East Windsor Housing Authority
Regular Meeting - September 18, 2006
Minutes
CALL TO ORDER AND ATTENDANCE
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Chairman Karen Boutin. Commissioners LaMay, Legassie, Mezzetti and Percoski were in attendance
ADDED AGENDA ITEMS
The following items were added to the agenda:
Under Executive Session
Pending Legal Matters
MEETING MINUTES OF:
Regular Meeting - May 15, 2006
The minutes of the regular meeting of May 15, 2006 were reviewed by all commissioners present. A motion was made by Commissioner LaMay, seconded by Commissioner Mezzetti to accept the minutes of the regular meeting of May 15, 2006 as presented.
LaMay/Mezzetti Unanimous
PUBLIC COMMENTS
There were no public comments.
BILLS AND COMMUNICATIONS
Check Register - May 17 - June 14, 2006
The check register for May 17 - June 14, 2006 was reviewed by all commissioners present and all questions answered. A motion was made by Commissioner Percoski, seconded by Commissioner LaMay to accept the check register of May 17 - June 14, 2006 as presented.
Percoski/LaMay Unanimous
Bank Reconciliation May, 2006
The Bank Reconciliation of May, 2006 was reviewed by all Commissioners present
Check Register - June 21 - July 12, 2006
The check register for June 21 - July 12, 2006 was reviewed by all commissioners present and all questions answered. A motion was made by Commissioner Percoski, seconded by Commissioner LaMay to accept the check register of June 21 - July 12, 2006 as presented.
Percoski/LaMay Unanimous
Bank Reconciliation - June, 2006
The bank reconciliation for June, 2006 was reviewed by all commissioners present.
Check Register - July 19 - August 16, 2006
The check register for July 19 - August 16, 2006 was reviewed by all commissioners present and all questions answered. A motion was made by Commissioner Percoski, seconded by Commissioner LaMay to accept the check register of July 19 - August 16, 2006 as presented.
Percoski/LaMay Unanimous
Bank Reconciliation - July, 2006
The bank reconciliation for July, 2006 was reviewed by all commissioners present.
Check Register - August 23 - September 13, 2006
The check register for August 23 - September 13, 2006 was reviewed by all commissioners present and all questions answered. A motion was made by Commissioner Percoski, seconded by Commissioner LaMay to accept the check register of August 23 - September 13, 2006 as presented.
Percoski/LaMay Unanimous
Bank Reconciliation - August, 2006
The bank reconciliation for August. 2006 was reviewed by all commissioners present.
REPORTS OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Maximum Income Limits
The income limits have again changed for admittance to low income housing. The new limits are $41,700 for a single person and $47,700 for a couple.
Apartments
We only have one vacancy, a double, which should be ready for renovations by the first of the month. We still have an active waiting list so as soon as apartments are ready they will be filled.
Reserves
Our reserve funds are pretty well depleted what with our contribution to the expansion, amenities for the new building, upgrades for the apartments, maintenance on sidewalks and other walkways, roof replacement, rewiring and repair of street lights, and other unanticipated repairs and expenses. There are still 3 buildings on the first level in need of roof replacement.
Now that major upgrades to apartments have been completed, and preventive maintenance has been implemented, we are taking the monthly overage from RM&R and placing it in reserve. Pending any catastrophic event, we should be back where we were in 5 years.
CHAS Update
In speaking with several accountants that deal with local housing authorities, it is their opinion along with my own; that we do not use 90% of the CHAS program and that we would be better off with a smaller, user friendly accounting system which would cost less that CHAS (currently $1,000 per quarter, $4,000 per year for a system we do not need or use to its full potential) including purchase, set up and training.
Now that our current accounting contract has expired, I would like to go out for bid for accounting services which would include:
. Semi-annual audit per state requirements. Contract to run for four years.
.Purchase, set-up, programming and training on an accounting system such as Peachtree, QuickBooks Pro, etc.
A motion was made by Commissioner LaMay, seconded by Commissioner Mezzetti to go out to bid for accounting services and to purchase a new accounting system, either QuickBooks Pro or Peachtree.
LaMay/Mezzetti Unanimous
Up-coming Bids/Quotes
We will be requesting bids/quotes for “Lawn Maintenance” and “Roof Replacement” within the next four weeks. Lawn Maintenance currently runs approximately $10,000/year including spring clean-up and two hedge trims. Roof replacement is expected to be approximately $9.000 per roof (building) including ice dam material and ridge vents.
Paperless Society
We are currently in the process of making the EWHA a quote/unquote “Paperless Society”. All paper forms and documents that are currently stored on computer and back-up have been destroyed, which allows us to need only one filing cabinet in the office. Through this process we do not need the fireproof file cabinets anymore. I checked with the State and no one knows why we needed them in the first place.
When money and time permits, and with the authorization of the commission, we will purchase a quality scanner for scanning documents into the computer and a portable hard drive that we will back up to every day and will be stored in the small fireproof cabinet.
Individual files will also be kept on CD’s which will streamline access to certain files.
According to the Secretary of State, this process meets all the requirements set forth in record retention.
Fireproof Filing Cabinets (2)
Since we will no longer be using our fireproof filing cabinets, I have been asked by one of our former tenants, Irene Clifton, if we would be willing to donate them to First Congregational Church of Scantic. She was told that it would be up to the commission and she would be responsible to get someone to move them.
A motion was made by Commissioner LaMay, seconded by Commissioner Mezzetti to donate our 2 fireproof filing cabinets to the First Congregational Church of Scantic.
LaMay/Mezzetti Unanimous
Attorney General
On Thursday, September 14, we received a call from the Attorney General’s office regarding a letter that they had received in March of this year which was sent by two tenants of Park Hill. This letter was also sent to the Governor’s office.
In general, the letter states that since I, the Executive Director, took over the operation of Park Hill the living conditions have deteriorated drastically. There were several other complaints in the letter but unfortunately I never received a copy. I was questioned on several items and what was done to correct the matter. Items such as mold, cracks in the walkways were addressed along with younger disabled tenants.
I am told that the AG’s office will be sending a letter to us along with the original complaint. At that time we will have a better idea as to what is going on.
Dedication of New Addition
There is some confusion whether or not the new addition must be formally dedicated. I am still checking and once I get something in writing, if there must be a formal dedication, we will combine it with our annual “After the Fourth of July” picnic.
Maintenance of Community Hall
As you are all aware, Bob Caye used to take care of cleaning the community hall and offices; but with his passing and the reconstruction, we didn’t try to find anyone else. Now that we have moved back into the community all, we do need someone to clean the hall and offices.
After discussing the options available, a motion was made by Commissioner LaMay, seconded by Commissioner Mezzetti to ask John Boice to take over the cleaning of the hall and the offices to start immediately.
LaMay/Mezzetti Unanimous
Key Card Box
The original key card machine is no longer working. I have gone out to id for a new key card machine and when any other information is available it will be brought to the attention of the commission.
Property Maintenance Code
This office has been receiving a lot of calls recently regarding issues related to the property maintenance code. We are taking the information regarding these issues, i.e. tenant/landlord complaints, landlord/tenant complaints, repair complaints, etc; and are trying to solve them using the telephone and when possible the internet. If one of the complaints has to be physically investigated, they have been turned over to Blaine Simpkins.
REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
There were no Reports of Committees
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
There was no Unfinished Business
NEW BUSINESS
A) Quarterly Report - quarter ending 9/30/2006
The quarterly report for the quarter ending 9/30/06 was reviewed by all commissioners present and all questions answered. No action necessary as this is for informational purposes.
POLICY AND PROCEDURES
There were no new Policy and Procedures
EXECUTIVE SESSION
A) Pending Legal Matters
A motion was made by Commissioner Legassie, seconded by Commissioner Mezzetti to go into Executive Session at 8:25 p.m. for the purposes of a discussion of Pending Legal Matters.
Legassie/Mezzetti Unanimous
A motion was made by Commissioner Percoski, seconded by Commissioner Mezzetti to come out of Executive Session at 8:50 p.m.
Percoski/Mezzetti Unanimous
No action taken.
ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made by Commissioner Legassie, seconded by Commissioner LaMay to adjourn the regular meeting of the East Windsor Housing Authority at 9:00 p.m.
Legassie/LaMay Unanimous
Respectfully submitted,
Steven D. Knibloe
Executive Director
Darlene H. Kelly
Recording Secretary
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