 to call toward the annual meeting of the Allenten Housing Authority at 6.48. Just a quick roll call. Brian? Yes. Gar? Yes. Urella? Here. And Joanne? You're on mute, Joanne. Mute. Here. Okay, great. Okay. So, annual meeting election of Chairman is the first piece of order here. So, yeah, go ahead, Gar. I'd like to nominate Brian Conner for Chairman. Okay. Do I have a second? I'll second that. Thank you for your room. Okay. Any discussion? We go ahead. All right. All in favor, Brian Conner as Chairman of the Allenten Housing Authority. Do you know what the question is? I'm sorry. Can I ask a question? I'm not sure, John. I just wanted to ask, if a person is a side by the state, he's not an elected official, is there a conflict of interest being a chair? Because I see a situation where... I'm sorry. All right. Say it again. Say it again. Say it slowly. I didn't unhear it. I understand you. Say it again. Who's asking the question, so... Who's asking the question? I'm sorry, Zuzia. Regina, oh, sorry. My question is, if a person is a side by the state as a rep, and he's not an elected official of the town, which selects a board, isn't there a potential dual responsibility or conflict of interest? Wait, wait, wait. Let me see. Does that have anything to do with here? You're saying, if somebody is a representative, a state representative, and is on the board, we don't have anybody who's a state representative who's on the board. Brian is the representative of the state, and everybody else is elected by the city. No. There's no conflict of interest there. He's appointed by the state, but he's a member of the Allenten Housing Authority Board, and it's not two positions. It's only one position, and there's no conflict of interest. Okay, thank you, because I was thinking, if a tenant has a problem, and it can't be resolved by the AHA board, and they're told by the state to go talk to the state rep, that would be the position of the chair, and he's wearing both hats. Who does he side with, or who gets the best representation of the state on the AHA way? It is not a conflict of interest. There's no problem there at all. Thanks, Brian. It's all in the snow. Thank you. Thank you, Regina. All in favor, Brian, on being the chair. Yes. Go in. Yes. Viarella. Yes. Brian. Yes. And Nick is a yes, so it's unanimous. Congrats, Brian. Thank you very much. A piece of order is the election of vice chair. Do I have a nomination for vice chair? I'd like to nominate Joanne Preston. Do I have a second? I'll second that. Thank you, Viarella. Okay, all in favor, Joanne Preston is vice chair. Gar. Yes. Joanne. Yes. Yeah. Viarella. Yes. Brian. Yes. And Nick is a yes, unanimous. Congratulations, Joanne. Last piece of order here is the election of treasurer. Do I have a nomination for treasurer? I'll nominate Gar. Gar. I'll second it. Again, thanks, Joanne. All in favor, Gar. Treasurer, Gar. Yes. Joanne. Yes. Viarella. Yes. Brian. Yes. And Nick is a yes, that's unanimous. Before we adjourn, I just want to say thank you publicly to the town of Allington for re-electing me for the next five years. And I really appreciate it. I'm honored and I'm humbled by your support. So thank you again. And I promise you I'll do the best I can and I will be available for anybody that needs your help or needs our help. So thanks again. So do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Gar, do I have a second? I'll second that. Viarella, thank you. All in favor to adjourn, Gar. Yes. Go in. Yes. Viarella. Yes. Brian. Yes. And Nick is a yes. So Brian, I'm going to turn this over for you to take the regular meeting. So thanks everybody for a great year. Thank you all for your confidence and we've got a lot of good things to work on as we go in the future. However, I think my clock says 6.54 and we've advertised for seven o'clock start. So we've got minutes. We got a anybody want to sing a song or something? Congratulations to all of you. That's great. Yeah. Brian. Brian, it's Gar. I just got back from Nashville. You want me to sing? Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, they're not in Nashville. That's for sure. My daughter was down there. Yeah, they don't do. I didn't get over there. We're going to get it. Yeah, she was horrified because nobody's wearing a mask down there. And she had been vaccinated. But yeah, that's always a fun place. Oh, yeah. I've never been to Nashville. We did in New York City once and in New York City, the bar drops, but in Nashville, the note drops. So it's kind of, yeah, it's a crazy place. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. At Drake, I want to say congratulations, Nick. You deserve it. And to Jack Nagel, congratulations. You deserve the promotion too. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for your support. John Ward, do you have a comment to do? Yeah, I do. Once again, I will congratulate everybody who won their position in the last election. But anyone who submits that it was the town that elected them, there are 30,000 people registered to vote in this town and only 3,000 of them voted. Yeah, 6,000 voted, John. 6,000. I've got about the people who won. The winners got 3,200 votes. That's not a town. That's a small abysmal fraction and it's an embarrassment to the town of Arlington. That's my comment. Hi. I mean, I think that's an ongoing problem here. Of course, if it's a presidential election, you seem to get a lot more people. But this is not a new problem to a small town. But that doesn't excuse any of it. It might as well educate people on voting then. Maybe not enough people know about it or understand why they want to get involved. Yeah, the town of Arlington has an elections modernization committee and they've done absolutely nothing. They came up with a stupid notion about the choice, ranked choice, which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. It does nothing to promote people voting. And it's really another sinister attack on our democracy. The people who don't vote in this town should be ashamed of themselves. Does anyone know what's close to 18 and 25? I feel like a lot of younger people haven't registered to vote. Well, yeah. Yeah, I don't know if anybody's ever studied that. It'd be an interesting project. But it's not known, that's for sure. That doesn't make it right, Mr. Conner. Well, I agree with you, but you're making it. I voted too, John. Anybody who accepts it as part of the problem and not a part of the solution. John, you should run for Selecman. What is the solution? Run for Selecman, John. And you might have a solution to it. If less than 51% of the people that are registered to vote do not vote in an election, it should be considered invalid. And that post will remain vacant until 51% of the registered voters show up. That's one way. Those posts should remain vacant until a democratic number of people vote. Yeah, you can put it into a warrant for Tom meeting next year. There you go, John. Yes. That would be an interesting debate. That would be, yeah. Yeah. Can I make a comment to this, please? Yeah, one minute left. We have one minute left, John. Brian, it's 6.59. Okay, I have one minute. John, I agree with you wholeheartedly, but this has been a very, very trying year for everybody to get out to vote. It was very difficult. I signed up for absentee ballot and never got on from the town. So that's the town's problem. I agree with you. Education with voters needs to be heavier. And that's all I need to say. Got another 30 seconds if you want to say anything else. Nope, that's it. Okay, so I have seven o'clock on my computer here. So why don't we open up and begin the regular meeting of the Allenton Housing Authority? Today's April 27, 2021. And with an agenda, at one point we are going to go into an executive session. When we do that, we would ask that everybody drop off the call so we don't have to re, the board members re-log on to this call. So first things first, call the order. So let's do a roll call, even though we've got one already. So, Nick? I'm here. Yep. Bar? Yes. Are we in? Here. Thank you, Ella. You're on mute. Here, sorry. There we go, there we go. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you, and Brian's here. So first up, local tenant organizations, presidents from the organizations. Pam, would you like to add something? Pam House, yes. Pam House of Winslow Towers. First of all, congratulations to all the new chairman, the chairman and vice chairman and treasurer of the board. I know we're going to get a lot of good things accomplished. Congratulations, Nick, on your win. The only problem I have is the slowness in, which will probably come up under project updates, the windows. It's a big problem now down here, considering it's stuck for the past two weeks. So I think that is going to be a big problem when it comes and what's going on. But other than that, I have nothing else to bring up. Okay, great. Kathy, anything to drink? Well, I'd like to say congratulations to all the new ones. You all deserved it. Whether or not 50% or 20% voted, you won. And that should be it. But I have something with Pam and Brian, the committee that we're on for the daily. People here kind of feel slighted. They understand that you're going to name the Joseph F. Daly Learning Center. But if they want something here, they want to know if we can change the regular common room to the daily room. Because they feel Joe and Janet lived here, that we should have something here also for them. I think that's a great idea. And maybe it should be the husband and wife team and not just the Joe room. What's your thought on that? Well, we're going to go to Daly's room. Oh, Daly's, plural. I see. Yeah. Yeah. How about the daily double room? I like that, too. Somebody else said that. Who said that last time? I think it was you, Brian. Joe, you're going to have to say the daily double, didn't you? Sorry, that was Joe's favorite line, daily double. Yeah. I think that's an easy move if somebody wants to make a motion. Well, Brian, if I may, it's not on the agenda to do that. I think it's a great idea. I'm not being negative about it, but I think that you probably ought to put it on an agenda right and then you can vote for it that way probably next meeting. Wow, who has all the quarter? I think it's Marie, mute Marie. Why don't we put that? So, Jack, put that on the agenda for next month. And that's a great idea, Kathy. So, we'll discuss it next month, and we'll come up with a motion. That'd be great. Thank you, Brian. Pam. Pam, did you say something? Yeah, I forgot to bring up one thing. I know that the board voted to give us free washes and dryers until June 1st. That's a month away. Are they going to continue doing that? Or are you going to put it back on pay? I think we're going to discuss that since it's not on the agenda, we'll discuss it at the next meeting. So, we'll put that on the agenda. Okay, thank you. Yeah. And that brings up a good point, folks. As we go forward, if there's, Pam, especially in the presidents, if there's things like this, if you could get them to myself or Jack, seven days or, but I think we have to post, it's 48 hours. But if you can get them a week in advance, then we can get it on the agenda so we can discuss it and come to some conclusion. That would be a, you know, and that goes for anybody on this meeting. Then we could put it on there. I forget that we have to have it on there before we could discuss it and vote. So, I don't see the presidents of QZAC or Chestnut on. Is anybody on from there? Okay. General public, now as we go forward, so we can kind of keep this under control and we don't want people stepping on everybody. If you could put something in the chat that you want to speak, and then I'll go through and recognize you so we can at least hear you and give you a moment to speak. So, if anybody from the public wants to speak, fire off in the chat, and I can acknowledge you and recognize you. And that goes as we go forward in this meeting as well. That's the best way to do it. So, do we have anybody in the general public? Yes. I don't see anybody in the chat. Yes. So, I see an excuse me. I don't RC. So, somebody named RC. Yes. Hi, it's Rachel from Monotomy Manor. How are you? You're good. Thank you, Rachel. Hi, everyone. Good evening. I'm actually wanted to just address the Tenant Association. So, Monotomy Manor has been with that one for seven maybe plus or eight years. So, three of us have taken it upon ourselves to form an organization to start an election to get a Tenant Association running. So, until then, in turn, there's three of us that would like to meet with you on a monthly basis like the other Tenant Associations are because we really don't think we can wait that much. Like there's a lot that needs to be addressed down here and we don't feel like it's something that we want to bring to these meetings. So, I think I saw on your site that you guys meet once a month on like a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So, I think there were two days that were not, I can't remember the days, but there were two days and we'd like to take one of those days to meet with you or maintenance. I don't know who it is we meet with. Yeah. So, before we jump into that, let's give you an update on some things that we've worked on for to help with this association. I know Fiorella and Joanna have been busy myself and also Miriam has helped out a little bit on the- For what? Okay, because the Tenants Association is strictly, it has nothing to do with Arlington Housing Authority. I mean, it's its own entity. Which you're correct, but let me, let's give the floor to Joanne and Joanne. Can you go over Jack Cook, please? Go ahead Joanne. Yes. First Rachel, I'm really glad you started talking with residents because that's the beginning of working towards the Tenants Association. I think though there's a little confusion, what we decided on is that some of you who are organizing, we should, until there's a Tenant Association, that one of you, and then we were hoping a rotation of you, one of you could attend the maintenance meeting with the other residents of the association and the head of maintenance. And I believe, I should check with Jack, those- I don't, I get them. Okay. So that's the- I'm sorry, let me take her up. That's different from organizing the Tenants Association except that the people who are beginning to organize, we thought we shouldn't wait for a Tenants Association until you can meet with the maintenance meeting. So if you want to go next time, and then somebody else from your group or from at large, would you like to go to the next- Joanne? Yes? I think I just said that, right? I mean, exactly what you said, I definitely want to do that. So there's three of us right now that are working on it, and we will rotate if we need to or we would all come together. That needs to be whatever needs to happen. We just want to be at that next meeting. Yeah. In order to have a Tenants, the beginning of a Tenants Association, everyone has to be notified, and everyone has information. But one thing we've decided to do is to ask Jack Cooper, who you may know, who, at the Mass Union of Public Housing Tenants, to have a Zoom session, in which we let so that everyone can come. It's an information session on how to work towards getting a Tenants Association. Now, what's different? I used to be the head of a Tenants Association, but it was just we called a meeting and we had a Tenants Association, but it's very different in public housing. The advantage is a Tenants Association and public housing have many more rights by law than just an ad hoc Tenants Association. But they also have a very, very strict, but regular protocol on how to form one. And that's what Jack Cooper will address in two weeks. It's going to be in the weekend of May 15th. Joanne, I already contacted him, and I'm waiting to hear back from him. We've been playing tag. I already contacted it, Mr. Cooper. We have an official... Right. I just wanted to let you know that that's on the books because I do want to do this the right way. I want to make sure we can get the help we need down here and... It's overdue. And I applaud you for having started this, but... Also, it's been asking Marianne as well. One of the regulations is before even there's a committee to plan the election is that every tenant has to be notified. He will go over all of these rules because if we don't do it the right way, the state won't accept it. So we want to do it the right way. And we should have leaflet out within the next week, detailing that. And also keep reaching out. We want to include as much as possible everyone in being involved in forming the Tennis Association. So, Joanne, it's very... Do you have a... So I believe Janet has an email list of everybody. This is something you and I have talked... I mean, I guess we'll talk about this, but it would be nice to have that information to be able to maybe a layout so we know who we're speaking with. You know what? That's not for this meeting. I can address it in two weeks when we speak with Mr. Cooper. So I'll wait. So there's this tension. It's like when I had a regular Tennis Association, you don't have the landlords organizing the Tennis. So there's a tension about whether we can give up emails because they're all private. And that's something that Jack Knuckles knows all about. He goes all over the state talking with Tennis organizations. So I think we're on our way. And thank you for bringing this up. Let me just add that what's been done is there's been a flyer written. Viorella has edited it as well. Joanne has edited it. Mary Ann's edited it. I took a look at it and played with it. The flyer is an announcement that would go out to every, we would have the staff drop it at every household, every mailbox. And it would say that on May 15th, that such an, I'm not sure the exact time, that there'll be a Zoom session put on by Jack Cooper to explain to everybody, and hopefully a lot of people will log on, rep the association, how the whole thing works. And he's an expert at this, obviously. And he's not, he's a broad employee. So he would run this Zoom information session. And hopefully, and I think Joanne asked him, he would help work with you guys and guide you through the whole process and hopefully end up with an election sooner than later. So that's where it is. I'm being honest that you were doing something at the same time, but it can work together fine, I'm sure. So Brian, my concern is that it's very multicultural down here. I think it's, it's very diverse and not everybody speaks English. And so you're putting fliers out for people that don't understand what's being said. We need interpreters. We need to help us find somebody that can interpret. We're actually discussing that too, for maybe a QR code on the actual flier. So when the person scans that, they are able to go. Yeah. So we're definitely, yes, that's definitely something we're taking into consideration. All right, but what about the scan code? Are you gonna be able to write or let them know that that's what they need to do? That would be helpful too. Well, that would be the point. So then you scan the code, you're entering the flier and then you need it in a different language, some instructions and how to do it. Again, it's not hard to communicate. I know what you mean. It's not hard to scan a code, but some people don't. I mean, I don't think my father knows what a code. I mean, there's people out there that don't know that use their phone to hit the code. So I'm just concerned that, you know, we want everyone involved. I mean, I think as long as everyone gets the flier, everyone gets an email while we're delivering this flier, if, you know, I don't know, if we can knock on the door, see if the person speaks English or not, it's hard to really include everyone in that way, but we're really trying to do everything right. And I'd like to help with that. I'm happy to pass out fliers with you. I'd like to get it going. Can I comment? I think I was going to say Jack Nagel at Drake Village. Every time we have something going on, Jack makes sure that every flier is done in a different language and we know where to pass them out. So everybody gets the same notice, but he has it done in different languages. Right. Yeah, and I think we're certainly going to do it in this case. I mean, we're going to make sure that, and I know Jeanette must know the different languages we need and so forth. So obviously the idea is to make sure everybody who gets the flier who lives there understands it and can attend the Zoom meeting. And this Jack Cooper can help put this, make this in motion and everybody work together. And sooner than later, we don't want this to drag on. That's why, go ahead, Joanne. Well, I just want to say a great help is that it's a family. It's for families. And usually there's someone, often a child who's in school who can speak English, who could tell them about the scan and help them understand it. So that's another resource, at least in my experience. I talked to eight-year-olds and they translate for their, for their parents when I've been down there. So that's, that's another help, I think. Just to sum up this discussion, I think, as I'm looking at some of the comments. So yes, we are going to work on the languages, the interpretation, and that sort of stuff. So we'll take care of that. And I think, Rebecca was it, I'm sorry? Rachel. It's Rachel down in the right corner, yeah. Rachel. And I think, I see no harm in having Rachel take a look at the draft and see if she's got any input. I mean, it's a simple, simple notice. And we try and make this thing happen on May 15th, assuming that Jack Cooper can do that data. I think Joanne is trying to confirm that for herself. That would be great. Thank you. And in the second to that, as we spoke earlier, yeah, I don't think it's a problem with having you attend the president meetings on the maintenance and that sort of stuff. You should get in touch with Jack, Nagel, about the time and place. Right, right. So I was, I was, I was privileged to meet Jack the other day, Janet. I can't come, no, excuse me, no. I'm on a meeting, hon. Sorry, it's one of the kids, one of my kids. So I didn't meet Jack and so it was nice to meet, it was nice to meet you and it's good to know that. So I will, I already met him is what my, I got sidetracked. I can't think of what I was saying now because she was there. So about the time, maintenance, that's what you wanted to know. The maintenance meeting is Rachel. Yeah, no, I think we got that, but Jack, someone had just said that you're the person to talk to you about it. I'll follow up with you tomorrow, Rachel. Wonderful, Jack. Thank you. Any other public comments? I don't see anybody in the, I have one last comment to make. Mr. Connor, go ahead, John. On the website, there's a notice for the annual plan for fiscal year 2022. It suggests that the housing authority will consider the concerns of any local tenants organization. Well, the fact of the matter is the tenants organizations haven't had a chance to meet for over a year. How are the residents supposed to contribute to this potential information that's being sent to the Department of Housing and Community Development? And how are the tenants' associations supposed to get together and make any reasonable submissions of their concerns? Well, two ways. Number one, the presidents attend these meetings. In number two, presidents attend the maintenance meetings. So I mean, if they have issues, they've certainly brought them up. And residents, I mean, I mean, there's no one's of the towers who doesn't know that Pam is the president. So I would assume... That's not true at all, Mr. Connor. You're making a guess. That's a guess that you just made. There are a lot of people here that have no clue who the president is. She makes herself available. Some of us know who she is. She does a good job of what she has, but not everybody knows. And there is not one piece of information in this building that submits, that suggests that she is our president and that suggests that we have an opportunity to present our concerns to the Department of Housing and Community Development. And somebody needs to get a grip on this because your suggestion that just because the presidents meet, that doesn't represent... They don't know what the people here are thinking. John, it's very clear that you know who the president is. So if you have a suggestion, you bring the panel. That doesn't answer the question. Can I say something? The Tennis Association is there to take responsibility of the tenants to then communicate with us. So if there's an issue of people knowing who the president is or not knowing who the president is, then that is the presidents and the committees and everyone's job between the actual building to communicate with each other to figure that out. So we can only help to some extent to communicate with the presidents, but at that point there has to be communication within the building. Right. Can I make a comment also? Yes. John, I agree with you wholeheartedly. There are a lot of people that do not know that I am the president here, but we haven't had a meeting and we have had 17 apartment turnovers since last March. And when you can't have a meeting and send out a flyer, I will put together a flyer and ask the housing authority to print it out and tell it to inform who the offices are at this moment. So if they have any concerns or questions, I have a suggestion box downstairs that they don't want to make their name known. They can put it in there and I will address it with the board or at the president's meetings with maintenance. That's all I can do at this time until the board says we can have meetings. That's a good idea. It's a very good idea. And we should also have some means of the tenants knowing who the presidents are and how to communicate with them. I mean, I don't believe for a second that the presidents of the associations want 100 people knocking on their door. At Drake Village, we have Boris Posting who the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer. We have it posted behind glass by the bulletin board so everybody can see who and where to go. Well, we need it here. I'm glad to hear that it works like that, but it's not the case. And I've spoken to Mr. Nagel about this. We need to have some kind of a communications network that allows the tenants to communicate with the tenants association president. The president needs to have... I as the president go from where the tenants want need and then I go to Jack directly. So basically, I'm the intermediate between the residents and the building manager. That's exactly how it's supposed to work. We're supposed to have better communications all the way around. And the sooner that happens, the smoother the operation will work and it'll be to the benefit of everyone. So, Pam, is there... John, I will try my best to do better. I will try my best to do better for you, John. It's just a matter of us being... It's a question of everybody finding out a way to communicate with our president, either from an email, a phone, and it should be posted someplace where people can see it. Pam, can you put it down on the bill? Thank you. Any other public comments? Okay, I would ask at this point on that you put it in the chat if there's something that you want to add to the discussion as we go forward. Rachel, did you raise your hand there? Yeah, I just had a couple, two more things. One of them is, can you guys... I mean, I doesn't have to be at the meeting or it would be nice to know, what's the process of getting into housing? Is there a formal process from start when you fill out your Section 8 application slash housing to getting in here? I'm only concerned because since maybe November, there's about at least seven, maybe now only five, or more bacon townhouses down here. And I'm just curious as to how that works. Jack, you want to address that? Yes, I mean, yes, there is a formal process to get into stated public housing. The way that the state has it now is there's a centralized wait list and the acronym for that is CHAMP. So this system has been in place for about three years or so and there's been a lot of difficulties across the state in regards to the redundancies and issues of how much staff time and how much time it takes the actual applicants to get documentation. And so it has created some delays in regards to going vacancies. We are advocating with the state right now to lift some of those restrictions to create a more efficient and effective process. But in the meantime, we are working on this and I hope by the time we meet at the next meeting, those vacancies will have been cut drastically in number. That's interesting because I was told by someone from here that there's no wait list, that they can't find people to come in here. And so that was why I was asking, I was a little, I just didn't know how the whole process. So yeah, okay. Yeah, and just to further clarify that, I think maybe the confusion with not finding people is sometimes it's because of the way the wait list has been structured, there's a lot of non-response. There's a high reliance on the prioritization of applicants. And what ends up happening is that there's a lot of return mail and a lot of non-response, which has slowed the process. And I think that if you hear comments like that, that would be what that's in reference to. Okay, I mean, I'm trying not to be around the bush, but we're just hearing a lockdown. We live down here, so we hear a lot. We also see a lot. We see people getting in here after seven months on a wait list. We see people getting in here 10 years on a wait list. There's no rhyme or reason, and there should be, because people deserve to be in here if it's their turn to get in here, not preference over someone else from gender rate, anything. I mean, it should be that way. So it would be nice to, when we connect tomorrow, maybe, we can, you could tell me a little bit more about that. Not a problem. And then the last thing I wanted to just bring up, and it's more monotony, man, are like, someone donated a basketball hoop net for us. And so I didn't go ahead and ask if it would be okay, but right now we've got about the whole, all these guys playing on it. And I just want to make sure it's something that we can keep. And it's not hurting anybody. I check with the neighbors. All the neighbors are okay. No music is allowed. So the boys and girls aren't allowed to play. But we did see four stakes put in around the hoop today. And I just wanted to check in and make sure the board knows. And before I continue to keep it up, make sure it's okay that the kids are playing. So I just wanted to get your thoughts on that, if that would be okay. I mean, I think this is, and this is where the benefit of a tenant association comes in. Yeah. Because I've talked to many of our board members. You know, if you had a vibrant tenant association and you came to the board and said, listen, we'd like to put five basketball hoops up from here, here, here and here. You know, I think it'd be a great thing. And then we're even talking about, you know, picnic tables and things like that to make it a different environment than community got and that sort of stuff. So I mean, We've got top. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. You know, I mean, I've always talked in the past, but we're going forward from this point. And so, I mean, I think, but I do think that, and again, if we had a tenant association, the proper way to do it would be, we had the president contact now Jack and say, listen, this is what we'd like to do. And you get it officially blessed before you put it out there. I don't think it's a big deal. And I'm sure you wouldn't think it's a big deal. But it may be a good idea to put many of them instead of just one. So, well, yeah, that was our, that's hopefully a goal for us. I mean, this net was meant for me and my twins and someone else saw it. And now every kid in the manner that plays ball plays back here because there's a place to play. And so it would be nice to have more picnic tables that are not really, you know, new picnic tables and some, we'd love to get that going down here. Everybody would support that. Right, right. And I mean, you could do ping pong tables. You could do all sorts of things. And that would be great. But that's, I mean, and really that's, that's the nice thing about a tenant association is come up with these ideas and, and, but that's certainly a welcome change. Any other public comment? Again, if you've got anything going forward, just put it in the chat. I think these are more just, as I look at the chat, they're really chat amongst you and not necessarily a question I don't see yet, but. Excuse me, Mr. Connor. I had a Elizabeth Dre. I had a question in the chat. Thank you. First, I want to congratulate Nick on your election win. Congratulations. Thank you, Elizabeth. That means a lot. Absolutely. And secondly, at the last meeting, it was discussed that the budget would be made available to the public. And so I'm wondering if that has been done yet. And I also wanted to notice, to note again, that there are no minutes from 2021 on the website. So I'm wondering when I could expect those things to be posted. Thank you very much. Now I see you at 7.18. Sorry about that. I didn't see it. I don't think those are a big deal. I think Jack, can you work on those? I can. Yep. Yep. Cool. You know, I think we can get them certainly posted before the next meeting. I don't think it's, you know, I think we described before, we have a webmaster that doesn't work for us. So it's a matter of communicating and passing the data to him. So, but I think Jack will take care of that. Thank you. I have a question, please. Me. What is your name, Me? My name is Lisa. I'm down here in Monotomy Manor. And my question is regarding the pest control. I know at one of the meetings, maybe two, three meetings ago, that John had said that they had just signed a new contract for pest control down here. And it obviously is Charmin X because I've seen them. They came to my apartment one time. It was a few weeks after that was signed. They came to my apartment. They were wonderful. And they obviously see that I have, I have my, I call it my little visitor under one of my kitchen cabinets. And they put down the trap and they said, okay, you know, we'll be back. You know, we're rotating. And I forget what he said the schedule was, but it was basically I'd see him like once a month. And then about a week later, somebody from Charmin X came back and it was a supervisor. And she said that she was just checking to make sure that, you know, he had done what he was supposed to do. And she was just making sure she said, she had to check everybody to see if there was evidence or not so they could figure out, you know, who they were going back to and who they want. I was one of the people they were supposed to come back to because again, I have a visitor. And I've never seen anybody again. So I know Charmin X is on the property because I've seen them, but I don't know how this works. Like I was under the impression that it was like going to be a monthly thing. And then nobody has ever come back. And it's been probably two going on three months now. And I don't know if I'm supposed to be chasing like Janet to put me on a list for somebody to come back or if it's just like they obviously see that I have evidence that I have mice and before it gets out of control, like they keep me on the rotation. So how does that work with these contracts? So why don't we do this? Why don't you, and I don't want to give a unit number here. Why don't you email Jack with your information? We'll give you tomorrow. So give me your unit number and he'll follow it up tomorrow. Yeah, absolutely. And you can find my email on the website to where it's at. Just chain ankle at Allington housing. Okay. At Allington. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay. Let's move on to project updates. Jack, do you have anything? Yes. So the Winslow Towers window project is going to be starting back up tomorrow full-time. The issue there was there was a little bit of going back and forth between the contractor and the manufacturer that come to a resolution. So we're able to move forward. We'll be in touch with the contractor in regards to a schedule. Once we get that schedule finalized, we will post it for the residents and we'll make sure it's in much larger form. Great cottages. The project is moving along. They're just about done with the first three cottages. They've already started to move on to cottage 22 and they'll be starting the next, the additional two shortly. At Chestnut Manor, the parking lot was just repaved. And I was just told that Monotomy Manor, there'll be a landscaping contractor coming out to complete some spring cleaning, which will include not only the grounds, but the stairwells, which will be of great help down there. As far as some other news, we just completed the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for our senior low-income housing residents. Around 250 senior housing residents were vaccinated through this initiative. You know, would like to thank again, the town of Allington, the Board of Health, the Council on Aging, the Fire Department, Minimum and Senior Services, anybody else I'm forgetting in the volunteers who showed up to assist with that initiative. Just a reminder that those 16 and older are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. And you can visit the Mass.gov website or you can find that website on our website as well. There are some additional rental assistance programs for any residents that are on this call. You can reach out to your property manager or there is one rental assistance option on the website itself. And then also in regards to the Resident Services Coordinator position that we're trying to fill, we would receive over 40 applications. So we're in, you know, a great standing to get that position filled with a very qualified candidate. And we're excited to get them in so they can hit the ground running. And that's all. Great, great, thank you. Number five, and we're going to the session. John Griffin, the Executive Director is asked for a leave of absence, a three month leave of absence, which the Board is going to vote on. So do we need a motion for that? John Greco? Yes, yes you do. You should have a motion for that consideration and request of Executive Greco for a leave of absence. And you also have another one on there, I guess consideration of appointment of an Interim Executive Director. So that you want to determine whether or not that the consideration of the appointment of the Interim Executive Director should go first in the event that you do decide to do that. Then you could do the consideration of the request for the leave after that. It's up to the Board which way to do it. Go ahead. So Nick, did you make a motion there? No, I didn't, but I think we should probably do the appointment of the Interim Executive Director first, right, and then go into Executive Session. Sure. Is that right, John Greco? Yeah, that's what I'm doing. And if you do go into Executive Session, there's several things you want to keep in mind when you go into Executive Session. Number one, when you go into Executive Session, you need a roll call vote to do that. Every vote made in Executive Session should have a roll call vote with it. If the Executive Session is as listed on that agenda for Executive Director Leave of Absence, there may be an issue where that has to be Executive Session because if it's affecting anything in the way of personal, whether it's illness of any kind or anything like that, that should be an Executive Session. So you want to make sure that only persons who are involved actually making that decision are on that Executive Session, and every vote should be in that should be a roll call. Additionally, you should announce, before you go into Executive Session, when you do that, if and when you do that, whether or not you will go back and reconvene into Regular Session, or you will adjourn the Regular Session right from the Executive Session without reconvening the Regular Session. In other words, you'll adjourn right from the Executive Session rather than going back into Regular Session. So the people who want to be heard don't wait around and find out that you're going to adjourn right from the Executive Session. You've got to announce that. All right, good point. So what I thought of was I realized, yeah, that's all right. So with that said, why don't we take the other two item number eight and nine, get that out of the way, and then we can vote on the Interim Director and then go into Executive Session, then we can adjourn right from Executive Session so we don't have to come back, and people don't have to hang on. So number nine, do we have approval of the minutes? I move we approve the amendments of March 23rd, 2021. Second. I'll second that. Thank you, Fiorella. So all in favor, Nick? Yep. Yes. Fiorella? Yes. You in? Yes. Garg? Yes. And myself as a yes. And then we have number eight. Are there any other matters that may be appropriate to come before the Authority? Any other members of any else? Brian? Yes, Pam. All right, can I make a comment? I would just like to say that now that you're Chairman of the Board, and I know that you're in school as a professional student, that maybe the Board should consider because I know Wednesdays are going to be hard for you to change the meeting night. I think that might be something that the Board might consider. Actually, good news. So my schedule for second year changes to Tuesday and Thursday night, so Wednesdays are now free again. So we can go back to our normal Wednesday scheduled meetings from this point on. By the end of the term, I think. And thank you, everybody, for your patience. I'm the first year law student in the country here, it seems. But I have one last thing just to bring up, and then that would be that would be it. Someone brought up the COVID vaccines. Nobody down here has been notified that they qualify, and I know it's a little bit after now, but I brought it up to Nick, and he had thanked me, and then I didn't really hear anything after that. I thought it would be addressed. I didn't even know until after that housing residents were able to be vaccinated. And I just talked to someone the other day, and it just came light to them. I mean, it does such a disservice for people. I mean, all you have to do is send out a mass email that gets sent out to all of us when food is here, saying, hey, here's the link to get, I mean, it's a matter of life and death. So I think it's imperative that you give this information to people down here. They deserve it. Go ahead, Jack. You want to add to that? Yeah. So I mean, the guidance that was provided by the state in regards to the COVID-19 vaccine was for the specific item line for vaccines for housing authorities was only for residents of senior low-income housing. And that is why the clinics were only done at, you know, USAC Chestnut Drake, Winslow. So I think that there has been some confusion about that, but we want to- Yeah, no, I'm not talking about the clinics. I'm talking just tell people. They don't even know they qualify. All you have to do is just email all of us and be like, hey, you qualify because people thought they were going in phases. We didn't know low income and elderly were part of that phase. We just assumed we were coming after. So like I said, I talked to someone the other day and they said, were we qualified? That's what I was- So low income on its own was not an eligibility factor according to the guidance we received from the state in our webinars. It had to be senior low-income housing. So that's why I was identifying those different properties. So that's why we weren't able to, you know, send out those letters to the residents of Mananima Manor or section 8 voucher holders. But I got vaccinated and so did almost everyone else down here. We're not elderly. We got it because we have low income. All I'm saying is that if you're sitting on information like that and there is now the option, just get it out there. Let people know. I mean it, like I said, it's just the right thing to do. But I think the answer, there was no information. The only information is what the governor is telling you and the state is telling you, you know, and 16-year-olds are eligible and so forth. We don't, we didn't have any information to give out. You do now and people are still not sure that they are eligible. I think they, you know, honestly, they've got to watch the news and see what the governor and the government is going to be eligible. I mean, we don't have... So if they don't speak English and they go and watch news that they can't understand because they just moved here from a different country, you expect. I mean, it's just, it's just common courtesy. I mean, it's like... There's news in every language. People are getting text messages that they're eligible to vaccine. I'm just saying that people do have to get educated on their own if they care about the concept. It's a mass issue. It's not just... Sure. ...or some states, it's everyone. And if people are genuinely worried about it, then it is our responsibility and our own to really look into it. I disagree. I do. And we talked before about this and you had a different... No, I know. Do you raise your hand? Yes. I just want to say that it's my understanding with the vaccine. They ask you if you have health insurance and you check it off. If you don't have insurance, paid for. And what we need to do when we're not in the manner, tell people that information. I have to check it. I'm almost positive paid for by the state or the federal government if you don't have insurance, because they want everyone to be vaccinated. So the question is to tell people if they're younger, I believe then between 16 and 60, they are now eligible to get this vaccine. And put on the email, the state website, where they can find out where to get it. Obviously Walgreens is nearest place to an honorary manner that gives out vaccines. So that's another suggestion. But I think Rachel's right, that people just are unaware that they can now get the vaccine and we want them to get the vaccine. Yeah, I just want people to be okay down here. I'm not trying to cause any controversy. I just want people to be safe. I mean, my kids hang out around here. You know, it's just, it's the right thing to do. That was suggestion. Maybe Jack has put on the email, an email last one, saying that now people these ages are eligible and give the website where they can look for where to find a place to get it. And also, I mean, I'm saying this now because I got mine a while ago, but I understand that there's no fee if you don't have any insurance because they want everyone to be vaccinated. But that would be worth checking. Yep, exactly. Okay, let's go back to number six. Appointment of the interim executive director, Jack Nagel. I move, I make a motion to appoint Jack Nagel as the interim executive director. Second. Second guy. Let's have a roll call vote, Nick. Mr. Chairman, may I suggest that you make part of that so it's clear what the terms are? I would say subject to and conditional because we don't know what the next vote is going to be relative to the request for the leave of absence. I would suggest that some kind of language subject to and conditional on the granting, if any, of a leave of absence to the current executive director in commencing on and maybe continuing during any leave of absence which may be requested by or granted by or subsequently approved by the board. So it's conditional upon that. That's so moved. Hopefully you got all that. So the motion's been amended. I will second that. So all in favor, Joanne. Yes. Viarella. Yes. Gar. Yes. And myself. So let's see the animus. Jack. I ask a question. I have one more question, Mr. Connor. We've just selected Mr. Magal who is a fine selection. But what happens to the job that he has now as operations manager and my and adding on to that, does that mean we're going to be paying two executive directors at the same time? How does that work? I was going to go into executive section and discuss those things, John. So at some point in time we'll make it public, but not at this moment in time. May I ask a question? Yes. Go ahead. Yeah. I don't know who Jack Nagel is. Could somebody, Jack? Sure. Jack Nagel has worked here for a while at the housing. Greg, do you want to give a little bio? Well, yeah, but I've worked with the housing authority for a few years now. Prior to that, I worked with the Department of Transitional Assistance. I was a cash and snap worker. I also worked in a centralized specialist unit where we worked on special initiatives to help people going through disasters like our efficacies, efficiencies. I've also got my master's, I have a master of public administration from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Prior to that, I served in the Army. I served about five years in the U.S. Army as a military intelligence professional. And yeah. And how long have you been with the housing authority, Jack? Been with the housing authority about two and a half years. Thank you. Okay, so do we have a motion to go into executive session? I'll make a motion to move into executive session. I second it. John, do we have to say we're going to adjourn from there? I would make it clear to state, first of all, make sure it's that you do a roll call vote to go into executive session, and then make it clear that whether or not you're going to reconvene a regular session or you're going to adjourn the total session, regular session, right from the executive session. So I make a motion to move into executive. Session, do we vote now, John, for that? And then we make another motion? No, no, you could do it and make it say, the motion would be to go into executive session and not to reconvene the regular session, but to adjourn the regular session at the same, when you adjourn the executive session, you will not reconvene in the regular session. The regular session will be adjourned at that time also. That would be part of the motion. So moved. So moved. And Guy, did you second that? I did not. I think someone else did. I did. Joanne. Joanne, thank you. Thank you. All in favor of the guy? Yes. Nick? Yes. Fiorrella? Yes. And Joanne? Yes. And Blaine, yes. So can I ask that all of us on the screen, except the board and our attorney and Jack?