===PAGE 1=== LUNENBURG HOUSING AUTHORITY MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 131 White Street, Lunenburg, MA (virtual meeting held) August 20, 2020 Members Present: Linda McDonald, Chair Karin Menard, Vice Chair Deborah A.H. Christen, Member Jon Hogue, Member Members Absent: Carol Hatch, Member Also Present: Benjamin Gold, Executive Director Adam Gautie, Assistant Executive Director Denise Ivaldi, Recording Secretary 1. Meeting called to order: a. Vice Chair Linda McDonald asked for a roll call of members present: Deborah Christen – present, Karin Menard – present, Jon Hogue – present, Linda McDonald – present. Carol Hatch was absent. Also present were Benjamin Gold, Executive Director ; Adam Gautie, Assistant Executive Director and Denise Ivaldi, Administrative Assistant. The Vice Chair declared a quorum present and opened the meeting at 6:31 p.m. b. Ben Gold welcomed new Board Members Carol Hatch and Jon Hogue; glad to have you join us. Karin Menard said she had heard from Carol and that she was not sure she could serve on the Board due to conflicts in meeting schedules; she said she would reach out to Carol again to confirm. c. As this is the Annual Meeting, the Vice Chair turned the meeting over to Ben Gold for the Election of Officers. Ben Gold asked for nominations from the Board for Chair and Vice Chair. Deborah Christen made a motion to nominate Linda McDonald as Chair; Jon Hogue seconded; all three members said aye in favor. Linda McDonald nominated Karin Menar d as Vice Chair; Deborah Christen seconded, all three members said aye in favor. The meeting was then turned over to Chair Linda McDonald. d. The minutes of the June 18, 2020 meeting were presented. Karin Menard was going to provide Lunenburg’s Green C ommunity Task Force contact information to Adam Gautie and said she would follow up on that. Karin Menard made a motion to approve the minutes; Deborah Christen seconded and all were in favor. e. There was opportunity for public comments, for the record there were no individuals calling in. ===PAGE 2=== 2. The Executive Director Report – Ben Gold a. COVID -19 Update – We are going to be placing hand sanitizing stations around the offices, social distancing, wearing masks as much as possible when away from our desks and offices. The State has some money for our COVID related expenses; meeting next week to see how much we’ve accumulated as a housing authority and submitting it. b. Virtual Resident Town Hall – Wanted the residents to know we were there for them and available, sent out flyers for a GoToMeeting, staff was on hand. Went well, one re sident called in. Good thing to do since we’re not holding in-person board meetings. c. MassNAHRO Annual Conference being held virtually on September 15 -16. If you would like to attend and take some classes, contact Denise. If we have items we need to bring to the Board, we would have to meet the following week, September 24 th. Would everyone be available, if we don’t need to have a meeting, we won’t. 3. Financial Report – June and July 2020 – Ben Gold a. Page F 2 – Healthy reserve at 74.35%. We will be looking to see what we can spend our reserves on; DHCD likes us to keep it at 35% or over. b. Page F 3 – Seven months in to our fiscal year, rents budgeted $ 136,638; received $153,169. Utilities doing well. Maintenance Labor behind $6,779, should even out by next month; COVID sanitizing on the weekends added to this. Total maintenance fine; operating surplus $14,315. No major issues with finance s. Karin Menard made a motion to accept the June and July 2020 financial reports. Deborah Christen seconded; all were in favor. c. AUP Report – tabled until next month. 4. Administration: a. Modernization/Work Order Report – Adam Gautie: Replacement of Underground Replacement for Fire Alarm Panel (Fish #162030) – Notice to Proceed sent to Contractor end of last month. Should start sometime next week. Septic System Replacement (Fish #162031) – Three septic systems at the family sites. Graves Engineering submitted construction documents to DHCD for approval on July 7 th. Still waiting t o hear from DHCD; will contact them again tomorrow. FY2020 Health & Safety Exterior Lighting (Fish #162034) – Upgrade lighting in the parking lots, project is underway. Contractor ordered materials, plans on beginning next week. Work Order Report – 51 routine work orders received, 44 completed; 14 emergency work orders, all completed. Jon Hogue asked if the funding comes from DHCD or what the source to pay for these projects was. Adam Gautie stated that we receive Formula Funding through the State for Capital Improvement Projects. Sometimes smaller projects are funded through our reserves. Every year we put together a five -year capital improvement plan and an annual plan with resident input. Reserves cover projec ts that are not in our capital plan but something the housing authority would like to do. Reserves act as a savings account for the housing authority. Lunenburg Housing Authority Annual Meeting Minutes Page 2 August 20, 2020 ===PAGE 3=== b. State-Aided Housing Report – Ben Gold: We received six (6) standard applications in July – two (2) elderly/young disabled and four (4) families. We have 864 elderly and 1,891 families on the waiting list. There was one elderly lease- up and one vacancy in July. We are currently at 98% occupancy; we’re doing well with one family unit on waiver and one elderly vacancy. 5. Unfinished Business – None. 6. New Business: The Chair presented the following resolutions: Resolution 20200 7 Acceptance and Approval of Low Bid for Underground Fire Alarm Wiring Replacement. We advertised for bids with a bid opening July 25 th; Nangle Engineering reviewed all bids and Elm Electrical from Westfield, MA was low bid in the amount of $30,103. Motion made by Karin Menard to accept and approve the low bid. Deborah Christen seconded the motion; all were in favor. Resolution 20200 8 Approval to Adopt Grievance Procedures. These are standard for housing authorities and very important . The procedure residents will use if they have an adverse action taken against them. Motion made by Deborah Christen to adopt the Grievance Procedures. Karin Menard seconded the motion ; vote by roll call was Karin Menard – aye, Deborah Christen – aye, Linda McDonald – aye, with Jon Hogue having been dropped off from the call and unable to vote on this resolution. Motion passed with a 3 to 0 vote. Resolution 202009 Approval to Adopt Tenant Personal Property Policy. We received this policy from Karen Ahlers, our Regional Attorney. This speaks to items that are left outside residents’ units, guidance on what they can and cannot do. An example would be a BBQ grill, swimming pools. Motion made by Karin Menard to adopt the Tenant Personal Property Policy. Deborah Christen seconded the motion ; vote by roll call was Karin Menard – yes, Deborah Christen – aye, Linda McDonald – aye, Jon Hogue – aye. Motion passed with a 4 to 0 vote. Resolution 202010 Approval to Adopt Revised CORI Policy. We have a CORI policy in place, this revised version is per a training that staff recently attended with Karen Ahlers, Regional Attorney. We have been doing everything accurately but wanted to bring it to the Board as an updated policy. Question on what has changed in the policy; basically, some of the language in the letter sent out to applicants. Question on whether this was for every applicant ; resident applicant or just employment; it is for all applicants and all new employees ; State CORI guidelines are followed. Motion made by Deborah Christen to adopt Resolution 202010. Linda McDonald s econded the motion; vote by roll cal l was Karin Menard – yes, Jon Hogue – yes, Deborah Christen – yes, Linda McDonald – yes. Motion passed with a 4 to 0 vote. Discuss Moving Replacement of Deck Next Year to Fund the Installation of a Generator . Some discussion held with the Board feeling the generator was more important at this time since the deck was not a safety issue. It would be a concrete pad with a standby put in, gas -fed. Estimated cost around $20,00-$30,000. The board felt a generator in the Community Room was important for the residents when power goes out; they were in favor of purchasing. Jon Hogue asked if he could tour the buildings at Pearl Brook sometime; the housing authority will arrange a tour for him. The Chair asked again if there were any residents or public on the line, there were none. Lunenburg Housing Authority Annual Meeting Minutes Page 3 August 20, 2020 ===PAGE 4=== 7. Other Correspondence:  RCAT Advisory Board Quarterly Meeting Notice (Virtual)  DHCD PHNs 2020-23 through 202028 8. Resident Participation: None Requested Karin Menard wanted the following on record: a. Would like to ask the Committee to put Public and Board Comments on all of their agendas so the public doesn’t have to request a topic be added for them to come and discuss it and have it be part of our meeting so we are not in violation of the open meeting law. b. Wants to make sure we are clear on who our board members are and their terms, there ’s been some question and wants to make sure it is sorted out before the next meeting. She does believe we are in violation of having board members here that are not elected or appointed to these positions. 9. Motion to Adjourn: Karin Menard made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:20 p.m. Jon Hogue seconded, roll call Karin Menard – yes, Deborah Christen – aye, Jon Hogue – aye, Linda McDonald – aye and the meeting was adjourned with a 4 to 0 vote. Lunenburg Housing Authority ===PAGE 5=== Annual Meeting Minutes Page 4 August 20, 2020