April 13th, 2023

Commissioner Anadio called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.  All present stood for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence.

Commissioner Anadio conducted a roll call memorializing the presence of the above-named individuals.

Commissioner Anadio opened the floor for public comment.

Commissioner Anadio opened the floor for public comment.

Susan Fox spoke and stated the following:  I live here in apartment 107. And I brought this up before, and apparently still nothing is being done about it –  we have a person in here that has not had her dog fixed. And the office knows about it, and her dog is still not fixed. And a lot of tenants – I’m also the President of the Tenants Association –  and a lot of people are coming to me and complaining about that. And it’s not fair that everybody else in here has to have their animal fixed.

Commissioner Courtney stated: And she has promised at the last meeting that she would have it done after the first of the year.

Jill Leone stated: Ilive at 201…

I have a few things that are open now.[inaudible] Pipe breaks or something? Do have a way to show the doctor before the maintenance guys get there so we don’t have a flat…..

Stoves and refrigerators….

My phone – to answer somebody that pushes the button down here to get in, you can hear anybody talking to you and you had a big buzzing noise. I do have a TV on so I can’t see who it is, but some people don’t have a TV hooked up and the enter code doesn’t that work….

And the pen needles.  The box is out here for pen needles to drop off. If you’re a diabetic or whatever…

We have a place to put them now. The man does not come up, yet. nobody can get ahold of them. I’ve called probably 20 times. You get a recording, leave a message for Tony. [inaudible] You put them on top. And no place to put them…..

Apartment size freezers. We would pay more for the electric, which they don’t use a lot, nor is there, you know, whatever they energy efficiency…..

Bathtubs – an open door to the bathroom. So some people can’t lift their legs over top…..

And the storage room on each floor. It would be nice. If we could store everybody on a certain floor, if they wanted to use it for Christmas decorations, for them in a ton. The only thing we got in there now is like stuff for. walkers and things like that, that just sit there. I mean, if somebody needs it, we’ve got it. Every floor I think started happening there……

Washers and dryers we got two dryers that are gas. And when they – we get the gas fumes up this side of the building. At least to the third floor. I’m a second, and friend of mine on 3rd and she gets an outlook.

Joyce Estey spoke and stated: somewhere along the line somebody can give us an update on what is going on as far as the situation with our intercom situation with looking at 8 facilities coming and going, the security issues and I think it’s request from this board. Please get out the lease you sign and re-sign. Read it. Article by article. And then start doing the job. You guys are not going to just fall in place because they have been allowed to just three women. Do whatever they want to. It’s your job to see that they don’t get away with it. We had people living in there that had no business being there. The names are not on leases. It’s  just a sad situation and it seems like it would be pretty simple to fix it. You people read the leases. Each and every article. It would be a simple fix.

Commissioner Anadio opened the floor for announcements of commissioners and with there being none, the board proceeded with its agenda.

Commissioner Anadio opened the floor for communications and with there being none, the board proceeded with its agenda.

The Executive Director’s report was provided by Jason Mazur:

So, on the security that you were actually speaking at, Joyce. Yeah, so the intercom project.  So the intercom system we got the latest quotes to be about $260,000 per building and replace that …

As far as the security issue goes, we put in a budget revision 2 weeks ago. I’m working with Todd the accountant to find the money to do that. The intercom was actually something that we were able to use capital funds for paying wages to security guards and everything else that comes along with that is something that has to come out of our operating subsidy, which is up your region…..

Intercoms –  We’re still working on the intercom. They’re scheduled to come in and they’re coming to look at it. The equipment that we’ve already had and we’ve been talking about the same thing for like a month and a half now. Most of the intercom systems between Forest, these ones are actually older than the ones at Kingsboro.  We are trying to come up with either a repair fix and make sure those intercom systems work.   The security guards – I’m asking you to give me another month or two to figure that out. Like I said, we had to propose a budget revision. We’re working on that right now. Once it’s approved through HUD, we could pass it through the board and we’ll go from there, as far as that goes. Obviously, when you talk about $120,000 coming out of pocket, it’s a big fix to fix but at the same time, we want to make sure we do everything we possibly can to explore that option. We’re on like a rolling plan as far as how it goes with our capital funds. Every year they’ll give us a certain amount of money or grant us a certain amount of money based on the application we file, which is every expense that we use, we assume we’re going to entail throughout the course of the year…..

Shut off valves. I don’t remember who brought that up – the shut off. Valves were one of them. We know that there’s an issue, especially in this building here, when the guys go to work on sinks and tubs and stuff like that, and then in fact talk [inaudible] about earlier today. A lot of them don’t shut off. So obviously for us and for the sake of tenants and residents, that’s  an issue. We’re trying to address that one too. A lot of the things that are continuously deteriorating and breaking down, to say at least.   We’re all going to suffer pain at this point, but as far as for the next year or so, a lot of money is being put up to fix a lot of these problems. In fact that put $60,000 towards Forest and $60,000 towards Kingsboro  for  windows and showers alone, so we’re not going to be able to get to all of them at once, but just to have Windows and showers that are more accessible, obviously we know it’s an issue we’ve been. About Kingsboro for a while now too. Just easy step showers,  just do a lot of things are budgeted in the background, just so you know. ….

The intercom like I said. That that was a little tougher. That’s going to be one of those ‘We’re going to have put notices out because they’re going to have to come into your rooms, everybody’s rooms’. To have to work on those intercom systems, which we’re more than happy to do, we’re trying to, we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to pay for it, but just understand that a lot of these things in the background and that’s why I like to get up here and explain this to you guys. Because, you know, we are working on it. OK so. Just say how long until it take who knows, I mean, we have contractors we have to go through we there’s a lot of things, a lot of red tape we have to jump through…..

Alright, so as far as the freezers go. Here we go again. So we have in this particular building a lot of the way that this building was wired electrically we can’t handle anymore additional load on any of these breaker boxes, alright. So if we start overloading breaker boxes with extra appliances and who knows where it’s stopped because somebody at that point we say, OK, your freezer’s OK, you’re going to be bringing in dishwashers and everything else. Even the handle and extra, even at this particular point, to handle an extra utility freezer if everybody had one. Push this building. In a big fire hazard, we’re not going do that. I’m sorry. I wish I could offer you a freezer to have. …..

Smoking and everything else as far as that goes, we’re trying. We put a big crash on smoking in the last. At least the last week and a half. You know, two weeks, three weeks now. Since our last meeting, especially at Kingsboro. And I can tell you right now we’ve had probably $1600 with the fines paid out for  smoking violations, so. we’re working to fix that as well. Alright, so. It’s difficult for us. Like I said, we can’t fix all this stuff at once. It’s hard to find contractors. A lot of the contractors that we use are at a Binghamton. They come from Albany, they come from here, there and everywhere they come in, we walk them through. They give us an estimate, they have to find the parts and supplies in order to make that happen. It’s not an overnight thing, alright. It’s truly not. And by all means I just don’t want you guys to think that everything that you basically have brought to the board has not fallen on deaf ears. Alright, we’ve got. It out like I said. Around $2,000,000 playing over the course of the next four years to put back into these buildings we have landscaping and benches. I know you guys asked for new benches last year and picnic tables, something outside. So all that all encompasses are things that we’re working on right now…

Give us little bit of time. The guys are short handed, I mean, we’re short handed. We’re trying to make it work the best we can and we’ll always do that for you. Just give us an opportunity please…..

As far as gas fumes, and dryers, we have gas dryers in there. There are a couple. The best for them is outside….

Mental note tomorrow. Guys, can you check out the vent and make sure it’s not plugged or something? I don’t know, its not supposed to smell like gas……

As far as occupancy goes right now, I mean that continues to be one of our biggest opportunities and that’s when I speak of operating subsidy and capital funds, our operating subsidy comes off of our income which it’s basically that – The fact that people pay rent on time. And it’s difficult for us. To say that there’s $63,000 right now that we’re delinquent. As far as pay {inaudible] And most of that most of that has nothing to do with Forest or Kingsboro, and it is what it is. But just understand that’s $63,000 less that we have to give bac…..

Alright so. Office checks cashed for $192,000 last month. We had a couple of insurance renewals. A couple of payments.  So there’s not much, you know, not much more. We can say. As long as People continue their residences, they need to pay rent. It puts us in a lot better spot to try to help out where we can all right? And as far as that goes, like I said, I’m not going to ever call anybody out for not,  just understand that that’s our number one means of making sure these put all three buildings stay in good standings. OK. Dubois, right now we have a lot of issues with sewer shore lines, lateral broken pipes and walls, broken people with sewage and their apartments. We’ve got three or four families that are relocated different buildings just to make sure that we can dig up their floors and get to these pipes. OK, we do have PM scheduled for Forest and Kingsboro for this spring once all the runoff is done and everything else, just like I said though, the number one issue that we have is with cigarette butts. 10,000 cigarette butts get pulled out of these source systems. It’s disgusting. It comes out and it looks like a like a lawn of cigarette butts. Alright so and when you have anybody that you feel like or you know for sure is smoking in their apartments, please let us know because it’s not just causing issues for your health and your, you know well-being it’s  causing issues for us as far as infrastructure goes too. Alright. So please let us know. That’s really all I have. Like I said, we’re in a big planning phase right now for the next couple of years. We have projects lined up. If it doesn’t happen tomorrow, don’t think it’s not happening. We’ve already conversed so that we’ve discussed with most of the maintenance staff now that you know what we need is what we need and we  applied for it. We’re waiting to get approved for it kind of thing we didn’t get approved for. At least  $700,000. for this year. And hopefully about $700k-800k for next year to continue to make upgrades and do some good things for the buildings.

Ms. Estey stated:

We appreciate your efforts in what you’re doing and we understand that what has happened in the past cannot be undone in the blogs two months, three months, four months. But we do need reassurance like you did just now Jason. That you are working on it that what we’re saying is not falling on deaf ears. Some of your expenses, it may seem minor, but it’s not. When you have an apartment rented for one person and five people are in it. You’ll water down your electric bill. Everything is going to be a lot higher and the rest of us pay. And one without. So that these people can deliberately fly, they’re literally flaunt their leases. So it just seems to me like it. Just if you. Look at your lease and read it. And then have the tenants, force the tenants to do it. There are tenants that have no idea. I don’t understand how they got in there without knowing that they had at least what was in the lease. I don’t know. But if you just enforce the lease, a multitude of problems could be corrected. Maybe not instantly, maybe not overnight, but a multitude of problems without any big expense.

Mazur stated:

This time of year is not so bad for electricity, and that kind of thing so everybody has a lot of certain utility allowance. If there’s ever an excess and most of the time, so most of your power comes from the solar field that’s out past Dubois. So that, actually runs part of Kingsboro for part.  At Forest, so. As far as electricity goes, that’s one thing as far as water usage and if somebody else is in there, actually, you know causing summertime is coming up. So people like to run their AC’s, making sure it’s 60 degrees in their apartment all the time. So a little bit of help from everybody as far as that goes, your utility allowance is not as terrible…

Estey:

It’s not OK. It’s not OK that no excuses for allowing someone may rent an apartment, signs a lease, one person in the school of people every day, day and night. It’s not acceptable. That is not acceptable by any means at all.

Mazur:

We’re reading it to both sides of the book here.  Basically what I’m saying is that if there’s actually people living in an apartment, you guys know about it and there’s  an authorized guest and another authorized guest. Authorized guests are OK for 36 hours. With any kind of if somebody’s coming for the weekend kind of thing and you have people that you know for sure you know you’re going to be staying the weekend. Whatever appropriate heads up is kindly respected.  If they’re going to be there for a month, two months — you can’t do that. That’s you’re not wrong with that, but just understand that we need your help and that kind of stuff happens because there’s no way for us to know a lot of people have people that stop over and stay over or whatever the case may be. Then all of a sudden they’re living with them, and now all of a sudden those people, you know, residents want those people evicted. That’s a hard one for us to really, battle and so like I said, there’s two different sides of the book there as far as actual us, we’re talking utility allowances versus people living there. Just let us know if you have unauthorized guests or anybody that’s not supposed to be living somewhere living there. And we’ll do the best we can to follow up with those people and make sure it doesn’t happen because at that point, it’s on  the resident.  We can’t just kick guests out. If they allow some – Let’s just say if somebody loves somebody to live in an apartment, that’s not their apartmen –  wehether it’s your grandson, nephew, cousin, niece, doesn’t matter – that’s on you. Alright we’ll do the best we can to help you mitigate that problem. But unless we know about it, it’s almost impossible. For us to….Just so you know, there’s three of us. Alright, there’s 271 tenants in all three facilities. It’s  not easy for us to catch everything alright so I guess if I can look down anything else, what I would say as far as stair segment in the Sharps box. Close that down. I will call in tomorrow we’ll come in we’ll come have them figured out.

Commissioner Anadio opened the floor for new business and presented  Resolution  849 regarding monthly vendor invoices and read said resolution into the record as follows:

“Whereas the Gloversville Housing Authority’s Finance Committee has reviewed the monthly vendor invoices for payment of the financial obligations of the Gloversville Housing Authority for the month of March 2023 and finds all payments on the attached list to be in order.  Now therefore be it resolved, the Board of Commissioners of the Gloversville Housing Authority has reviewed the monthly vendor invoices for payment as set forth on the attached list.”

A motion was made by Commissioner Peters adopting Resolution 849 and said motion was seconded by Commissioner Robinson.  There was no additional discussion and Resolution 847 was approved by a vote of 5-0 in the affirmative.

Commissioner Anadio opened the floor for discussion of vacancies and Mazur confirmed that the current occupancy rate is 84%.

Anadio asked for a motion approving the minutes from the March 2023 monthly meeting minutes .  Said motion was made by Commissioner Holly and seconded Commissioner Peters.  There was no additional discussion and the motion was passed by a vote of 5-0 in the affirmative.

A motion was made by Commissioner Holly to go into Executive Session pursuant to Public Officers Law, Section 105(1)(f), said motion having been seconded by Commissioner Peters.  The motion was carried by a vote of 5-0 in the affirmative.  The executive session began at 6:35pm. …A motion was made to end the executive session at 6:43pm by Commissioner Robinson and seconded by Commissioner Peters. The motion carried by a vote of 5-0 in the affirmative.

A motion was made by Commissioner Anadio to go into executive session pursuant to Public Officers Law Section 105(1)(d), with said motion having been seconded by Commissioner Peters. The motion carried by a vote of 5-0 in the affirmative.  The executive session began at 6:44pm.  A motion to conclude said executive session was made by Commissioner Anadio at 7:09 pm and seconded by Commissioner Robinson.  The motion carried by a vote of 5-0 in the affirmative and the executive session was concluded.

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made  by Commissioner Holly and seconded by Commissioner Robinson.  The motion carried by a vote of 5-0 in the affirmative.  The meeting was adjourned at 7:10pm.