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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1984-06-18 Reading Housing Authority MinutesREADING HOUSING AUTHORITY Minutes of the Regular Meeting - June 18, 1984 (Rescheduled from June 11. 1984) The Reading Housing Authority met in regular session on Monday, June 18, ',1984 at 7:30 P.M. at 22 Frank D. Tanner Drive in the Town of Reading, Massachusetts. This meeting was scheduled to replace the June 11, 1984 meeting which was cancelled a to lack of a quorum. Notice of this meeting had been properly posted in accordance with the By-Laws. The meeting was called to order by the Vice - Chairman, Mr. Westra, in the absence of the Chairman. Those other members present were Mr. Rand, Mrs. Swain, and Mr. White, forming a quorum. Mrs. Pierce, the Executive Director, was also present. A motion was made by Mr. Rand and seconded by Mr. White, and unanimously: VOTED: To accept for the record, the Minutes of the Regular Meeting held!, on May 14+,-1984, copies of which had previously been mailed to all members. The Vice - Chairman thereupon declared said motion carried and said vote in effmtl. A notion was made by Mr. White and seconded by Mrs. Swain, And:uhanimously: VOTED: To ratify the checks signed at the cancelled meeting of June 11 for payment at that time, and to approve and pay additional checks at this ntde'ti g `'ok a total of $16,176.08 for 667 -C, and $2,183.76 for Section 8. A list of those ,,necks is attached to, and made a part of these Minutes. The Vice - Chairman thereupon declared said motion curried and said vote in effect,. Mrs. Pierce next reported on the financial condition of the Authority, stating that the balance in the BayBank Middlesex Checking Account for 667 -0 was'', $6,785.99 as of May 31, 1984. With the payment of the above bills due at this time, upon the date of this meeting, there was a deficit balance in this account of $3,733.06• This was due to a large payment of $3,173.26 to the Reading Coin b- utory Retirement Fund for FY 85. Mrs. Pierce explained to the Board, that the Town was allowing the payment of only 1/3 of the total bill of $9,519.78 at this time inasmuch as the Authority's funds are currently low, pending payment at the end of FY 84 by the,­ State for the operating subsidy. The balance is to be paid before the end of August. Currently, there is a balance in the M.M.D.T. account of o ly $5,676.17 lAus interest. It was also reported that all rents had been collect d for the month of June, totalling $8,738.00. It was also noted, that, to ease the deficit balance above, a Section'.8 administrative reimbursement was due during the month, but the exact amount was not known until the Accountant works up the figures. Therefore, upon a motion made by Mr. White, and seconded by Mr. Rand, it was unanimously: VOTED: To withdraw from the M.M.D.T: account, an amount up to $2,000, which, together with the Section 8 reimbursement, would cover the bills for the `month; and to accept the Financial Report as read. Lne Vice - Chairman thereupon declared said motion carried and said vote in effect. 1. In updating the various Programs in which the Authority is currently involved, Mrs. Pierce first advised the members that the Maximym Allowable Rents (MAR) for Reading on the 707 Program had been received from EOCD. Prior to this time, the Authority had not been able to lease one tenant since the MARS were so low for'this area. This increase, however, does not help the situation very much as they are still below the Section 8's Fair Market Rents (FMR). EOCD said in their letter that they would consider increases in particular areas if the Authority could pro- vide back -up material to establish the necessity. Accordingly, Mrs. Pierce said she sent in a request with documentation from the Rent Reasonableness Study which is submitted regularly on the Section 8 Program, as well as an explanation abo t Reading's desirable location, the scarceness of multi- family units, etc., in the hope that EOCD will see fit to make the change. Otherwise, she explained in her letter, the Program would not be a workable one for Reading. On Project 689 -1, the community development for the retarded, Mrs. Pierce read a letter from Mr. Pyne of EOCD on the results of a meeting among all parties in his office on June 5, 1984. He'outlined the following schedule which was developed toward completion of our Project which is long overdues 1. That the Architect, John Walker, will complete the bid documents and submit them to EOCD no later than June 12, 1984. 2. That a review of the bid documents will occur at EOCD on Thursday, June 14, 1984, at 2 :00 P.M., and 3. That the Project will be bid during the month of July, with .a construction start occurring in late August or early September. It is anticipated that construction will be completed and the facility will be ready for occupancy by early Spring of 1985. Mrs. Pierce said that she had heard through the EMARC personnel that they first two meetings listed above had taken place, and that the specifications and bid forms are being readied for the month of July as stated. During the course of this discussion concerning the house at 74 Bancroft Avenue, Mrs. Pierce happened to mention that EMARC is trying to have the swimming pool restored in the construction costs# and take the responsibility for it to use as a recreational facility for their clients at this house and from their other locations. Mr. White was surprised to hear this and said he always under- stood that the pool would be filled in which was the original intent. However, EMARC came up with this idea, and it has been a subject for discussion within i their department and EOCD- Mr. White said he was vehemently opposed to keeping the pool, as no matter who claimed responsibility, in the event of a tragedy, the Authority would be legally responsible as the owners of the property, and they could be sued as a group or as individual Board members. The other members, upon hearing his argument, said they were not aware of this fact, and yielded to Mr. White's professional knowledge in this matter. Mrs. Pierce was asked to Inform the EMARC personnel of the Board's feelings in this matter# and if necessary, would take it up further with EOCD. Also, on this Program, a letter was read which announced that, in response to concerns raised by local officials and housing authorities, regarding the ,tax exempt status of Chapter 689 housing, EOCD is now allowing payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for all their developments. Mrs. Pierce said she had sent a copy of their letter to the Board of Assessors in the Town with the form they must complete to make them eligible for this payment in the new tax year. 2. On the Chapter 705 Program, Mrs. Pierce said she had met With Kathryn Kasch ` -f EOCD on the day she attended the meeting on the 689 Program. She introduced her o a Mr. Curtis Davis Who would be working with our Authority on this Project, and Mrs. Pierce was given a packet containing all the forms Which will go with the Program covering any route that is taken, that is, new construction, acquisition, with rehab., etc. Mr. Davis told Mrs. Pierce that, although they Were impressed with the proposal submitted on the acquisition of the 6 -unit property on Haven Street, they still would not rule out new construction of 6 units which is the most desirable Way to go. However, he set up a meeting to look over the property and met with Mrs. Pierce and the landlord, Mr. Morley on June 7th. At that time, he seemed more optimistic about the purchase and rehabilitation of this property,, and said he would work up his figures on the cost of rehab. with purchase With the Architects available at EOCD, and get back to the Authority one way or another in July. He told Mr. Morley that it wouldn't be fair to keep him waiting any longejr than that, and made the promise to him on the July deadline. Mrs. Pierce said�she felt a general optimism that this Program will move along more quickly than has 4been the experience with the 689 Program. Concerning the Office Expansion plans, Jeff Cook had reported that he had a meeting set With Steve Lo from EOCD to go over his revisions to Jeffs plans, and that he hoped everything would be ready to review With the Authority at the July meeting. Next, the Board was informed that the Management Checklist which was imple- mented two years ago to rate the Authorities for their spending cap was finally received for the new Budget. Authorities with July Fiscal Years have an extension for submission of their Budget to August 1, 1984, due to the tardiness of this . hecklist and new Budget Guidelines. Mrs. Pierce said she was getting the repo' t completed for submission within the week, and that the form required the signatures of all Board members to state that the Authority was in compliance with all EOCD Regulations. Accordingly, all members present signed at this time. Further, on the subject of the upcoming Budget, a Memo was read from EOCD concerning the Department of Labor & Industries Wage Rates for maintenance person- nel. It stated that EOCD and DLI have been working for some time toward the to range goal of ensuring the local housing authorities be given maximum flexibilit in setting maintenance wade rates with their Authority. i Accordingly, DLI has developed a set of job classifications, along with WLge rates which it has determined to be appropriate for each, and now EOCD has requested that each Authority submit an analysis of job content for each maintenance persoi, and the percentage of time spent in each category. Of course, none of the examples sent along covered the situation of one man for an entire Project, so Mrs. Pierce said she would take work tasks from all of the enclosed samples which she felt pertained to Jim's work here at the Project and group them into categories of custodial, labor, mechanical, etc. This was to be sent in within the week to EOCD, and then the Authority would hear from DLI before the Budget submission just what the wage rate would be. In the letter, it also stated that back --up information such as maintenance work logs, etc. should be available for this Report, but to date, the maintenance work has been performed without the use of any type of work order forms. Mrs. Pierce said she felt that the time has come to implement some type of simple system rith Jim's reporting on daily schedules, and using work order forms. She said she would report in her Management Checklist, that this type of system would begin on July 1st with the new Fiscal Year. 3• She said she was currently in the process of putting together some forms for this rpurpose, and would work with Jim on setting it up. There being no further business to come before the meeting, and upon a mo ion duly made and seconded, it was unanimously voted to adjourn, and the Vice-Chairman thereupon declared said motion carried, and the meeting was adjourned at 9 :30 P. . Respectfully submitted, Janet Pierce, Secretary and Executive Director 4. (W Check No. 3595 3596 3597 3598 3599 3600 3601 3602 3603 3604 3605 3606 3607 3608 3609 3610 3611 3612 3613 3614 3615 3616 3617 3618 3619 3620 3621 3622 3623 3624 3625 3626 3627 3628 READING HOUSING AUTHORITY CHECKS & BILLS 667 -C June 11, 1984 Account Date of Inv. Amount Janet Pierce (ratify only) 6/1/84 514.42 James L. Muise (ratify only) 6/1/84 312.22 Russell Johnson (ratify only) (painted apt.) 6/1/84 1?5.00 James L. Muise (ratify only) 6/8/84 312.22 James L. Muise 6/15/84 312.22 James L. Muise 6/22/84 312.22 James L. Muise 6/29/84 271.16 Patricia Renzello 6/14/84 551.28 Patricia Renzello 6/28/84 512.07 Town of Reading Contributory Retirement Fund 5/31/84 263.40 Comm. of Mass. /Dept. of Revenue (Mass Inc. Tax W /H) 5/31/84 172.31 Baybank Middlesex (Fed. Inc. Tax W /H) 5/31/84 434.60 PEBSCO /MA Plan Coord. Acct. (deferred comp.) 6/30/84 275.00 VOIDED CHECK Reading Municipal Light Dept. 5/25/84 5;377.98 General Electric Co. (refrigerator) 5/30/84 238.00 Johnson Farm Supply (supplies) 5/25/84 98.04 Mass. Sanitary Supply Co. (supplies) 5/18/84 97.00 New England Telephone 5/13/84 49.25 Comm. of Mass. /Gr. Ins. Comm. (add'1 prem. ins.) 5/7/84 103.96 Richard S. Fenton,CPA (acct. services for May) 6/11/84 125.00 D & J Repair (repair refrigerator) 5/15/84 $5.00 Avon Supply Co., Inc. (water heater,supplies) 5/2/84 311.03 Comm. of Mass. /Gr. Ins. Comm. (health & life ins.) 6/30/84 0.27 Reading Disposal Inc. 6/1/84 24.00 RHA - Petty Cash 6/6/84 70.07 Richard S. Fenton, CPA (acct. svc. for June) 6/1/84 125.00 Simplex Time Recorder Co. (semi annual service) 12/1/83 726.00 Frank's Sewer & Pipe [back -up - Bldg.91 6/7/84 Johnson's Farm Supply [repair lawnmower] 6/8/84 Joseph H. Young (plumbing supplies) 6/6/84 Joseph Boncorddo (maint. help - grass cutting) 6/11/84 Reading Lumber Co. 6/8/84 Russell Johnson (Ptg. Bldg-29-5, Bldg. 8-4) 6/18/84 Sub Total 45.00 130.24 12,253.96 56.37 78.00 30.49 225.00 12,643.82 (cont'd) 1E Checks and Bills (Cont'd) June 18, 1984 Brt. Fwd.$12,643.82 (bP119 Town of Reading Contr. Ret. Fund (annual MA assessment) 6/11/84 ,173.26, portion of total due 3630 McNelly & Parker Ins. Agency - (audit adj. Workmen's Comp) 6/15/84 359.00 Total $116,176.08 Section 8 Program 3589 RHA 667-0 (ratify only - monthly reimb. - May) 5/29/84 2,125.01 3638 Sect. 8 Admin. Assoc.(P. Ren$ello - mtg.) 5/25/84 13.75 3639 Business Copy Assoc. (Copier service) 5/25/84 4 .00 $ Z,183-76 01