 Okay, it's 703. Welcome to the Allington housing authority monthly regular board meeting Wednesday, December 15 2021. I'll read public participation guidelines as we get closer. But so we'll call the meeting to order roll call Gar. Here. Dwayne here, you're Ella here and Nick here here. Brian's here. And we have Sandy on taking notes right. Yes. Yes. All right, to the interim executive directors report. Yeah. So, so the Department of Health and Human Services from the town of Allington will be providing the Allington housing authority with COVID-19 tests to distribute to AHA residents. The AHA and Department of Health and Human Services are in the process of determining a distribution plan for these tests. The Allington housing authority has partners partnered with keys drug to administer Moderna booster shots to AHA residents. The key is drug the results from the questionnaire that was sent out earlier this month. The whole interest in booster clinic. After reviewing the numbers of those that would participate in the clinic, it was decided that clinics would be scheduled at Chestnut Manor, Cusack Terrace, Craig Village and Winslow Towers on December 23. Notices for this clinic with instructions and requirements will be going out to residents tomorrow. We apologize for, you know, fairly short notice a week is still a good amount of time, but it was as soon as the drug company could get out here to do the vaccine. So we wanted to get them out as soon as possible. We are very grateful to keys drug and look forward to completing these boosters these booster clinics next week. The new surfacing project is complete chestnut manner. The Cusack Terrace rule for placement project is wrapping up. We are grateful for the residents of Cusack Terrace and I'll be Catholic. And, and, and to all we think out Catholic for their patience and understanding related to the loss of parking spaces and other interruptions during this, during this time. The Arlington Housing Authority will submit its final application for CPA funding for the minority manor window project this month. We are working with the HD related to next steps for the window study and window project. Additionally, we'll be working with the town filing complete requirements agreements related to the offer funding your mark for the project for this project and others. I received a message from Adam chapter lane earlier today, aligning that so we're excited to be moving forward in that process. Annual rent determination packets for senior public housing residents are being nailed out to residents this week. Residents will need to complete the packets and provide the required documentation by February 28 residents with questions relate to the process will be asked to contact that property manager. The housing authorities continue to continue continuing to apply for eligible residents to the sheer program property managers are also reaching out to residents that have been determined to be likely eligible to share in order to help them get rental assistance and maintain the Additionally, in order for the contractor to complete the asbestos abatement portion of the wind, wind slow towers AC project, the main office will not be accessible by staff public or residents from December 27 2021 to December 31 2021. Offices at the other buildings will continue to be open applications will be available in the main office entrance area the dropbox will be monitored. There will be multiple times each day for those dropping off paperwork or rent, and staff will be accessible by phone and email calls to the receptionist maintenance book and others will be forwarded to offsite phone lines and trying communication is not disrupted. Also, as a reminder, Friday, December 31 is a holiday for staff in all offices will close that day anyways. We determined that this was the best week to do this disruptive work due to the slow time of year, and the fact that we already had a holiday that week so it's a less it's a less disruptive. We do this and if we gave them a week they could get it done in a week rather than being piecemeal over multiple weeks. The primary service installed the new laundry machines at each of the buildings on Monday and last week instructions have been posted at each of the sites in English and Mandarin Chinese residents that have questions are encouraged call their property manager. We are still in the process of confirming the rotating members of the grievance panel. We have also submitted our grievance procedure to DHCD for preliminary review to ensure it meets regulatory requirements. We hope to receive some word from the city soon regarding that. Also, for a staff update, we are currently completing an internal hiring process to fill the vacant work and forming job working for my job. Applications are due at the end of this month. Any questions for Jack. Am I called on. You say something to win. Yes. Good. Jack, I may have missed it. So it's getting my notebook, but the Madonna shots are going off or go are going to be at various senior residents you talk about. Are there any arrangements for monotony manner. Are they supposed to go to Walgreens or what is the the children there have been clinics at Thompson school. And other schools in Arlington. In regards to them in order me and a residence. Yes, I mean there's options for CBS Walgreens. This was a decision that, you know, keys. We were lucky enough to be able to make this partnership. And they, you know, want to focus on sites with large amounts of individual 65 plus. And we were happy to be able to get any sort of assistance through them. So, while we were hoping that minority manner will be included. We're grateful that we're getting clinics at the other sites. No, I'm glad you have that. But I'm just wondering, maybe it'd be possible to send out a notice to all of the parents that monotony manner, and let them know where they can get the booster shot it seems to be very important with this variant. It's going to be here by Christmas. Most definitely. Do you have any suggestions. Whoops, she's suggestions for how to let no parents of where to get the booster shots. I think that a notice would be the best thing that we could really do honestly. Okay, thank you. Maybe it's quicker with an email chain. I think. Don't we have the email addresses of all the folks down the check. We do. We constantly have a. Sorry, an issue with people not, you know, reading their emails or maybe not even having an email address. So I do think that delivering at door by door would be best. Either way. Great. Certainly congratulations in order to a Jack and his wife on the birth of their. Yeah, the night. Rather quickly. Beautiful Christmas present so congratulations. Thank you. I'm just going to go back to the integrated pest management proposal like you think you all started in your packet don't know if you get a chance to review it but do you want to talk about some of the highlights Jack. Yeah, so we had two proposers for the, for the request for proposal for a great pest management. Termin X was determined to be the response of responsible and lowest bidder. So we're excited to be able to start moving forward with them and starting to set up some of the parameters outlined in the request for proposal. I think if folks haven't read it yet it's very detailed and very involved so you might want to take a read of it. I don't know what all the bases but to win your region. Yes, I did read it. But it was a while ago quickly, but I just wanted to ask Jack. When we first talked about this and looked up Cambridge and Boston integrated. They had a, some of them. And I'm sure you know better than I do. We had training programs for maintenance man. The idea of integrated pest management is to find something a pest infestation very early and treat it costs less, certainly much better for the residents. One of the ideas that they had, which may not fit for the Arlington Housing Authority is to give a short training program to the maintenance people so when they go into fix a leaky sink. There's supposed to look around for these signs to see if there's any sort of early signs of any pest infestation and then report it. Did I get that right. Yeah, that sounds correct and I, you know, as we get rolling that that is the, you know, the plan is to have good communication and education between all parties. So, you know that I'm sure there's going to be a, you know, term next have to have worked with other entities they do work for some of the housing authority they do work for other municipalities and schools and. I think that, you know, we'll be able to get some good insight from them, but we'll be able to hold them for the parameters like you said. So we're excited to, you know, be able to utilize that and figure out what, what the best way is to educate the staff whether it's, you know, additional training or you utilizing them. I mean utilizing them but you know we may try to find some additional training as well. When were they starting to see the date. They're going to start effective immediately. Is that part of the contract that they'll train the maintenance people or not. I'd have to look at the at the act that the specifics within the request for proposal my understanding is that education and communication is for all parties. So as far as like formal trainings for maintenance staff, I don't know if that's outlined specifically. You know, I think that's that falls within the expectation and, you know, while we may, you know, seek outside training to supplement that, you know, through other professional agencies. I think that that's something that's definitely on the table. Okay good it doesn't have to be extensive just have a meeting and say this is what you look for when you go into them. I think that's definitely possible. I think that's that's very likely, you know, I agree with him. I think they're happy to do that. We've worked with term next for some time. They actually have been doing some work for us and now we're going to formalize it and put them into this type of a plan which I think is going to help them do an even better job for us. But fear Ella. Yeah, so yeah it's an educational outreach residents and staff. So maybe at the maintenance with the TIS. Another thing I wanted to mention was that in the proposal it says that they're going to have a line of communication between the property manager and the people that are going to be doing the past control. I was just wondering if we can include in that the tenants association as well, whether it would be, you know, communicating at the maintenance meetings where they're both going to be there already. I just think that being able to hear from people that are living in the actual buildings might be helpful to them rather than just the property managers and they just have like a vague idea of where the problems could be coming from. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I mean I think we should have them represent a term and show up. Not at every single president's meeting but you know once a quarter, you know unless there's an issue to talk directly from the president's. And I think on that note, and I'll talk to determine X, but you know maybe maybe a way in which we can attack that too is to have them go to the actual tenant association meeting so that they're actually communicating with the residents themselves. Yeah, I think the president's meeting is a good idea but maybe, you know, in that same, you know, my thought line of thought, you know, maybe that's a good attack. Yeah, exactly. That's great. That's a good improvement. Any other questions on that? Oh, I do actually. There was a part where it was, you know, where it is. It says, this allows service technicians to determine which password present likely harbourage sites housekeeping challenges structural repair and other concerns that may contribute to past activities so it does say that they would, I don't know if I understood right but like help with this. I'm wondering how they would go along with the housekeeping challenges. So I think in that sense, they would identify or help identify the units that are having struggles with that. You know, because maybe if you have an issue with hoarding, that could lead to creating a home for different types of pests, you know, by, you know, by figuring out the root cause you could address the pest issue in some of those cases. So in that case, you know, may have that would be a good instance where the property manager would need to be part of the conversation or present. Then the property manager can work with the resident, get them assistance if it's available, and try to address the situation to a social service aspect by pioneering with the various social services agencies in the area like Minimans in your services and Yeah, that's great. Make sense. Okay, the five approval of the certificate of substantial completion for the balcony reserving resurfacing project at Chestnut Manor. So, so they have finished the punch all the punch list items are direct for maintenance modernization superintendent maintenance and in addition to the, to the assigned architect have done inspections and determine that the the contractor has met the milestones necessary to, to get the certificate of substantial completion. You need a motion for that. Yes. I make a motion that we approve the certificate of substantial completion for the balcony resurfacing project. Great for chestnut manor do we have a second. I'll say I'll say Nick. So we have a motion by Joanne second and by Nick, all in favor, Nick. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Joanne. Yes. Yes. And Brian is a yes. It's in the end of his vote. Now to number six. Approval of the proposed change will request. For the only 10 housing alternative window replacement and building exterior renovations at Winslow towers. You need. I think you need votes on everything a to a to F is that correct. What can we take one vote john. As long as it's specific enough, you can identify and you can do it in one vote. So if you want to do, for example, six, you can do that one vote, if you identify as ABC and the, in the amount of money. Right. Great. Anything you want to add to that check. Yeah, I mean, just, just to give a very quick synopsis of it, you know, change orders for five and six related to some unforeseen conditions related to the, the sill and trim. To some increased costs. Change order seven and eight were related to the, to the floors. And what they identified was they would be able to utilize some of the existing pieces in some places. And then there was some a large cost savings related to them using some of those pieces so that's why you see the cost and then I have a very substantial on on change order and change order eight. And then also change order seven we were able to take some of the, the extra flooring that they had an order and put it in our stock so that we can utilize that and future, you know, instances where we may need it whether it's unit renovations or what have you. And then, and then change order order nine was related to an increased costs due to the contractor needing to sound and ensure all compromise areas of the concrete repair. And then, and then the other half of change order nine is there's some outstanding work in the middle that still needs to be completed. And while they wait to figure out a plan and how they're going to attack that, it was decided that we would have that credit while while they decide and come back to us for the plan for the spring. So do we have a motion for six and also include eight eight through F your motion. I motion to approve the proposed change order request PCO four through PCO nine for the Arlington Housing Authority window replacement and building exterior exterior innovation at Winslow Towers. We have a second. I'll second it. Great. So moved by fiorella second by Gar on favor Nick. Yes. Yeah. Gar. Garzi yes. Joanne. Yes. Yes. And Brian is a yes that's the end of it. We now moved to number seven, the approval of the submission for the CDBG application for the house of building roof replacement project. Jack, do you want to comment at all? So the reason why we're submitting this is, you know, I've had some good conversations with Mallory Selvin generate rate from the town and Mallory Selvin being the individual administrator for the CDBG funds in town. We also had some good conversations with the state relative to projects that we have that would be good, good candidates for this type of a grant due to them being projects that are going to be happening within the next year that that qualify. Additionally, the reason why we want to submit an application for this project is because we're only going to be submitting one application, one final application for CPA and that's for the window project and then ought to be manner. And that was due to the high, high quantity of applications throughout town for CPA. So after having conversations with, you know, after myself and Joanne met with some members of the CPA. We determined that was in the best interest of the housing authority to submit one sole application to CPA, so that we were able to get, hopefully get the, get the request fulfilled that we want for that to get that funding. So this will help supplement this other project. Any questions? We have a motion. The submission of community development block grant application for the house or building roof replacement project. Great. We have a second. I'll second it. So moved by Fiorella second by Nick. One favor. Nick. Yes. Gar. Yes. When. Yes. Fiorella. Yes. Brian is a yes that's unanimous vote. Number eight tenant association funding. This is something for a little bit of a discussion. As you may recall, regulations stipulate that we buy each LTO with six dollars per unit used to run their LTOs, their local tenant organizations. Jack and I discussed back and forth. There's some, we, we want to have a meeting with the presidents and maybe do it at the next meeting to outline some of this and make sure that it's in their bylaws in terms of how they spend it and how they account for it. So my thought was that, you know, come January, that we, we allocate and provide the checks to these LTOs. I'm not sure if an autonomy is a check in again, but, but we can go over that in the next president's meeting and provide some stipulations second to that. You know, we had historically provided funds to the things for Christmas parties or cookouts and things of that nature. And I think in the same meeting, we would want to work the LTOs to get them to come up with a budget going forward of what they need. And perhaps, rather than just do a blank. Perhaps we, we approve them in our meetings as they come up. So for instance, one of the facilities wants to do a St. Patrick's Day party and they're requesting a $1,000 donation that we, we have, we approve that as they come up into the board meeting. And this will kind of flow into the discussion about the charitable foundation later down at number 10. So yeah, any, any thoughts about this or would you act when adding anything else to it. You, you hit upon, you know, some of what we're talking about. I think, you know, like you said, it's good opportunity to discuss. Yeah, I mean, the, in the past we've, we've just given checks and we haven't really separated the $6 from any funds we've given and we really need to go forward and make sure we separate the $6. You know, the LTOs can use that to whether they need it by a printer or paper or ink or something like that. You know, that's what that those funds are for, to get them to run their association. It could be fly it or whatever you want to call it. But certainly, and we can talk a little bit more when we talk about the charitable foundation. Wait a second. I had a question. Yep. I state regulation, you're supposed to give them $6 per resident, right? Is that correct? Pre unit, yeah. Pre unit. Well, that's different. And so that is under the president of the tenants organization for materials that they need to run the tenants organization. Correct. That's just what it is. Yep. And they can take that. Then there may, I think we're trying to say there may be some additional money. So I think, historically, we have given them more money for Christmas dinners or things like that. Is that right? That's right. But I mean, they've run their own parties last year, the first time we did the Christmas dinner thing. But of course, you know, with COVID it's a little confusing. Okay. So the additional money is something you really want to have a sense of some reporting. Yeah, I, yeah, I think, I think we want to work with the, because we have, you know, five and Drake will have one shortly, hopefully, you know, I think we need to work tighter with the LTO presidents and their board into a budget process to get them making forward and planning for these functions and, you know, tomorrow on the same page and I think that's a way to do it. And also, you know, the most important part is getting receipts for the funds. And we've had problems in the past with getting receipts for the funds and we want to make sure the funds are spent appropriately. And we want to make sure that the, the LTOs in their board of directors approve of these funds. You know, we don't want one president to go off and buy something without the approval of the, either the association or the board. And that's where we need to make sure that their bylaws stipulate how those funds are going to be spent. Okay, thank you. Can I ask you a question? Yep. What are other housing authorities do they give more than six or just stick with the six or I don't, we're in a unique position because we've funded this, you know, through funds from the wash machines over the years. Okay. I'm not sure that other housing, maybe you could chime in but I don't know how the housing authorities actually do this. I mean, you're obligated to give the $6 per unit. Additional funds for their parties and stuff. I don't think that many of them do that. Jack. Yeah, I would have to pull I say, you know, especially the smaller ones they don't have access to necessarily the amount of funding that we have, but, you know, you know, I'd have to pull but I would think that we're we're fairly generous. Yep. My experience is that you are fairly generous with the most housing authorities in terms of the using the allocating those funds. Yep. So we give way more than. Yeah, we get we've been given way more than the $6 per unit. Yeah. Yeah. That's all I have. All right. So Jack, we can work on that after the first year, and we can bring it up in the next 10 of president's association. Let's see if we can get them going in that direction. So moving on to number nine, the holiday meals so we obviously took a boat and took a decision because of COVID. So we went off the holiday meals again. I spoke with Dag, see I'm up at the Agostinos he graciously is willing to do it again. And so we printed flyers the flyers have been distributed by the facilities, and they'll be collected Saturday. So we'll call in the headcount and the staff will be delivering the food on Christmas Eve in conjunction with 10 of presidents and other volunteers that they've all got together distributed. We did make the call, because it's a lot more challenging. And not to distribute food. Make the call to what we did last year and give cards. So in Jackson's absence with his baby, Chris is taking care of it and we're still using that $10 figure because that's that's what we're paying up tags. Oh, in the scope of the manner if there's five members in the household and they'll get five times 10 they'll get $50 and gift cards. And we'll distribute that next week. Yes, for Fiorella. I am I'm sorry but I remember. So it actually that this will entail a correction for some meetings on November 17 because it says that this but it also said that she wants meals instead of gift cards for the 10 and seven not a manner, which should have a correction I remember mentioning that the tenants association had mentioned at the last meeting which were also at the meeting minutes for November 9 that they would rather the meal. I, I prefer the gift card however I don't know what all the tenants rather so how should we go on about this because I think Vanessa was the one that ended up mentioning that they had voted that they rather the meal. Especially from our perspective, it's too much of an undertaking. And we don't have the staff and the people that do that and you know the buildings are easy the food's going to be delivered to the community room. And they've all got volunteers they're going to go walk the floors and put them on the door nose. You know it's a little bit different in the manner in terms of other volunteers. And you know some folks might not be home so they don't want to leave it out on the door knob. Just, you know, it's impossible and we, we, you know, ran out of time, you know, I think for next year of the manner this the association can get together and we do the food, they do the flyers collecting give us the numbers, assuming if we do it next year. And then they take the responsibility of distributing it. You know that would mean somebody would have to sit there for hours and hours. Well, folks, they get home and come and get their food so we just felt it's just easy to do gift cuts, you know, put them in the door, you know. So, we had to make that call. Yeah. So, that should go out on Christmas Eve and I want to thank the staff in advance, Rolly and the whole gang that has participated in this great food distribution is well over 500 meals here so it's not a, it's not asking it's really not an easy task for eggs, you know Christmas Eve is this busy day but we've been very generous with this both in the pricing and also putting this together. Number 10. So in your packet, what I propose is, I know I've spoken to a lot of you about this. And I know we've talked briefly at our meetings. So I'm proposing that we form a charitable foundation. We call it the Allenton Housing Authority charitable foundation. The intention of this is to provide support and outreach for the social health and well being of those persons residing in the Allenton Housing Authority properties. This is very specific. We would seek grants, and we would seek funding grants donations, cash or securities, or even donations of condos and houses of people so wish. Yeah, we form a board of directors this would be a true 501 3C operation. And we turn Julianne loose on her. So, for instance the Cummings Foundation and Wolverine, the banks around here I'll have foundations charitable foundations they all give out funds, and nobody's going to write a check to the Allenton Housing Authority the state agency. But I think would be successful in having folks write checks to our charitable foundation. And in those funds, as I said, they would be useful those things so it could be to provide fun funding to the buildings to have parties to provide funding to the manner for for special events and special things. It's just a wide open field of opportunity here. You know, as I proposed here in the flyer, you know, we have a simple board of directors of five people take the years so it would be consistency there. And this stuff can be worked out I mean I think what I'd like to get a vote on the formation of it. And we would then work with the attorneys and have him draft up bylaws and that sort of stuff, and we can go from there. We need to have it registered it's very easy to register these things. But, you know, I feel and talking with you and and you and Jack and I met number of times. I think, I think the opportunity to be much more successful with raising funds and grants for a charitable foundation. Simply saying we need money to help and some things like that. And these funds could go to the garden projects and things like that as well. Yeah, it's pretty much wide open. So any comments. Yep. I was wondering. So the are the office because my only concern would be it would be nice to include whether it was, you know, the tenant or the LTO president either one to be the monotone manner included like family housing. So have like one elderly and then one family housing rather than both members being from the elderly buildings. Yeah, I think this is, yeah, that can be worked out. Okay, you have five member committee. You know, you certainly don't want, you know, million people on the committee, but we can we can increase that, you know, and add one more. Yep. Yep. Yeah. So after CDBG funds. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Say that again. Pack is doing. I joined us to begin with the CBG funds CDBG fund for the fund. Jack is some, yeah, but there are a whole lot of other grants out there because I've been looking for them, like the Cummings Foundation have a lot of money. You know, you have to write the grants specifically and we'll ask all of you, the board and Jack, some various, I mean they have certain parameters. Like some of them do health care. Some of them do other social educational things. But it would be nice to get some of that we did the community gardens I had people come up and asked if they could just give me some money. I can't do this. I can't just take this money. So this would be a very easy way for people to December, you know, when they decide they're going to give money to charitable organizations they can give money to us. And we can also do grants and so on and I was surprised to find out the leader bank all these banks have actually a side for charitable giving. Yeah, we all have all banks are charitable. Oh Garnosa. So this you would look at from a holistic point of view so for instance if the garden project we would. So Joanne's grant would be for a garden project in every facility, not just one facility. That's right. Or like a health clinic. I mean, maybe we look for a grant for, you know, 12 month health program where we will we hire nurses that come into the facilities once a week to do blood pressure screenings and other health screenings. You know, whether we get school hiring tutors to help out the kids in the manner, you know, so it's a. So, I think the next step after we do this. I know that I spoke to some residents that get minority matter they could only get one week of summer camp fidelity. That's, and we can just expand that. That's right. Yeah. The grant writing would be for the specific thing so I mean I think this is where the LTO and the president's meeting would be very important to come up with these ideas, put together a list of 20 different ideas. I think it's going to apply for 20 different grants for 20 different specific purposes. So, I mean, it's, it's not obviously. Yeah, I just want people in my, in my former, and I did you want to say something Garry, I'm sorry. In my former life as an academic I wrote a lot of grants. And when I moved to Arlington I wrote a number of grants for the Thompson School at a library. We got someone to come in from the, an intern from the Harvard Design School who put together a big report on greening Thompson about ideas to use natural. Windows and it was really quite impressive. I was surprised I got one, but we got, and I got a couple of others so I like to do it. So I'll do it also in consultation but I looked and there are quite a lot of possibilities. Now Gar in banks. Do they have a specific kind of project, or do you just write that we need. No, it's not. Supplement the, the summer. Yeah, we get all sorts of requests and we have one person the marketing department usually does stuff like that. So we'll take a picture of them shaking hands with, with Jack. Any other questions on this. Yeah, one more question. We talked about this before in the past the past five years of doing this foundation. And one of the things we talked about is obviously there's a lack of affordable housing so we talked about maybe acquiring housing through this foundation. It would that be something we can look into like maybe a domestic violence unit, or is that or is our mission not. Is it too specific or does it let us do that type of thing where we can apply. I think, I think if you read the mission, it's, it's very open ended. It's very open ended. So if, if we had folks and I think we would, we would solicit this to some extent, you know, if you've got folks that are willing to donate their house they're moving down south or something like that and they're in a different structure, you know, absolutely would love to have the house and work, work with it just like the big hospital still, we'd work them and naming and gifting and what purpose they'd like to see for it whether it be a family or this or that, you know, same thing with condos. I think the mission is is wide open. And, you know, as I said it just, it's wide open for a reason. So, so if some people give money for domestic violence victim housing, but it's not enough, and we can go to cars bank, some bank and say look with the seed money, we need extra money and then we can get some housing for a victim of domestic violence. Good idea. Yeah, and I don't think we're going to compete with any we're not going to compete with any local groups we're not competing with the boys and girls club and their fundraising or fidelity house this is a totally different ballgame. We're just competing with the housing group of ours. That's where you look at, because they're not, but that's okay. It's a great idea. We've tried to do this for the last 15 years we never get enough to ground. We should do this. No more about us to think it's a great idea it's a great mission. Great. You need a vote. Yep, we need to vote. So do we have a motion for that. So moved. I second that. So that's moved by Nick second by Fiorella, all in favor join. Yes. Yes. Fiorella. Yes. Nick. Yes. And Brian's a yes so we'll move forward on this and we're going to move forward quickly. So we'll have more on this for next meeting. Hopefully we'll have it established by then. Yes. And then we have the end of the year. So next on the agenda is. Number 11 executive director hiring update. We received, as you know, we advertise the month of November. We received 10 applicants. We have a screening committee that is screened. We've got it down to two applicants. Be a meeting Monday night for the president. To interview the two candidates. Committee, if they so choose to go on it as well. So after the interview, the two candidates, the committee would recommend one candidate to the board, hoping to have a board meeting next week quickly. That would be a good idea for the hiring of the, of the new director. So if things and we were supposed to do this tomorrow night, but, you know, got to give Jack a little bit of leeway since he had another baby so we're planning on Monday. So money at seven. And then, so I think we're going to try and post. For Wednesday to have the next has to be a meeting of the board on Wednesday next Wednesday. We could do a quick meeting to vote on the new director recommended by committee and that sort of. So that's where we are with the executive director. I was a bit surprised that we only had 10 candidates. I will tell you that. So, any questions on that. So number 12, approval the regular minute meeting in 2021. And just just a little bit information on that. The reason why that's on here is because again is because it was a typo on last month's agenda. I had written 920 instead of 1020. So it's on it's the minutes you saw last month I just, I could put it on again because you voted for 920 instead of 1020. So do we have motion for that. Motion to approve this regular meeting minutes of October 20 2021. Second. Move by Fiorella second by Julian. All in favor neck. Yes. You're Ella. Yes. Gar. Yes. Julian. Yes. Brian's yes. Number 13 special meeting minutes. November nine. Second. Motion to approve the special meeting minutes of November 9 2021. Second. Move by Fiorella second by Gar. All in favor neck. Yes. Fiorella. Yes. Gar. Yes. And Joanne. Yes. Brian's yes. And number 14 of the regular meeting minutes of November 17 2021. Second. Move by Fiorella. That's where I was asking for the correction of where it says Miss Badella said she wants meals instead of gift cards for the tenants of an autonomy manner. I said that the tenant association had mentioned that they wanted to go back to the dinners rather than the gift cards. That correction Jack. Yep. No problem. So we could have, we could approve them with that correction. Any other corrections. Okay. Motion to approve the regular meeting minutes of 11 17 2021 with the correction. Great. All in favor Nick. Yes. Joanne. Yes. Gar. Yes. And Fiorella. Yes. Yes. And Brian's yes. Bring this up to number 15. Executive session meeting minutes of November 17 2021. Motion to approve the executive session meeting minutes of 11 17 2021. Right. Second. Second. So move by Fiorella second. David Joanne. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Nick. Yes. Yes. And Brian is in favor as well. Local tenant organizations. So. Read this. And. So public participation guidelines during zoom meetings. In an effort to conduct the business of the Ellington housing if there have been to maintain an orderly meeting whereby all can hear and understand what is being said without being talked about. But asked that everyone abide by the following guidelines and a presence. Presidents will be recognized by the chair and do not have to raise a hand or send a chat, a chat message. I'd ask that your presentations are specific only to the utility into the tenants residing in your facility. But also asked that any maintenance or building issues are brought up in the month. In addition to that, you can also send a chat message in the Zoom room. With your name, your address and your subject that you wish to present. I'd also ask that you refrain from bringing up any building or maintenance issues. These concerns should be brought directly to the presidents. We'll in turn bring them up at the maintenance meeting. So. If you wish to speak, you should send a chat message in the Zoom room. With your name, your address and your subject that you wish to present. I'd also ask that you refrain from bringing up any building or building issues that are brought up at the maintenance meetings. You can also report any issues directly to the Allington housing authority via the phone system. As I stated, the reason for this change. Is facility and maintenance issues. Can be resolved faster by going directly to the maintenance supervisor staff. During monthly meetings, if the knowledge and skills necessary. So share concerns that provide the appropriate follow up plan. However. If you wish to speak, you should send an email directly to Jack Nagel. Interim executive director. We'll follow up with you personally. General public. You would wish to present during public participation. Should send a message in the chat feature. Name, address and the subject that you wish to present. During your subject. Depending on your subject matter. I mean, depending on your subject matter, I may not recognize you tonight, but add your subject to the next board meetings agenda. Where we can engage in a more inclusive dialogue and keeping compliance with the open meeting laws. Board response and time limits, except in unusual circumstances. Any matter presented for consideration of the board shall not be commented upon by the board members. Nor decision made the night of the presentation. If deemed appropriate. Noted to conform with the open meeting laws. The subject matter may be added to the next board meeting. Whereby the AHA staff, the board and the public would have prior notice and can be prepared to address the subject accordingly. Speaker to be allowed a three minute time limit to present. This may be extended to the discretion of the chair or if requested by a board member. So. Tenant organizations. I don't think. Pam. She had emailed me. So, Pam is not here from Winslow. I see Ellen. Ellen you, Ellen Lay, you representing QZAC tonight. Yes. Great. Go ahead, Ellen. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Well, first of all, we greatly appreciate the. The booster clinics. It's really important and also distributing the testing. So that's very much appreciated. As well as the integrated pest management, hopefully getting started quickly. That's terrific. And. In terms of this charitable charitable foundation that sounds terrific in terms of adding additional things that might be helpful for the well-being of the communities in the different buildings. But I do want to bring up one issue. You know, historically. There has been a budget. That is not just paper. Or things like that. For the tenants association. So I think. For example, you know, like maybe every other month or something, there might be. Something social. That is announced for the whole building. It could be, you know, a pizza party, or it could be, you know, cookies and hot cocoa or something like that. That brings the community together. It's a social event or it could be, you know, getting a new game or something like that. These are things that I think are really important. For. Having a cohesive community for bringing people together for reducing isolation. For socialization for emotional and physical well-being. So I. I just want to try it for folks to think about that in terms of, you know, I just want to try it for folks to think about that in terms of if, if it turns. Into. Every time, you know, we want to get, like, have an ice cream social, you know, or have a pizza party. That we have to, that folks have to ask permission for that as opposed to having a budget that is responsible for with receipts. Of course. I think it could be very demoralizing. I mean, I think it's very different from way it has always been. And these are, you know, people who are majority of which are elderly, you know, it could be perceived as. Rather infantilizing to suddenly have to say, you know, could I. Do something in a very different way than I've always done. So I think in terms of how to have some kind of money in the budget for. You know, something cohesive for the community, especially since it's the way it's always been done. Yeah, I, let me just chime in. I agree. And you know, I think, I think there needs to be. Let's call it a slush fund. Where you would do those things that you wouldn't have to go and ask if you could buy Christmas lights, you know what I mean? We're not talking about every dollar and cent here. So I think, you know, when we get together in the president's meetings, we certainly discuss it and figure it out together. You know, it's a, a dollar value. That the buildings get to use for those things like you talked about, you know, the puzzles, books, whatever you want to call them. But I think the other things, the big items would be, you know, if you're going to have the Christmas party catered, I know that Winslow has a, has a big catered Christmas party. You know, that's obviously a bigger dollar value. So no, I think we're on the same page. I think we're in the same. Right. So, so it doesn't sound like there's going to be a big difference. That way. We know about the receives. Like. It's typical that we've always had a holiday party for, you know, the Christmas and your holiday and also that there's this usually, you know, in the summer up like a barbecue kind of, it's not really a barbecue, but, you know, it's a nice event that brings everybody together. So those things always separate from that budget. But I think it's just really important for the wellbeing of the community to have some, some money in the budget for socialization, bringing people together and that, that the people that are on the tenants association are responsible for, but budgeting and not having to, you know, and you probably don't want to have like a special meeting every time somebody wants to order a pizza either. Right. Right. No. Yeah. Exactly. No, we're on the same page. Okay. Great. All right. Thank you. Yep. So Pam's not here Alan Sharon. I don't think it's on from Chestnut. Right. Cause no, Jen Honeand is. So sorry. Lillian. Yeah. It all set. You can hear me. Yep. Go ahead. Thank you. Tomorrow evening, as you know, Brian, we'll be having at 530, the executive council of the MMTA along with Janet, we'll be having the holiday party for the children. And we hope that all of you on the board will be able to attend. We have a 10 minute meeting. Manon me manner is also intending on following as a nonprofit and has already started looking into the application process. As far as the holiday meals go, we have a tenant association now that would have been more than willing and happy to handle the distribution of meals and or gift cards. Had we been consulted about it. It would be it would best suited the residents of an memory manner by getting a choice of meal or gift card. of other executive council members and residents would have been willing and able to work amongst ourselves or with the eight day employees or board members to make this happen. Again, had we been given the option. So I understand that we have only newly been recognized. However, we are ready, willing and able to do whatever we can for our residents. And lastly, yesterday with much disappointment, I received your email Brian about having gone forth and started the interview process after I had informed you that we would and allowed to be involved by reviewing the resumes prior to the first interviews and involved in the views to which you disagreed. We'd not been able to connect over the weekend and you started interviews Monday. I feel that this is a blatant disregard of the tenant association, myself as president and the other 178 units. We've expressed our desire and that we are and have been able to have been looking forward to building a strong and ambivalent work and relationship with the board and feel that the hiring of the executive director and our allowed involvement at the proper junction would have been a great place to start and show that you the chairman and the other board members had the same intention. Unfortunately to myself and the others, this shows otherwise and shows a lack of respect to all of us in an on me manner. I'll be contacting someone at state level who can clarify the tenant association and allow involvement in the hiring of AHA employees and we're starting to forward that information to you upon receipt. And I will be emailing you regarding any and all internal hiring coming up. But Jen, as I emailed you back and sent back the regulations that you sent to me, I highlighted in red, it's very specific. It said that the committee, the local housing has the right to do a preliminary screening. Screening of resumes. Let me speak, Chris. Let me speak. Let me speak. I understand, go ahead. Let me speak. Go ahead. You know, we're not gonna share all the applicants to the... Nobody asked you for that. Well, yes, you did. You know, I didn't ask you for that. That's not what I asked you for, Brian. That's not true. I asked you, I understood you and applied to you and told you that I understand if you do the preliminary screening as you are allowed, which you chose to do, which is fine, totally fine by us, we are allowed to see the two resumes that you're putting through. Not the 10, I understand, but we were allowed to see, we would have been allowed to see the two that you're putting through for interview and then we would be able to participate in the first interview as stated in the state regulation. So that's why... Would you let me address that then? Certainly, absolutely, please. First of all, if you would return my emails, you'd see that the meeting is to go over the two finalists that were chosen by the preliminary screening. Okay, but have you got the presentation already? And when you reply to the email, then you get a copy of the two resumes of the two finalists. So you'll be able to review that. Let me think about it though. Your first reply to me was that you didn't have time to write all that and that you wanted to talk on that. See, unfortunately, a lot of you guys... A lot of us guys? I don't have time to respond to every single line that you write. Well, interesting. I thought it was very clear in showing you the regulations where it said the local housing authority has the right to do the preliminary screenings, which we did. Again, but I just said you do have the right to do that. That's right. But the preliminary screening didn't include preliminary first interviews without us. We conducted preliminary screening and completed it on Monday as I put in my email. Now, if you don't, that's unfortunate. I absolutely do. We are inviting you and the other presidents to a Zoom meeting on Monday to ask questions of the candidates. Right, I understand that. And that's wonderful. I appreciate that very much. However, I'm simply asking that the state regulation be followed as it takes you. So listen, I'm not going to debate it any further. That's fine. No, we don't have to. And that's not what that means. We're right on the money. We're conforming to all the regulations and that's the end. Okay. It's unfortunate that we're going to start this relationship this way, but we're invited Monday. I don't know that we're going to start it in any way in a bad way as long as we can get through this and come to a resolution that whether you're right or wrong. So it's fine. And we'll just we'll take it from here. And once I have the information from the state person this person at the state level, I will be sure to forward it to you. That's great. That's great. See you tomorrow night. Do you have anything else to add? No, just can't wait to see you all tomorrow night. Great. Thanks so much. So that we have a... What time is the party tomorrow night? Sorry. 5 30. 5 30? Yeah. Santa Claus will be there. Is it at the skill center? I have a question. Isn't it? It's Santa Claus actually one of the gentlemen that was walking around with Terminix, I believe. Stick to that. My mom was talking about it. She wanted to do that. Yeah. I think that's the plan. Yeah? Oh, I love it. That's awesome. Yeah, classic. I hope no children are watching us. And no kids. Santa Claus. So just for the board's purpose to address a little further what she was mentioning. You know, John Greco reviewed the regulations in terms of the hiring and we were well within our right to do the preliminary screenings that we did and conclude the two finalists. And now we will share the resumes, the finalists with the presidents who are going to attend if they attend Monday night's meeting. So we are very much above board with this entire process. And I'm very comfortable with it. And John Greco has said that as well. Plus we had two tenants on the committee. On the preliminary. Right. The preliminary screening was done by a committee that I appointed Nick and myself, Pam Hauser as a president, Mary Ann Donovan who was a tenant and John Greco, our attorney was the fifth person in the committee. So, so I, you know, I'm very comfortable with this. Fiorella? I have a, could we get those resumes for the board members? Yeah, the next, right. So you'll get a copy of them for when we have our board meeting. Gotcha. So any other questions on that? Okay. I don't have any questions in the chat message. So a motion to adjourn. I'm going to turn the meeting, is it? Well, we usually when something like this occurs, we ask Jack to send flowers to the person who just had a wonderful event. But he can't send them to himself. I hope the rest of us will organize something. I'll take some. I'll take some. Congratulations. Thank you. What's her name, Jack? What's her name? What is it? Sadie. Sadie, how pretty. And how much does she weigh? Six pounds, one ounce. Wow. She was three weeks early, Jack, huh? Yeah. Wow, congrats. Thank you. There's nothing like a daughter, Jack. Thank you. Save you money. I know. In wedding, in wedding, by the way. Yeah. So motion to adjourn. And motion to adjourn the meeting. I second. Go ahead. Motion by Fiorella, second by Joanne, all in favor, Nick. Yes. Fiorella. Yes. Gar. Yes. And Joanne. Yes. OK, thank you very much. Have a good. Have a good night. Have a good night. Thank you, guys. Happy holidays, everybody. See you. Get a lot of sleep, Jack. Yeah. We'll see.