CRHA Regular Meeting   1/25/2021

All right, let's go ahead and start.

And hopefully we'll get a couple more people to join us.

I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.

This is our monthly meeting, Monday, January 25th, 2021.

and we can, I will read Governor Northam's order that allows us to meet virtually.

Governor Northam issued an executive order E053.

Oh, she's back.

restricting public gatherings of greater than 10 persons.

Accordingly code 2.2-3708.2A3 permits public bodies to meet electronically to discuss business required or necessary to operation of the public body and discharge of its lawful purposes, duties and responsibilities in times of emergencies and to address COVID-19.

Therefore, this meeting is being held electronically pursuant to Virginia law because the COVID-19 pandemic makes it impractical and unsafe to assemble a quorum physically in a single location.

Commissioner Goldblatt?

Yes.

Dr. Henry?

Commissioner Osteen?

Mayor Walker?

Okay, great.

And let's have a moment of silence just to reflect before we begin.

All right, thank you.

So in terms of any announcements, et cetera, we have some on the bottom of our agenda.

If anyone's listening, I think they'll also be posted on our website.

Our next regular board meeting is February 22nd, Monday, six o'clock.

In two weeks, Thursday, February 11th, is a work session that I believe is related to the working on the budget.

Hi, Dr. Henry.

There are safety meetings every other Thursday.

It's every other Tuesday, not Thursday, every other Tuesday.

Every other Tuesday,

Starting again at February 2nd, 6pm, and we have a Zoom link and a passcode that will always be the same to get into those meetings.

Redevelopment committee meeting is now, I think we'll hear a little bit more about that later, but since we're shifting into construction,

There's going to be a reorganization of how the various pieces of redevelopment are discussed.

So the Redevelopment Committee meeting, which I think is the one that talks about redevelopment as a larger goal for all the sites, will become a monthly meeting on the first Thursday at 2.30, for now at least.

And then Resident Services Committee has been reinstated every second Tuesday of the month at 1pm.

So lots of figuring out what week it is in the month.

Does anyone else have some announcements or reminders they wanted to share with anyone?

Cool.

Okay.

So the first thing on our agenda this evening, we have a resolution, a sort of a resolution to recognize one of our board members who has stepped off the board.

Mr. Osteen has stepped off the board.

He had served four and a half years or going on five years.

So he's somewhere between there.

Anyway, so we wanted to recognize him with a resolution.

I haven't seen a text.

He was going to try to be on the call and then had emailed something about his internet not being great.

He's been living far sort of out of internet connection, so that's been one of the reasons it's hard for him to be as involved as he'd like to be.

But I'll read the resolution and we can get it out to him just so that he knows he's been appreciated for all his hard work over the last few years.

This is CRHA resolution number 1422.

A resolution recognizing the dedication and effort of Mr. Michael Osteen and his service to the residents and HCV-CSRA program participants of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority during his more than four year tenure as a CRHA board commissioner.

Whereas Mr. Osteen volunteered as a commissioner and was appointed by the Charlottesville City Council to serve on the CRHA, to serve the CRHA community as a commissioner of the CRHA Board of Commissioners beginning in late, oh, in July of 2016 and came back for a second term in July 2019.

And whereas his tenure on the CRHA board, Mr. Osteen has worked diligently to represent the needs of CRHA residents and brought his expertise in design, building and property management.

and whereas Mr. Osteen's commitment to a resident centric approach to the management of CRHA demonstrates the fundamental values of public service and true asset-based community leadership and whereas the board of commissioners of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority wishes to express its appreciation for the admirable work that Mr. Osteen has done on behalf of the CRHA community over these past four and a half years.

Therefore be it resolved and known by all that with much gratitude the Board of Commissioners of the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority do hereby recognize and formally commend Mr. Michael Osteen for his admirable efforts exercised on behalf of the residents of the CRHA, thus benefiting not only those directly served, but the greater Charlottesville community as a whole.

I don't think we officially vote on this, do we, Mr.

All right.

So anyway, we'd like to thank Mr. Osteen for his hard work and I especially, I came on

Maybe a year, it must've been a year before him.

And I remember he was walking through on the REAC inspections and taught the rest of us a lot about how the HUD inspectors interpreted and did their inspections and kind of brought it into, well, our human, tried to help us understand what their priorities

and I remember being very, I learned a lot from him.

So thank you very much, Mr. Osteen.

All right, next we have any updates from commissioners or discussion of work sessions.

Sure, I'm happy to.

So first of all, the notes from the Safety Committee meetings are posted on the CRHA website.

So that's one way to get like a really thorough overview of what we've been talking about.

So we're currently at a working draft of a camera policy that Mr.

Sales had drawn up a draft policy, we've reviewed it with the residents, and we're going to be sending it out for more review to get more feedback on that.

But it's a like a good first attempt.

And then, in addition, some of the other things that we've been working on is there's some interest in reviewing community safety measures and thinking about how to implement some environmental design measures that will help to increase safety.

There's been some interest in learning more about the new security services firm.

We have some questions about them.

And last, one of the things that PHAR and some of the residents have raised is a question about whether or not we should have a no loitering policy and what that would look like.

So we're hoping to get a review of the safety plan that Mr.

Sales had drafted, I guess.

Maybe in November or December and see which action points in the short term we want to turn to next and what updates we've had on things like lighting.

I know lighting has been a problem in that some of the lights are owned by Dominion.

Most of them are not.

But nonetheless, there's been trouble getting bucket trucks and then making sure and maybe Mr. Popovic can speak to this.

making sure that the wires are as tightly encased as possible so that they can't be cut and things like that so that lights stay on.

Mr.

I think you've touched on most of the big points.

The safety camera policy is going out in the rent statements this week.

So all the residents will have a copy of that.

It's also available on our website.

We wanted a standard uniform policy to protect residents as much as possible and to make sure that we're not trying to negotiate specific agreements with different entities at each site.

OK, thank you.

Any other announcements before we move forward?

Next, we have public comments.

Sure, chair.

If anybody in attendance would like to address the commission at this time, please click the raise hand icon and we'll call on you in the order of hands raised.

And we do have one hand raised, and that is Brandon Collins.

Brandon, you are on the commission.

Good evening, CRHA Board of Commissioners.

I'm Brandon Collins.

I am a staff person for PHAR, the Public Housing Association of Residents.

PHAR is the federally recognized resident council and resident advisory board for public housing in Charlottesville.

And you can give us a call at 434-984-3255, or find us on the internet, www.pharcville.org.

I didn't have a whole lot to offer this evening, but it struck me just a few minutes before this meeting that

This is the last meeting you're going to have before ground is broken on phase one of South First Street construction.

And that is an historic occasion and perhaps some historic insight into why that's important is in order.

And of course, I don't have much, but I do pretty good off the cuff.

I do wanna say, you know, back in 2013, residents in this housing authority were just kind of just fed up with each other, particularly as relates to redevelopment.

And I think once we all kind of got over that hump, PHAR made a really important realization, which was that redevelopment was needed.

but it needed to be on residents terms and PHAR needed to say yes to something.

So we set out and we did the work for about a year putting together what we then called the positive vision for redevelopment.

I think we're on the heels of realizing the positive vision, at least in some senses.

This housing authority and PHAR and residents have really thought big about what's important

and have carved out what that vision might be and what that big vision is for the future.

And it involves making reparations in some sense for the terrible pain inflicted by housing authority, planning commission, city council, the business community in Charlottesville and how we could start to right those wrongs.

And one of the ways we do that is through resident self-determination.

and that's something to work towards.

And it's something that this housing authority has been bold in accepting the idea that the only way to make this work is through resident led redevelopment.

It is still something we're striving for just like we're striving for making housing authorities a resident first organization.

It's not perfect.

We're not there yet, but we have that ideal to reach.

and then I think PHAR also realized we really need to be an active partner in making this move forward and we've worked really hard and I think it says a lot about the folks committed to this housing authority to accept that partnership and move it forward, find our partners in the community that can help make this happen and really make it work and here we are.

February 8th, hopefully the trucks will be down there at South First Street and the fences go up

I think it's a good start.

We've got a long ways to go.

And there are a lot of things from that bold vision that we still have yet to realize, things related to economic development, section three, resident management, these really big ideas that I think, if COVID hadn't been involved, I think we would be much further down the road realizing those things, but we can't let those slip.

And now is really the time to not go, whew, we've got this far,

Let's keep it up.

We need to actually set the bar higher and come up with those big goals, those community changing goals, those transformational goals that can help lead to a brighter world for Charlottesville, but also for public housing around the nation, because people are watching.

I know you're not over the hump yet with HUD, but you're gonna get there, and I'm just really excited about the future, and I hope you all are too, and I hope you all stick with it.

We've lost a lot of people along the way, and it's unfortunate that some have fell by the wayside instead of sticking around to see this effort materialize, but here we are, so let's all get that done.

I did want to just put in a plug for the importance of coming back to the safety action plan, the ACTS plan that John presented, and really having the board be familiar with that, making sure that camera policy comes to the board after residents have a look at it, and really looking forward to some good policy discussions about safety.

We know this is a community thing that's really gonna make things

Better, and we've got a lot of work to do with that.

But this housing authority, I think is committed to doing its part and we want to help.

So good luck.

If anybody else would like to address the commission at this time, please click the raise hand icon, or if you're joining us by phone, press star nine.

I'll also go ahead and take this opportunity to let Miss Slaughter know that we're hearing a little bit of audio feedback on your phone.

So I did mute you.

And in case you do not know, star six allows you to mute and unmute yourself.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

And Brandon, thank you for the reminder of the historic, the upcoming historic moment.

Ms.

No, I'm just grateful and thank you, Brandon.

Yes, this will be, this is exciting.

And South First Street neighborhood in general has been through a lot.

Hopefully there's some kind of positive

You know, feeling just seeing some change happen there.

Okay, so Mr.

Sales, we have two resolutions.

So for both of those resolutions, we have individuals here to present them.

Good evening, everyone.

I'd like to thank you for allowing me to join you in your meeting today.

I'm here to

present a resolution for solid weight removal services.

And this service will be authority wide.

And as Mr.

Sales said, I am Dolores Adams.

I'm the procurement manager.

I work for the course of development and housing authority.

And I work with you here in Charlottesville as part of our inter-agency agreement doing procurement.

We issued an invitation for bid IFB 2003 back in September, September 21st to select a firm to provide solid waste collection and removal for authority properties.

And it also included central maintenance in any administrative areas.

The services included in the IFB

Invitation for bid included containers, trash collection, bulk waste removal and maintenance, and repair of the commercial trash compactors.

The current contractor that you use now has time disposal out of Ruckersville, Virginia.

We posted the solicitation on EVA, which is the state's electronic procurement website, and on the CRHA website.

Through that posting, over 48 firms received our packages, mostly through the utilization of EVA.

And from the 4,800 that received the package, three actually responded in a timely manner, sent in bids for our solid waste collection and their removal.

Their proposals were due October the 9th at three o'clock and they were doing electronically

The companies actually had to submit their bids to EVA, and EVA stands for Electronic Virginia because it's an electronic procurement system.

The three firms that submitted their bids were BFI Waste Services, doing business as Republic Services, Updike Industries, and Waste Management.

Updike and

Of those three firms, Updike Industries was a small and woman-owned business.

The lowest, most responsive and responsible bid came from Updike Industries.

Their bid was $407,890.

That is for the four possible five years of the contract, because the contract would be for one year with four option years.

And the four option years are at Housing Authority Solar Discretion.

So if you choose not to renew, at the end of a year, you have to give the contractor 90-day notice.

You don't have to renew their contract.

But based on the full five years, Updike Industries was the lowest did.

They came in at about 20% below out in the cost estimate.

which was $509,000.

And that cost estimate was based on what you're paying, time disposal right now.

And we added a 50% inflation factor because that contract was a few years old.

And we all know things have gone, goes up every year.

But even so up that industry came in under the cost estimate.

and they have experience working with local governmental entities, public schools in Greene County and Page County and the town of Mineral.

We contacted them, the references that they provided and when asked to rate the firm, they received eights and tens.

So they were, they received good references

All the firms that we contacted said they would contract with them again.

They had good services.

So based on the selection criteria that we had in our bid and the recommendations from the references, it is recommended that we enter into a contract with Upback Industries for solid waste collection and removal for term of one year with the option to renew annually for four years.

I'm just wondering about that rate.

That is their price.

The way we priced it is we gave them, we listed each property and the size of the containers.

Some properties had eight yard containers.

We had a few properties that had individual 95 gallons.

and Sischa and their pricing is just lower.

And they are, and usually if I see that, okay, let me get, I'd like to take particular attention to the references and then make sure that they understand the whole scope.

And they have, I've had several conversations with them and that is just how they're pricing.

And a couple of the references that I talked with

mentioned that too.

They are a smaller company.

They're not as, I know like waste management is a huge, more of a nationwide company versus someone that's local.

No, none of the people indicated it on the references.

I had just noticed some concerns, maybe some negative comments about when you Google somebody, you can get different reviews.

And it was about missed services, but this may be residential, not commercial.

So really relate to that.

It's a year and you have to send them a option renewal.

At least 90 days, we usually shoot for 90 days before the contract term is up to let them know that you are going to renew, you're going to exercise your option year to renew for an additional year.

They're from Culpepper, I believe.

Okay, any other questions, comments?

We have a resolution before us to approve the contract, which sounds like they would have, you know, if it doesn't go well, we would not need to continue the contract after the first year.

I really, you know, to me, it's the residents that are going to tell us if it's working.

I mean, that's a very, trash is a very personal thing.

Well, also if it's not picked up, then it overflows and now you've got litter and now you've got all this other, I mean, one of the questions I wanted to ask is, were you all asking what happens once they

Remove the refuse if it's falling out of their truck.

Are they coming behind to pick that up?

That's one of the things that I see a lot in some of these trash companies.

They come in, they dump it, it spills everywhere and they don't pick that up.

Is that something that we can communicate with them that we want to make sure

It's that broken window theory, right?

It is actually in the IFB.

The IFB requirements is that they have to maintain the cleanliness of the enclosure, the dumpster enclosure.

as well as picking up the trash from the dumpsters.

Because sometimes these companies may just, the driver pulls in the dumpster, put it back down and there's maybe trash around, but it does require that they maintain the cleanliness of the dumpster enclosure.

Okay.

And Mr.

I will say this is one of the items that were identified by HUD that needed to be re-precured.

So this is another check mark on the HUD audit list of items.

Okay.

I think if there's no other comments or questions, if someone makes a motion, the resolution before us, it authorizes the execution of a contract between Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority and Updike Industries, Inc.

Should I read, sorry, should I read the whole resolution or I'll read the beginning and then I didn't know if I should do that before after a motion, but why don't I really, sorry, go ahead.

Okay, why don't I go ahead and read through the resolution since we're online and people might not have it in front of them and then

Someone could make a motion if we'd like to move forward with a vote.

I have the resolution up.

Ms.

Slaughter?

All those, well, actually we have to do a roll call vote.

Yes.

Commissioner Goldblatt?

Yes.

Dr. Henry?

Yes.

Commissioner Osteen?

Great.

The resolution passes.

Thank you.

The next resolution.

Yes.

Yes, it is.

Resolution 1421.

Wonderful.

Hey, everybody.

Let me see.

Let me let you see my face, I guess.

Hey.

First, let me say thank you for what you do and for the hours that you spend doing it.

I appreciate being a part of the redevelopment process as it's been moving forward.

John asked me to explain the resolution that's before you.

It's pretty straightforward.

Last year, we applied as part of the process of

putting together the financing for phase one of the redevelopment plan to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta for grants to help fund both Crescent Halls and South First Street phase one.

And we were lucky enough to receive both of those grants.

And we won't be able to spend them unfortunately until after the construction is complete but the money is there waiting for us

and the Federal Home Loan Banks in the interim, or the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta in the interim has changed their online process.

So we were originally authorized, I think it was Grant and Kathleen were originally authorized to administer our online presence with the bank in

making those transactions happens.

So we have to upload documents to them at various times.

And they've just changed their portal.

So they are re, I guess they are reauthorizing us to participate in their portal.

And this resolution allows us to do that.

And this is exactly what they want to see.

So

and I think we have to submit a certificate of incumbency and a couple of other documents.

So we're just coming before you to ask you to ratify that and allow us to proceed.

We owe them, I think we owe them a progress report but they know they're not getting it until we get online.

So this will help speed us up.

So this is a really stupid question, but this is just because they've switched.

It's like we changed our online portal and now we need to approve your ability to work with a new portal.

It is.

It's kind of a silly process.

I mean, if you've ever, and no one, let me recommend that no one attempt to get funds out of the Federal Loan Bank because it's a maddening process.

but we were lucky enough to be successful at it and you know honestly they provide millions of dollars of grants grant money across the region for affordable housing so it's you know it is worthwhile but it is a maddening process and their online presence has been particularly loathsome so we're hopeful that their new portal will be easier to navigate

and that they will allow us to participate again.

Thank you.

So we have a resolution pretty much authorizing the participation of CRHA with Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta.

Yeah, pretty much just, I think, changing the names to our current executive director and getting us back in there

I'm not sure whether my inclination towards debate is stronger than my hatred of bureaucratic red tape, but my hatred of bureaucratic red tape makes me want to say I move to approve.

All right.

Um, lovely.

Chair Ecker?

Yes.

Dr. Henry?

Yes.

Commissioner Osteen?

All right.

It passed.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Um, next, Mr.

Yes.

Good evening commissioners.

Um, so an update on COVID-19, um, December, we were hit really hard when it comes to COVID-19.

both in our maintenance department and our rental office.

So they are getting back to the office and we're still really short staff in the rental office but we are back to full speed in the maintenance department.

So I'll give a little bit of numbers based upon what we've done so far since this is the first meeting since the year wrapped up.

So last year we had 20 new admissions in public housing.

between of course January to December.

At the latter part of the year, we had 15 new admissions.

So we really revved up towards the end.

This month, we are doing really well.

We had six new admissions so far this month.

We have three more that we think we will fill by the end of the month.

And we have three more units that will come online by the end of the month.

So we're hoping we can finish between nine and 12 new tenants this month alone, just January, 2021.

We've added four new maintenance technicians that are working solely on turns and turning over the vacant units.

We had one start today.

We had another interview today and we'll have two more start within the next two weeks.

That's what we have for the public housing program.

Besides some of the other things like catching up on recertifications, we're over 200 in a whole.

So now we're not only not in the whole, but we are advanced.

So I think we're certifying for the month of April and March.

So we are ahead of the game.

For the HCV department, we've had 75 new admissions, which is a 21% increase compared to our total voucher allocation.

As you all know, we were also awarded 40 new mainstream vouchers with a expected allocation of $362,000.

So we're doing a lot when it comes to the programs and improving them, increasing the amount of units that are available.

So solely based upon just working on our own stock, we've been able to increase the amount of public housing units that are available for the community and also voucher units that are available.

We've filled the housing stabilization coordinator position with the internal candidate.

Ms. Green is going to head that initiative.

She was around when it was originally created.

some years ago, so she's gonna be a part of recreating that program to help families that are behind in rent.

Mr.

Sorry, not that, not conditional Lisa Green, Miss Claudette Green, I'm sorry.

We have a CFP, the CFP budget, proposed budget should be out this week.

It is just the initial first round.

So really it's going to look at more of the items that were already approved from the previous years, because it is a rolling five-year plan.

So you really are just adding for the last year and normally take the first four years and add to the fifth one.

So what we're looking at is heavy safety initiatives, not only camera wise, but looking at some environmental adjustments we can make on site, improving the lighting.

on the sites.

So a lot of those items will be added to the new budget.

They'll move up a year.

So some of the things will move around once we do the annual plan to reflect the new items.

And I did want to say the mainstream waiting list will open on January the 29th.

There was a press release that went out.

There was also some announcements that went out to some community partners so it can be posted on their website.

I have just a question about COVID.

I'm wondering if our CRHA staff, like 1B, are they considered essential workers?

I've been trying to get as classified as 1B, but I've been told there's not a lot of vaccines to go around.

So I think we're on the way to 1C.

We are, we are working on some, some things for residents getting vaccinations.

Okay.

Any comments?

I think the numbers sound really great in terms of the increase in just turning units around, getting vouchers out.

All of that work, while

Staff has been taken down by, I mean, it's been a rough time and the work continues to improve.

So that's pretty amazing.

Okay.

Any other questions, thoughts?

All right.

Well, thank you.

I hope everyone is recovering well.

I know it's been rough.

Next, we have a redevelopment update.

Hello, everyone.

There's been a lot going on after a really long delay.

We finally closed on South First Street and we're really excited that we're gonna be able to have a community meeting this Sunday that you should have gotten in your packet.

And I'm gonna share it with everyone real quick online.

Here we go.

Yep.

We're going to be working with Breeden and just going over what to expect as redevelopment starts.

We've been a couple of staff short as Mr. Norris has gone on to do other things and Miss Johnson's been out, but we're

We've been really excited at the progress that's been made.

We're going to be doing a Q&A session with the contractors this Sunday and everyone's invited to join.

Also Nature, we sent this out to the local neighborhood association and neighbors in the area and if you know of other interested parties please be sure to share this as well.

We've also been making some changes as we get ready to start.

As Betsy was mentioning, the monthly, the Redevelopment Committee meeting is going from every other Thursday to be a monthly meeting on the first Thursday of the month, at the same time 2.30.

And it'll be focusing more on broad redevelopment issues and also for the future as well.

And it's open to all comers.

And we'll be having a biweekly Vision Keepers meeting, which will be facilitated by Jay Kessler.

And that's going to be starting right about the same time construction actually starts.

And he's going to be focusing on progress during phase one projects.

So it's going to be sort of a small meeting of the key stakeholders.

And then there's also going to be, once work does begin, monthly neighborhood updates between the general contractor and residents of South First Street.

And then once work starts at Crescent Hall, they'll also have regular meetings just to be sure.

that we focus on participation and concerns for residents in that neighborhood and focus on what their needs are.

So it'll be a smaller meeting, but we just wanted to get some updates on that.

Thank you.

I was on the Redevelopment Committee meeting.

I think moving ahead at its current time is fine for now, but I was talking with Miss Green about, some of these meetings are difficult with obviously city staff, far, you know, CRHA staff, you know, working through the day and then board members say,

have worked during the day who can't join the meetings who might rather do it in the evening.

And maybe we could do a work session and kind of get, at some point we probably need to do a doodle poll and make sure all the meetings are set so that we reach the people who want to be part of them.

But I was thinking for redevelopment in particular and because Dr. Henry and Ms. Green just joined us this summer,

I don't know if anyone would be interested, but in a work session, just to kind of like go over the current thinking, you know, for the next steps of redevelopment, for those who haven't been, I've been to many of the redevelopment committee meetings, so I feel fairly, I mean, maybe not totally up to date, but fairly in the know.

But I think for those who haven't been to those meetings, it might be helpful to have a work session where we just,

Go over what's happened and why and what are the next steps moving forward.

Just get everyone kind of on the same page with all of this.

Maybe not the particulars of the construction, which is more what you're, which is the immediate work that's coming up.

I thought I have was a really good time for that might be April with beginning of our new fiscal year.

And by that point, we should also be fully staffed, knock on wood, and have our new redevelopment project manager in place.

And I think that would be a really great time to also be looking towards the future.

All right.

And since I have you here, I just wanted to bring up that we're really hoping to get a time for a work session in March to talk about the formation of the nonprofit.

If you look at my board report, you'll see I put a worksheet in there that we'll kind of use to start that process.

Before you all get rid of me, I just wanted to also share the flyer for the upcoming capital fund community engagement we're going to be doing on February 10th.

which will be held at two times four and six.

And John's gonna be helping facilitate that cause he has a lot of experience with this process.

So we're looking forward to hopefully seeing some of you at some of these meetings as well as there will also be a board work session on that February 11th at five.

And we'll be bringing that to the board for approval.

I think a special meeting March 9th

I was just so yes, you and I had had a conversation being on the subcommittee for the redevelopment.

It's hard, as I had mentioned, that's a long standing work meeting time that I just cannot attend this particular meeting.

And so I didn't know if there was

opportunities for us to look at meeting times and things like that, especially with new members or other folks that may work.

I realize that work times vary all the way around.

All right, definitely.

This is very exciting.

I don't think I can attempt to do one towards the end of February.

You know, they've been able to mobilize and actually have some equipment on site and try to set up something.

I'm just throwing out a date, but maybe February 25th, we're going to, we need to all meet and figure out what's going to work best and where we can do it virtually and have just really get the word out and, you know, have some hard hats and shovels and, you know, just try to really let everyone know what's going on and

And I know Brandon's been working really hard.

I hope you can all see it soon.

I'm getting some handouts together that are pretty amazing to be going to all the neighborhoods and he and Ayanna are also trying to get some of them translated as well.

I think it's exciting enough that it should be something that's virtually, especially even on the city website.

I mean, I think

Anyway, but I'm happy to help.

Maybe if there's anything we can do to make it more exciting for the neighborhood, even if we can't be too close to each other.

I don't know if we can put up signs or

I don't know, we could get the donut truck to come over.

I don't know, something fun to make.

I know it's been a long, long, hard winter.

Okay.

So we have another round of public comment and then the board's going to go into closed session for just a bit and that is all that's on the agenda for this evening.

So are there some are there public comments at this time?

Okay, sorry.

I was having some major audio problems there.

We are.

Mr. Donald Gathers.

Mr. Gathers, you are now on with the commission.

Thank you, everyone.

First, before you run off, Mr. Rice, I want to tell you belated happy birthday.

Hope that that went well.

And really didn't have much this evening.

Just want to thank the board and the members of all the fine work that you all are doing to get us to this point, especially through redevelopment, and to offer a special thanks to Mr.

Sales for his leadership and direction as well.

Thank you, Mr. Gathers, that was nice of you.

And if anybody else has a comment for the commissioners, please click the raise hand icon, or if you're joining us by phone, star nine.

Okay, thank you.

Let me find, to go into closed session.

Oh, did we, oh no, the facility, okay, that's just sort of in our pack.

Okay, sorry, I'm just trying to find, I printed out the language, yes, here we go.

The motion to go into closed session.

Okay, I hereby move that CRHA close this open meeting and go into a closed session for the purpose of discussion of personnel matters as authorized by section 2.2-371A1 of the Code of Virginia.

and I think we have a separate Zoom link that Mr.

Yep, yep.

Second.

Chair Rector?

Yes.

Commissioner Goldblatt?

Yes.

Dr. Henry?

Yes.

Commissioner Osteen?

Commissioner Slaughter?

Chair Rutger, this is Joe.

I will keep this meeting link open.

If you will reconvene here and then read out.

But yes, okay.

And then- Just in case anyone's confused, I was a little bit, it's Divinia is the one who sent us the closed session link.

All right, so I hope to see you in a moment.

Is that where I'm supposed to be?

Okay.

No, I don't think I'll find it.

Okay, I'll make sure.

Okay.

Nevermind, I'm on mute.

Hey, we're coming back in.

I see, I believe Ms.

Slaughter is again in the attendees list.

And I just enabled her to speak.

Ms.

Slaughter, if you can hear us, you can unmute.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Let me see one.

All right, so we're all back in.

Okay, so I'm going to reopen the monthly meeting and read the certification of closed meeting.

Whereas the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority has convened a closed meeting on this date, January 25th, 2021, pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

And whereas Section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the Board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law.

Now therefore be it resolved that the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies, and two,

Only such business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed or considered by CRHA.

And then I need someone to move, move that the foregoing motion be adopted as introduced.

Okay.

I'll be doing roll call.

Okay.

Commissioner Green?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

I move that the board direct chair with the assistance of council to communicate directly with the executive director regarding proposed changes to his employment.

Sorry.

Commissioner Goldblatt.

Yep.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Commissioner Slaughter.

Okay, great.

Motion passed.

We lost you, Dr. Henry.

We lost you.

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you.