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SHA April 22, 2024 Board of Commissioners Meeting Minutes

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MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE
SANFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY
MONDAY, April 22, 2024, AT 6:00 P.M. 
317 CHATHAM STREET SANFORD, NC 27330

A meeting of the Board of Commissioners for Sanford Housing Authority was held on Monday, April 22, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. at SHA Central Office, 317 Chatham Street, Sanford, NC 27330. Notice of this meeting was duly posted.

1. Roll Call:

ATTENDANCE:

  • Commissioner Hope White, Chairperson
  • Commissioner William Newby, Vice Chairperson
  • Commissioner Karen Wicker
  • Commissioner Holly Aeschliman
  • Commissioner Carolyn Gilchrist

ABSENT:

  • Commissioner Erin Britton

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Ms. White asked for someone to make a motion to approve the board minutes from the March 25, 2024, board meeting. Ms. Gilchrist motioned to approve the minutes from the March 25 , 2024, board meeting minutes. Ms. Aeschliman seconded the motion. All were in favor; the motion passed unanimously.

3. Financial Report
Mr. Blackwell said that in his first week, he completed discovery to determine where we were and how we got here. He said he has been informally meeting with staff members to learn their roles and the financial state of their departments. He has learned some things and is trying to determine the steps that we need to take to become financially sound. He is starting with reviewing the last audit and trying to align the budget request, award, and reporting. Since the accounting has changed hands a couple of times and reporting has not been consistent, there is some confusion in the department. He feels that some people are afraid to do their jobs and others do what they must do to get by but are not confident. He said that he is tasked with evaluating policies and procedures that are in place and determining ones that should be in place. For example, each manager should know what they must spend and budget accordingly. If they need something but have not budgeted for that line item, we must know if adjustments can be made to cover those needs.

Ms. White asked if he had seen the Internal Control Policy. Mr. Blackwell was unsure but was reminded that it was given to him. He said that he had seen it but had not had a chance to read it yet. Ms. White said that she was asking because she told Mr. Goodson about it and we are supposed to have two signatures on invoices; the Internal Control Policy has information in it regarding what can be done financially. Mr. Blackwell said that while internal control policies are not the same across organizations, theories like having two signatures are standard. He stated that he recognizes that there are policies and procedures, but he has not had a chance to ensure that they are being followed. Also, sometimes when policies and procedures are not in plain view, organizations get away from them and employees must be trained. He said that the numbers do not lie, they tell a story, so we must take the numbers and rewrite the story if it is not what we want to see.

Mr. Goodson said he and Jeff have discussed the need to use requisitions and purchase orders, which are currently not being used; however, we will start using them daily as part of the processes and procedures. Before now, BDO, who were contracted to prepare financials was there for us to call on, but they were reactionary. He said that he and Jeff had a call with BDO last week and we found a mistake in the numbers. Darrell confirmed that the numbers were not right. Having Jeff will help bring financial stability to the organization because he knows accounting and will be here daily. He said that we have our staff retreat penciled in for May 29th and we will discuss a lot of what Jeff spoke about regarding internal controls and procedures. We will talk about how we move forward financially as an organization, performance evaluations, and other topics. Mr. Goodson stated that Jeff would have financials for the next board meeting considering that he is just in his second week. Though Jeff has public housing accounting experience, it has been a while since he has used it so we registered him for a conference in May, and his trainer at the conference is Kincaid. Sherri said that she is excited that Jeff will bring the budgets out to the field so that Property Managers will know what they have and what they can spend; this is something that has been missing at the agency.

Ms. White asked if she had to go into the bank to get her name removed from the accounts and Mr. Goodson replied yes and that they could go next week if Ms. White is available. Ms. White said that she would check her emails and that she was glad to get her name off the accounts. Mr. Goodson said we have many accounts but will consolidate some and close ones that are not needed. Ms. White said that there was an account set up for MGG that they had to keep a considerable amount of money; she asked that the account not be closed. She said that she closed out one at First Horizon and put the money into Truist. Mr. Goodson said that we will be methodical before we close them out. Ms. White stated that we may have other bank accounts at other banks. Jeff said that we also have PNC Bank. Ms. White said that she thinks that there is a Wells Fargo account. She said that she remembers when we made a transition and had to go to banks and sign. She deferred to Anesha and Anesha said that she is only familiar with Truist, PNC, and First Horizon (Ms. White closed out, and a deposit was made into Truist).

4. Department Head Reports

Public Housing Report

Maintenance Workorders

Patrick reported the following:

During March, there were eighty work orders in Linden Heights, and fifty were completed. He said that there are a lot of extensive work orders, but they are from pre-REAC inspection preps, so they were not as easy to complete.

  • Linden Heights: Eighty work orders were issued and seventeen were closed out.
  • Utley Plaza: Eighty-five work orders were issued and twenty-four were closed out.
  • Foushee Heights: Forty-four work orders were issued and seven were closed out.
  • Harris Court: Twenty-one work orders were issued and six were closed out.

There was one emergency work order for Utley Plaza that was completed within 24 hours and two emergency work orders for Harris Court that were also completed within 24 hours.

Occupancy/Vacancy

Patrick reported the following:
Units that were offline last month are now back online.

  • Linden Heights: Had an 87% occupancy rate.
  • Utley Plaza: Had a 93% occupancy rate.
  • Foushee Heights: Had an 80% occupancy rate.
  • Harris Court: Had a 92% occupancy rate at the end of March, but to date, it is now 100% occupied.
  • 226 Linden: Had a 100% occupancy rate at the end of March, but we will have two evictions coming up.

Mr. Goodson asked Patrick to elaborate on the offline units and how they affect us. Patrick explained that before the units we had offline were HUD-approved and did not count against our vacancy rates, but after a certain period of not bringing them back online, HUD placed them back online, and now the unleased units will count against us, which is why the numbers look different from previous reports.; however, now they do count against us. Sherri said that HUD gives you six months to get a unit back online and the units we had offline were offline for years. Mr. Goodson said that HUD allows six months when there are major repairs that need to be done to the unit. Sherri said that we would bring an architect in because one unit has a dirt floor in it. She said that we brought in contractors who found plumbing issues and we will bring them back online soon.

Ms. White asked if there was any damage to the properties from the storm last Tuesday. Patrick said that there was no damage to our properties, but big trees were down on the roads. Sherri said that a tree fell on a unit but there was no damage to the unit, and we removed it quickly.

Sherri also said that there was a huge tree that fell in the road during another storm that knocked out power and knocked down a tree outside of the LUF office. She said that they reported it to the city and the city hired a company to cut up the tree and gave us free mulch to spruce up the outside of the office.

Ms. White asked if anyone had any questions; there were no questions. There were no additional questions

MGG

Maintenance Workorders

Danielle reported the following:

  • Matthews Court: Had four work orders issued, two completed, and two outstanding: we are waiting for supplies because we are waiting on supplies; Danielle noted that Sherri has ordered them so we should be able to get those complete. Also, we have a higher number of work orders because we are conducting annual inspections.

  • Garden Gilmore: Sixty-seven work orders were issued, were forty-four completed, and twenty-three were outstanding.

Occupancy/Vacancy

  • Matthews Ct. One vacancy but someone should be moving into the unit next week.
  • Garden-Gilmore: Nine vacancies but she will have at least two more by next week.

Sherri said that everyone has depleted their waitlist, so we have sent everyone letters, allowing them to respond. We are on our new waitlist for MGG and Public Housing has more vacant two-bedroom units, but plenty are waiting for one-bedroom units. Sherri said that we continue to advertise our waitlist to the social service department so that they are aware of our vacancies, but most of the people are looking for one-bedroom units. Patrick said that Public Housing has zero one-bedroom vacancies, and we cannot over-house people. Mr. Goodson said that's why Stewart Manor is so important. Sherri said that we will do whatever to accommodate the applicants. Danielle said that she has quite a few one-bedroom applicants on the waitlist as well.

HCV
Keren reported that the waitlist would open in mid-May because StoredTech must upgrade the server to increase space because the waitlist will be housed online. However, if an applicant is elderly or disabled, we will have a set number to call in and leave a message that they need help completing the application. to leave a She will check the voicemail daily. The voicemail will give a date and timestamp so that they do not lose their space. We will then call them back and schedule the appointment. Ms. White asked how much the server upgrade was. Mr. Goodson said that we had no choice because of the software updates; we would no longer be supported to use Microsoft without the updates. Sherri said that our software is at its capacity, so we had to upgrade it to have more space.

Sherri said that we would advertise the waitlist 5-7 business days before we put it out. Mr. Goodson added that we will advertise through social service agencies in Hamett, Lee, Cumberland, Wake, and Durham counties as well as on our website. Ms. White asked if there were any paper applications. Sherri said for the elderly and disabled we can print some. Also, Keren said that they can call in and we can help them complete the application. Sherri said that if a person cannot come to the office, we can take the application over the phone. Ms. White asked what the limit on waitlist applications would be and Sherri said 1500. Ms. White had concerns about someone calling in versus someone doing it online. Ms. White explained that you cannot get through on the phone as quickly as you can online; she asked if the phone has call waiting and how many people can call at one time and get through to voicemail. Sherri explained that the voicemail would date and timestamp the call. Ms. White said that she wants to make sure that the lines will not be busy. Mr. Goodson said that before we go live, we can call in. Sherri said that HCV will check the voicemail for this daily. Keren said that we had 1100 applicants last time the waitlist was open. Anesha will ask StoredTech about the call-in capacity.

Resident Services
Shkera reported that Goshen Medical provided medical services for families in the community and Partnership for Children and Families provided services as well. The NC Extension will be here to speak about the benefits of the Farmer's Market. We will participate in the community clean-up on Saturday, April 28th . Shkera confirmed that we have five employees to volunteer for the community clean-up. Mr. Goodson confirmed that he would be there. Ms. Gilchrist, what are the events that are taking place on the properties after hours? Shkera said that the events are hosted by Life Springs Church, which adopts a block, provides resources to fill in gaps in child placement, helps residents pay rent, etc. Ms. Gilchrist said that she did not know anything about this. Shkera said that they are operating on three of our properties monthly and the schedule will be forwarded to Linden Heights, Foushee Heights, and Garden St.

Mr. Goodson said that although we welcome churches to come and help our residents with services that they offer we must be careful that we monitor the activity and not allow churches to openly recruit. Shkera said that it is not affiliated with the church, it is a program they applied for on their own. Ms. White said that they have been coming out here for a while, but she just wants to make sure that they are not taking pictures and posting them online without their consent, especially children. Shkera said that she would make sure that they offer waivers.

Ms. White asked Mr. Ferguson if we had any tenants interested in being the resident board member; Mr. Ferguson said, no. Shkera said that she would promote it to the residents. Ms. White reiterated that the person is responsible for representing all properties.

Shkera asked for preventative resources for some of her elementary students who are vaping. Ms. White said Mr. Newby can help.

5. New Business
Ms. White asked Mr. Goodson if he would be addressing the letter that HUD sent regarding our status. Mr. Goodson said that he could if someone had the letter, but no one did.

Mr. Goodson reported that we are having monthly calls for development. Ms. White asked if we have contracts and Mr. Goodson said no, but he is working with Catherine at The Banks Law firm. Gavin has asked us for an MDA or a Master Development Agreement, which is a document that lays out the rules for business practices, and guidelines for how the partnership will conduct business. They asked if we wanted to submit one that we have used in the past, so Catherine is working on it. Mr. Goodson said that in the interim, we are having monthly discussions with the developer regarding whether Stewart Manor is reconstruction or demolition. The developer partner sent over a group last week to tour Stewart Manor to do a PNA (Physical Needs Assessment), which is an unofficial assessment; once this has been completed, we will then do an official assessment and the draft will be put out. We will determine whether financially it makes more sense to rehabilitate the property or to demolish it and once we make that determination, then we will start locating funding sources.

Ms. White asked what the cost is for the monthly meetings and Mr. Goodson said that there is no cost. The only cost that comes in now is when we call Catherine at The Banks Law firm. He said that developer pays all upfront costs which is why housing authorities bring in co-developer partners, then at the first closing, the codeveloper gets paid. He said that if we must pay the law firm before we close, we can get reimbursed at closing, but some law firms will wait until closing to get paid.

Ms. White asked why we needed TAG. Mr. Goodson said that we need TAG because they will help to negotiate the financial setup of the agreement with the co-developer. Ms. White asked why the Banks Law firm cannot help us and he said that is not what they specialize in and do not negotiate business terms. She said that Banks Law firm was the one who worked with the agency for MGG. Mr. Goodson said that was not exactly the best-structured deal. Ms. White said that she does not know who set it up or perhaps because of COVID, materials went up. Mr. Goodson said that he does not feel comfortable going into the agreement for Stewart Manor without TAG; he knows them, has worked with them, and trusts their quality of work. He said the attorney does not have the experience to do this type of deal and Jeff Lyons from TAG represents the housing authority's interest, but the co-developers work for themselves. Mr. Goodson said if we pay TAG $75,000 over a 2- or 3-year period, their goal is to make us money and their expense is worth it. Ms. White stated that she is still not sold. Ms. Aeschliman summarized TAG's relationship with the agency to foresee the best financial deal that we can get to help negotiate the financial terms and Banks would do the legalities. Ms. Aeschliman said that she thinks that Hope's concern is that we should have someone internally who can direct us on this deal. Mr. Goodson said that he has done many of these deals and our CFO is just getting back into housing and he is only good at it because he knows who he needs around him. He said that he needs to be allowed to put the team to get a new Stewart Manor completed. If there is someone from Banks Law firm who has experience doing these financial deals, he would like to meet them.

Ms. Aeschliman said that right now, the board is not familiar with TAG' s work and so they are just going off Mr. Goodson's words. Mr. Goodson said that first you must have confidence in my word and if you do not, then that is something else that we need to talk about; if you do not trust my judgment, you have the wrong person. He said that he has done many of these deals, but he had the right team around him and has never failed at these deals. Mr. Goodson said that he is even working on three deals for over sixty million dollars with one developer who submitted for this project, but they were not selected because they were not the best for the project. Ms. White asked if Robin knew about this new development opportunity. Mr. Goodson said that she knows but she did not submit for this project, and we went out twice for vendors. Ms. White said that she knows that Robin is involved with all our properties, and she helped and is still helping with MGG; even though it must be procured properly. Mr. Goodson said the process was an advertisement, which is what we did twice, and she did not respond, and she has not mentioned it to her.

Ms. White said TAG is supposed to help us construct the deal, but the deal should be constructed before we start working with the co-developer and that the deal is in writing. Mr. Goodson explained that each deal is different. He said there are various funding sources from the state and federal levels, and you must have people to represent your best interests when negotiating with the co-developer. Mr. Goodson and Mr. Blackwell gave an analogy of buying a car, if you are doing this deal, you want someone in your comer with a strong financial background. Mr. Ferguson said that TAG will be looking at it from the standpoint that someone who does not know finances would not know how to negotiate in our best interest. He said that he sees both sides and hopes that we can agree. Mr. Goodson said that he has been in deals and things like lease-up rates and negative albatross have played a part in the negotiations but if you are not a financial expert, you do not know how these things impact our revenue.

Ms. Gilchrist asked if we should ask Robin if she is interested. Mr. Goodson said that it is too late, we have TAG now, and without TAG, he would be uncomfortable with the Stewart Manor project. Mr. Goodson said that with this much money, there are some deals you do not go into without the right people on your team. Mr. Blackwell said that in Charlotte, the city came to the housing authority, the housing authority got Hope 6 funding for demolition, rebuilt the property and Bank of America matched the Hope 6 funds to be at the table, but they didn't have an organization like TAG and because the housing authority could not hold up its part of their deal, the city took it over. Ms. White said that that is what the Banks Law firm did for us in the MGG deal. Mr. Newby said that we have been burnt in the past, but we should not lose because TAG will make sure that we have the right language in the agreement to cover the interests of the housing authority, which is where his vote came from. He said that if we have issues, we can go to the source because they are knowledgeable in what we do.

Mr. Goodson said that these types of deals are complex, and Jeff Lyons knows these deals. He said that Banks Law firm does not have anyone on his team as sharp as Jeff. Mr. Newby said that both Hope and Mr. Goodson have a great point. He always wants to hear what his board Chair has to say, but he also has to trust his CEO so we need to get comfortable with the decision. Ms. Aeschliman said that she voted for it too and it is important to make sure that we have someone on the team who understands the language but being objective, she understands both sides; she said that she understands where Ms. White is coming from. Mr. Goodson said that he does not and needs Ms. White to clear up her concern because we are talking about a 40-million-dollar project and if you are concerned about paying a consultant a possible $100,000-dollar consulting fee on a 40-million-dollar deal, you are in the wrong business. Ms. White said that she is not in the wrong business, she does not get paid for this.

Mr. Goodson said that when he walked away from Fort Myers, there were more than four million dollars in their account which came from tax credit deals that Jeff Lyons consulted on. He said that Jeff Lyons would never try to be the attorney on the deal because you must have different specialists for huge deals like this. If this deal goes wrong, the housing authority may not recover from it. Ms. Gilchrist said that we may need to look at all the yeses and all the nos.

Ms. White said that she does not feel comfortable paying a $100,000 consulting fee when we cannot pay our water bill. Mr. Goodson said that one has nothing to do with the other. He said that the water bill has nothing to do with this project. Ms. White said, for example, that someone who does not make a car payment but goes to get a house is not prioritizing. The developer pays the upfront cost, but we are going to owe them. Mr. Goodson said that we will not owe the developer, they owe us. Mr. Goodson said that the developer pays upfront fees and needs us because we have the land and the presence in the community but someone who knows the language must negotiate the details of how we will make money. Mr. Blackwell said that based upon the building being a revenue stream, the financial advisor makes sure that you maximize the revenue potential from the deal. Ms. White said that they said the same thing about MGG; Mr. Goodson asked who told her that. Ms. White said the developer said that, and Mr. Goodson said that is the point he is trying to make. Ms. White said that regardless, you all can guarantee this project working, even though with MGG, we had staff turnover, and things were not uploaded, we did not lease up and were in danger of having the property removed from our management. Ms. Gilchrist asked if we had filled the staff positions.

Ms. White said that the board has voted, and her time is up in June, but she does not agree with this for the record. Mr. Goodson said, for the record, that he would not be working on this project without TAG. He said that he came here to help, not to mess up his reputation or his career. He said that he knows that we can do this project, but he must have the team that he needs. Ms. Aeschliman said that if we do whatever we think is best and it does not come out as we planned, Mr. Goodson said that is a possibility. Mr. Goodson said that if TAG is not here it is a failure for $75,000 on a forty-million-dollar project. He said that we need to be clear about the issue, is it that we do not believe in the value of the consultant or is it that we do not want to spend $100,000 for a consultant and if so, we should not be talking about doing a $40 million project. Ms. White said that she could agree with that. Ms. Aeschliman said that she understands Ms. White's concerns because in the past there were some issues. Mr. Goodson said, you cannot hold him to the past, he was not here but he knows what he brings to the table and is trying to speak on what he needs to make this deal work, but if he does not get what he needs, he will not do the project because he will not attach his name to something that will fail. Mr. Goodson said, for the record, he is not crazy about the Banks Law firm but he will work with him. He said if he does not have his team, he is not doing the project. Mr. Blackwell said that we must judge them against the industry standard that can be considered; though we do not know what it is, he must trust that Marcus does and is doing what is in the best interest of the housing authority. Mr. Goodson said that the board must have faith in him to do these deals.

Ms. White said that she is not comfortable doing development deals when we have staffing issues and considering that the financial person is just coming aboard. Though she feels that Stewart Manor is a priority, it is not the biggest priority when we are losing ROSS grants and have various staffing issues. She said it seems like when Mr. Goodson is here everything is fine but when he is not, there is always an issue, and we have emails going to the city and the board. Mr. Goodson said you cannot control that; when you let people go, they send anonymous emails. People can say what they want to say he is not concerned about the lies told in the letter; however, he did say that he would rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. Mr. Goodson said we cannot afford to allow Stewart Manor to continue to stay vacant. He said that we are addressing staffing issues and just hired the new CFO and people are already gravitating towards him.

Mr. Goodson said that he did not mean any disrespect when speaking and advised the board that he is committed to the agency even though he is not getting paid regularly and is still flying back and forth from Florida to Sanford.

Ms. Gilchrist asked why the topic was coming up again since the board had already voted on it.

Ms. White said that because HUD has deemed us a troubled housing authority we need to be working on issues that caused us to be labeled in this category first and then development.

Ms. Gilchrist said that there are things that they do not know about, and Ms. White said she sent the HUD letter to everybody.

Mr. Newby said the past is the issue because she has been in the position for a while and has seen a lot as a chairperson. He said, if we cannot take on day-to-day obligations and pay bills, then how are we supposed to take on development when we owe the city $200,000 in water bills? He said that if we cannot take care of the day-to-day operations, but we are talking about development, we are wrong and need to figure out day-to-day operations. He said that he feels like the board is getting burnt and its development should be secondary. However, if we can do both consistently, fine. Ms. Aeschliman confirmed that we are doing things to solve employee issues; Mr. Goodson replied, yes, and that is why we hired Jeff. He said that when you hire a codeveloper, they handle all the upfront costs and if we start today with the Stewart Manor project now, we will not break ground until around September of next year, so you must be able to work on parallel projects. Mr. Goodson said that we put together a thoughtful response to the mayor that we will continue to pay the water bills throughout the year. Ms. White said that we put in the agreement letter deals that are not guaranteed to close. Mr. Goodson said that if the plan falls through, we must go with another plan. Mr. Newby asked if we have a contingency plan if the plan that we have falls through. Mr. Goodson said the only deal that may not come through is the Garden St. deal; also, there are other cash events that he did not commit as part of the payment arrangement.

Dr. Wicker asked what the three cash events are. Mr. Goodson cited the following as the cash events: two shortfall fundings, and one release of the restrictive covenant. Ms. White asked if the two shortfalls were already allocated in the budget; Mr. Goodson replied, no and he did not commit all the money coming from the shortfalls, only a percent of it; however, if Garden St. does not come through, we could use most of the shortfall funds. Mr. Goodson said that when he got the email about a week ago, he had a limited amount of time to respond. Ms. White said it was given at the end of March. Mr. Blackwell said that we do not have budgetary reporting, you cannot say that we do not have the money to pay the bills. It was not that it could not be paid, it was not paid because certain policies and procedures have not been followed for months. Mr. Blackwell said that we have funds that are allocated for restricted use; the bills can be paid but there is some apprehension about where the bills should be paid from. It's not money that we're making, it's about funding and accountability. Mr. Blackwell is using the last audit to determine where we are and where we need to go and once we can, we must go back and reconcile accounts, which will take some time. He said the issue now is that it is possible that we can pay the bills, but when we have units offline, or rents are not collected, it creates a problem. Ms. White asked if we could pay the water bill today and if we had the money or not. Mr. Blackwell asked in what line item he would pay for it, and Ms. White said, pick one. Mr. Blackwell said that this is part of the problem, and he is new enough to be objective, but it seems like people in the room have lost their objectivity. He said that money has been mismanaged, not lost. Mr. Newby said that he wanted to hear about who was not paying the bills; he said that there was a process issue. He said that if someone's job is to pay bills, what process is it where someone can move that money and how do we not get into this problem again?

Mr. Goodson said that since he arrived in 2022, we have only had two accounting clerks running the accounting department. He said that with the water bill, you can see where the bill was being paid and then, it abruptly stopped being paid. He said that he knew nothing of this. Ms. White said that Mr. Goodson told her that he and Hal had spoken about the water bill and Mr. Goodson said not to this extent. Ms. White said, day-to-day operations. Mr. Goodson said that it is not day-to-day operations, but it is people who are not being honest about their job and they are trying to shipwreck us. He said that is why he is bringing in his people. Ms. White said that she received an anonymous email telling her about the water bill. Dr. Wicker said it was about a month ago. Ms. White said she informed Mr. Goodson about it. Sherri asked, why would they send you an anonymous email, but not send it to him. Ms. White said I am easy to talk to, Sherri said, I do not know. Ms. White said, "I don't know how to respond to that."

Mr. Goodson also stated, in one of the anonymous emails, someone stated that he told the staff not to talk to the board. Instead, he has asked staff to come to him first and allow him the opportunity to try to fix the problem first. He said all the backstabbing is wrong and as it pertains to the board, you should not accept that. If you are not going to come face forward, all they are doing is trying to reach havoc. Some of what Ms. White shared with him is true so he knows that it is internal and he will stand up and say that he said it. He said that he was going to tell the board if he had done something, even if it was not to make the right decision. When he told the board He said that he went to the city council meeting in case anything had to talk to him about because he had nothing to hide. He said that.

Ms. Gilchrist said that everyone thinks that they know what is going on until they are in the position. Ms. Gilchrist said we just need to fix the water bill. Mr. Goodson said he hopes the board believes that we can turn this around and that he would leave if he did not. Mr. Godson said that we are bringing in good people and we can turn this around. Mr. Goodson said that the anonymous stuff that we are getting is bull crap and they are just mad at him. Ms. Aeschliman said that staffing issues and the water bill issues are being resolved and we do need to get moving on Stewart Manor because the building will just deteriorate. Mr. Goodson said that people are breaking in every day and so it is a liability. She said that we need to tackle all these issues. Mr. Newby said that we need to get a plan of action to make sure all outstanding bills are paid. Mr. Goodson said that BDO were consultants, they were reactive and not proactive, but now we have Jeff who is here from day to day. Mr. Newby asked Jeff how long he needed to complete the things that he had assessed that needed to be done. Mr. Blackwell said that the numbers tell the story, and everything must be transparent and set a personal goal of June 30, 2024, but September 30, 2024, when he should be able to conclude his discovery. Mr. Newby asked how long it would take to look at the bill issues and have a plan of action; Mr. Blackwell said by the beginning of June, he should know what has been done and what needs to be done. He must find out what happened because he will then know what needs to happen moving forward but informs the board that there will be a period of reconciliation that may be a lengthy process. Mr. Newby said that he is just asking for a plan so that we can get back to a great place and that we must know our issues. Mr. Blackwell said that to give the board what is needed, he will have to start with budget requests, budget awards, operating budget, accounting, and reporting. Mr. Newby said that he is going on his second term, which is about six years, and the urgency is to turn this thing around before he is no longer a part of the board. Mr. Goodson said that they went after the Hope 6 three times and got it the final time, but we do not have to be stressed about cash because money can come from other places. The money from Banks comes at closing but TAG gets paid incrementally.

Ms. White asked someone to read the proposed motion to allow for the sale and/or destruction of property listed on page 23. Dr. Wicker made the motion; Ms. Gilchrist and Mr. Newby seconded the motion. All were in favor; the motion passed unanimously.

Mr. Goodson said that someone already approached Sherri about purchasing the vans for $1000 each.

6. Commissioners' Comments
No additional comments

7. Public Comments
There were no public comments.

8. Closed Session
Ms. White said that the board would meet in the next two weeks to have a special meeting.

9. Adjournment
Dr. Wicker made the motion to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Newby seconded the motion; all were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. The board meeting adjourned at 8:13 pm.

Marcus D. Goodson