TOWN OF EAST HARTFORD
740 MAIN STREET
WELLING CONFERENCE ROOM, 2nd FLOOR
JULY 19, 2011
SPECIAL JOINT MEETING – EAST HARTFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY
PRESENT Chair Richard F. Kehoe, Vice Chair William P. Horan, Jr., Majority Leader Barbara-Ann Rossi, Minority Leader Eric A. Thompson, Councillors Marc I. Weinberg, Linda A. Russo, Ram Aberasturia, and Patricia Harmon
ABSENT Councillor Susan P. Skowronek
ALSO Marcia Leclerc, Mayor
PRESENT East Hartford Housing Authority Commissioners:
Robert Keating, Chair; James Kate, James Patterson
Ralph Alexander, Attorney, East Hartford Housing Authority
Debra Bouchard, Acting Executive Director, East Hartford Housing Authority
Joseph Regan, Acting Finance Manager, East Hartford Housing Authority
CALL TO ORDER
Rich Kehoe, East Hartford Town Council Chair called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
The Chair indicated that this is the third in a series of joint meetings between the Town Council and the East Hartford Housing Authority (EHHA) with regard to the EHHA’s financial recovery plan. In April 2011, the Town Council first met with the EHHA to discuss how they would start to improve their financial situation, addressing the deficits that they have incurred as a result, primarily, of the lack of adequate funding for state housing projects, such as King Court and Hutt Heights.
A second meeting was held to review the EHHA’s submission to the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) of the recovery plan. The recovery plan was submitted to HUD. HUD subsequently sent the EHHA a more detailed recovery plan which the EHHA is in the process of reviewing and will be meeting with HUD soon.
At this point, the Chair opened the meeting to public comment.
Kathy Stevens, 68 Silver Lane – Rochambeau Apartments, complimented the EHHA on its services to the tenants, but was concerned about the impact of the EHHA’s financial difficulties on the residents and urged prompt disposal of King Court to Goodwin College.
Susan Kniep, 50 Olde Roberts Street, (1) raised concerns regarding the location of this meeting, asking that it be held in the Council Chambers; (2) read various portions of EHHA minutes regarding financial issues; (3) read a letter from HUD regarding the performance of the EHHA Board of Commissioners in its oversight of EHHA operations; (4) urged an Investigations and Audit review of the EHHA.
Esther Clarke, 197 Langford Lane, asked if an annual financial audit of the EHHA had been performed recently.
Freeman Sargent, 1403 Main Street – The Highlands, raised a number of issues regarding the lack of responsiveness of the EHHA staff and the costs that tenants in his complex were incurring with regard to opening security doors.
Robert Valerio, 552 Goodwin Street, asked about the allocation of funds from the Community Development Block Grant monies received by the town.
Marjorie Smith, 161 Sisson Street, was very concerned about the financial issues with the EHHA and would like to see meetings on this matter televised.
The Chair addressed a number of issues that were raised – explaining that the Community Development Block Grant monies are not part of the EHHA budget and that 20% of that block grant is used to pay for the administration of that block grant which in turn frees up town dollars that would otherwise have to be spent on the Grants Administration staff. The Chair also indicated that EHHA does conduct an annual outside audit and that those audits are available for review.
The EHHA Commissioners present discussed the following aspects of their recovery plan:
King Court
Preliminary contact has been made with the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) to begin the process of disposing of the property. EHHA is developing a Request for Proposal (RFP) and will receive input from DECD, King Court area residents, the Town Council and others with regard to conditions for the disposal of the property. The goal for disposing King Court is sometime between mid and late summer 2012. EHHA hopes that the process will allow residents to stay in their apartments after the transfer of ownership of the property and the funding from the sale of that property will be enough to reimburse the federal project funds as well as payment of $115,000 to the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority with the balance then (after reimbursement to the federal projects) being split between the Town of
East Hartford and the State of Connecticut. EHHA is still exploring the possibility of selling or otherwise transferring ownership of the main office on Burnside Avenue, but that is still several months away from any action.
Finance Director
The Board of Commissioners have advertised and started receiving resumes for the Finance Director position. The close date for this position is August 2011. There will be a three-member panel to review resumes and interview candidates and make recommendations. The panel will consist of Executive Directors from three other housing authorities in the state of Connecticut.
Executive Director
The EHHA will advertise for this position in August 2011. There will also be a three-member panel consisting of Executive Directors from three other housing authorities in Connecticut which will conduct the interviews and make recommendations. The goal is to fill this position by December 2011.
Legal Services
The legal counsel to the EHHA position will go out to RFP in the next couple of months. The current legal counsel is working under a contract that was entered into in 2000 and is being paid rates that have not changed since 2002.
Procurement Policy
EHHA adopted a new procurement policy in June 2011 and is training staff on the new policy. The EHHA has developed a contract register that provides a list of all contracts entered into the previous month and a list of all financial transactions. This information is provided to the Board of Commissioners. Under this procurement policy, all contracts exceeding $100,000 must be approved by the Board of Commissioners and for all contracts under $100,000 there must be a minimum of three quotes requested. EHHA will be meeting with HUD to discuss HUD’s recommendations with regard to any changes to this policy.
Union Concessions
The Board of Commissioners has met at least once with each of the three unions which have expressed openness to discuss concessions. They hope to receive concessions by October 2011. The current three union agreements expire on September 30, 2012.
Other Issues
The Acting Executive Director indicated that occupancy levels at all properties, except for King Court, are round 98%. They are reaching their target of refilling all vacancies within twenty days of the vacancy. The work order process has been streamlined and is now meeting the goals of the recovery plan. They are reviewing the PILOT payment to the town of $61,000 for the federal properties and, once they have completed any review of applicable offsets, will write a check to the town.
Rental Collection
The EHHA is currently collecting 90% of all rents. The total workforce is being reduced through attrition; one position has been eliminated and several others may be eliminated in the future after retirements. EHHA’s workforce is currently thirty employees. A number of cost cutting measures have been implemented, such as reducing the number of phone lines (which resulted in a savings of $6,000), re-bidding insurance and fire extinguisher contracts – which yielded a minimum 17% savings.
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION By Eric Thompson
seconded by Bill Horan
to adjourn (8:45 p.m.)
Motion carried 8/0.
Attest____________________________
Richard F. Kehoe
Town Council Chair
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