February 12th, 2024

GLOVERSVILLE HOUSING AUTHORITY
Minutes of a Regular Meeting

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

Commissioner Peters opened the floor for public comment:

Lee Horning, Forest Hill Towers Apt 405 spoke and stated that he wanted to know why the meetings were no longer rotating.

Susan Fox spoke and stated she was concerned about people smoking in their apartments and now a woman who is on oxygen is smoking in the apartment and it is dangerous.

Joyce Estey spoke and stated she also would like to see the meetings rotate again so that it would be fair to tenants who cannot get to Dubois Gardens…..

Ms. Estey commented on her declining health….

Ms. Estey said that she continues to have concerns about unauthorized individuals being in the towers, including individuals she believes are dealing drugs and she also stated that there are unauthorized individuals that bring dogs onto the property she described a recent experience when she encountered one such individual and the person ignored her….

Ms. Estey stated she smells marijuana smoke all the time…Ms. Estey thanked the board and Ms. Potter for their efforts

Penny Young, 204 Goodmote Rd spoke and stated that she also wanted to say thanks for efforts in removing bad tenants including her sister’s neighbor.  Ms. Young also stated that she wanted to know what efforts were being made make sure that new tenants are not like this.

Ms. Estey spoke again and asked if a reply would be made regarding the location of future meetings.

Attorney Casale stated observations regarding the activity and improvements are  related and that for the time being, with the new Executive Director having come on board recently and with there being ongoing audits and changes in personnel and increased activity and dealing with the Corrective Action Plan logistics, it is important that the meetings remain at Dubois Gardens for now.  Attorney Casale added that it can be expected that meetings will take place again at both Kingsboro Towers and Forest Hill Towers but that the board has not decided to rotate the location each month.

Ms. Estey stated that she had one more item, regarding resident commissioners and that it used to be that one resident commissioner was from Dubois Gardens and one resident commissioner was from one of the towers.

Attorney Casale stated that while this may have happened circumstantially, there  is no such provision in the bylaws

Director Potter stated a resident commissioner election will be held in April

Commissioner Peters opened the floor for Announcements by Commissioners and with there being none, the board proceeded with its agenda.

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

Commissioner Peters opened the floor for old business, and with there being none, the board proceeded with its agenda.

The Executive Director’s Report was provided by Kayla Potter.

As many of you know, we’ve had a busy couple of weeks. The week of the 22nd, Markham completed our field audit, which we should have the 2020 audit report by the end of this month. They also made suggestions about how we could improve how GHA currently operating internally, we’ve already started to make some changes and I will continue to evaluate the operation and we’re also working on updating our procurement policy and our ACOP policy through Nan McKay . I’m hoping within the next couple of weeks have that completed…..

I was given the OK through civil service to hire and move forward with another tenant relations position, which is great news for the office.  Jesse was able to attend a public housing specialist training the week of the 29th. He was out for a week. He was in training and that training included all of the new regulations that HUD put out the beginning of this year,  that was effective of January of 24th. So now he is up to date on everything we need to know, which is great, great news. I also attended a new executive director orientation on February 7^th, which gave me a lot of information on just about everything I need to be doing, an overload of information, and they also had information regarding the functions and responsibilities for the board or commissioners. I do have that information, we can maybe chat afterwards…..

Our occupancy rate is still 82%, not including the units that are offline that will reflect next month and the HUD field reps do know that we may be stagnant for a while due the number of evictions going on, so they understand the process and they kind of are OK  We might see a dip. We might be stagnant, but they do know what is going on and they are aware of all of our back rent that relating to pending evictions.  ….

I’m not sure if the board is aware of what happened with one of the issues they were talking about. We had an issue at Kingsboro. I just wanted to let everybody know that there was a guest of a resident who tried to basically start a fire in one of the units. They were removed and arrested so they are no longer allowed on site. So that’s so everybody knows…..

An update on Forest Hill with the fire that happened yesterday. The Zone 4 fire line is still broken within the city. So if anybody reaches out, we do have the guys on fire watch and hopefully that will be fixed by tomorrow morning…..

On a positive note, we collected over $12,000 in ERAP funds in January, which is great.

Commissioner Peters opened the floor for board committee reports and with there being none, the board continued with its agenda.

Commissioner Peters opened the floor for new business and presented  Resolution  864 regarding monthly vendor invoices and read said resolution, said resolution reading as following: 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 January 2024 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 Holly adopting Resolution 864, and said motion was seconded by Commissioner Shaw.  There was no additional discussion and Resolution 864 was approved by a vote of 5-0 in the affirmative.

Commissioner Peters asked for a motion approving the minutes for the meeting held on January 18, 2024  Said motion was made by Commissioner Holly and seconded by Commissioner Shaw.  There was no further discussion and the motion was carried by a vote of 5-0 in the affirmative.

A motion was made to go into Executive Session pursuant to Public Officers Law, Section 105(1)(e) for collective bargaining negotiations pursuant to article 14 of the Civil Service Law.  Said motion was made Commissioner Holly and seconded by Commissioner Shaw.  The executive session commenced at 6:24 pm.  A motion was made to end the executive session by Commissioner Peters and seconded by Commissioner Hawkins.  The motion was carried by a vote of 5-0 and public session resumed at 6:28pm.

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Commissioner Peters and seconded by Commissioner Hawkins.  The motion carried by a vote of 5-0 in the affirmative.  The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 pm.