hallway, they still think they’ve moved the filter, but they still had to happen scrub air scrubber, the one unit that is going to need to be open for a longer period of time is unit 201 in terms of where they had the actual fire, and they have to move all of their contents out and they have to get those contents cleaned. And so that we can go in and do the the smoke mitigation that you need to do in that unit. But you know, within about a week, everything. You know, we had to move out people the following leave it was the following Monday, we were able to move some back in. And then Tuesday we moved the Balkan. And then those last two units were the ones that were I think immediately below it where the water came in, and it needed to have some additional drying time. So the team did, you know, in terms of the amount of water that was in that facility, and I guess our experience, the last time this happened in terms of getting the remediation team man, they did a really good job of getting in there quickly and getting the drying equipment into the walls so that we could avoid any other potential significant issues related to water damage. Karen, Kathy, Did I miss anything on that one? I
22:21
think so.
22:23
Okay. Um, the other thing that I wanted to update you all on. So obviously, we have a number of vacant positions, we have been looking at the budget. And what we can do and what we really wanted to focus on was putting in hiring positions where the rubber meets the road in terms of actually working within the various neighborhoods. So we’re currently in the hiring process for to community managers, and maintenance tech, as we indicated, we did get the proposals for the consultants and we’re looking at the financials associated with that, specifically related to the finance, Housing Choice vouchers, and the already proposals. You know, the one thing I can say on the Housing Choice Voucher piece, the number was significant. In terms of when we talked about bringing someone in to give you a sense of what they were talking about. It was approximately I think on the high end, it was $30,000 a month for someone to come in and work on the Housing Choice vouchers. I think the low end of that was around 20,000. Kathy Karen, in terms of the proposals, so the good news is for us, we think in terms of HCV. And, you know, the staff that’s there and the work that we’ve been doing, we have a better handle on it. So we may be able to look at just utilizing an hourly rate for training on the r&d side, that’s going to be pretty important to us. Because as we look at the conversion into the financial system, what we realized is that, even though we’ve implemented yardie, there’s still a reliance on the old HMS system in terms of getting data. So part of the yardie consultant will be in moving data over completely from the HMS system to the yardie system so we can have everything in one place. Not sure exactly why it was converted that way, but we need to get a full conversion over. In terms of the it process. We’ve been working with our ETS group. Our goal is to have a cutover on October 18, where we can bring the housing authority over into the city’s ETS side so we can have all the appropriate firewalls and security in place. You know, right now that’s also going to be dependent on purchasing equipment. Most of the equipment’s actually coming in We did find out recently that a couple of pieces to the primary infrastructure, backbone infrastructure that you need for this is going, it’s potentially going to be delayed. So that may delay the cut over time. But really what we’re dealing with at this point is, as a product of COVID, especially in the technology world, sometimes it just takes a lot of time to get equipment because they got behind it manufacturing. If you have young kids or you have young grandchildren, the best example I will give you is that if you’re looking for a Nintendo Switch, those things have been sold out forever, because you can’t just stop making them during COVID. So our ETS, folks are really going to work through that and really try to push for that October 18, kind of over some things that we saw on the ETF side. And this is as much stuff day, Captain Karen, I had to add some funds, because the ups that they had in place at the facilities wasn’t adequate for the time, you need to have backup or the phone lines. And so we’re going to add a more robust backup that will keep our on to the technology. The funding for that I’m going to talk to city council tonight. But as we looked at the cares funding that we have,
26:27
we can utilize that based on our conversations with the left. And it’s really all based on the impact of COVID in and positioning the organization so they can work remotely in this type of world. But you all may know or may not know, they never were able to work remotely, even when we really should have just because of the system that was in place. And that started from computers to just the backbone infrastructure. So about now $92,000 is going to be what I’m going to go over with counsel, in terms of what it takes to get the lhsaa system in in order in shape. So a it works but be more importantly, they can work remotely. And at the end of the day, the big impact on that’s going to really be if if we had a community manager that couldn’t come into the facility, they could still work remotely and interact with people. They can’t do that now. So the good news is cares funding comes into play. And lets us deal with a significant issue that I think will really strengthen the organization and includes new computers monitors for everyone, so they can actually have 2020 technology to use. The other thing that that we’re also working on, and just to let you know, based on the public invited to be heard comments, um, just you know, we were going to try to get some more information and then communicate with the board. But since it came up, we were made aware of the lease issue last week. We have been, they have caffeine, Karen and Michelle, have been looking into this this item. They’ve been briefing me on this issue, what it looks like. And we weren’t aware that this lease was in play. But when we found out it looks like to the caller’s point, Jillian is working with an outside another firm that specializes in leases. And they were drafting this lease. And so as we’ve been looking through this, I will let Karen jump in at this point on the report to kind of tell you where we are today and what we’re seeing. Aaron, do you want to jump in?
29:01
Thanks, Harold. Yeah. So. So so we are we are continuing to meet. So the this new lease was used for the recertification of the Spring Creek residents. And you know, what we understand is that a new lease does not have to be signed with recertifications. So so we’re going to be looking about at the option of pulling back that that particular lease for the folks who were recertified at Spring Creek, and we’re taking another look at that, at that that lease. You know, Michelle, who is working directly with the community managers, as Harold mentioned, indicated that that belief is quite long. It’s 8.5 it is. It’s pretty, it’s pretty different. I would say from the lease that the residents have been used to so so I think maybe in the attempt to strengthen some things that need to be strengthened the lease. You know, we haven’t seen it yet. But I’m saying maybe maybe we went a little overboard. So we’re we’re really, we’re taking another look at that and tried to come up with a lease. And I think the interest was coming up with a standardized lease for all of the properties. And so we’re going to take another stab at that. But we are certainly aware that this lease document is, is rather onerous. And you know, we want to make sure that the the new lease has what it needs to have in that without being too onerous. So we’re going to go go back on that one and and figure that out.
30:54
Carol,
30:56
I’m just for clarification, that lease isn’t just for Spring Creek, it’s for all the properties.
31:03
And I have got I have received very similar complaints to the one we heard in public comment about that lease, so I’m glad to know you’re working on it. Um, personally, I would like to see a copy of it, because it seems way on the line, way out of line.
31:25
So we will get that to the board. Like I said, I think this here, this was Thursday, Friday, Karen,
31:34
it was Friday,
31:36
Friday that this this hit us. And so this is very similar to what we’ve talked about. Before, it seems like as we’re moving along and trying to learn as much as we can, there’s still things we don’t know. You know, I would put a question forward to the board and that I don’t know what discussions you all had with this work? Because we know it goes back a while and I’m seeing I’m seeing the answer. I think that there wasn’t conversations on that. And so just so you all know, these are things that that are going to probably pop continue to pop in hit us as we’re moving through this. But definitely understand what people are communicating to us and their concerns. And just let folks know that we’re looking at it, we’re going to need a little bit of time as we assess this, you know, what’s really going on what the least needs to look like. Obviously, you’ve heard from Karen, I know Karen and Michelle in the group met yesterday afternoon. We’re looking at it. And hopefully within the near future, we’ll have an answer in terms of what we can do. But we’re going to move as quickly as we can on that one.
32:48
Yeah. And I can add to that, so genius, genius. Correct. So we are looking at a standard lease for all properties. And so we started to roll this out for for the for the properties, where leases do need to be updated. So So anyhow, and I think the other challenge that we as staff are continuing to work on is that we have the good news, as there’s a lot of us that are involved in and these efforts, the challenging is that sometimes we stepped over ourselves. So we are, you know, certainly working on our own internal coordination issues, to help make sure that communications are clear. And, and the direction is is coordinated. So. So that’s, that’s good for us to continue to work on to.
33:37
Yeah, and I think the piece on that, that Karen and I actually talked about yesterday, before we anything’s done on a significant step, any significant change, they need to make sure that they’re communicating with me, Karen and Kathy, so that so that we’re on top of it versus just, you know, moving forward, because sometimes things that may seem relatively benign, are not, and we then end up spending a lot of time
34:06
going around in a circle. So
34:09
so we’re also adjusting some operational components on this so that we’re aware of these in the future. And Jean, yeah, thanks. Because it actually was Kathy.
34:19
Oh, I just wanted to add, just so that we’re very clear, even if we, at research, go back and just use the existing lease for right now for recertifications there’s likely to be addendums that will need to be signed because there are things missing from the current lease, like the violence against women’s act addendum and crime free multi housing addendum. So there will still be likely be paperwork that might need to be signed and addendums but they should be able to be fully explained. And only that paperwork then signed up at recertifications until we get to a more comprehensive lease.
34:59
Okay. And and can I comment on that?
35:04
Kathy, that’s the usual process is for the Vala. And and a couple of others that are signed every year. But the the recertification, the they the lease was a one page, simply referring to the original lease. So I’m assuming this 27 pager came out because they decided to change the lease. But for our purposes, I think one page will do it with the right dates on it. And and the agenda that you mentioned. So that would get us over the bridge until we get this other lease straightened out.
35:47
Yeah, I think it also to Kathy’s point, want to be clear, I think what we know is the current lease doesn’t meet what we need and what we’re supposed to have. So the lease will have to be changed. I think the question that we’re going to look at, does it have to be converted into a 27 page lease? Or is there a more streamlined approach that we can get to accomplish what we need to. So I want to be clear, the lease is going to change and needs to change in order to meet the our compliance issues. It just needs to be done in a way that’s more user friendly, I guess is the best way to say it. So we’re I just wanted to let you all know that we’re, we’re we’re moving down that road and and it’s likely you’re going to hear these things again in the future, because there’s just certain things, obviously, from this conversation, we just don’t know. But what I can tell you, as soon as we find them, they’re going to dig, we’re going to dig into them and see what we can come up with. The other thing that I wanted to give the board a heads up on, and we were working on this yesterday, so you didn’t get your financial reports this month, because we are now in the middle of getting ready for budget for the Housing Authority. Which is a lot of work just so you know, I was not jumping into that until I could get the city’s budget. And everything presented to the council, we did that. So now we’re starting to work on this. More importantly, tracing or Kendra and Kathy have been working on submitting the budget to HUD for their that for the lodge in Hearthstone that’s actually due today. So they’ve been working feverishly on that one of the things that we’re also working on is a notice. Because it’s to to property correct, Kathy, do to it’s because it’s a two a two property, what we’re submitting in this budget request actually entails a rental increase that HUD will pay for. And so because of the HUD regulations, we have to put a notice to the residents about this. And so they’re working on that notice. so that it can be very clear to say we are submitting a budget request to HUD of which they will pay for the increase. But we have to notify you of a rental increase essentially is what it’s saying. But in case you all get any calls. It really is we’re saying here are things we need to add to the budget for the lodge and Hearthstone so that HUD can tell us whether or not they will pay for those, those increases in the red. Specifically, what we’re looking at is that historically, in that budget, there hasn’t been any ongoing maintenance dollars. So we’re including ongoing maintenance for things like the boiler, annual carpet cleaning, annual window cleaning, I mean basic things that you need to do in a facility that have never been included in that budget. We’ve also included a support service function, because because it is a to a to property, we feel that there is the need for support services. And that’s been included in that we think it’s something we need, actually more globally to all the facilities but this is our first run at it with HUD. And so we’ve we’ve included that and we’ll be some submitting that this afternoon, but I just wanted to give you all a heads up if you hear anything. It’s a rental. It’s a rent increase to HUD not to the individuals correct Kathy?
39:37
Correct. For the two oh twos
39:40
were the two twos lodge in Hearthstone is the one we’re talking about in this middle. I know HUD closed that down for a while I don’t know how long it’s been. It’s hard for us to tell. I don’t know how long it’s been since the housing authorities actually done something like this and asked her to pick up more babies On the operations, one of the things that because the budget also has to be public, one of the things that really ties into the technology piece that we’re working on is that as part of connecting the facilities into our ETS network, were you utilizing next slide, because that’s the backbone for the city’s network. And so they have a plan to bring it into the facilities. We’ve also been in conversations in terms of creating a bulk rate for phone and internet service of which we’ve included in this proposal to see if if HUD will cover that cost, because it isn’t, in this case, in this property at 202 property, which gives us some different components. They could say yes or no, typically what happens, we submitted, they come back to us and say, we’ll do this, we won’t do this, then we have to resubmit. But that’s the process we’re going through there. Kendra did a phenomenal job really identifying and working with everyone to identify what we probably should have had in this budget A long time ago, in terms of the ongoing operating costs associated with those facilities. So it is going to be different, but what we’re trying to do is at least hopefully, they’ll say yes, but if they don’t get it on their radar, get it on HUDs radar. So they know truly what the operating cost is for these facilities. I missed anything Karen? Cathy.
41:38
Harold, Can I just add, just for information sake, that two or two properties,
41:47
they residents will not experience a rent increase because there is based on their income. And, and I appreciate the fact you’re sensitive to that in the letter that you have to post. Just if you have to do capital letters in bold, your rent will not increase what you pay will not increase. Because that does create a lot of a lot of
42:15
pushback.
42:16
Yeah, it does. It’s interesting, because when you talk about the lease issue and the protocols we put in place, I could week, Karen and Kathy and I could see the conversation via email. And it was one of those where we jumped in, I think all three of us at the same time very quickly and said, Okay, stop. Let’s make sure we get the notice, right, Kathy and Kendra were on the phone with HUD, and was sending a sample notices that have been used in other properties to do that very thing. Because we didn’t want to take something that could be really positive for the organization and those facilities and create something that would send us in another spin cycle. So great point. Yeah. And it is I think it’s based on your income. So if you’re paying 30% of your income, your 30% is going to stay the same. Or if it’s 50%, whatever that number is.
43:08
As we look at the budget, just
43:11
I know Kathy had it as an item. And I’m just going to tee that up so we can move into the budget discussions. The one thing I will say is, we started having some conversations and we had to free kyndra. To finish the broader to finish the lodge in Hearthstone budget. You know, one of the things that you’ve heard me talk about is hiring positions where the rubber meets the road, making sure that we have people in positions that serve the residents. And and what I will tell you and looking at the budget at this point is and what you’re likely to see, and I’ll let Cathy talk go into more detail on this is is that my look at the budget, when we look at the existing structure and this gets into the sustainability piece that I think our consultant was talking about, that we’ve been talking to you all about is that when you you have a budget that is dominated by the salary in terms of dominated by an executive director, and then also dominated by the Chief Financial Officer, what that really does is pull the available resources away for really the positions that you need to have in place adequately compensated community managers, you know, what is the benchmark for those positions, really getting in, you know, eventually the accountants that you need in place to do the work and so I will preface it by before Kathy gets in is that as we look at this, you will see unless something changes drastically, a budget coming to you all without those two positions in it. So we can use The revenue for other positions. And essentially, it’s how I say this, it’s less expensive for someone for the three of us to jump in and do this than to hire a CFO and the CEO or Executive Director and some of these other positions. So so you will see a budget that’s bringing that to bear.
45:22
I miss anything on that, Kathy? Karen?
45:26
No, I would just, um, we are back up that point, I guess with as we’re moving into this budget process, we’re finding another anomalies in the financial system. Just to give an example, some things like double entering things, because it didn’t show up from one month to the next. So an expense was double entered. So figuring all of that out and trying to back it out. So what we’re facing is not having a very good picture overall, broadly, we have a good picture of the financial system. But the more specifics, in property by property, not as good a picture as we would like in order to be able to do really good budgets. So probably what we’re going to have to do, while we’re unraveling the rest, and bringing in the consultant accountants to do some forensic accounting, and trying to get yardie, reflecting what has actually happened, and correcting journal entries, etc, is to prepare a budget. And as Harold said, not having those higher level positions, but lower level positions, so that we know that we can afford. So we have a budget that makes sense for now, but maybe adjust it in six months, or halfway through 2021, something like that, as we get to a better financial picture and know what we can really can do and can’t do around that. So it’s going to be probably kind of a weird budget year, I guess I would say, this year as we move through each property, and some absolutely look better than others. And so trying to figure out why that is, some of it is because of the way they’re set up. Some of it, like the suites has got project based vouchers attached to everyone. So there’s a higher level of rent that’s paid by HUD through that versus the other properties that don’t have as many vouchers. And it’s all tenant paid rent. So it’s going to be inconsistent across properties. And I would imagine that at some point, we’re going to need to do budget adjustments in in 2021. But our goal is to have the best budgets that we can going into that period for you guys to look at and feel comfortable approving. But it is going to take a lot of work, a lot of work.
48:02
And actually in in this is where you kind of see us moving in and out. You know, this is something that that I actually like to do budgeting. That’s kind of how I started out. And so you’ll probably see me a lot in this in the work that we’re doing. And it’s as basic is. So a question that I’ve that I asked on a Friday when we met, there are certain properties that we see that have historically budgeted in a deficit. And so, you know, I want to why did they always historically budget in a deficit and, and it really is that forensic accounting piece that you have to come in with and go, so what’s happened. And so we’re going to be working through all of those issues. So in terms of the budget coming to you all, it’s going to probably come in very late. But we want to make sure that we present the best budget that we can based on what we know and really understand what are the operating costs associated with the facilities and what do we need to do because Cathy’s, right, we’re seeing double revenue entries, double expenditure entries. We’re, you know, in terms of staffing costs it It took us a little bit to untangle it, because when we came into this, what we thought was budgeted and what and this in that number we gave you all we had to do all of this work. So there may have been an accountant position that was vacant and budgeted. But at some point, they created other positions and funded it with the accounting position but didn’t adjust the budget to show that the accounting position was unfunded and they utilize these positions. And honestly, it looks to me like that’s sort of been a historical trend. It’s not anything new. Not to say that it was something that was new with Julian, it looks like that has something something that has gone on for a while. And so it’s really at this point of really rebuilding the budget foundation as well. At the same time, we’re also going to look into to the benefit structure. So I’ve asked some questions, we’ve got to really contact the health insurance broker because we know it’s time to realize that we’re trying to evaluate what’s the cost of benefits on this side? versus what’s the cost of benefits on the city side? And what makes more sense? Does it make more sense to bring those positions over if it’s savings, we also have to put put that in the framework of recruitment and retention, in terms of the level of plans. So there’s a lot of work that’s going to go into this budget process. Some of the things as I think I’ve indicated to you all, may lead us to certain conclusions faster than we have originally assumed. But it’s really going to be a numbers based approach. And it really pragmatic approaches, we’re moving through this.
51:21
Hero, does that look at the budget
51:26
at all call into question the numbers that we’re telling council about tonight.
51:30
Now, I think we’re good on those numbers, because that’s taken all of that into consideration. Okay. So that that was work that we were doing before, based on what we were trying to see what we had in terms of salary savings, because if the cares funding wasn’t gonna come through, then we’re gonna have to figure out how to pay for the technology and some of the other things. And so that number is good actually. And, and you’ll see something similar in that as we move into the next budget cycle, because remember, I think you had in the CFO, I believe it was on salary only was around 100,000, hundred and 10,000. And then you have benefits on top of that. And then on the CEO, you had 150,000, and then benefits on top of that. So that’s what we’re not doing in order to make sure that some of these other things can be done. And so you’ll see that start flowing through, but that’s what we’re working on now.
52:38
Like Cameron, Ella, Harold, is you described what will be reflected in this budget and what Won’t it kind of connected to Cameron’s question about the unspent budgeted but unspent balances, right for the for the rest of this year, that puts la chain in position to reimburse the city for some hobby, not all of the time and effort and expense The city is experiencing? Sounds to me like you’re gonna bring us a budget for 2021, that does not have that capacity, or does not have money budgeted to cover that kind of executive service in 2021. So will will that put LBJ in the position in 2021, not being able to reimburse the city for the kinds of services that you and Karen and Kathy and I think.
53:34
So I think that’s part of where there’s two conversations happening. And so when we look at the budget, we know that you are having that conversation, and we know that the council is going to have that conversation. That’s information that will have to be pulled in so that we can create so that we can finalize that. So that’s going to be a little bit of a lag to that we have to wait on it. We’re not I don’t think we’re going to need all of the funds to hire the positions. But what we’re doing right now is we’ve got to work through that we’re just not at that point. I just know that in terms of if there were was a thought of re hiring an executive director that only did that don’t have that financial capability. If we were going to look at re hiring a CFO that would only do that. We don’t have that financial capability.
54:31
yet.
54:33
I think you’re I think you can clear that. And I think I think if you talked about the hybrid model and giving us 18 months to make a decision in terms of what the relationships look like and what staffing looks like. You know, you wouldn’t expect to see that but, but in terms of sustained even this relationship in 2021 you know, I just did on one llj boardroom things we ought to make certain that in the interest of sustainable We have to build it out. So that the so that Li j, probably not to the level of value, but at least as a way to transact with the city. Some kind of reimbursement for what you and Kathy and Karen and others bring. And I would say one more thing. Kathy used the word weird. She struggled for words. Well, maybe it’s weird. Kathy has been weird for as long as I’ve been on the board. Now, I don’t know if that’s a noun, or an adjective. But maybe it’s both in this case, but it’s, it’s weird. And it’s getting weirder, apparently, as we go along. So I’m certain you’ll get it straight now.
55:41
Yeah. Yeah. And I think to answer your question, and to be clear, on my point, what I’ve got to look at, I have to look at the budget is exactly what you said is what are we doing? who’s involved? And what does that look like? And how do we incorporate it incorporate in the budget for Kathy, Karen and the others that are involved? Obviously, I will not put anything in there. For me that’s for that’s a different conversation for others. But for those that work, under me, that I supervise, I have to bring that in as part of the budget conversation.
56:27
The good news. So we’ve we’ve talked about a lot of issues.
56:32
And as we’re we’re talking about budgets, what I did want to let you all know, is I actually did have a good conversation with Darren at Fort Collins. And this is not unusual.
56:49
They actually went through the same thing.
56:53
The piece that and that was really good news for me, is when he talked about what Fort Collins did, it almost mirrors exactly what we’re doing, and the way we did it. So that’s that’s good news, meaning we’re tracking in a way that another organization did. Fort Collins is eventually trans transitioned into being one of the housing authorities that people really, when you go back to the mission statement we talked about, we want people to replicate our model. And whenever we do, you know, they’re really at that point.
57:31
Now, it took a long time.
57:35
And the timeframe they used was it was about 10 years. Before it really got to where it needed to be I saw Kathy’s look.
57:45
But I think it’s the good news is,
57:49
as I talked to talk to Darren, and he and I are going to meet again. It we’re, you know, we’re moving in this in I think a really good direction, we’re tackling the issues we need to it looks like others that have been in this process. The thing that we just need to say is patience, and tenacity, I think are going to be key for all of us as we continue to do this. And understand that there will continue to be issues that pop up. In the case of Fort Collins, they actually took that approach with the Deputy Director, they hired someone and that worked for Darren, in this process in the lower level position, that person is actually the one running the organization now. So wanted you all to know that what we’re doing is not inconsistent. And the more I’m talking to my colleagues, we’re starting to hear that we’re actually moving in the same direction they did. And very similar to what I’ve seen in other communities I’ve worked in, when I was a entry level management assistant, and they had issues with their housing authority, it was sort of the same approach. So the good news is I think we’re moving in the right path. We just need to be patient.
59:10
Karen, Kathy, do you have anything to add to that?
59:15
Not specifically that but the other good news is that the Bioware departments now have full access to next slide. We move very quickly to to get them because a couple of them have kiddos that needed to have that further school, virtual school so that was a quick turnaround by next light to get them access at the discounted rate. So they’re pretty happy. There. So
59:45
um, they are moving to that point they they do have a plan to have access at all the facilities. By the time the cutover has to take place for our facility. And we are when we have the opportunity financially, really trying to look at the concept of bulk rates for the facility. Because we think that as a tremendous value. And to give you a sense of what we’re hearing, I had an email from some think it may have been Michelle, where people are paying in aggregate up to like $150. Um, and, and so in our conversations with next slide, based on why people are in the housing authority properties, we deem that as a qualifying factor for our reduced rate structure that we have in place, which is, obviously a lower bandwidth. But what they would have to pick up if if we’re not, if it were up to them as an individual, if they wanted to full mech service, they only have to pick up potentially the difference in the rate structure, which is still less money. If we can do a bulk rate, then it shifts that dramatically for them. But when you start lowering the cost, it really is how do you impact their disposable income by providing these types of services. So next slide. It’s been a great partner in this. And this really is getting out when we talk about digital divide, the digital divide doesn’t only exist in youth, and the youth of our community, we know that the digital divide also exists for older adults. And so it really is in great partnership that we’ve been developing with them in terms of closing that gap as quickly as we can. And they’ve been really, really responsive in terms of getting into these facilities. I know, that was a question that council asked. And so what we can say is, hopefully, within a month or so, Kathy, we should have next slide in every one of the housing authority properties.
1:02:06
No, and I think the only thing that I would just echo is the need for patience and tenacity. So, you know, it is, it’s, it’s quite, it’s quite a journey. And as Harold mentioned, it, you know, could be a 10 year journey for some folks. But, um, but, you know, we we are learning, as city staff, we are learning right alongside the board, the Housing Authority staff, and, and, and the road can be a little rocky. And so, you know, we just asked for patients, we ask for inputs, don’t hesitate to reach out to us when you hear things or you wonder what the heck is going on? You know, we invite that, because it really is about persevering and getting to the future that we all want. But I think we just, you know, we talked about yesterday, yesterday was a real day, you know, it seems like everything that we touched went wrong. And so we will have those days. And we also have days where it’s a beautiful thing. And so, so certainly, please continue to give us input not hold back on what you’re hearing or what questions that you have. And and we will do our best to work through that. But I think patience and tenacity
1:03:32
to good
1:03:34
adjectives and things that we really need to continue to hang on to as we move forward.
1:03:42
I’ll come talk to wired. But I do want to point out to Kathy and Karen that we will from the board give you a plaque when you get to your 10 year anniversary with LBJ. So
1:03:53
I was just gonna ask if sicheren just signed up for 10 years? Because I’m asleep? Well, tonight.
1:03:58
Yes, we’ll have to figure out where are you gonna send that?
1:04:05
You’re just gonna tell me where to put it. I know.
1:04:08
And I think that’s the you know, not to dismiss me we have issues and we develop You know, we’ve talked about adjusting protocols. So we know what’s going on. It’s in a different way. I can’t underscore the the work that’s been done by everyone, you know, folks that are been with the housing authority that have remained to stay, and just the fact the perseverance that they have dealing, dealing with us because we do drive, and they’ve done a phenomenal job at that. The work from the city team that’s come into play. It’s been fun. everybody’s done phenomenal work.
1:04:51
But you know,
1:04:53
I you know, I look at Kathy Karen, I think we’ve talked about this, during and I talked about this. This is probably In our career, the hardest work, at least in my perspective, the hardest work that we’ve ever done in terms of trying to distill, understand move. But at the same time, I will tell you, it’s also in many ways, the most rewarding work that I have done in the sense that at the end of the day, our mission is to house people, and to take into take care of help take care of those that most needed in our community. So while it’s incredibly hard, it’s incredibly rewarding. And so patience and tenacity, because the reward is great.
1:05:37
is kind of how we’re looking at this.
1:05:44
Well, it is appreciated.
1:05:48
Sounds like we’ve wrapped up your report. Harold, is that correct? All right. Well, let’s move on to board comments and reports. Does anyone have anything they’d like to add or discuss today?
1:06:05
No one.
1:06:07
Well, I will point out, the council will be discussing us tonight. They discussed us a couple of weeks ago. So tune in, it’s labeled to be my CTV.
1:06:22
Dameron or you’re gonna be on there, right?
1:06:25
I’ll be on there. I’ll see all your skills and projects, maybe offline to figure out what you want me to do. But I’m available.
1:06:32
Yeah, I think it’s just you need to give your whatever
1:06:35
the letter letter and Okay,
1:06:37
go over that with them. And Susan, I forgot to. Yeah, yesterday was Monday. I forgot to tell you, I need to invite Karen to this meeting. Susan, since you’re on.
1:06:47
I’m Karen
1:06:49
Cameron.
1:06:51
He’s already invited. I got it. Right.
1:06:53
Perfect. Somebody took care of it. Thanks. Yep.
1:06:57
All right. Well, if there are no other comments or reports, our next meeting will be October 20. I don’t see a special meeting in our future. But we’re the Li K. So that may happen if you want to jump in.
1:07:12
Yeah, sorry. And another exciting thing. Our ama closing loan closing is scheduled for September 23. So I just realized it would be before y’all meet again. So yay, if that actually happens on that date, or even close to that. And then we’re also starting to schedule the conversion to permanent for Fall River as well. So that’s probably a couple month process, but at least it’s getting started. So yeah.
1:07:43
Remember, element coming
1:07:47
for the tax credit in February, and that’s for the other property of the Swedes.
1:07:55
So good things are happening.
1:07:58
All right. Well, thank you all for your persistence and stamina. We will talk again next month. And I will call this meeting adjourned.
1:08:11
Thank you all
Transcribed by https://otter.ai