##VIDEO ID:htklKru9L8E## all right good morning everybody um we're going to call the meeting to order and a roll call by management thank you Mr chairman uh Timothy Kon Here Andrew extrom here Elizabeth Collins here Pauline bodor here Henry lanir that's the roll call Mr chairman okay great um let's um please stand for a pledge of allegiance [Music] I pledge alance to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay approval of the minutes of January 26 of regular board meeting motion to approve motion to approve is there a second second second all in favor any opposed so move um approval of the check warrant number one just a point of information on on that Mr chairman the uh I've I sort of redid this the uh the way we do it with our our other agencies now that we're into the new fiscal year uh warrant number one and encompasses all activity for the month of July okay all right is there a motion to approve so moved so moved is there a second second second all in favor I any opposed and then and then what I'm going to do I'm just going to I'm just going to pass this warrant around to have all the board members sign it for me okay great um all right uh fiscal year 2024 year end reports okay uh in your board packet what I've done is I um I've numbered the pages to make it easier to reference so the uh the year end reporting begins on page 11 and um that first sheet that you see on page 11 uh is the is the certification of compliance thank um with federal and state lead paint laws uh this is a form that uh that needs to be filed every year with the Commonwealth as part of housing authorities end of year statements uh it essentially says that all painting all paint that is used in our in our buildings whether it's a it's a turn or it's hallways or whatever we're working on uh is um is Led safe and this all this all came about as a result of the um all the stuff that occurred in the country prior prior to the the year 1978 so obviously any any painting products that are utilized now um were not manufactured prior to 1978 so they are all they are all LED safe so this is just a documentation that says that we um that we adhere to that and then um everybody that moves in as a new Resident is is supposed to get a a copy of a a u a pamplet you know that's put out by the Feds that kind of explains lead paint and so forth um you know lead paint is typically not a problem in a senior development um you know I I don't I don't think too many of you here like to munch on window cells but in in you know in a family development with with a lot of little kids that's where the problems arise little kids tend to be mischievous and and they and they tend to in the past that's where a lot of the lead paint poisoning came came from so but uh uh we plan to adhere to that law so I'm going to I'm going to pass this document around to have everybody sign it and there's a place for the um yeah that's fine oh the chairman signs all through the top one right yeah yeah as long as you're as as you all assign somewhere on there is fine I'm leaving them here that's fine sure thank you thank you while while that's going around uh we'll we'll move on page number 12 uh is the um is the certification to the uh uh the accounts receive the the tenant accounts receivable data and the financial statements which I'll go over in a second as well as the um the uh top five compensated Housing Authority employees on page 13 um is essentially a listing of the top five highly compensated employees of the Westport Housing Authority there is only one employee of the Westport Housing Authority that is David so uh David salary is listed there he's the only employee so he's the only one that you know that is listed why do we do this um why do we do this this is something fairly new as well housing authorities um in the early part of of this Century the early 2000s got into trouble um where not you know not in Westport and not anywhere you know here in Bristol County but there were there were housing authorities that were um you know that that were paying you know exorbitant salaries to various employees and so forth and it sort of made the news and a couple of executive directors went to jail as a result of what they were doing so the state you know changed the law and now as a part of the reporting each Housing Authority you know uh uh needs to report their top five highly compensated employees so that's so that's what that is okay um our financial statements begin on page 14 um and I just want to just just want to go over a couple of things there we had a very we had a very successful year financially uh rents came in um about 2% of uh over budget I'm on page 16 um at at the very top there uh shelter rents um our we were budgeted to collect 255,000 in rents and we ended up collecting 259,000 in rents you know you may ask why why did we exceed the budget on on a rental collection well there there may be people that owed back rents that were catching up so we were able to to recapture some of that so that you know that's all very good um and our expenses were all you know very much under control as well um one thing that I did want to bring your attention to which um I I think is very important is I'll tell you one moment page number 22 page number 22 item number nine uh reduction of operating subsidy um you'll you'll see that that figure there um $2,473 56 um there were that's uh those are funds that the Housing Authority had to um had to give back to the executive office of housing because they were not spent okay um I I can promise you that will that will not happen again um we will you're you're allowed you're allowed to to spend your subsidy um in this case we we essentially left $225,000 on the table okay not the end of the world um but we're not going to you know we're not going to do that again our reserves our reserves were upwards of 122% they're supposed to be 100% so ESS essentially what the executive office of housing did was they just reduced it back to 100% we still have plenty of money that's not an issue but um you know going forward um and I'll address this a bit later in the meeting uh we we want to take appropriate actions in you know in the development to improve it that's and if there's money available to do so we don't just want to leave it there so you know you know the state can grab it we want we want to spend some some of that money and we've you know we've started to do a little bit of it uh but we are going to be facing challenges from a spending side believe it or not because the budget guidelines were just released and they're being very generous the state is being very generous this year the upcoming fiscal year to housing authorities so they're actually increasing the cap by about 12% so um I'll be working you know with our fee accountant and I'll I'll I'll go into that a a little bit as well but you know we ended the Year good with the exception of having to give back that subsidy money to lose that money yeah I mean it you know some housing authorities try to try to spend it close and they wind up giving back a few hundred bucks or $1,000 this is a little bit on the high side um but we uh this is one thing we'll we'll be on top of going forward um the the tenant accounts receivable report is in your packet beginning on page 24 question Liz yeah that 25,000 how much of it was used no that's all going back none of it it all it all it all is gone back to the state right and none of it is retrievable well um I was believe it or not I was having a conversation earlier with the the deputy director and um I'm going to try to get some of that back um I think now that the fiscal year is over I'm not GNA hold my breath but I'm G to try you know but I mean considering the situation well I mean it's you know it um it did happen and um I'm I'm prepared not to let to let it happen again if you know if we're given money to spend we want to spend it exactly um and again the um it's always good to have a healthy Reserve okay but the the um the executive office of housing mandates that you you maintain at least a 35% Reserve now we at one point we were at like 122% so we were way over what we needed to have in the bank so my goal is to always come in at the end of a fiscal year right below 100% so we don't have to give anything back and at the same time we can improve the property so okay so I'm going to try thank you okay tenant accounts receivable um um again a Very Good Year with that there was um on page 24 um line item D um or or letter D there um 75% that was that was the percent of rent of charged rent that was not collected so that kind of goes back into what I was saying before why why was the rental budget did we exceed the rental budget it was probably people catching up on back rent but of the rent that we charged only 34 of 1% was not collected which is negligible so that that was a very very good year for rent Collections and I have to say in the very short time that I've been here all the residents pay their rent for the most part pretty much on time so that's that's not an issue here at Westport which I'm glad to see and thank you very much for that it saves it saves us a lot of hassle from sending letters and doing all the other stuff that we have to do when that happens so um so the tenant accounts receivable report is kind of a long one it goes through uh it goes through Page um page 31 so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to pass the second sheet around to have folks sign it and um there is a place for the for the chair to sign on on the top line there thank you uh I also put in your packet um the the uh the latest mmdt statement um there there does not need to be a motion to put this on file this is an FYI for the board so there does not have to be a motion to file this this is just for your information and um and again this is our investment account which is separate from our reserves so as you can see we've got we've got about $30,000 sitting in the investment account which is very good um so I'll I'll wait until um so that's that's made its way down there um I'll next move on to correspondence um I address um I had a conversation with the chairman about this issue beginning on page 34 um we did receive a um an open uh an open meetings request or a a public records request uh from an individual um who I understand formerly live locally uh by by the by the name of Patrick Higgins and uh he had requested a copy of all of the calendar year 2024 minutes of meetings from January through July and then um if there were any um if there were any executive session minutes so I did provide him with all of that information um to respond to respond to the request um on page 37 I'm just sharing an email with the um with the board that I received from uh from Jim Haron at the Town Administrator um he said we normally respond to the complaint as required I believe all appointed and elected officials need to take the state ethics online course and to sign off on the open meeting law requirement so um what what the uh the woman in town hall did was she sent she sent some information which is located on pages 35 and 36 of your board packet um about the easiest way to go online and take and take the ethics you know the ethics course right um just for the board's for the board's information um uh Mr Higgins filed a formal complaint with the Attorney General's office that the Westport Housing Authority was in violation of the the the uh the open meetings law um and his rationale was that um um there was there was not references made in the minutes to documents in the board pack for example uh when you approve the minutes according to what what the complaint indicated was the um in the you know in the minutes it needs to be you know motion made to approve the minutes motion seconded by you know so and so uh you know please refer to pages three and four in the board packet that information was not contained you know numbers in the of of the board packet was not contained so that that was that was theoretically a violation of the law I was not aware of that um so he um he subsequently he he subsequently filed additional complaints um with with two of our other managed agencies uh and I haven't heard any follow up on that yet but I did did engage in an email back and forth with Mr Higgins he's very knowledgeable about the open meetings law uh and it's you know it's there are there are citizens out there that look at this stuff and make sure that public bodies are following the law I and I'm I'm assuming that's what he's doing but uh Town Administrator hartnet uh he indicated to me that he would be issuing the formal response to this um so I'm going to follow follow up with Jim and make sure that that was done but in the meantime when you know when time permits for the board if you could take a look at Pages um 35 and 36 and when you have an opportunity um if you could you know if you could look into maybe taking that that course that is a nice a nice r Liz yeah this Mr Hayes his first name is Peter Mr Higgins Patrick Higgins Patrick Hayes um Higgins I'm sorry Higgin Higgins Higgins okay um who is this person and what he is what connection to the town is it just Westport or is it all neighboring towns has to my knowledge he has no connection to the town of Westport he is either he is either a resident or a former resident of the town of Swansea um and from what I gather from what I've been told um he's got he does have an online profile so you can Google his name he does he does this quite regularly he will file he will file open meetings requests to various public agencies across the Commonwealth and not necessarily in this immediate Bristol County area uh he's filed he's filed requests out in Springfield Worcester and it's not only it isn't only Housing Authority boards it's he you know he he does select boards he does City councils he does planning boards you know um um you know any you know any public public board that is supposed to meet publicly and have minutes available you know either online or available to the public these this is what he does and I guess he's a student if you will of the open of the open meetings law okay so um you know he have an office is he a lawyer what what's his title I do not know anything about the gentleman um I I do know that he um his when the when the facts report came to me um it's ident he's identified as as a as now a a resident of Huntsville Alabama so I don't know I don't know if he's even in Massachusetts but um but again um it's important to keep in mind that not only Mr Higgins but it could be anybody in the public if somebody from the public makes a request to see a public document that has to be provided um so that's what we did we we did provide him with the information that we had here all the all the board meeting minutes for calendar year 2024 um and then as a result of him getting that um he filed a formal complaint with the attorney general um you know I I I try not I try not to have complaints filed with the Attorney General's office because that that typically obligates their you know uh their integrity office or whatever they call it to investigate so we we try to stay above board and of course we want to do the right thing and it's not a heavy lift for me so from now on when you see the minutes uh I I'm I'm going to be referencing page numbers in the board packet so and then and the board packet itself is a public document so in the event that somebody makes a request to see a full board packet that'll be available for whoever wants it so we shouldn't have this problem again okay um you've given him material up until this point I've given him everything that he asked for and he's asking for executive session minutes he I I've given him everything that we have that he asked for well the reason I'm asking about executive session minutes um you know it was rare that we went into executive session but uh I don't know if he's going to be looking for this or not but when you have executive session minutes they stay in executive session until they're approved by the board they stay in exec right and they and they also they also um you you don't uh they are also not you know you know not to be made public until such time as the issue at hand has long been resolved then then you have the ability to yeah I was just thinking if he's gotten all this material and he has executive session minutes and he's going over them um might he come back and say listen this isn't this isn't right uh well should be he could amend the he he could amend the complaint he could do it I me he the you know the request that came in was exactly what was in your board packet and that's what I gave him okay so and then so he filed the complaint he ALS he n he named the the the town of Westport as an additional you know you know entity as part of the complaint so typically when the I was told by by Jim hartnet when the town is mentioned in a complaint he's the one that files the response so all I need to do is confirm with Jim that that response has happened and I'm pray you know knowing Jim the way that I know him now I had the opportunity to sit with him for a while we had a very nice friendly conversation um I'm I'm sure it's it's been it's been responded to but I will follow through one more question sure I'm done um as far as the open meeting law um EX Ive session minutes and regular minutes um usually it's not done every year but um this year is different there are a lot of new people on boards and um not necessarily Jim because Jim hasn't been doing this part of his job very long but um the board of Selectmen can get somebody I don't think they've got uh cop Min page anymore I don't know who their attorney is but they will put on a seminar and we would be invited normally and it would be easy for a five member board you know instead of five members going through all these papers or you know questions you'd have everybody together again I'm not aware of anything that the town is doing like you know like I said the the information in your packet was what was provided to me okay by the town okay uh now I could certainly follow up with the town and you know determine if that is something that could be in the works but I haven't I haven't heard anything about that yet yeah yeah okay thank you you're welcome okay you want to move on to management agent report of course okay in your in your board packets beginning on page 38 uh 38 through 40 um actually uh 38 through 43 uh this is a uh a maintenance report that I'm going to start providing the board and um um we we recently uh switched over to the uh PHA web software which enables us to to print a report such as this and this just gives the board an idea of what um our our superb U uh maintenance staff member David works on during the course of a month now this is not a complete report because this is only this is only um uh basically the month of July but um he's um you know this this sort of gives you a sense of the of the different work orders that get called in and the different work that he does so again this is just kind of an FYI for the board so you you know Dave Dave's not just walking around doing nothing all day in add this is very this is very very good yeah we've never had anything yeah to the light right and I did I I did white out u i I did white out the the tenants names uh that that are are associated with each workl so that's not that thank you for that a violation on that so again this is just an FYI it'll probably be a little bit uh you know longer report next month um but but again just to give you the flavor of some of the things that Dave works on and again Dave just you know the board I think knows this but U and you know certainly the residents know this but Dave Dave only works 30 hours a week because that's that's all that's all the budget allows and in that 30 hours he's expected to you know turn vacant units you know you know take care of the grass during the during the summertime shovel snow in the winter time do all the work orders um so he he's got a lot on his plate and uh in the very short time that I've been here to date that's that's one common denominator everybody seems to like Dave and the job that he does and everything else and you know and I and I keep telling Dave you know if you if you need help you have to ask for it don't don't try to be a hero and solve all the problems yourself try to try to ask ask for help if you need it so I think he's he'll he'll be getting there he'll be getting there on that um speaking about maintenance if I can sure um at what point do you um decide that um this isn't for Dave you got to bring in a contractor how do you determine that Dave usually tells us if if something is is you know beyond his his skill set okay if it's uh you know if it's a complicated electrical issue or you know if it's a plumbing issue that he himself cannot resolve he will let us know and then we will call out a contractor at that point and you do have a list of contractors we do so that you can get somebody right away to service the tenants if something correct important or necessary correct and and again Dave's been at this for a good long time so uh I think he's got he's got the phone numbers memorized sometimes if he needs a plumber he just oh the phone make a phone call um you know but our you know certainly we we try to solve issues on our own first before we call the contractor in but I just got through saying that we uh we left $25,000 on the table so if he needs a contractor um and that's um you know looking ahead um on for example on on page 44 there's the you know there's the the vacancy report and it's it's it's you know it's showing uh two units are vacant um i' I've let him know that he has authorization to you know get a painting contractor in here to assist him with any of these apartments if he feels that his work is too much or that he's not able to get to it in a timing now um so we have other and we will we will have other vacancies coming up and you know the it's it's a nature of of an elderly development that you know there is there is there is going to be turns you know um you know you know folks unfortunately pass away some folks go to nursing homes um some people get evicted you know there's always there's always going going to be vac genes coming up so we want to we want to approach those in a in a reasonable way and we also want to be able to maintain the state standard which is we want to have these units turned over within a 60-day period so that that's our goal with that so again the the um vacancy report on page 44 that is something that'll be provided to you folks on a monthly basis so you can see see what we have um we only have two vacants right now uh they're both in the process of being turned uh so hopefully by the by the next time we meet we'll have uh we'll have an update on that um our uh State uh state project um um updates we have only one project uh that's in the pipeline right now that's it's our uh it's our door you know door lock upgrading y um the um the contractor was supposed to be out here last Friday just to do a walk around and measure certain things and I guess a couple of of his of his staff members uh came down with covid so he wasn't able to come so he's going to he's going to reschedule that for this week I'm not sure if he's come already has he come yet no no okay so it's it'll be in the works this week so that that's our state funded project we'll have more to say on that um the next bullet point there is budget guidelines excellent excellent news on that as I said before the state is increasing um our non-utility um allowance by 12% which is a huge increase the highest I've seen since I've been in the business what has been 8% this this is going to be 12% so um uh Dan robard um who is our who is our uh fee accountant now um he will be making a a presentation to this board at our September meeting to kind to go over the budget and kind of give you a like a you know like a snapshot of where Westport is and where we stand so that's that's something to look forward to but it's it's it's excellent news and it's even better news because the guidelines typically do not get released until you know late September M early October this is the earliest that I've seen them released and um you know Westport is kind of in uh you know it's in a very you know um it's in a very unique position because we have a June 30th you know year end fiscal year end so technically as of July 1st we've already been into the new fiscal year so we don't we don't have a budget in place right now even though we're almost two months into the year and by the time we approve a budget we'll have a we'll have almost a full quarter under our belts so we can examine where we're spending money and we can make tweaks as necessary so it's a pretty good you know it's a pretty good thing that um you know housing authorities for example that are on a calendar year fiscal year don't have that luxury but but here in Westport and and amongst you know a couple of the other agencies that we have there all you know 6:30 year in so we have that luxury of a little bit of a look back from July 1 until the budget actually comes out but Dan Dan likes to make an appearance once a year to sort of present the budget to the board so you'll have an understanding and it'll give the board an opportunity to you know ask any questions that you might have um so that uh that's coming up next month um Community out reach um since I've been here on July 1st i' I've I've had an opportunity to meet with um uh representative Schmidt uh I met with with uh Jim hartnet uh down at Town Hall I met with the I've spoken to the uh Town nurse and uh and the Council on agent so we've done some Outreach there um I mentioned that my goal was to file an application for a resident services coordinator Grant um I was told that the um uh that the funding for that had already been spoken for in the last fiscal year so I wasn't able to file one I will be filing one uh probably later on this year and we will get Westport into our collaborative you know if they approve the grant which they should um so I'm looking forward to that good that'll be good good um um property improvements we've you know we've done a number of things um we've we're on a schedule now we've we've retained the services of a janitorial company uh that are going into all the hallways once a month you know giving them a nice cleaning um the feedback that I'm getting has been very positive on that uh so that's that'll be an ongoing thing once a month um we just we just had the gutters done um over the past couple of days um feedback overall on that was was okay um I did receive a little bit of negative feedback in the um you know want just wanting a little explanation as as to the chemicals that were being used in in the process and I've been told by the um by this by the uh uh by the company that um you know there was nothing uh there was nothing out of the ordinary that was used and all all precautions were taken um any um any vegetation that may have been impacted was posed down before and after um so if any you know if any residents had any you know concerns about that um again this is a insured professional company they've they've been in business for many years um that's why we picked them um and so that that was done this week so I'm sorry sorry I just wanted to say the chemical they used cuz I asked them was clorax okay that was it okay very small amount it and it was watered down too from it was it was just a tiny bit yeah you know thank you you welcome thank you inter no worries no worries ition something if any chemicals us spray could you please let us know on a b report what's being used of course thank you I'd be happy to do that thank um uh next up Paul Paul question yes um in terms of um property improvements and stuff or whatever it is we're on is there any I think you and I might have had this discussion but is there any um any idea or any uh any thoughts going into uh maybe washing out the dumpsters and cleaning dumpsters by someone on on a you know when the trash is removed because actually I heard from one of or two of the neighbors here that said that they thought mice and rats and stuff were coming from the dumpsters quite frankly okay that that's certainly something we can look at I don't know if the um I can reach out to the you know the waste out of the waste company and inquire on that um you know it you know might be you know an added fee but I think it might you know it uh it might be money well spent we can also um and I I'll admit I'll admit I haven't actually you know physically looked at the dumpster myself perhaps you know uh somebody Can Can Shed light on it if the dumpster itself you know looks like it's you know it's been around since 1970 maybe we can uh can get a new dumpster down here took me two years to get that one okay is that a fairly new one yes okay okay but we to to answer your question Tim I can certainly call to inquire if that's something they the only the only comment I have heard was at one point that dumpster got moved from there to Al back and I don't know how that affects the residents here because they first most important but I don't know how that affects them but the problem went away when it wasn't where it is is that true oh not true for as long as I've been here it's been over there okay okay all right but I'll be happy to look into that though yeah yeah okay thank you no worries um next in your agenda um or in your board packet rather on page 45 um this is just a housekeeping matter um every so often and I I don't know how often it happens here in West Court I can speak I can speak to the other authorities that we manage it doesn't happen very frequently but uh every once in a blue moon somebody will will file a grievance about something uh whether it's um you know a policy violation whether it's a rent calculation or something like that um what I'd like to do is the way we have it set up in our other agencies is we have a hearing officer that is charged with hearing agreements and and and the woman we use is a Woman by by the name of Emily eshman and her resume is on page 45 of your board pack um she is an independent hearing officer um she charges for her services and um she is probably the fairest person that I know she has rulle she has sometimes rules she rules against the Housing Authority if she feels that the Housing Authority is is off base or wrong or if she feels the Housing Authority is correct she will rule it she will rule against the the individual making a complaint what I'd like to do is just uh is just engage her services on an as needed basis if we ever have a grievance um so her uh her resume is there you know perhaps you've had an opportunity look it over I just need a I would just need a motion uh and a second and then a vote to approve Emily as the hearing officer moved no move second second second all in favor I I any opposed so move thank you very much uh next on page Pages 47 through 48 this is a contract for accounting services by and between the Westport housing authority and Shaw and roard um it's it's been a pleasure um in the very very short time that I I've worked with with Fenton and Ewald which is which is who we had prior okay you know typically when a new managing agent comes into a housing authority and they have they have an an established relationship with another accounting firm we usually switch so we are um Fenton and ewal prepared the year end reporting so now they they are all set with Westport okay so now mil Shaw and robard specifically Dan robard um will be assigned to the Westport portfolio and it's a fairly straightforward contract um it's approximately the uh same that um that that you were paying previously so I would just I would just need a motion a second and a vote uh to approve mil Shaw and robal Ard as the fee accountant it's retro acted to July 1 it's z a motion so moved second second second all in favor I I oppos hearing none so move thank you everybody um finally in your packet and again this is an FYI uh the executive office of housing um has modified how they treat resident income um you know whenever there's a there's a major update coming from the state I'll let the board know um but the bottom line is uh you can read through this it's a it's a it gives you the what the old rule is and what the new rule is it's very liberalized as far as residents are concerned so they they've made it they've made it much more favorable for residents uh from uh from an income standpoint uh from um if you're a full-time student or a part-time student um so again this is just an FYI for you um I I'm going to leave a copy of this for Resident I'll make a bunch of copies actually and I'll leave it on the table here if folks want to read it over some of it might apply to your situations others you know uh with the family developments it won't but um I'll be happy to make copies of this and leave it um that is my report Mr chairman okay um we don't need a motion to approve everything we just approved what we needed to right correct okay old business anything under old business there are none we'll move to new business if I could just just raise a under under new business I sent an email out to the board um probably several weeks ago the adoro housing authority on Saturday September 14th is having a strategic planning session from 9:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. um at the sweet Community House which is located at 44 PC Street in adbar and what we've decided to do and it's you know there's no obligation that's not required what we decided to do was invite board members of our managed agencies to attend the morning session if you wish if you wish to um so that that invitation has been extended um if you'd like to come I know it's kind of a hike unfortunately to get from Westport to adbar but I'll I'll leave it up to each of you if you wish to attend we'd love to have you and again it's just to hear input on of the challenges every town is different every town has it it its unique identity and and things like that and different approaches to affordable housing I was talking with with representative Schmidt the other day and he has a lot of ideas you know as far as vacant land goes and you know buildings that not being utilized and and things like that so there's um you know maybe there's something you know maybe we can form you know a nonprofit down here and maybe you know advance a housing in the town of Westport there's there's a bunch of different things we can do but that invitation has been extended to you and and in invitation I thought it said from to 3:00 in the afternoon but well the the the managed agencies don't have to stay for the whole day okay so just us board members would be half a day correct to or whatever and then the other part of it would would be just ADB specific okay different things that we're doing in ad I'm trying to set the we've never done strategic planning and um you know I don't know I don't know if I'm going to if I'm still going to be around here in 10 years or whatever um you know I'd like to plan for for the future of the agencies and the future of housing across all all of our portfolios and and I and I think you know strategic planning is a way to do that um you know directors you know come and go they they retire they move on they whatever I mean I'm not planning on moving on um but again I mean I I I am you know I'll I'll I'll have you guess my age but I I'm I'm not as young as I look put it that way so I don't know if I'm going to I don't know I don't know how long I'm going to be on the job but I I love what I do and I and I think strategic planning is is the way to formalize a lot of these plans and and and not to mention I'm all for especially in my I'll speak for myself personally I'm new on the board um I've been around other housing authorities with with other businesses and stuff like that but education is very important and I'm willing to learn listen and learn appreciate that that's great that's great um I I put the West for police Department up there um I did I did reach out to the officer um to to let him know that that his presence um I don't I don't think will be required here any longer um of course if he wants to show up he's more than he's more than welcome to come it's an open meeting uh but I I don't think we need a police officer here at the Zone okay great okay commission's comments I got a comment the short time that Paul has been here we've had some wonderful changes wonderful things getting done um and also it's very nice to see more tenants here for years I was the only one here so it's nice to see participation great great comment I I've never seen as many tenants at a board meeting in all in all the agencies left I you know we this is great okay uh any tenant comments next I know MERS right now and you haven't any policies set yet but the policies that supposed to be by the policies that supposed to um go by or do we go for the new the old policy that we had no the the um the West for Housing Authority is an independent entity okay so I'm going to wait for them to decide to to the extent that that there that there are that there are policies in place they are they are you know West you know West Court specific now we we have policies in anal that we could we could incorporate down here but I haven't gotten that far yet I haven't looked at it yet the notifications that we've gotten was more than like ID policy not our we didn't was onic some things were but not not specific on we okay so why don't we do this why don't we do this let's let's have a conversation about that so we can we can get on the same page as far as you what you think is I know new board they haven't really established anything yet correct but I'm saying in the future and if they do establish something for you guys to um could please put it in a handbook or something that wasn't enough one one thing about about what we do around here is we we when we when we adopt a new policy and this is the way that I've always operated when we adopt a new policy it's not just okay let's you know let's copy and paste you know some some adbor policy and I'll stick it in the board packet and vote on it what I'd like to do is have have resident input now down here you folks don't have a formalized tenant association okay you don't really need one of those but um you know down here for example in those agencies that I that I know don't have a formal tenant organization what I would do for example this is what you brought up I would uh I would type out a draft policy on something whatever it is a draft policy and then I would um I would leave it here here in the community room I'd make a bunch of copies residents can take them read over the policy it's a draft it's not in stone yet read over the policy reach out to me with any ideas or any modifications you think might need to be made and then um you know we can tweak it we can we can fiddle and diddle with it and then once it's kind of agreeable to everybody then I I can present it to the board for a vote but it's it's not going to be something where you know um here's the policy and here's the new policy and you're not going to have any input on it I like I like resident input and I realize not every resident is going to come on it and I also realized that I could keep something open for two months and I could I could hand out memos and say you know you know let me know your comments let me know what you think and I wouldn't hear from anybody and then it would go to the board for a vote and then after the board approves it then I would hear from people that you know what do you you know that's that's just part for the course and I understand that out too but I try to be I try to involve residents as much as possible when we're implementing policies I have a question regarding that the U handbooks that they have now for their rules and regulations do you up you plan on up updating that like in other words if we make a new policy to something and we decide for whatever it is and we change it and that's going to go in the new handbook well it's got to it h it has to go in the handbook and then it also has to in our uh in our policy book as well with the date that the board approved it and so forth so all those all those modifications will be made I have a copy of the of of the Westport handbook um and I'm going to I'm going to read through it myself and I you know what I'll do is I'll mark it up I'll see what we can what I'd like to change what makes sense what needs to be modified that kind of thing and then um but before there's any major change okay we have we have a resident board member um you know uh we you know we could convene just like a you know a focused group of residents that may want to have input on any changes and uh it's all going to be above board very you know very transparent it's not going to be by the time you get it to vote on it there's not going to be any any question that it's it's the right Poli and mostly has agreement okay okay great y question after meeting I like to speak to you by I want speak to you about something else okay right thank you no problem okay before we get into adjournment uh I I just need to make a note that I failed when we started the meeting and that is that this meeting is being videotaped so I just I just need to to get that out on camera all right is there a motion to adjourn no no go ahead sorry get oh that's right you you're you're the one that's not on that's not on the list all right I just um we had um we had sent the memo out which which um I initially felt was you know non-controversial if you will but I guess that's not the case um it's it um it's my understanding that you know elderly elderly folks or folks in general love their bird feeders and they love to um watch the birds and whatnot so um um I did a robo call yesterday probably some of you gotten it um and again this is an example of what of what I just about and um you know you you know you live and learn so to speak if you um um I I essentially you know rescinded that memo to say that the that the bird feeders are you know they're fine the only motivation that we had behind that to be frank with everybody was um there's a lot of wildlife around and um you know Wildlife is is is drawn by a food source any kind of food source um and again birds birds have to eat birds birds use the bird feeders but there's other animals that jump up on the bird feeders too YouTube has a bunch of videos about squirrels that jump up on on bird feeders and throw around and we've all seen those but um if there is a food source that is you know that is available to Wildlife um you're not only going to get birds you're going to get you're going to get skunks you're going to get squirrels you're going to get Chipmunks you may even get coyotes or whatever else is living out there so it was you know the only motivation was behind that was from a from a tenant safety perspective number one and you know number two um you know from a from a health and safety standpoint as well um but like I I was telling telling Pauline and Liz before the meeting started it's not really um it's it's not really a battle that I want to fight right now to be frank yeah so so I'm not I'm not too concerned about it so so the gist of the robo call was that um you know I will I will resend the memo so is fine not when I work all day I have I like see the I put 10 hour animal that's that right that's that's what I that's what I just [Music] said at night I he at 2 in the morning they way up in the woods how you going to stop that the D come out lat at 2 in the morning they walk along well I'm not going to I'm not going to really stop anything I just I I just have concerns about uh you know resident safety if everybody homebody sleeping if there's a if there's a food source out there well not not everybody sleep not everybody has normal hours either I don't have normal some people are you know nocturnal some people are up all night some people go for walks at all at all hours of the night and if there's food sources all over the place and somebody's out there walking and and you know and you come face to face with Coyote Well that that's an issue excuse okay I I also think if they're going to leave the bird feed the bird seeds in the hallway they need to be in a sealed container not just a bag with the thing rolled up yeah we we can you know we can look at that too okay okay good to go all right motion to adjourn so move second all in favor any oppos so move thank you for attending everybody