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03/15/2016 MINUTESHOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PARIS REGULAR MEETING BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING 100 GEORGE WRIGHT HOMES MINUTES OF March 15, 2016 Present at the Meeting: Gary Savage — Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Brenda Cherry — Vice Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Dewayne Dangerfield — Commissioner of the Board of Commissioners Cassandra Hearn — Commissioner of the Board of Commissioners Rachel Braswell - Commissioner of the Board of Commissioners Sally Ruthart — Executive Director Patricia Pridemore — Operation Manager 1. Meeting Called to order at 12:44 pm on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 by Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Gary Savage. 2. Having all five Board Members present, a quorum, Mr. Savage thanked and welcomed everyone to the meeting. 3. Citizens' Forum Opened — No comments — Citizens' Forum closed. 4. Minutes from the December 22, 2015 were approved after discussion. Mr. Savage: Anyone have any questions or comments about the minutes from our last meeting on December 22, 2015? Ms. Cherry: I do. Here it's saying that we had a meeting to vote to contact an attorney. I say we never had such a vote. We never had a vote to do that. And also it says that I said that Mr. Savage shouldn't be talking to Mrs. Ruthart outside the meeting. I never said that. I said that a decision like contacting an attorney or anything like that had to be before the Board and not in a private meeting. Mr. Savage: Yeh, on that which you said, I don't know exactly what you said, but you did say that I wasn't supposed to be meeting with the Executive Director outside of the Board. Ms. Cherry: That was about contacting the attorney which we did not vote on. I know yall claim we did but none of the Board members remember. Mr. Savage: No, it was no vote. I said we instructed her to get an attorney. Ms. Cherry: Well, we didn't actually. I have the, supposedly that happened in the September meeting. Mrs. Ruthart had thorough notes for that meeting. Mrs. Pridemore brought up a Social Media Policy. But we never discussed going forward with contacting an attorney, we never did. Mr. Savage: I remember specifically, I said it myself that maybe we need to contact an attorney to make sure that we do it right. Ms. Cherry: It's all recorded and the recordings I got didn't play on the recorder that I borrowed but if I'm wrong, Mrs. Ruthart I wish she would play that part because I never remembered such a ... As a matter of fact, that meeting I was very disappointed at the end because it looked like nothing was gonna be done about what Mr. Ruthart had put on his Facebook page. Ms. Hearn: Social Media? Ms. Cherry: The meeting I'm talking about, you (Ms. Hearn) and Ms. Braswell both left early. And I had discussed some racist and homophobic things L. D. Ruthart put on his Facebook. They were terrible things he put on there and Mr. Savage said at the end that we couldn't do anything about it but Mrs. Ruthart could. We never discussed contacting an attorney. Do you remember it? Mr. Dangerfield: I remember when the conversation come up. Ms. Cherry: You remember contacting an attorney? Mr. Dangerfield: No. I remember contacting an attorney on another issue but not about ... It was something going on about contacting an attorney, but... Mr. Savage: It was about the Policy. Mr. Dangerfield: Right. About the Policy. Mr. Savage: It wasn't about L.D. specifically, it was about the Policy. Ms. Cherry: I mean, if that conversation had occurred, it would be in the minutes. It would be in the minutes and it's not. Mr. Dangerfield: When he put that on the phone, it was something he did, but there wasn't anything we could do about it. Ms. Cherry: I agree that we couldn't discipline him, but she could, she could. Because that's not something when you have the attitude like that about black people you know and you're in control of determining how they're gonna live you know, that can be a problem. But anyway. Mr. Savage: So you want a couple of things stricken from the minutes? Is that what you're saying? Ms. Cherry: I don't know if that's what you do in a situation like that. I'm just saying that never happened and if it did, which it didn't, Mrs. Ruthart can claim that little section... Mrs. Ruthart: All these are verbatim, I mean whether or not you like... Mr. Savage: We are approving the December Minutes and this did happen and this was said. Ms. Cherry: I know it was said. You are continuing to make these claims that are not true, is my point. Mr. Savage: Yeh, but as far as approving the minutes for the December 22 °d, it was said and it's recorded pretty accurately. I read through it and I don't know if anybody else saw something that they didn't think was said during that meeting. Now whether it was stated accurately or what, I can't say it was. I'm just saying that this was stated during that meeting, so we need to approve these minutes or not. Mr. Dangerfield: I read them, but I understand what you are saying, but... Mr. Savage: Let me interject right here, when I talking about that, that's not even where we are at. We are at approving these minutes or not, so that's what we need to do. Mr. Dangerfield: Alright. Passed with a motion made by Rachel Braswell and seconded by Dewayne Dangerfield. Passed 5 -0. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: A. Mold Report from Ms. Cherry — To tell you the truth, I was suppose to go door to door and I haven't completed that yet. I could bring what I have, I haven't been since 2 December talking to people. I do have the portion that I did complete if you want to make a copy. Actually keep that copy I think I have another one. Ms. Hearn: What was that going door to door about? Ms. Cherry: If they had any mold and there were a number of them that did but some of them brought up other stuff. Mrs. Ruthart: Do you want me to make copies? Ms. Hearn: You sent out newletters asking this stuff, right? Mrs. Ruthart: I sent out a letter to everyone. Ms. Hearn: And nobody ever shows up? Mr. Dangerfield: Nobody ever -shows up. Ms. Cherry: She sent out a letter telling people that I was gonna come by. Mr. Dangerfield: Yeh, but when every meeting that she's ever had like "Ask the Director" there might be 3 people come to the meeting. They won't come so she can't deal with it. Like I said I've been to a bunch of meetings that she put on a "Ask the Director" — I asked the Director and I got cabinets, I got new this, new that, but they won't come out to it. Ms. Cherry: I mean I know that, but that doesn't mean that the tenants don't show up that you just let things go. Mr. Dangerfield: No you don't. But I'm saying... Ms. Cherry; I understand that... Ms. Hearn: But if she's not being informed by them, how will she know? Ms. Cherry: Here's one, they have Maintenance Men, they have an inspector, and they have yearly inspections by both HUD and the Housing Authority so what the tenant don't, if there is something wrong that should be obvious to an inspector or a Maintenance Man, it doesn't matter what the one say it or not. You want quality housing quality standards regardless of whether the tenants are coming in complaining or not. Mr. Savage: When the Maintenance Man comes by and the tenant already knows about it then the tenant should point them in the direction of where it is and point it out. I know I would if I had somebody come and inspect my house and I knew something was wrong, I'm gonna show them and point it out. Even if I thought something was wrong that might not be, I'm gonna point that out to him so that he can tell me. Ms. Cherry: Ok, so when tenants don't tell and they are satisfied with the mold that's obvious so what are you saying... Mr. Savage: No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is the Maintenance Man misses it, if he goes in and nobody can see a hundred percent of everything especially if you've got furniture in the house, but anyway, he's a qualified inspector and he goes in and he misses it, he doesn't point out something that the tenant knows is there, which they live there and they probably know more than the Maintenance Man, they should at least point it out. That's all I'm saying and I think it should be a team thing not just say that the Maintenance Man should be able to catch it. Ms. Cherry: I mean, but it is what it is. The tenants, you're saying that the tenants ain't complained about nothing. Mr. Savage: No I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that they should... Ms. Cherry: So that is when, there was one person at least on here that said they came and painted over his mold right before the inspection before the HUD inspection, you know. So it's not like this is a secret or that they don't know about the mold. This mold has been here for years, it just has. My neighbor use to work here, Chequita, she worked here and you know, it's been there since, she hasn't worked here in years, it was there then and like that apartment down there, if you haven't torn out the walls and the t sheetrock and gotten rid of it then it's still there even if it's painted over. What they're telling the tenants to, they give them bleach. So that's why I'm... Mrs. Ruthart: Not any more. Ms. Cherry: But yall used to. Mrs. Ruthart: I'm not used to, I just started in July. We are not doing that anymore. We have had 2 that we have actually relocated, stripped all the sheetrock out of the apartment, thousands of dollars... Mr. Savage: Didn't we get a report on that at one of the meetings? Mr. Dangerfield: You moved that girl out of Booker T. didn't you? Mrs. Ruthart: Yes. Ms. Cherry: My point is that this is not a secret that nobody knows about. Mrs. Ruthart: If we don't know where it's at, we can't fix it. Ms. Cherry: You gave bleach to... Mrs. Ruthart: I didn't give bleach to... Ms. Cherry: But you were the assistant to the Executive Director. Mrs. Ruthart: But I had no control over that. Ms. Cherry: I understand that, but the mold is still here. Mrs. Ruthart: But I have this list and I promise you it will be taken care of. And that's just George Wright, right? Ms. Cherry: Yeh, just George Wright and it's only a few of them, but I plan on finishing. How time consuming it was, I'm just making excuses, I should.... Mr. Savage: So when you go to them, do you actually do an inspection or are you asking them? Ms. Cherry: It depends, the ones that say "Come in ", but I don't ask to go into their home Mr. Savage: Are you asking them about the mold or their problems? Ms. Cherry: I'm asking them do you have any mold problems and then I ask did they get the letter saying that I would probably be coming by and then do you have any mold and they will tell me they do or don't some say I have this problem or that problem, don't have mold, ya know. Mr. Savage: When the inspector comes in to inspect for mold shouldn't they, just like they tell you, shouldn't they tell him who is suppose to report the mold. Ms. Cherry: I don't know that an inspector has came to them and said do you have any mold because they already know they ... the Housing Authority already knows where the mold is. They already know. Mr. Savage: When an inspector goes into people's houses, do he inform them of what he's inspecting? I mean he doesn't just walk in and say I'm gonna walk through your house right? Mrs. Ruthart: We send out a letter that says an inspector is coming to inspect your house, he goes in, I have not personally with him to know... Ms. Cherry: And they don't go to all of them, just how many, what percent? Mrs. Ruthart: Yes we do hire and inspector that goes through every one of them, one has to be done every year. Ms. Cherry: But not the HUD one? Mrs. Ruthart: No, an Inspector that we hire for UPCS inspections. We have to inspect every unit every year. Ms. Cherry: Cuz you know the man that said they came to paint over his mold right before the inspection, I see a problem with that ya know. I just do. Ms. Hearn: Did they just complain to you or did they complain to you about it? Mrs. Ruthart: If they told me, we have taken care of it. 4 Ms. Hearn: Did they just tell her or... Ms. Cherry: I mean I just to go tell... Mr. Savage: That's the point I'm saying, seem like you need to tell the people who are supposed to take care of it. I mean, if they can tell you then they should be able to tell the Housing Authority. Ms. Cherry: I asked, I went over there and now I'm sure that if the inspector says do you have mold that I'm sure that they would tell them. But yall saying because they don't come to the office, people that have been, there are some people that have complained, Bobby Yates for instance, when he complained about the mold, he got retaliated against and I have a letter to prove it. He got retaliated against so I don't know how often that happened or anything but if you gonna get retaliated against for complaining, you're not gonna complain cuz you don't want to lose your housing. Mrs. Pridemore: That's what she's saying is that we are dealing with it now, she's starting good, but we can't go to everybody and say do you have mold. The inspections are done once a year and that guy that's hired to do the inspections, if there's mold he should find it and he's not one of our people, he's hired from somewhere else... Ms. Cherry: But they didn't find it back then and that's old stuff, but it's not old stuff for the tenants. They still remember whatever's happened in the past. Mrs. Pridemore: But it's being taken care of now. Mr. Savage: And one thing about it, if.. Ms. Cherry: Since I did these, since December it's all been taken care of? Mrs. Ruthart: The ones that have been reported to me, Yes. Ms. Cherry: So you're saying that the mold in apartment ... Mrs. Ruthart: No, I said the mold that has been reported to me has been taken care of. Ms. Cherry: So it's, I don't know why we are arguing, there is some mold in some of the apartments that needs to be taken care of. Ms. Braswell: I don't know about the retaliation. Ms. Cherry: He had a complaint about the mold, he also complained about people selling drugs in ... he's in a wheelchair, he said that scared him. I reported the mold and nobody did anything, so he contacted legal aid and they sent out a letter. Then he received a letter talking about he was seen 6 months ago smoking dope and also, it was a nasty letter, it wasn't from her, it was from Denny Head. It was a nasty letter, also he mentioned you have such and such people coming to your house, I mean it's just nonsense, you know... Ms. Braswell: But he was not kicked out or anything? Ms. Cherry: He wasn't kicked out, but they did tell him that if, he smoked those cigarettes that you roll so somebody might have seen something that you ... If you saw somebody smoking some dope, you would take care of it right then and there and not wait til 6 months later when he's complaining, is what I'm saying. Mr. Savage: If you kicked somebody out for something like that, wouldn't that have to be substantiated? Mrs. Ruthart: We didn't kick him out. Mr. Savage: No, I'm just saying if that happened. Mrs. Ruthart: Yes. You have to have proof. Ms. Hearn: You transfer him to another unit? Mrs. Ruthart: Yes. Ms. Hearn: Solved. Ms. Cherry: Well it's not solved because that apartment right after that they rented it out to someone else with the same mold in it, just painted over it. 5 Ms. Hearn: Well, I mean his problem is solved he got moved to another apartment. He's not there anymore, so his issues about the drugs and everything is solved. Ms. Cherry: The issues are not solved. Mr. Dangerfield: Since Sally had moved up in this thing, took this position, everything is taken a change. She trying to do what she can, but if the people don't come and talk to her there's nothing she can do about it. I know what you saying about mold but she's been working on a bunch of stuff and she's stepped up with the housing. Trying to make things ... if you come to the meetings, you ask or need something taken care of, she's been trying to be there. Ms. Cherry: Well, this is me complaining... Mr. Dangerfield: Let's go forward, let's go forward, not backward. Ms. Cherry: That's what I'm trying to do. This was December when I went and talked to these few people, I'm gonna talk to the rest of them. You can't tell me they did all this work, you don't know that. Mr. Savage: You're saying this list is mainly from December? Ms. Cherry: It's all December. Mr. Savage: So now we got that turned in, so now we can go forward with that. So until we get more turned in, the inspector's find more, or people come up here, then all we can do is move forward. Ms. Cherry: I understand that, That's what I'm saying but it's like everybody argues the point. Well, the people should come and say it. Mr. Savage: They should. Ms. Cherry: When I'm saying it I'm talking about when I went... Mr. Savage: Because you know, I'm just going to say this as a Commissioner or whatever, it's just as a person that if all these people came to you and you know about it then you should send them to `em. That's our responsibility just as people. If we know where to send them and we have that knowledge then say you need to go to Sally, you need to go to the office. Then you need to send them. Not only should they just go on their own. Ms. Cherry: When there is toxic mold and there's children living in these apartments with that toxic mold I don't care who tells her. If I'm told about it I'm gonna say it. Mr. Savage: Do you advise them to go turn it in? Ms. Cherry: They have a letter that says they can go turn it in. She sent the letter out. Mr. Savage: So they know, ok so we are going forward then. Anything else on this? Everybody satisfied with the direction? Mr. Dangerfield: Just going forward that's all we need. She can't go over what happened back in the day that was old. Ms. Cherry: And the only reason I brought that up is cause yall keep saying well, as an example even with Bobby Yates she said how much he retaliated, I mentioned how much he was retaliated against, so if you have a person that was retaliated against once for complaining, they don't care if there somebody new in the office, well there's not nobody new in the office. Here they're not gonna complain again if they think they are gonna lose their housing. That's just that you know. Mr. Savage: Our job once again is reassuring that everything is in a different direction now, Denny Head's not there anymore, we need to move forward. We just can't promote after. Ms. Cherry: Since Sally has been here I haven't got any mold reports... Mr. Savage: The office don't know anything about that until today. Ms. Cherry: Ok, that's wh ... Ok. Mr. Savage: Ok, that was the report. No vote or anything required. :1 6. NEW BUSINESS: A. Commissioner Cherry request to discuss: 1) Practice of Housing Authority — Ms. Cherry: Ok, so I know I'm just gonna get some backlash for mentioning this, but I'm gonna mention it anyway. If, what's the policy for when a person that lives outside the Housing Authority units they get evicted by their landlord and do they in this particular instance this person the housing was removed before they got a hearing. Mrs. Ruthart: No maam, it was not. She was never taken off the program because she filed for a hearing and we heard the hearing, I have a timeline. Ms. Cherry: The landlord after she got the 1St eviction, she got another eviction for non - payment of rent because the Housing Authority didn't pay the rent on time. Mrs. Ruthart: She doesn't pay any of her rent, we pay all her rent. Ms. Cherry: I know. Mrs. Ruthart: Here's the timeline. OK, she moved into Town Parc on 12/1/2015, Mr. Dangerfield: We talking about Harmon? Mrs. Ruthart: Yes. Landlord gave Ms. Harmon an eviction notice on January 7th about an unauthorized guest, January 25th the eviction was upheld in JP court, January 28th the PHA sent an EOP — end of participation letter to Ms. Harmon effective 2/1/2016, we did not mail out the HAP check because normally when/if you don't file an appeal to county court you have 5 days, so it was on January 25th the eviction was upheld in JP court, she could have possibly been out before February 1St , so instead of sending the landlord a check and having to recoup $800 it's easier just to hold it, see where the hearing goes, and as soon as the hearing was over on the 17th we wrote them both a check. Ms. Cherry: But yall voted to... Mr. Dangerfield: That she does not lose her voucher. Ms. Cherry: But that's what I'm saying. Had she not had that hearing, her voucher would have been lost right? Mr. Dangerfield: That's why she came to us. We all sat in here and heard everything that went on. The lady at Town Parc violated her rights telling her she gotta get rid of her rats, get rid of this, we seen what not to lose her voucher. All of us voted she keep her voucher. She can go anywhere and still she won't be off of it. Mrs. Ruthart: And she was never removed from our program. We held the HAP payment due to the fact that we have to pay as long as she is in that unit. We would have paid $736. Mr. Dangerfield: We heard the whole thing. We voted to keep her deal going. Mrs. Ruthart: And as soon as they gave me their decision, we wrote them a check and sent the check. She was never removed from the program. Ms. Cherry: Removed from the program, I don't know how that works, but when the HA didn't pay the rent then she got a second eviction this time for non - payment of rent and she had a court date and all of that but... Mrs. Ruthart: But it was not for non - payment of rent Ms. Cherry: Yes it was. Mrs. Ruthart: No it wasn't it was for unauthorized guest. Ms. Cherry: She got 2 evictions. Mrs. Ruthart: You can't do 2 evictions at a time. Ms. Cherry: I can bring the paperwork where she got 2 evictions and she got 2 different court dates. First she got one for the unauthorized house guest and then after the rent was not paid she got a non - payment of rent eviction. I don't know if that illegal or.. Mrs. Ruthart: But it never went to court? Ms. Cherry: After yall did that they took it back. 7 Mrs. Ruthart: There was no recourse from us not paying her rent. Mr. Dangerfield: The deal was, the lady at the Town Parc she violated that girl rights. She went to her with a problem, she had rats. Then when she come to the girls house and searched the house she had, anyway, all of us heard that we sat with that lady and it didn't make no sense that lady would lose her whatchacallit and that's why we voted her in to keep her voucher to go wherever she want to go. Mrs. Ruthart: And it was appealed to County Court and the County Court upheld the eviction. Ms. Cherry: I mean, I was actually at, so I know exactly what happened and they shouldn't have upheld it, but... Mr. Savage: I got to stop right here. On the agenda, it says practices of the PHA. We need to discuss practices not specific cases. If we want to discuss specific cases then that young lady or whoever can come up if she felt like her due process was violated, you know there is a process for that. Let me finish, that is not what we are here for to discuss specific cases and if you've got a question on the process, the practices as it's listed here, then that's what we need to discuss. Whatever your question is as far as the practices of the PHA, it's kinda broad on the agenda, whatever your question is on practices, just ask that and we can discuss that. Ms. Cherry: I did, but anything that comes up there's something behind it. Something happens why I'm asking the question. My question was what is the practice if someone gets evicted outside of the Housing Authority, and they get evicted do you still pay the rent? Mrs. Ruthart: Yes. Ms. Cherry: Before, which case or not that didn't happen. Mr. Savage: If somebody gets evicted then you're not going to pay their rent anyway, right? If the case goes against the tenant? Mrs. Ruthart: We have to pay, according to our admin policy, we have to pay as long as the tenant is in the unit if the landlord is evicting them and we did that. But, we waited through the hearing process so we didn't have to recoup $736. Mr. Savage: I got that, but if the hearing process went against that person then we would only have to pay whatever days they were there, right? Mrs. Ruthart: No, up until the eviction. Mr. Savage: That's what I mean. Mrs. Ruthart: Yes. Until the day they set their stuff on the street. Ms. Cherry: My point is until the person has had a chance /gone through the hearing process their rent should be paid. Mrs. Ruthart: Well, we had a discussion amongst ourselves in the office about this particular case. From now on we will pay the HAP payment, we're just gonna pay it, we may have to go back and recoup it, but we are gonna pay it until, we're not even gonna send out a letter saying that we are taking them off the program until the landlord has actually set their stuff on the street. That's gonna solve that. 2) Ms. Cherry: Some of the houses that are being approved are nothing but slums. I would like to know what kind of standards you use or how is that determined? Mrs. Ruthart: It's Housing Quality Standards. Very, very basic. Ms. Cherry: There's this house that I'm familiar with because before the tenant moved in it, this was before I was on the Board, before the tenant moved in it, I took pictures cause I know these people and they have a camera and I took pictures of every inch. I got like 50 jump drives it's on one of those jump drives. But, it did not have a smoke detector in it, the floor still had, you could bounce because the floor would give when you walked N. on it. The apartment burned so there's carpet in it now so, I mean that's better but the floor is still like that. It had sticks sticking up over the floor cause the floor was wood and I don't know what you need to do in a case like that but it shouldn't have passed inspection. Mrs. Ruthart: Housing Quality Standards is very, very minimal. HUD is trying to change that to, it's called UPCS, they're gonna go to the UPCS Inspections for the vouchers instead of the HQS. Ms. Hearn: The person, did they occupy it or did they... Ms. Cherry: They shouldn't have took it, people when you have 30 days or whatever and it's the last day for you to find a place, you'll take whatever you can to save that voucher. This house shouldn't have passed inspection, it didn't have a smoke detector, the wiring - which ended up causing a fire — was taped over with black tape on the light fixture. That shouldn't pass inspection I don't care what anybody says, that's ridiculous. Mrs. Ruthart: The inspection was not passed that way. There was a smoke detector in there when the... Ms. Cherry: No, I got pictures. I'm gonna search my files... Mrs. Ruthart: Were you there the same time that the inspector was there? Ms. Cherry: I was there when she got her keys to move in. There wasn't even any lights on. Mrs. Ruthart: Well then anybody could've taken it down. What does our inspector have to gain by taking down the smoke detector. Ms. Cherry: I don't know. Mrs. Ruthart: What does he have to gain by passing this... Ms. Cherry: I don't know. I saw it, you didn't see it. Mrs. Ruthart: I had plenty of pictures given to me. Ms. Cherry: You don't have the pictures of how it was before the fire. Mrs. Ruthart: It passed inspection. Ms. Cherry: The fact is yall just don't care. Mrs. Ruthart: That's not true. Ms. Cherry: I'm telling you, which you're saying I'm lying. Mrs. Ruthart: I didn't say you're lying. Ms. Cherry: There was no smoke detector up there. Mrs. Ruthart: When you were there. Ms. Cherry: I was there before she moved in it. Mr. Savage: How many days was the inspection done before she moved in? Ms. Cherry: Well, the inspection was done, I was there the day she got her keys. I don't know how much before that that they did the inspection. I do know that they did the inspection without the lights being on and you're not supposed to do that, you know. You have to check and see if the lights work and all that. And that's what they did, that's a fact, you know. Mrs. Pridemore: When he does inspections and stuff like that, he'll make comments as to what needs to be repaired and that's how that's handled. If he does one and it fails, he sends a letter to the landlord and tells them what needs to be repaired... Ms. Cherry: He passed everything. Nothing failed in that house. You know, I'm just telling you what I know, do with it what you will, if you don't care then so be it, you know. I'm just telling you these houses, you said that they have very low standards — yes they do. Mrs. Ruthart: Housing Quality Standards are very, very minimal. Ms. Cherry: Well, it's to the level of a slum that's what it is. Mr. Savage: But you have to have a smoke detector and all that? 6 Mrs. Ruthart: Yes. Mr. Savage: But it's suppose to be basically safe. Mrs. Ruthart: Yes. The fire started in the attic by wires later. The Inspector doesn't go up into the attic and check the wiring. Ms. Cherry: Even the fire report it don't say that it had no smoke detector. No smoke detector went off is what the fire report says. But I'm telling you what I know cause I was there, I took pictures. Ms. Hearn: How long ago was this? Did she move? Ms. Cherry: I don't know. Ms. Hearn: How long has this been? Mrs. Ruthart: September 2014. She moved in October 2014. Ms. Cherry: The fire didn't happen then. I don't know exactly what, but since then I have seen other houses and they're horrible some of them, you know. Ms. Hearn: I wouldn't say nobody cares, I care. Ms. Cherry: When I say something like, I was there, I took pictures, and Mrs. Ruthart said no there was a smoke detector there and she took it down herself... Mrs. Ruthart: I didn't say she took it down herself, I said somebody else could've taken it down but when he did the inspection there was a smoke detector there. Mr. Savage: It could've been the landlord, I'm just saying. Ms. Cherry: I'm telling you, there was an old smoke detector there; I got a picture of it. There was an old smoke detector laying on top of the refrigerator had no batteries in it and it was old. It looked like it didn't work in the first place. Mr. Savage: Let me ask you this, you went over there since she moved in, right? Ms. Cherry: I went over there before she moved in. Mr. Savage: Well, when she got her keys, but when you saw there was nothing there did you advise them to report that? Ms. Cherry: No, I did not. Ms. Hearn: Here's the deal, in order for things to be done, you have to go through a chain of command. There's a chain of command in order to have a successful outcome. You can't just say this happened and this happened, we're gonna skip all these other procedures and go straight to this person. This happened, you take it to that person, that person don't take care of it, then you go to that person, if that person don't take care of it, then you go to that person, if that person don't take care of it, then you go to that person. You've got documentation of everything you've done, then that's when you go to the part of saying "Hey, I went to all these people and this didn't happen." Then that's when you have process for legal grounds, but just skipping over everything and coming straight to us, to me isn't a proper chain of command. You know, Sally is the Executive Director; she has to be given a chance to take care of it. If she's not doing her job, that's when we should be notified. Mr. Savage: Exactly. Ms. Cherry: I'm not gonna go through find this person, then this person, then this person. I'm not doing that. You know I talked about what I wanted to talk about, if yall wanna say "no action" whatever you saying then that's that. Ms. Hearn: You gotta give her a chance to do her job. We the Board can't dictate her job. Ms. Cherry: I'm not trying to dictate. Ms. Hearn: I don't... Ms. Cherry: What I'm doing is telling her about some problems. I didn't tell her what to do, I didn't do anything like that. I'm telling her about some problems. She can either address it or don't address it. 10 Ms. Hearn: With that kind of attitude... Ms. Cherry: That's the attitude I have. Mrs. Ruthart: We did address it. She came to us with all these problems. I sent her a letter that said you're not happy with your house, I talked to the landlord, you can move. She didn't want to move. OK and then way 2 months later she was complaining of not enough heat. Ms. Cherry: No heat. Mrs. Ruthart: The landlord took 2 more heaters over there. That was in agreeance with Lone Star Legal Aid, Sharon Reynerson, she said that'd be great. Took 2 heaters over there. Shaquanda said it still wasn't good enough. So, I gave her, I have a copy of the letter, that said you can move. Ms. Cherry: That's not even my point whether tenants are happy or not. My point is.. Mrs. Ruthart: If it's a rundown house. The landlord was not going to put central heat and air in this house. We talked to them about it. They were not gonna do anymore. They couldn't do anymore. So that's when I gave her the opportunity to move. Then they got mad at me, and I think it's the copy of the letter that yall got, for negotiating her contract. I apologized, I have a response to that letter that yall got that I gave to her on January 6a' back to Lone Star Legal Aid that I'm sorry, I was not trying to negotiate your contract, I'm trying to help you. You're not happy with the house, you've already had one fire, your child had splinters in her feet. You know, you can move or whatever. Well then we didn't hear anything for 2 months and then she comes up here with a Request For Tenancy Approval wanting to move. Ms. Cherry: I'm not even talking about what the tenant did and all that, that's not my point. There was a house that shouldn't have passed inspection that did. That's my point. Plain and simple. What she did, where she went, I don't care. I'm just telling you that house and some others, I don't know, I've heard but I've not seen it myself that Connie Justice has some even worse. I don't know. I'm just telling you, so I'm done with it. Ms. Hearn: How many days to they have before they can get their Section 8? Mrs. Ruthart: They have 60 days for a voucher. Ms. Hearn: I had Section 8; it was lovely when I had it. Mrs. Ruthart: And if there's something in the works, like they found a house and it's not empty, we can give them an extension to find a house. Mr. Savage: And you know, with this process just what we were talking about, I agree with Cassandra that there has to be documentation that they have to go through the chain of command and the steps that are provided. Document it and then we, it will eventually get to the Board that the process is failing. But just bringing individual cases here and talking about that here, it's just seems to be, and we're taking people's word. I mean it's just, I don't see it and I don't see any documentation behind it. So it's just like we're just taking people's word or somebody's complaint straight to the Board. I don't think that's effective. I know that's not the proper thing. I know that. Ms. Hearn: Brenda, I don't want your work to be in vain, but unless you got legal representation and these people don't come up here and sign this stuff their self all your work is in vain because really she can't do anything about it. Ms. Cherry: You know what, don't do anything, my work is in vain, I said what I had to say. Ms. Hearn: I just don't want you to do all the footwork and it's not really a legal binding and not a legal representation, there's no signature, this stuff right here has to be signed and they have to come up here and do it their selves. Ms. Cherry: You're talking about the mold? 11 Ms. Hearn: All the complaints. They have to come and complain. There have to be signatures behind all that. I understand what you're saying but there's nothing behind it but statements. She don't have to follow up on that for the simple fact they didn't come and complain and you're not a legal representation of them. I don't want you to run around... Ms. Cherry: I'm still gonna run around and I'm gonna do what I do. You know. Mr. Savage: OK, any further discussion on A2? B. Occupancy report — 5 vacancies in Public Housing with 2 move ins scheduled and the rest are offered. Demographic data was given to the Board — Public Housing, Section 8, Waiting Lists, and HUD demographics. Financial report — Section 8, Public Housing Bank statements, Financial Analysis, and Analysis of Income were given to the Board. VASH — Sally Ruthart asked the Board of Commissioners if they were interested in receiving additional vouchers for Veterans through the Homeless Coalition which Kelly Crawford is involved in. Reposting of Lawn Care Maintenance Contract — Posted in February for Lawn Care, received 3 bids which none were completed, had to repost and the bid comes due on March 28. 7. RESOLUTIONS: 2015 -014. Utility Allowance Schedule — Motion made by Ms. Hearn and seconded by Mr. Dangerfield. Passed 4 -1 (Ms. Cherry Opposed). 2015 -015. Procurement Policy — Motion made by Mr. Dangerfield and seconded by Ms. Braswell. Passed 5 -0. 8. Board Questions or comments: Ms. Hearn suggested a "Meet and Greet" for tenants to come and meet with the Board Members in case of concerns and let them know the Board Members. Ms. Braswell announced that since she is 86 years old the PHA needs to find another Board Member. 9. No further business or questions, a motion for adjournment from Dewayne Dangerfield and seconded by Cassandra Hearn. Motion passed 5 -0. The meeting was adjourned at 1:49 pm. APPROVED THIS day of , 2016. Sally Ruthart, Secretary Gary Savage, Chairman 12