CRHA Meeting   4/30/2018

So the rental payment thresholds resolution isn't in my book, is that correct?

I thought it was tab 7.

No, tab 6 is the RFQ.

What number is it?

Should be tab 7, but I have Ting as tab 7.

and I didn't have a resolution 1384 the rental payment threshold.

Latita is there, I have a copy.

You found the secret of the world!

Thank you for us!

Great!

Well, now that we are all here, with the exception of a few folks who I think will be a little bit late, shall we get started?

Excellent, because we have a big ol' agenda tonight.

and we, your cooperation will be done by eight in terms of keeping things on time.

Welcome, it is Monday, April 30th and this is the regular board meeting of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Sure, Commissioner Oliver.

Here.

Commissioner Yates.

Present.

and I did, Commissioner Talbert just called to say she had to pick up her daughter unexpectedly but is on her way so she apologizes for not being here at the start but will join us as soon as she can.

With that, we have time in our agenda for public comments.

Oh, thank you, Mr. Duffield.

Mr. Duffield reminds me we have time for a moment of silence so we'll just have a quick moment of silence.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Annette Wilcox.

For those of you who remember Shamora Cooper, she came to my apartment to do the inspection last week.

and I passed housing quality inspection to keep me in Section 8 for as long as I like to be.

Wonderful.

Yeah.

Because she was concerned, yeah, as long as I'm care, yes, because I passed because I'm careful not to drip faucets to waste water.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Ms. Wilcox.

Hello, Brandon Collins.

I work for the Public Housing Association residents at 1000 Preston Avenue, Suite C. You can call us at 434-984-3255 and find us online at www.farseville.org.

PHAR is the duly recognized, duly elected resident advisory council and resident advisory board for public housing in Charlottesville, which I think you all knew.

And first off here are some comments.

A bunch of our folks are in a training tonight so that's why you're not going to see them here.

However, it is a fairly potentially historic type of meeting and I'm really excited about that.

and actually in these comments some are actually holdovers from last month which is you know we're still excited to see movement in this housing authority towards a better future you know the residents on the job program and redevelopment in particular I'm not going to go through this super in-depth

but we do have one thing that's been itching at us for a little bit and that is the idea of this consent agenda that you have and particularly this was a part of discussion at the last resident services meeting.

Resident services is really

A great forum for residents to participate.

It doesn't get a ton of participation but a lot of really deep issues get brought forward and I think it's wise of this housing authority to get

to make time for a report on the resident services committee and to allow you all some discussion of the issues that are brought forth with that.

Otherwise, you know, there's a real fear that that's just going unnoticed and there's a lot of deep stuff that gets discussed in that committee.

And, you know, next on here is resident-led redevelopment and I don't know if you all recall a while back.

I gave comment to this board about redevelopment and how you all here who are sitting on the board, I think Mr. Osteen wasn't here at the time, but that you all are the ones who are going to make sure this all happens and that includes the folks over at PHAR as well and the residents who are deeply engaged and your staff.

It is historic, and I think it's important that we all at this point moving forward really remind ourselves why we're doing this, why we're having redevelopment, and that is because of residents of public housing and the low wealth community in Charlottesville.

And Charlottesville's negative history demands that we create a brighter future for the people.

And you all are uniquely situated to handle that.

It's a really heavy load.

and I expect that all of you are in it, even those of you who may come off the board, you know, that this is really your mission.

This is what we have, you know, demanded from you and you need to see this through and I think PHAR is prepared to do that as well.

Residents on the job is going along, a couple of things here and there to make sure that program's working, but I really hope that's something you all can continue to highlight, a really great step forward for this housing authority and for residents.

We're excited to see a resolution about customer service improvements and timely communication with residents.

I think part of what that's going to be about is the implementation and making sure that this 36 hours is held to.

But the past month has brought some really hard, hard resident problems that have come to PHAR's desk.

A lot of it does boil down to communication.

We know you're understaffed.

We know there are challenges.

We look forward to seeing a full competent staff.

And I think communication is going to be a big one because that's what we hear a ton of that people just aren't getting back to about their issues.

Smoke-free policy.

We sent comments.

I hope you looked at them.

I think we feel pretty confident that most of what we had is reflected in the policy.

We do have one question and that's mainly because some of us missed a meeting on this, but in the lease addendum it talks about enforcement as being a visual

confirmation that someone's smoking but then it mentions use of detection technology and so I would love to just hear what that means maybe somebody can explain what what that means in the lease addendum and then lastly the five-year plan process yeah we're on the edge of historic undertaking here in Charlottesville and it coincides with developing a five-year plan for this housing authority I think this is the time

We always say it every year with the annual plan, you know, let's get together and do strategic planning and work together.

Some of that's you all dropping the ball, some of that's Pharr dropping the ball, some of that's just being busy, and this housing authority is extremely busy, but I do think it's important that we make that time to develop a clear strategy for the next five years.

Everything's changing, and it's so important that we be able to work together and set a course for the future that's going

make a brighter day in Charlottesville.

Great.

Thank you, Mr. Collins.

Did you want to make a comment, Ms. Good?

No.

Thank you.

I want to thank Brandon for giving us a great overview of our agenda tonight.

and for all the work PHAR has done in partnership with the Housing Authority and so many of the items before us tonight.

As you all can see, we have a lot before us so I don't want to leave out any really important comments or discussions but I am hoping that together we can move pretty quickly and be mindful of time.

All in favor?

Thank you.

Next on our is a resolution 1381 about customer service requirements for staff, and that's under tab two in your binders.

And this is something that did come directly from the last resident services meeting, which was that we just

have been hearing an increased amount of frustration on the part of residents and staff about just a real breakdown in communications and a real frustration on a lot of people's hearts that voicemail boxes are full and messages seeming to get lost.

So from that, the Resident Services Committee came forward with this suggestion for a resolution to add

encourage better communications within our personnel policy in the section of our policy that talks about workplace conduct and expectations for work and basically the resolution asks that or requires that staff reply to all emails, written messages and voicemail messages from residents within 36 hours.

It doesn't mean staff has to have a perfect answer or a complete reply, but if nothing else, an acknowledgement that message was received and the process is going so that people don't feel ignored.

And also to empty all voice mail boxes by the end of each work day so new messages can be received.

even if you write your messages down, or maybe we have to figure out how to get bigger voicemail boxes, but making sure that people really can leave messages.

Since Latita isn't here, I'll ask a Latita question.

Thank you.

Oh, the second one.

CRHA believes that cornerstone of professional customer service and operational efficiency involves the prompt and unimpeded transfer of information between our clients, residents, and staff, and then followed by staff routinely receive communication from public housing.

How are we defining routinely?

So how often would that be?

I think it's just citing the fact that our clients and residents contact our staff regularly.

So I think routine just means people call their property off.

People call, okay.

People, people, am I correct?

Yes.

It's just to say people call their asset managers.

Okay.

So I was misinterpreting.

Yeah.

No, it doesn't require routine on anybody's part.

It's just saying that.

People call us.

Thank you.

I have a question also.

And I'm not sure if this falls under the staff or a combination of the staff and maintenance.

But there seems to be a problem with the scheduling of the community centers right now.

And I know in the past that when there are events, when scheduling the community center, you schedule at least half an hour

before the event start was set up.

And then there's another half an hour added on to the end for the cleanup of the event.

And that doesn't seem to be happening.

It's like there are people now that's coming in over top of each other.

So, again, I don't know if it's a maintenance scheduling issue or if it's the clerical at Crystal House issue.

Thank you.

I have a question just if any staff want to chime in.

time frame.

I mean, I know that that's, you know, as a customer I would want that.

And I just want to, because I myself get

It's doable to an extent it depends on what the communication is.

There are some communications that we could answer right away.

There are some communications that we can't say will get back to you because it's of an urgent matter and then there are some communications depending on who it's coming from, how fast we have to respond.

So there are a number of factors.

but we try as best as we can to return calls or emails some things it takes a little bit more research and we're allowing what we're letting the residents know we have to look into it but then sometimes they'll show up at the office because they want that right away and we can't turn over information that fast so I think like you said I guess if it's understood what the communication is and

on behalf of the staff if we could let the residents know there are certain things sometimes they want things out of their file if we have appointments coming in we can't just turn things over right away and stop we're doing because we got to give everyone the same amount of customer service that's coming through the door so if we're doing a recertification or a meeting with someone we have to sit there and you know give them that time so someone else just coming in that's not scheduled

wanting what they want at that moment.

So I guess if we let them know if it's certain things you need out of your file, you can give us a 24-hour notice or something like that.

Many of our partners, like with social services and other partner agencies, they're aware of the time restraints that we have, but some of the information that they're requesting, it needs to be done as fast as possible.

Some of it, it can wait.

Some email communications, depending on which entity it's from,

In all events, however, I think we should be able to acknowledge someone that we've received and yeah, that doesn't mean we have to answer it right away, but yes, we've received it and it's on the radar.

Yeah, and if you can say I received it, but this, you know, request, I'll be able to do it by Thursday or, you know, a timeline when they can, then I think people are fine.

I think a lot of people, we got the impression that they were just feeling like it was going in a hole.

No offense to you, I know, like things are really, really busy.

And of course we have an expectation that you're actually going to be in the meetings with people and in the community and you're not behind your keyboard or you don't have your phone.

And I do think that there's some brainstorming happening around ways that the housing authority might be able to staff phone and email better so that there's less pressure on folks who need to be in the meetings.

I don't do the bookings, but I can speak to the person who does the bookings because in the past we have reserved it.

You have what?

Like I said, I wasn't sure where it falls in at.

I knew it fell in somewhere along the line.

I just needed an answer to the question.

You got that, Mr. Duffield?

Yes.

It's a sunny Monday outside.

So we got 36 hours.

You actually know how you arrive at 36 hours, but you know as I look at it, you know if a call comes in at the end of a business day, you got 16 hours run by that, and you got an eight hour work day in 16 hours, another 16 hours, so unless they get back to them the following day, you know that's going to be 40 hours right there.

The following business day, so there's not weekend requirements.

Is that fair?

I think that's fair.

I think they need to answer that question.

It's them that we're putting this on, so I mean it's only fair that they get to have a say in what we do.

You need to be at the mic.

Well, we understand there is emergency, and a lot of this is just acknowledgement.

I mean, that's the, you know, I understood all your emergency issues and all of that, but overwhelmingly, we should be able to acknowledge that we have heard your phone message

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now for, well I, at our office, if we get messages, if Perpetu answers the phone and it's someone from me, she'll give me the messages and I ask her to let them, you know, whoever it is, let them know that I called them.

I try to call by the close of business that day, if not first thing in the morning.

Some residents, depending on what the message, I guess it is also what the message is too.

I would say 48 hours is fair.

48.

Yeah.

If it's an emergency, then we know what that, you know, and many of us that have our phones, we're checking it throughout the day.

Not 36.

All right.

So 48 hours, do you all, do I hear anything against a 48 hour?

Nope.

OK, so the resolution is amended from 36 to 48 hour response time.

So I'd like to make a motion that we pass CRHA resolution number 1381, a resolution amending section 5 of the CRHA personnel policy concerning workplace conduct to require certain best practices related to communications and customer service with an amendment to the final paragraph

All in favor?

Thank you.

Next on our agenda is Resolution 1383, Smoke-Free Policy and Lease Addendum.

Certainly.

And commissioners, behind tab three, you have resolution 1383.

This is a resolution that will enable a CRHA to move forward with a smoke-free policy.

As commissioners are aware, in December of 2016, HUD passed a final rule concerning smoke-free environments in public housing communities, requiring all

Public Housing Authorities to adopt smoke-free standards within their communities no later than August 1, 2018.

Over the past 10 months, staff has been working very closely with PHAR, community members, and other stakeholders.

We've held over 43.

Community meetings and planning meetings during that time process has involved exploration of critical issues around the implementation of a smoke-free policy.

We have surveyed other communities, public housing communities, smoke-free policies, and developed

through this process, both a policy and a lease addendum which we feel reflects the values and needs of our community while also adhering to the standard step forth within the HUD final rule.

As commissioners are aware, many of these meetings and interactions took place at the various public housing sites.

As PHAR and Legal Aid have recommended we continue to move forward with education and definition meetings Specifically activities involving chalking of the chalk lining painting of the new smoke-free zones and

continued information provision to public housing residents and continued sponsorship of smoking cessation organizations and opportunities for residents.

Based on the work that's been done, based on the tremendous support and feedback from both the community and PHAR, we are pleased to bring before you what we believe is a

Thank you.

I just wanted to say I've had two residents from Kressel Hall who were kind of fighting against the policy

but one has joined the smoke-free group who told me the other day that she's gone from two and a half packs of cigarettes a day to four a day and the other one told me that she's gone to seven a day.

So I was pretty happy with that.

But it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be with residents, because there are a lot of folks who really want us out.

And I think that with the professionals that we bought in has really, really helped a lot.

Thank you.

One of the devices that other housing authorities have used in situations in which you have a resident who approaches the housing authority and says, look, my neighbor downstairs, my neighbor beside me, I smell this, it's affecting my health or my children's health.

How can you verify that?

Well, one of the opportunities is to use a CO2 monitor that can detect smoke.

Now, it's not something that we envision placing in every unit and routinely monitoring that way.

It very much would be a reactive case.

Someone would have to bring us an issue that

had some reason to believe was credible and needs some opportunity to try and verify outside of a visual confirmation.

That's what's intended by technology device.

The reason we don't cite CO2 monitor itself is

I think it was really to handle complaints because you have to have some way if you're not on you know we've we've built a policy that is around you know actual credible evidence of smoking which in most cases is visible but if staff isn't on the grounds at midnight but there's you know someone who's health affected next door to a unit and they're regularly getting smoke in their windows and it's a problem then we need some

some way to verify those complaints or not.

Then you'd be monitoring for four to five in pretty quick succession.

So then, you know, I might be a little lackadaisical until I had my

until the first time I was caught and then I straightened up my act but I don't know, I don't really feel bad about another resident.

I think that part of the problem was that there was zero mechanism for residents who might have a complaint in our policy without that as a

measure of recourse because it has to be, I mean, as you know, we want to be fair to smokers for sure, but we also want to be fair to the health affected and have some mechanism within the policy for people who do feel like they're suffering, but for not to be tattling.

I think that was the whole point of the detection technology was like you can't just be somebody who wants to complain about their neighbor, like there has to be some way to verify it.

But I hear your, you know, maybe there is, you know,

I think we envisioned that it would be in the case of, you know, sort of serious regular complaints, so maybe that, maybe there is some mechanism.

Are you talking me or Grant?

Me?

Both of you.

My feeling is, you know, people who don't smoke deserve just as much respect as those who do.

and I know that recently there's been concerns about odors in Custer Hall that we found out that some of those odors, just the odors could be killing or causing other health problems for folks.

That could be serious issues.

So, you know, I don't think it's always the fact that people are tattling on each other

I think it's, you know, for me, I hate to see people standing in front of crescent halls smoking cigarettes when there are people coming in and out on oxygen tanks, you know?

So again, you know, I just feel like people who don't smoke deserve the same respect as people who smoke.

And I'm not a smoker anymore, but I know that anytime I could get that trigger, it could happen.

But I also,

I give those respects that do smoke, but I also give those respects who don't.

And if I felt like I wanted to smoke, I would walk away from them to have my smoke, but I'm not going to stand there in front of the door, and not just across the hall, but anywhere.

I've done it at the bus stops.

When I was smoking, if I was sitting beside somebody or somebody was near me, I would say, do you mind if I smoke?

And if they give me the ah, then I know it's not okay, so I step away.

But yeah, I don't think it's just Talyn.

I'm not offering an amendment but I have a question.

We have signage that's being crafted and will be ordered shortly to post on all the properties.

Establish a smoke-free area.

I'm not sure if we reference a lease violation or not.

Yes, ma'am?

We have them posted in our offices, so each time

The group updates it.

We have them posted in our office.

And as residents are coming in for the recertifications, we're giving them copies of it and having them to sign off on it.

So they're aware that we're going smoke-free July 1st and also what the group has come up with as far as the violations and all.

Great.

Thank you.

They'll be installed by then for sure.

Enforcement begins July 1, but all the notifications.

By approving the policy and lease addendum now, we open a 60-day period during which residents are asked to come in and sign the lease addendum.

The lease addendum sets forth in two pages what essentially the policy references.

Also during that time,

We will make sure that we have signage posted effective July 1, smoke-free environment, smoke-free community.

We are also planning a smoke-free kickoff

Celebration, I guess.

We will go door to door this week with the approved policy, assuming commission.

which proves it this evening.

With the approved policy, we'll include a property map that shows where the smoke-free zones will be.

How are we tracking people who have not signed for this policy in their lease because maybe they recertified and they don't recertify again until next year and this policy wasn't yet approved or wasn't yet put in their file?

And since the motion's been made, I know we've already had discussion, but going into discussion, I just wanted to ensure that the two residents, both Miss Talbert and Mr. Yates, are both fully behind us.

You're just on the roll today.

I just wanted to ensure that both our residents are in full support, correct, of the policy as it's written.

I think there are issues.

There are always going to be issues with those who are struggling.

Yes, ma'am.

But we have support there for them.

So you're going to have those.

Yeah, I'm not going to sit here and say, no, we don't have any, because I know that's not true.

Right.

But we're there for them.

We have the smoke group.

We have professionals still who are willing

Okay.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you.

to applaud this motion.

It has been a long, long effort.

And so thank you to so many residents.

I know that you're not here tonight.

Residents who often come here, but many residents who don't often come here who really engaged with us around this policy and around contacting the professionals who have come in.

I want to give a big thank you to the health department and Neelie Dahl

they are for her support in helping us find great example policies and find professionals to work with us.

The health department's been a wonderful partner in this initiative.

To Pamela Jures who's been very involved and our asset managers and really making sure the meetings happen and I already mentioned Miss Oliver who really spearheaded on the part of the board.

PHAR's been a great partner in this and we really feel that

In addition to a policy that is fair and hopefully ensures that folks get the support they need, the process we used to create it was great because we didn't start at the last minute.

We really did start this a long time ago, so there was enough time for lots of conversations and feedbacks and trainings and meetings at each site.

and that process is one that I think we would love to pull the best up from and use that to develop and replicate that process as we go through this five-year plan work and that's why that's what's next on our agenda.

And so in your agenda here under tab, where are we, tab four,

is the five-year plan that we recently passed.

We're not discussing this plan tonight, but rather really the process that yes, we passed it, we're working through the goals, but really, and there's a template in here of a totally blank plan, because I think we have, what we have before us,

is the opportunity not to just carry over this list of goals that we've been working from from the past five years where we add a little here and there, but really to start with a blank slate.

But that's a little bit scary too in terms of wanting to make sure that we don't lose the things of value from the old plan, but that we can structure something that maybe

is really meaningful for everybody going forward for the next five years as PHAR and Brandon remind us we're a different agency than we were five years ago with much different goals and a lot on the horizon.

Thank you, Mr. Bellamy.

Yeah, I'll just add, yeah, we've got the first two pages behind tab four are the current goals and objectives from the current five-year plan.

The next three pages are the template and instructions for the revised five-year plan process implemented by HUD.

You may be aware in the past the five-year plan that housing authorities have been required to put together really result in a tome of data and policy inclusion.

I've included

With your packets, a separate handout with five-year plans.

There are three separate entities, five-year plans in the handout.

The first is the City of Buffalo.

I think it is 16 pages.

The next is James City County here in Virginia.

And that is a two-page five-year plan.

And then Prince William County.

Their five-year plan I think is eight pages in total HUD has, as they have with the annual plan, streamlined the process focusing very much on the goals and objectives table that has been included in the previous five-year plans

it's what they're looking for, updates to those goals and objectives and then asking specific questions about how we plan to implement or how we implement specific policies, namely VAWA as well as what kind of standards we want to set forth for acceptable revisions to the five-year plan in the future.

Yeah, this is absolutely an opportunity to clean slate and draft where we see the vision for this agency in the future.

Mr. Duffield, what do you recommend as the starting point?

I think that's something we probably ought to discuss a little bit, but perhaps it does take the form of something that looks like a kickoff event that reaches out to the community and recommends seek some engagement there.

This is the opportunity to clean canvas, paint what your housing authority will look like in the next five years.

Perhaps we should schedule a meeting with PHAR and other strategic partners to come up with a joint strategy for achieving a vision.

I meant sort of a planning meeting that then says here's all the steps we're going to take to get engagement around the plan.

So we need to approve this with a 30 day comment period.

Early January.

But we need to have a complete draft that we vote on 45 days before that.

So typically we have a mid-December meeting so this would be voted on in our October meeting.

Most likely that's our sort of drop in point.

Probably at our October meeting we'll vote on it.

We'll get the final approval after a 45-day comment period in mid-December, but this will probably need to be finalized in October.

So usually we do a big round like starting in August and September and we're really moving it up to do it over the whole summer so that we can get a lot more input and thinking.

I'm even wondering if there's sort of a survey function that's not deep but sort of laying out and prioritizing values that just to me, anyway I'm just, we'll brainstorm at the planning meeting.

Not a door-to-door kind of thing, but something that's quick and easy we can use at events.

I have a question before we move forward on Page.

I don't think it is Page.

I just need some clarity here.

I know we said we wasn't going to get into it, but I need some understanding.

Yeah, but I want to understand something that they have in here, just in case we need to use this.

I need understanding.

So on the goals and objectives, it says identify

The PHA's quantifiable goals and objectives that will enable the PHA to serve the needs of the low income, very low income, and extremely low income families for the next five years.

Can somebody give me some type of clarification of what quantifiable means in this region?

Well, as you look through, you can see some of their goals are things like improve their FOS scores, improve CMAP scores.

So that's something you can quantify.

You can say in year 1, we had a 3, and in year 3, we had a 5 as a score.

So we've improved.

So that's a quantifiable goal.

Yeah, so the list underneath here are the actual goals.

And then under there is the ways that they're going to measure them.

This is where you are, right?

So this is the section.

No, I'm not there.

I'm here.

Page 202.

James City County.

Sorry.

Yes, they have a very short five-year plan, and that is all of their goals.

So in this just one box is all they go.

That's all that they care to provide to HUD.

It doesn't mean that they don't have a strategic plan or they don't have something deeper in their community.

That's what I was getting ready to say.

I was just wondering if that was something where we have movable space versus long list, short list.

It's an extremely long grant As we've done with the annual plan

in a box like that, we'll see attachment, whatever, and then we have the list fairly exhaustive.

Typically, in our efforts towards transparency, we provide more information than James City County seems to have provided.

Thank you.

Not to belabor the point, I'd really like just for it to be noted, I like the Violence Against Women Act policy.

Fair enough, thank you.

I want to say thank you to staff for providing us with these examples.

That's really useful to see other plans.

And the reason, just to be a hammer, that we put it on the agenda tonight, even though there's no action was required, is just to encourage all board members to be super engaged in this process.

and that it's going to be long like the smoking policy was but really valuable I think for the next five years of the agency and there's a couple of us who will still be here five years from now at this dais but there's a couple of us who won't.

So we've got to make your mark.

What?

None of us are dying.

None of us are dying.

Our terms end.

The terms end.

Some of us will be finishing our second terms in less than five years.

Let's see.

Behind tab five on your packets this evening, commission, you've got two documents.

We have a development partner RFQ, and then we have a resolution 1382.

If you don't mind, I'll take a moment and speak to development partner RFQ.

This is the culmination of many months of work with PHAR, our residents and our stakeholder groups, to put together an RF, request for qualifications, proposal process by which we will select developers to begin our first phase of redevelopment.

at CRHA and is a monumental step.

The way the document sets and the process sets up from here is we have essentially two rounds, two stages of qualification of developers.

The first, this request for qualifications will allow, will invite developers to submit statements of qualifications.

that demonstrate their experience in development of public housing, low income housing, affordable housing, as well as their understanding and knowledge of the Charlottesville communities.

That process, the RFQP has been released to the public.

We will have responses in by the end of May.

Once we have completed that process, we'll select a short list of developers to submit on specific projects as we move forward.

Our next hurdles are to draft a formal request for proposals that will

take existing sites that we anticipate redevelopment occurring on and request of the qualified developers that we select to come back and present us with specific development project concepts, plans, again, that reflect the values of the community and also demonstrate their expertise in completing those types of projects.

We would anticipate having a developer partner.

on board by the, gosh, I need to look at the, certainly by the close of summer, I believe in early August if I'm not mistaken, and then be moving forward towards actual redevelopment efforts at South First Street, undeveloped South First Street, Levy Avon, and potentially some Crescent Hall's work, but we need to see how that fleshes out.

That is a very abbreviated summary of what's been taking place to this point.

My first question, I thought we might be voting on this tonight.

This has already been released to the public.

Well, the only thing I didn't see in there that we discussed was the, we had potentially discussed limiting the number of pages of submittals and if it's on the street, it's not an issue.

You'll find, you know, the good guys will probably be concise and clear.

There will be somebody that just opens his file cabinets and sends you everything he's ever done and we'll have to figure out what's relevant and what's not, but that's not an issue at this point.

Now the only thing I would add to what you said, we talked about a developer partner.

I think there could be partners and we hope this is partners for more than an immediate job.

I mean we're hoping to build a relationship that is ongoing that can really benefit all our residents and all our

Residences, all our residential units.

So depending on the skills of what comes forward, it's a really complicated process and we're looking to have a partner who is

More creative than us in all aspects of development, I would hope.

Financing will be a real challenge.

We have a lot of internal issues to discuss going forward.

And I would only say that this is kind of the tip of the iceberg.

You know, now we've put dates on paper that other professionals are committing to, so our work for the RFP

is really on a timeline now that's kind of out of our hands if it truly is published.

So we have almost as much work as we did before.

We've barely really started.

Absolutely.

So I have two questions.

February, excuse me, May 31st.

You'll find page 22 is, page 22 of the RFQ document, it lays out the timeline or the program schedule for this process.

Sorry, thank you.

No, no, it's hard to find.

That answers my questions.

Thank you.

You had another question?

This is a huge step for us, the city.

We will say those of you who might know of a project that you love that you visited in another state, know of good development partners or folks who have done great affordable housing development, this is public.

Please share it.

It's hard to distribute it as widely as possible.

possible without everybody playing a role.

So I know we have members of City Council who have a lot of contacts and City Council themselves have sought many many contracts so please feel free to market this in your communities as well.

and for those of you who might not have that list, you do know residents and are able to really tell them that things are moving and we're gonna be having developers meeting with them over the course of the summer.

We'll have real plans that we'll need a lot of conversations with residents about but it is actually happening.

People don't believe but here we go.

Other thoughts or questions?

Thank you.

Miss Rettger, you have, that was from the Redevelopment Committee and now from the Strengthening Systems PMT Committee.

Miss Rettger, do you want to tell us how things are developing in the contract with Enterprise?

So we had a meeting, it was last Friday, I believe it was like the 23rd of April.

And it was in front of this one.

It's tab 5.

Mine was tab 5.

It is tab 5?

Yes.

I didn't find mine.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

My folder seems to be arranged slightly differently from you all's folder.

My apologies.

Not that.

It looks like this.

It must be the back of this big stack.

Okay.

Almost.

Latita.

You just have two more pages.

There you go.

All right.

So we met, I believe it was the 23rd.

It was last Friday.

And there were Grant and I from the CRHA.

We had PHAR, city residents.

And sitting together to try to figure out what

Remaining work we would like Enterprise to do.

They had submitted a proposal and I think people were supportive of that proposal to move the work forward.

Just to refresh, we had contracted with Enterprise in a strengthening systems grant, meaning having the city

CRHA, PHAR, working together to strengthen the way we work together to help with the redevelopment process.

I mean, it would be great to strengthen systems anyway, but the focus is on moving the redevelopment or strengthening the redevelopment process as we go.

So this fall we stopped work with Enterprise to talk with them about a conflict of interest.

So they've come back to us with this new proposal which is slightly reduced since they'd already used some money in their first visit.

And the committee, the project management team felt that this was a good proposal.

The debate is how much we are strengthening systems and how much we are moving redevelopment forward, but hopefully the work will do both.

So I left that meeting a little early, and when I left it seemed that there's been some frustration with just

The way the grant had sort of installed the Redevelopment Committee can move on and there's some decision making.

This grant is kind of doesn't have any decision making to it and so there was some discussion about how to move forward and engage Enterprise with make sure that everyone is benefiting from their expertise but also just how do we

work best together since we have this board meeting, we have the redevelopment committee meeting, we have so many meetings.

So how do we plug them in the best?

I think, Grant, at the end, there was not a conclusion to exactly how that would work.

Is that correct?

Yeah.

But we had discussed trying to combine with Redevelopment Committee so that this work would flow through the people who are looking and making decisions, looking at things and making decisions.

Anyway, so through the work, the meeting, the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation thought it would be great if we passed a resolution

so that all three organizations, the city, PHAR, and the redevelopment authority showed their support to work with Enterprise as they come back.

And that's what is sitting before you.

I think support meaning they just wanted to make sure everyone was on board before we

Well, move forward.

Well, if you read the document, they definitely spell out some roles and responsibilities in terms of expectations that they want to make sure this board is committed.

And there's an entire section on work that Enterprise will do to strengthen the capacity of the board of CRHA to be able to make decisions regarding redevelopment, particularly around

commitments we'll make towards effective and authentic resident engagement and how that engagement will be incorporated into our work.

But they also are offering all kinds of, or a suggestion for some trainings that I think will require a little finesse as we negotiate with them.

But there I am, I'm looking for the task.

Task 2 I believe in this document before you talks about strengthening CRHA governance and it talks about they'll do an assessment of our strength as a board, they'll develop a communication plan between the board and residents, so assuming we need to be part of that communication planning, facilitate a board service workshop.

Develop and conduct a board training focused on public housing redevelopment, including redevelopment models, financing options, and development partnerships, which hopefully will also be with residents.

Best practices training for boards covering ways that we can be the best agency possible to move forward on redevelopment.

So all of that is a commitment on the part of this board to show up to those things.

And so the funder is very concerned, I think, that all parties understand the new roles and responsibilities that are proposed under this work plan.

And so I read that out because I want to make sure that this board is there because we've got a redevelopment committee, we've got the PMT, we've got a couple of us that are doing things and now all of a sudden we're saying in addition to five-year planning, in addition to regular board work,

So I have a question saying that.

So we have the PMT and all of the other things.

So the PMT is not one and the same.

Right.

It had to be a... A shared committee.

But since then, I think the shared committee is great, but we tend to worry more about the scope of the work, I think, and haven't really done any actual work, so

I think the change will be if they come back that we have to find a way for them to be able to reach everyone and interact and work with all of us.

Yeah.

Yeah, they weren't brought on to essentially make any decisions.

So to clarify the resolution that we're talking about, is this resolution asking for us to allow them to now be decision makers?

Yeah, I read it, but I wanted clarity on it.

I just want to make sure that we didn't contract someone to come in to give us advice and now we're giving them the authority to be decision makers.

Okay.

No, the hope was, and actually a lot of great work has come.

They were hired originally last summer.

So in the time frame where they haven't been working with us, I think everyone on their own has been doing a lot of great work.

You know, when the grant was written, we hadn't even really started in on the redevelopment work.

So as they're coming back, I think they're looking at helping with resident engagement, how we get the information we need to do good development, helping our board strengthen, helping PHAR strengthen their organization, and then helping us with action plans for redevelopment.

So not necessarily making decisions, but helping us

kind of get our ducks in a row, if that makes sense.

And they've worked on many projects, so in the... And hopefully through the process, we'll learn from them, but they won't...

I don't think...

When we interviewed with them originally, they seemed very flexible in... And I'm looking at Brandon.

I'm remembering we were talking about different sort of

I think this conversation about enterprises, will she watch it?

Yeah, I think so.

I'm feeling uncomfortable right now because I don't feel like we're getting much more than what we've gotten already from them and you know I feel like some of the stuff that you just talked about it's some of the things that we've already done such as board training and you know I'm just not feeling that right now I'm just not sure where we're going or anybody

Yeah, and I think part of, it sounds wishy-washy because it kind of is, like in these meetings, they keep proposing things and then all of us talk about like, yeah, that piece is great, that piece is great, but in our own organizations, it hasn't filtered like through everyone to get feedback and so,

The other piece is I think there's a percentage or priority to the different tasks and if we come back and say we actually don't need quite as much, you know, for board training, that's fine.

Yeah, so I think that's- And there's some other stuff that we've already done, but I feel like we've passed that.

You're taking us back.

We passed that.

Yeah, so we can help, I think,

Yeah, we need a longer discussion about it.

But we can help and say, you know, we want a little bit of this, we want more of this.

And that's happened in this small group, but it hasn't actually gotten back to everyone.

I mean, they're waiting for everybody to sign off on this official scope of work, or this new scope of work before

They're waiting on us, right?

They're not coming down yet until we've all said, okay, we're willing to have you come down and we'll put our time and resources into it if you come down.

Well, are you done, Audrey?

So that's a question to you.

I have a question about Page 6 for a test for a redevelopment action plan.

It's given a very small overview.

Page 6.

Dr. Bellamy, do you have something?

Page 6, Task 4, Redevelopment Action Plan.

It talks about what the redevelopment action plan, what the partners, I guess they want to pull together in order to make it efficient.

And what they would do, enterprise will assist the housing partners transition to implementation of two-year engagement strategy.

What I don't really see is the support of the residents in

Relocation.

I don't see any support anywhere that says this is what we would do as enterprise for support or sustainability for the relocation process.

If we're going to talk about redevelopment, that needs to be in there.

It needs to be some conversation about that.

I'm just noting that first.

So I guess the question is they wanted us to vote as a board if we could support, you know, put our time into working with them.

I think there's flexibility, we can go back and adjust some of the actual tasks that they laid out since

You know I'm on the perimeter of this whole enterprise effort but my thoughts are we're ready to engage

with the various parties right now.

We don't need 18 months of discussion about how we're going to do it.

We need to start doing it.

We need to have them in the room to facilitate it.

Need to tell me when to shut up.

Whatever.

Yeah, I would say, you know, there's PHAR, and to some extent PHAR with CRHA, but mostly PHAR has been developing and carrying forward as an engagement plan.

I would love to find ways that's more of a partnership plan and that perhaps they jump in less as designer of plan and more as advisor.

And I believe that's what we've discussed as a PMT, that we're really looking at a two-phase engagement strategy here, exactly to what Mr. Osteen said.

PHAR is on the ground.

getting it done as far as this first redevelopment effort that the RFQ, RFP covers.

Yeah, makes no sense to have somebody come in and reinvent the wheel there.

Now, to the extent that they can help support what PHAR's done at this point and work with PHAR at PHAR's request, cool.

That'll work, but that's true.

Now, are we seen as the problem in all this?

We've got this resolution in front of us.

Does PHAR have something similar that?

Yeah.

They will.

And do we know the status of that?

No, I think there may be.

That's a little issue washing.

I just think that the city and my colleagues are going to

Yeah.

Yeah.

In our meeting, I think CRHA and PHAR have played the bigger roles and most of the work is working with them.

And we have the directors of both organizations in the room.

So we were talking to the city about we really need the decision makers, maybe city councilors in the room

and so hopefully that will come across.

Maybe not you.

No, I'm just kidding.

I don't know yet.

I think they're just waiting for us to say whether we're going to move forward on this.

Okay.

Okay.

And I'll say, I've taken notes, you know, what we just talked about now.

I think if we say we're going to support it, we can

meet with them in person and flush out how we'd like them to help.

Yeah, yeah.

I move approval of CRHA resolution number 1382, a resolution committing CRHA to work with PHAR and the City of Charlottesville to support the work, Charlottesville Strengthening Systems and Housing Development.

And I would make one slight change.

It looks like the last paragraph.

Is there a second?

I second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

And the motion carries.

Thank you.

Everybody take a big breath and we're going to move to next on our agenda.

Certainly.

Commissioners, behind tab six in your notebooks is resolution 1384.

This is a resolution that is required by HUD annually.

as the fair market rents are rising.

Yeah, rental standards are released by HUD annually.

We have to, for our HCB program, affirm what our payment standards are going to be.

The table embodied within the resolution is what the, includes the first row is the current fair market rent.

The next row in the table is what our 110% payment standard would represent of fair market rent HUD will allow us to set our HCV rental standards at up to 110% of fair market rent value

Given the nature of rental housing in Charlottesville, we found routinely in the past that we have to exercise that 110%.

FMR limit in order to be remotely competitive and enable our clients to have a chance to live within the city of Charlottesville, again, but just based on the local rental market.

So does this mean that the payment standard per voucher is going up in, I guess, in easier terms to understand what you're saying?

It's the maximum.

It doesn't require us to pay that for each veteran size.

Because the reason why I'm asking is because that maximum price is dependent upon the person's income as well and other things that count in giving our vouchers.

That is just the maximum limit.

Not all of out of our pocket.

Yes, so we're looking at the 110% number is the only thing that's really relevant to us, right?

The other one is just what it's based on.

That's right.

So just take the first one, for example, 827.

Right.

Is that the maximum that a landlord gets paid and we're paying part of that and the tenant is paying part of that?

That is a flip side to that because that is dependent upon whether or not a resident who holds the voucher loses their income and then therefore we will be responsible for the full amount of the rental payment until such time as the resident has reacquired a new job and income.

Thank you.

This is coming from the city's affordable housing fund, correct?

This is the HUD standard for market rent rates.

In Charlottesville.

Any voucher we approve, regardless of its funding source, will rely on these numbers.

Right, I'm sorry.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

If the family has a voucher through the city program, then it'll come from those dollars.

If that family has a voucher through the traditional HCV program, the dollars come from that.

All right.

I move that CRHA resolution number 1384

Thank you.

You don't have to go over here.

I was just...

I thought I was going... Is that your second?

I love your voice, but...

I second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you.

Next is resolution 1385 on internet service access.

Again, real thanks to Commissioner Bellamy for his work in spearheading this effort in negotiations and conversations with Ting and with City Council for funding.

Mr. Bellamy, you want to tell us about this resolution?

We're almost there.

The team provided a brief presentation at the last council meeting.

The information that they provided was enough for us to be able to move forward.

So essentially what you see here is that we need to pass a resolution, we being the CRHA,

for us to go into working and creating, or excuse me, entering contract negotiations with Team.

After the contract is finalized, we'll bring the contract back to, well obviously the board will be able to see it.

The contract will also be seen by city council and then the funds will be allocated.

It's scheduled to be on a consent agenda for us to be able to move forward.

And then we can begin with the timeline in terms of allowing Team

Mr. Bellamy if I understood correctly from our discussions and speaking with City Manager Jones

Passage of this resolution will enable City Council to set aside the funding for the project.

Correct.

Alright.

We're almost there.

So we need this document.

Write the contract.

Start getting it popping.

Don't put that on the news.

So I have a few questions.

So when they go, okay, is this per unit?

And correct me if I'm wrong.

The units would be wired whether they accept the service or not so that maybe they have direct TV and then they decide down the road they want to have Ting.

It'll already be wired.

Right, so they can choose to continue to keep the service that they have and pay what they choose to.

This is just offer, but this is team services, one gigabyte, extremely, extremely fast, and it's being offered for $9.99 a month.

So they can choose to say, no, I just want to stick with what I have.

So for example, if you wanted to keep Comcast, right?

But if you chose, if you so decided that you wanted to keep Comcast, you would have every right to do so.

You just would have access to this extremely high speed internet at a very, very discounted rate.

All right.

It's still the $995,000 is that what you just said?

Yes ma'am.

No, no, no.

Sure.

So there's a few.

One gigabyte is a lot faster than what's currently being offered by the Xfinity.

Secondly,

with the team situation, there's no pre-existing conditions that would disqualify you from being able to take advantage of this service.

What we've seen with the Comcast situation is that if you have had Comcast before, you're disqualified.

And there's some other, which I don't really want to.

I know they're offering that.

There's a little bit more that comes with it.

I have another question.

No.

It's unlimited.

I'm being serious.

There are problems with

We're aware, I mean, that's the other thing, there's a cap on how much you can use with the essentials.

There's no cap unless you use how much you need to.

And then I know Ms.

Chairwoman Jones and I, we had a discussion this past week, over the weekend while she was dancing and having a good time.

I won't talk about that, but we had a discussion this weekend also about having a conversation with Ting about customer service and then as they come into our sites and work with our units, how they interact with the residents, making sure that they provide top-notch customer service, I had a conversation with

Representative from Team Today in which they are fully open and amenable to some of that.

She's wobbling to everything else.

I have one question.

So we're going to have a lot of new units coming online soon.

Same unit cost?

Right.

So same unit cost.

We've had that discussion.

Hopefully those units can come sooner than later, but I don't want that to stop us.

Absolutely.

How long is the relationship between the city, this plan, and the CRHA, and if, let's say,

for Chance, the team goes out of business.

So we know that things come and things go.

We know that there are competitors.

We know that people fall off.

We know that companies buy other companies.

Totally understand that.

So was T-Mobile.

Does it mean that the infrastructure would just be there and not used?

No, what I'm saying is, so we have Ting and then let's say now they're non-existent now.

Right, so what would be next steps?

I mean the reality is this resolution and the contract we're talking about is a one-time pot of money to cover the cost of installation only.

Once it's installed, the city and the housing authority have zero obligation and Ting is promising us to provide the service, but this money is just about installation.

Not free.

It's not free.

It's basically free.

Alright, so is there a resolution?

I think there's a motion.

I make a motion to approve.

CRHA Resolution No.

A second?

Aye.

Ms.

We're asking to table the conversation on public safety.

And I would love to have that when we have some more residents in attendance.

And I know we hope to get someone from the police department to join us as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairwoman Jones, members of the commission.

Behind tab 8 is the executive director's report for the period March 23, 2018 to April 27, 2018.

I will briefly touch on a couple of items.

We've spent a fair amount of time recently helping bring the residents on the job program up to speed.

We're still, as

Mr. Collins mentioned in his comments we're still working through some of the tweaks there.

Spent a significant amount of time working on the RFQ RFP document.

We are currently recruiting for several positions, conducted interviews.

We have more interviews to be scheduled.

I'll speak about that in a moment.

completed a relocation planning workshop seminar with the HUD's Office of Uniform Relocation Act during this period of time.

And we focused a great deal on the smoke-free policy and lease addendum.

Other items that are of likely interest, we've got pre-REAC inspection work is underway.

We actually have

USIG, which is an inspection company to come to town, I'm sorry, to come to CRHA middle of next month to do pre-react inspections.

We are scheduling assistant asset manager interviews.

We have extended an offer to hire for an administrative position and waiting for confirmation.

on that.

One of the items I'd like to bring to the commission potentially at the next meeting would be an organizational or an overview where we are today and where we are headed from a staffing standpoint.

And I bring that for discussion at this point

in that as we hire for our administrative position, we have one that we're awaiting confirmation, anticipate staffing another administrative position and creating essentially what would amount to a call center in which all calls to CRHA come to that center and then get routed back to the

The vision here would be that we would have a center that's open, lines that are answered from 8 in the morning until 8 in the evening.

When a client, when a resident calls to place a work order, that work order gets generated immediately and dispatched to the correct party.

We have an email

trail that we can go back and document if the resident has email or text capability within able to also email or text confirmation back to the resident so that we begin to close some of these loopholes and these just dead areas in our customer service experience today and be better able to

ensure that work orders issues get addressed as need be and our customers are kept abreast of where they stand and where things stand with their concerns.

Out of this process we'll also create opportunities to be able to go back and more readily audit our performance on the calls that come in.

We have plenty of phone lines.

We probably have more phone lines than we know what to do with right now, almost literally.

will be an essential piece of our customer service approach.

Part of this is frankly going to require that we get a lot smarter around Yardi in general.

I think it should be some type of discussion for, I'm sorry, Mr. Yates.

I think some conversation should be had in reference to this Mr. Duffield as far as separate phone lines if it's going to be from 8 in the morning to 8 at night because then we would move away from personal telephone lines being used for time that needs to be dedicated to that system

and those phones can be transported during those business hours for whomever decides that they will take that position and those phones will be committed only to the user for this particular job description.

Going back to the, I guess, the call center type thing,

So have we thought about, you know what I'm about to say, right?

Let's hear it.

Great.

Just touching on one other item.

We've got our new camera system at Crescent Halls.

Everything is installed.

We have the IP addresses in place.

The system will be active this week.

So finally, that becomes operational.

As you look at the accompanying documentation,

This is for the period that ends March 30, 2018.

This is the end of our fiscal year.

Overall, in our public housing side, we are showing at this point a positive revenue in excess of expenditures of $32,509.

Our HCV balances significantly.

Our Housing Choice Voucher Program revenue in excess of expenditures of $162,500.

Certainly those numbers are subject to change as

Additional charges and revenues get posted in the coming weeks, but at this point it appears that we have finished 2017-18 in the black.

Yes.

Beginning with the legal sheets, you've got a summary of the work orders for this.

for this reporting period.

Again, just provide this as information for you to consider.

209 total work orders, 166 of those are what I would call actual sort of resident driven work orders.

The difference is our community center.

We entered a work order when we have openings and closings.

will show in the numbers they're not essentially through work orders.

Again, the information here gives you a sense of a brief description of what the call is involved, whether or not it's an emergency, semi-emergency, or routine.

All the ones with status closed are closed out.

You'll see a handful of those, I guess 12

as of this point that are still pending and then does include the work order number beside it.

So it doesn't tell us whether it's still being worked on on hold for reasons such as maybe repair or just open.

It just says call.

And I'm just saying that because for reader's sake, it just looks like somebody called in a work order that's just sitting there.

That's a good point.

Thank you.

Following the work order sheet is the actual financial hard data for the month.

I'm not going to begin to kind of walk through that.

That's something you can do when you're having trouble going to sleep, OK?

Chairwoman Jones and commissioners, that's all I have in my report this evening.

We can't finish a minute early.

It's on the sample.

OK.

Is that on here?

No, it's not.

I need to.

And y'all thought it was something bad.

That's not bad, no, thank you for your time.

Yeah, but I mean, it's kinda hard if you get paid at some point in the month and then like, okay, I get ready to do the first, yeah, I get that.

But I don't get paid until five days after that, six days after that.

So I mean, it's kinda, sometimes you just can't help it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Duffield.

I just have one question and mine isn't bad either.

I just want to know what's going on with the landscaping on Sixth Street.

I'm not sure about everywhere, but I did a walkthrough on Sixth Street and I was wondering, the grass is very high.

And I'm just wondering what's going on.

We should have been done cutting.

Should be done by the end of the week?

It's going to make the grass grow.

Thank you.

Any other business this evening?

Fantastic.

Meeting of dates announcements, you can see some of the things we have scheduled, Redevelopment Committee coming up May 8th and May 22nd, Resident Services, May 10th.

Our regular board meeting again for the month of May is on Wednesday the 30th because of Memorial Day.

Another 30th, exactly a month from today, Wednesday the 30th here in City Council Chambers.

and residents do be on the lookout for notices about meetings to sign smoking policy lease addendums.

Are there public comments at this time?

I'm going to just because.

I failed to mention it and I need to mention it.

And again, PHAR and Legal Aid are helpful to

CRHA in a number of cases involving advocacy on behalf of our residents.

I had the opportunity in the past couple of weeks, Emily was extremely helping us avert what could have been a really unpleasant, tragic situation, not involved and thank you.

And it goes, and I should go without saying, Rachel and Brandon,

very much week in, week out are helpful.

I don't think that gets expressed as frequently as it probably should.

I have a question.

Are these done monthly now?

This is nice.

These are done monthly now.

Who did that?

The only thing that I was looking in here for was the dates, community dates for the garden, the times and dates for the community to be able to visit the garden.

I think First Street has a garden now, and I know that they used to give away vegetables at Crescent Halls.

So maybe if we can add that, the times and the dates, that'll be wonderful too for the public.

But this is nice.

All right.

Okay, Brandon Collins, once again from PHAR, Public Housing Association of Residents, 434-984-3255.

You guys probably heard me say this before when I greet Commissioner Oliver, one of the hardest working people in government.

It's got to be a huge relief to be almost done with this smoking policy.

43 meetings is what you all said.

Commissioner Oliver has been there from the get-go and really has put a ton of work into making this work, into making it fair for everybody.

And for carrying on one of the things that we told you all from the get-go, which was

Holly Edwards had reminded us that this is policy related to health and we really needed to focus on that and Commissioner Oliver has driven that home in just a spectacular way.

So this is a good example of getting some stuff done and one individual resident of public housing really knowing her stuff and getting stuff done.

So I hope you all give her the kudos that are due her at every opportunity.

I did want to chime in about the lease addendum, something I forgot to mention, which I'm sure you will do, which is when you're signing those lease addendums, can you please make sure that every resident gets an updated copy of their lease handed to them that they can keep in their records?

We would really love to see that, and we can all remind ourselves that that needs to happen.

I want to talk quickly about the payment standard.

You know it's unfortunate because you've got a pile of money from HUD and you have a certain number of vouchers and when the cost of housing goes up that limits your ability to serve people and unfortunately once again the housing authority is stuck with the burden of dealing with Charlottesville's affordable housing crisis and I really don't think that's fair and I think that

It's something that needs to be considered and I think it affects a lot of other things involved with this housing authority including our relationship to the Strengthening Systems grant and the role of other partners in this city in dealing with affordable housing.

You all take on a huge burden.

We want to see you succeed.

I know we beat up on you a lot and we're going to continue to beat up on you a lot.

You are the main resource for affordable housing in this city and you've taken on a lot and you're doing the best you can with the resources that are allocated to you.

So let's get you some more resources.

I do have one request about, so the packet didn't include the roll up in Mr. Duffield's report and I just want to make sure that the public can get that

I would love to be able to find a cool way to do some work orders comparisons.

I'm not sure what that might look like, but if I can make sure that we can get a copy and just make sure that that gets out there.

The other is we really need to look at summons for unlawful detainers and make sure we're monitoring that.

Some of you may have heard Virginia has a terrible, terrible record as far as evictions in other cities, and it would be good to see how we stack up.

I think there was a report on Richmond, one out of four residents have been to eviction court in the past year.

Many other cities in Virginia, just terrible, terrible.

We have an eviction prevention policy that we don't

hype up enough and maybe we need to pay a little more attention to it but you know hopefully it'd be good to see these numbers and see that we're doing a little bit better than the rest of the country on them.

So that's it for now.

Great, thank you.

You know, it's coming.

And then, um, there was another thing.

Yeah, we are working on that as well, okay?

See, you got answers for everything I gotta ask you.

No, that's dumb.

We talked about that today, yes.

We talked about Chromebooks or some sort of computer so that we don't get this.

So we don't get this?

Each commissioner's gonna get a Chromebook?

if they need one.

If they come with fancy MacBooks they don't have, they don't get one.

Okay, please announcements.

One announcement.

Application process has started for the nurse at the clinic.

The positions are still open.

Yay!

That's fantastic.

Announcement?

So if you're interested in driving a bus, the Go Driver application deadline is Friday, May 4th at 4.

So if you're interested in doing that, be sure to get it in.

And then another one, Go Culinary, I want to say.

Go Culinary.

Yeah, Go Culinary, where they teach you how

Basically, be a cook, you get ServSafe certification, stuff like that.

I can help with it.

Not sure yet.

Are there other announcements or questions?

All right.

With that, our meeting is adjourned.

And I will say we only went three minutes over from our start date.

Two hours and three minutes.

Seriously, Brandon was absolutely right.

It's all about Wes getting here on time.

Mr. Yates, have a nice evening.

What time?

I was like, I don't know how many people we have on each other.

And I just heard you say something.

So we're just going to stay here.

Well at this point, the point is his house

Like me, you know.

Because just like we don't know anything that's happening.

Our businesses are open to the public.

I don't know, I sent that to say to put out a flyer.

But at least we got to that they can come again.