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June 15, 2020 Board Meeting Meeting Minutes

For a printable version of the Meeting Minutes (which includes all content as listed below), click here.

Jacksonville Housing Authority Virtual Board of Commissioners Board Meeting Minutes, June 15, 2020, 2:00 PM

Commissioners Present: Susan Verbeck, Charles Griggs, Harriet Brock, Roslyn Phillips, and Jon McGowan

Advisors Present: Mary Staffopoulos--Office of General Counsel and Lawsikia Hodges--Office of General Counsel

Kevin Kenny of Saxon and Gilmore

Call to Order: Chairman Charles Griggs called the meeting to order at 2:02 PM

Dwayne Alexander recited an Opening Statement for Virtual Public Meetings. (Opening Statement available by request.)

Public Comments: No Public Comments

Approval of Meeting Minutes: The Chair requested a motion to approve the minutes of May 18, 2020. Commissioner Verbeck made a motion to approve and Commissioner Phillips seconded. All were in favor, none opposed, Minutes approved.

Cost and Administration Committee: Dennis Lohr provided financial standings through May 31, 2020. Income by source, year to date, is $4,095,679.00. The Central Office Cost Center income is budgeted at 67%, actual income is right at 67%. Central Office budgeted costs are at 68%, and costs are currently at 73%, about $200,000.00 over budget, primarily due to COVID expenditures. Public Housing income is budgeted at 67%, with actual income at 72%. We are doing well in collection of rent and extra Operating Subsidies from HUD. Expenses budgeted at 66%, with actual at 68%, slightly higher than expected but still doing well at Public Housing sites. Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) budgeted at 67%, actually at 73%, about $300,000.00 over due to higher administrative fee rates and higher lease-ups than expected. Expenses are right on track at 67% budgeted, actual expenses 67%. The expenses are a little less than was budged by about $1,400.00. Looking at our Affordable Housing--Gregory West property at 67% budgeted, actual 65% income, down by about $20,000.00. We are still doing well with income. On the expense side we are budgeted at 69% with actual expenses at 56% net income 90%, about $70,000.00 over budgets. Our reserves are adequate and doing very well. Mr. Lohr asked if there were any questions.

Commissioner Phillips inquired about the higher expenses in COCC--actually at 73% versus the budgeted amount of 68%. Mr. Lohr responded the Budget could not anticipate some of the expenditures with COVID.

Commissioner Verbeck recognized we are still ahead financially at this point, but wanted to know if Mr. Lohr believed it would stay that way through the end of the year. Mr. Lohr indicated that HUD has given us additional funding; he believes we will still be ahead at the end of the year.

Presentation of Resolutions: Commissioner Verbeck stated she wanted to point out that the resolutions numbers brought before the board today, 2020-JHA-19 and 2020-JHA-20, were already utilized in May. Resolution 2020-JHA-19 approving the Updated Job Description. Resolution 2020-JHA-20 approving Supplemental Search Procedures. Therefore, the Resolution before the Board today should be 21 and 22.

The Chair thanked Ms. Verbeck for her very important clarification.

Resolution 2020-JHA-21: To approve the Centennial RAD closing.

Chairman Griggs indicated the Board came to the agreement that an Amendment to this Resolution is needed, summarizing the need and previous action to this Resolution. Since the Resolution was not approved in Committee, a Motion is necessary to discuss. Commissioner Joh McGowan made the motion, Commissioner Verbeck seconded.

Chairman Griggs asked Mr. Alexander to bring the Board up-to-date with where we stand on the Summary for the Amendment.

Changes to the document were in review by Counsel and were not sent to Board Members in time for review. Everyone agreed to post the document for the Board's review during the virtual meeting. 

Mary Staffopoulos gave a brief overview of the changes in the document. Most of the changes were minor administrative changes. The substantive changes were changes to Exhibit A, the Project Description regarding Adoption of Resolution in 2016, to identify properties that would benefit RAD conversions or other program processes.

Due to technical difficulties, Ms. Staffopoulos's audio disconnected during the virtual meeting. Kevin Kenny, Saxon and Gilmore, completed the presentation from where Ms. Staffopoulos's audio stopped. Mr. Kenny indicated that after the Committee Meeting, they worked with the General Counsel's Office, Mr. Alexander, and his staff, in order to locate those prior Resolutions approved by the Board, in 2016. The Resolutions set the ball in motion identifying sites that would benefit from improvements, one of those being a RAD conversion option.

Exhibit A, additional language was included, specifically referencing:

  • 2016-JHA-30 Properties identified as suitable for RAD conversions
  • 2016-JHA-35 JHA and Vestcor entities agreed to partner and seek the ability to redevelop some of the properties
  • 2018 Master Development Agreement entered into with JHA and Vestcor, which would redevelop properties, one of which was the WAVES, and on November 1, 2018, an Amendment was added targeting Centennial Towers as the next project.

Those were the main additions, along with Committees changes, Board changes, allowing for time passing for provision of additional information within the Exhibit Summary, so current and future Boards could easily see the chain of events leading up to today. There is a Resolution before the Board to move forward and authorize Mr. Alexander to execute the documents on behalf of the Jacksonville Housing Authority.

Commissioners thanked Mr. Kenny, General Counsel, and JHA Staff for the information confirming actions were taken in 2016 and 2018. 

Chairman Griggs asked the members of the Board if there were any other questions or discussions. None were identified; a vote was requested. All members approved, none oppose; therefore, the Resolution was unanimously adopted.

Resolution 2020-JHA-22: To approve KBT modification concerning JAX Beach rehab in the amount of $19,220.00 for a maximum indebtedness of $1,627,335.00.

Commissioner Phillips moved the Resolution be updated to 2020-JHA-22, Commissioner Brock seconded. All members in favor of the Amendment, none opposed.

Chairman Griggs called for a vote on the Resolution as amended. All members were in favor, none opposed. 

President's Report: Mr. Alexander indicates there was a discussion this past week with the Office of Environment and Energy High Performance Building Team from the US HUD in San Francisco. The JHA is one of six housing authorities nationwide potentially selected to participate in a Section 3 Pilot Program. If we are chosen, we would be one of three agencies to participate. The program will explore ways of providing more employment and training opportunities for our residents. The goal of the program is for Section 3 to be more efficient and to actually place people in permanent jobs. This Pilot Program will run for about three years. After the three years, HUD will start another business model to roll out to all other Housing Authorities. Basically, the current Section 3 Program enables resident to work as long as the contract exists and sets the resident up for a permanent career or trains them for self-employment.

Application are currently taken online via The Rent Cafe. The Rent Cafe has three modules:

  1. Applications submitted online
  2. Rent paid online
  3. Work Orders issued online

The Agency will go online June 22, 2020, in terms of Work Orders and Rent Payments.

The JHA opened its doors to the public on Monday, June 8th, 2020, restricting entrance to appointments and emergency walk-ins only. This arrangement has been working out very well for everyone in the building.

We continue to regularly disinfect the building using the additional money received from the federal government and we continue to ensure we have adequate supplies to combat COVID-19. Earlier it was announced that we received handheld wands to utilize for spraying disinfectant. We now have the full-fledged backpacks, allowing for more building footage coverage. 

In dealing with so many future tax credit properties, training has been scheduled for 19 employees. The Housing Choice Specialist training has also been scheduled. RAD Project Based Voucher training is scheduled June 30-July 2, 2020.

Chairman Griggs pointed out that the Operations Report provided by Mr. Alexander is from April. He asked Mr. Alexander to provide an updated one, if available. Chair asked about the status of HR. Mr. Alexander acknowledged we have a person working in this capacity with a great deal of experience including SHRM certification, from Robert Half. Ms. Reed has been on these recent calls and is currently working on Policy and Procedures. Ms. Reed is currently reviewing the Draft Mr. Alexander completed to assure it is complete with appropriate information and language before it is provided to employees.

Chairman Griggs mentioned the New and Old Business Agenda items, citing he asked for this section to be entered so the Board could allow space and time for any Reports for the Special Committee activities.

Commissioner Verbeck indicated the Executive Search Committee has a meeting scheduled, following this meeting. We have completed two Resolutions, changing direction on the CEO Job Description and on our search method. During the meeting this afternoon, we will be discussing updates that might be needed to the CEO Succession Policy, as well as the Senior Vice-President Job Description. Gans, Gans, and Gans had fifteen candidates, which has been reduced to six. Gans, Gans, and Gans are prepared to provide this list of candidates to the Search Committee.

Since there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:48 PM.

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