SHA September 23, 2024 Board of Commissioners Meeting Minutes

MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE
SANFORD HOUSING AUTHORITY
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 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, September 23, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. at the SHA Central Office, 317 Chatham Street, Sanford, NC 27330. Notice of this meeting was duly posted.

Ms. White called the meeting to order at 6:01 pm.

1. Attendance

Present

Commissioner White
Commissioner Sinnamon
Commissioner Dalrymple
Commissioner Aeschliman
Commissioner Wicker (Present via phone due to Dr. Wicker having an emergency that caused her not to be physically at the meeting). Ms. White said that the board needs to eventually address such situations in the bylaws. With board approval, Ms. White put Dr. Wicker on speakerphone so that she could participate in the board meeting.

Absent

Commissioner Newby
Commissioner Britton

2. Adoption of Minutes
Ms. White asked for someone to make a motion to adopt the board minutes from the August 26th regular board meeting. Ms. Aeschliman made the motion; Ms. Sinnamon seconded the motion. All were in favor; the motion passed unanimously.

Ms. White said that the board would adjust the agenda because there is a public comment. Ms. White explained to Ms. Robin Williams that she had 3 minutes to give her public comment. Ms. Williams said that she did not have a public comment, but just came to the meeting. Ms. White explained that with the public comments, you get 3 minutes to speak, she as the board chair cannot respond to her, but she will receive a response in letter form.

3. RAD/LIHTC Vacancy & Maintenance Reports

Vacancy Report

Matthews Court Vacancy Report
Ninety-two percent occupied.
Garden-Gilmore Vacancy Report
Eighty-one percent are occupied.
For an average of 85%.

Ms. White asked if the reason that we have twenty-four vacancies was due to needing work done or not having people ready to move in and Sherri said both. Sherri said that we need work done on them and the manager must schedule the inspections for the ones that work has been done, also, they must have ready files, in which they have ample ready files because Section 8 makes the files ready now. She said that we took it from Property Management because they were taking too long and gave it to Section 8 and after they make the file ready, they sent the file over. Once the management staff lets Section 8 know that there is a vacancy, they send over five for one vacancy to make sure that the vacancy gets covered. Sherri said that some units need repairs, but she cannot get what they need to be repaired, and they cannot be inspected until they are repaired. Two move-ins at Garden Gilmore, and four files ready, but we cannot get the unit done yet. She said that some need doors or appliances, but hopefully, we will be able to get them this Wednesday because they are ordered and on hold. She said that having twenty-eight vacancies is not good, especially because we rely on the revenue from the rents to pay bills. Ms. White said that Matthews Court has one bedrooms, and they are in demand. Sherri said that it is uncommon for Matthews Court to have vacancies, but we had about two people who died and an eviction. Sherri said that those units are ready though.

Maintenance Report

Work Orders
Matthews Court: There were seven work orders issued, and five were completed; leaving 2 outstanding at the end of the month. There was an average of 14 days to complete the work orders. There were two emergency work orders issued, and both were completed within 24 hours.

Garden-Gilmore
There were forty work orders issued, and twenty-eight were completed, leaving twelve outstanding at the end of the month. There was an average of 7 days to complete the work orders. There were ten emergency work orders issued, and all were completed within 24 hours.

Ms. Dalrymple asked about a tree that had fallen and is on the road; the tree needs to be cleaned up. She said that there was another tree that had fallen and had caution tape around it, but the issue needs to be addressed and looked at more closely. Sherri asked for the location and Ms. Dalrymple responded, "When you first turn onto Garden Street." She said that she took some pictures. Ms. White asked if there was a water problem in that area and Sherri said we had a tree that came down during the last storm and that tree was removed last Friday because it was leaning against a building. Ms. Dalrymple said that she saw this tree yesterday and it looks like it is rotting, but she is not a tree expert.

4. Public Housing Vacancy Report and Maintenance Reports

Vacancy Report

Linden Heights: 93% occupied.
Utley Plaza: 91% occupied.
Foushee Heights: 95% occupied.
Harris Court: 92% occupied.
226 Linden Heights: 100% occupied.

Sherri stated that all the vacancies in public housing are due to supplies that we do not have and there are two units offline at Linden for rehab. She said that Friday was the closing day for the bids so she will hopefully have a contract done by Wednesday to get the two units done and to put them back online. She has a contract out for three other units, one at Linden and two at Harris, which need a substantial amount of work done to them. She said these should be easily done because we can get the money from Capital Funds. She said, once we purchase the stuff, we can pay the contractor right away. Ms. White asked if the contractors were local. Sherri said yes and it is important to note that these vendors need to be paid immediately because if they are not, some of them are not able to get payroll.

Public Housing Maintenance Report
Linden: twelve work orders were issued, nine were completed, leaving three were left over at the end of the month. She explained what she meant by the end of the month, the work orders got done, but we must have a cut off. There were no emergency work orders. Eighty dollars was charged to tenants for repairs. average days for completion. Four emergency work orders; all completed within HUD's mandated 24-hour completion period. Forty dollars was charged to a tenant for repairs.

Utley: Fourteen work orders issued, twelve completed, leaving two outstanding work orders and one emergency work order completed within 24 hours.

Foushee: Eleven work orders issued, seven completed leaving four; two emergency work orders completed within 24 hours.

Harris Court: Fifteen work orders; eleven completed and four outstanding, one emergency work order completed within 24 hours.

226 Linden had one emergency work order which was completed.

Sherri said that when some work orders are closed out, it is because HUD allows you to close a work order if you are waiting on parts, the days do not add up and once you receive the parts, you reopen the work order. She said that maintenance is focusing on Harris Court right now because we have a REAC inspection this week. Ms. White asked about the plumbing issues at Harris Court and Sherri said that Harris Court has all types of issues from plumbing to mold. She said, we just moved a lady out due to mold. She said that there were no visible signs of mold but because the lady kept complaining, she instructed the property manager to get a professional company to assess the unit there was mold found so we transferred the lady to another unit and will issue her a Section 8 voucher so she can find somewhere else to stay, which is what she wants. Sherri said that the mold is not visible, we have hired a company to come out and test the unit, and the test results came back therefore, we have asked the company to give us a quote to do mold remediation. Ms. White asked, since it is in one apartment, is it in the one unit beside this unit; Ms. Aeschliman said, or the other surrounding units? Sherri said that is the concern that we had with the units, especially the duplexes. She is concerned because we do not have anywhere to transfer some of the tenants who are living in some questionable conditions so some of the units were being worked on while people are still in them. We did get the roofs taken care of and she does not know why people were living in such conditions, but we did something about it when we found out about it.

5. Board Elections
Ms. White said that the board was supposed to have elections tonight, but there were only 4 board members present. She asked if the board members present wanted to vote tonight or hold off until the next board meeting. Ms. Dalrymple said that she was fine with whatever the rest of the board members wanted to do. Ms. White said that the bylaws say that the board is supposed to have elections in September. Ms. White asked Dr. Wicker her thoughts and Ms. White said that she was bringing up that we could hold off because everyone was present. Ms. White said that she just needed the board's decision about elections. It was asked if the other two people would be here for the October meeting and Ms. White said that she didn't know. Ms. Dalrymple said that the board should go ahead and do the elections. Ms. Sinnamon said that she would like to wait until the next election. Ms. White said that the board was made aware that elections would take place today during the meeting held on September 16th. Ms. White said that she forgot.

6. Election Results
Nominations for Vice Chair:
Ms. Dalrymple nominated William Newby; he received a total of three votes.
Ms. White nominated Erin Britton for Vice Chair and Dr. Wicker voted for Erin. Mr. Newby won the election, receiving three votes to Erin's two votes.

Ms. Aeschliman asked where Erin was and said that she had not seen her.

Mr. Goodson asked for nominations for Chairperson: Ms. Dalrymple nominated Ms. White for Chair; all were in favor.

7. Financial Report
Jeff gave the board a copy of each bank account's starting and ending balances. He said that we only write checks out of one account, the SHA Operating account. We transfer rent account monies over to pay the bill. The Housing Assistance Program account, but the other accounts do not have a lot of activity and may be restrictive accounts. He mentioned the security deposit account which is restricted and only comes down when someone moves out and we refund the account. Also, the FSS Public Housing account is for the FSS program funding and can only be used for training and salaries. The FSS escrow account is for FSS and can only be used when they are approved to move the money or when they graduate from the program. Ms. White asked about the two FSS accounts and Jeff said that Shkera handles FSS but one is for public housing and the other one is for tax credit. Ms. White said that the previous Resident Services person used to handle the accounts when they had to purchase items and/or for events. Sherri said that if we previously had a Resident Council that was recognized by HUD, they received a per-door dollar amount and that is what they used to buy items for their program and events. Ms. White said that each group had a set amount of money.

Jeffrey reiterated that accounts like the HAP is an account where we are a conduit for money to be paid out. Ms. White explained that the HAP account is the account that we pay our landlords; HUD gives us a portion of the money to pay the landlord for people who rent homes. Jeff said that the account ending in 4452 is the Operating Account. Ms. White asked if the rent account was only public housing and Jeff said yes. Ms. White said that some of the accounts for MGG are accounts where we had to put reserves. She said that she was not sure how much we had to put up for the RAD conversion to be complete. He explained that CCSD is the development arm. Garden-Gilmore Construction is still carrying a small balance and there have been no transactions. Matthews Court construction account has been empty since he has been there. He said that Matthews Court Garden-Gilmore Operating and Matthews Court Garden Gilmore LLC. Ms. White said she knows fees that were paid out by the housing authority so we could use the money to cover expenses if we follow the paper trail because that is where the developer fees were going.

When we converted properties to RAD, Matthews Court, Garden, and Gilmore. She explained that RAD is a voucher program. Instead of hiring an outside developer, the CEO at the time thought it would be a good idea if we were the developer and it may have been, but then COVID hit. Ms. White said that the price of materials went up, people were working from home, and we lost money because we could not get it converted in the time frame that the investors gave us to close it out. Mr. Goodson said that it is called a negative adjustment. Ms. Aeschliman said, there is no way that we could have predicted COVID.

Jeff said that most of our funding is from HUD which is why we get as much of the public funds and allocate them appropriately. Jeff said that we just received the tax returns for the Matthews, Garden, and Gilmore to get beginning balances. We got the public housing returns, but they were for the prior year, and they are currently completing the year that we just ended. He said that this is important to him because we are now using a different software system and so some conversion must take place. He said that he is trying not to go back and must recreate the items and from the time that he first got here, he has reiterated that he must have good beginning balances.

He said looking in the new system from March until now, it shows that we are paying bills, but the problem is that some of the bills that we are invoicing were from a prior year, so we are using current funding to pay prior year invoices and that is an issue that is adding to some of the constraints as an authority. He hopes to be able to illustrate that better in the next board meeting because the end of the fiscal year is coming up and by then he will have all the transactions for the entire year. Jeff said that it is interesting that he is just getting good starting balances and now he can get good starting balances. Also, some bills were paid through a company's website but were not entered into the accounting system, so he must account for those as well by compiling information from the bank statements. When he pulls the details for the year, he will match it up with the bank statements, but there may be 20 to 30 transactions that may have been paid out of the bank account but were never logged into the accounting system, these will be captured during the reconciliation process, which was not happening. Jeff said he wants to give the board what they are supposed to have, but he wants to make sure that he gives accurate numbers and now he feels confident that what he gives will be as complete as the transactions that he has.

Ms. Dalrymple asked about the three months of missing transactions that Jeff spoke about being reconciled. Jeff said that he anticipates having it reconciled by October. Jeff said that we have also been in the middle of two audits, for one audit we were able to get everything that the auditors needed, but for the other one, we could not find some of the documentation because some may be in the old building that is infested with mold. He said that we are working backward because everything is in the bank accounts but may not be in the accounting system. Ms. Dalrymple said that Jeff did not answer her question and if it is not documented, it never happened. She said that if she works from home, her transactions are in the system so if she is not there someone else can see what she completed. Jeff said that you must reconcile the information from the banking system with the information from the accounting system and that every transaction is in the banking system.

He said as far as taxes are concerned, they are looking for a document that caused the transaction; however, some of these documents are between two buildings. Ms. Dalrymple said, but if you do not have the document, you cannot say that it is filed. Jeff said that the documents are between two office buildings. He said that the transactions were triggered by a document that we may or may not have, we are at times asking the companies to reproduce the source documents. Ms. Dalrymple said that if you do not have it, it did not happen. Jeff said that in discovery he has recreated the document by in some cases asking the vendor for a copy of the invoices. He said, for example, he has a transaction that was sent to a bank but has no paper documentation, but he has the bank transaction. He has investigated the transaction and is in the final step of investigation which is to do a bank subpoena to see who owns or owned the account that received the funds that should have been paid to Roto-Rooter. We will also have a list of good outstanding balances in October.

Mr. Goodson said that when he brought Jeff and Sherri in, he asked them to break their departments down to the foundation and build it back up. He said that some of the information that is in writing, we cannot put our hands on because it has been damaged or destroyed due to mold. Also, we were using another software, and they have timed us out of the accounting system so therefore, a lot of patience is needed to get this agency back on track. He said that Jeff and Sherri were almost there.

Ms. Dalrymple asked what we are doing to prevent this from happening in the future. Ms. White said that the previous administration was supposed to start having it uploaded into a system where it could be retrieved. Sherri said that some of us have gone back to the old building along with others to look for these documents but because there was no filing system, we were not able to find them. She said that previously, the documents were in a box, which is not a filing system. She said that we had these file cabinets, but they were empty, and the boxes were full of papers. Sherri said that the maintenance of files was not done in any department. Ms. Aeschliman said that we want to make sure that this does not continue to happen and that we have proof that there are mistakes from the past that are not repeated. Mr. Goodson said that he wants to make sure that the board knows that we are working hard to get this information together and do not want to give them wrong information so it may look like, to the board, that we are not doing anything to fix the issues, but we are. Multiple board members responded with "No."

Ms. White asked Jeff if the two operating accounts for Matthews Court and Garden Gilmore are rent collection accounts and if we could use the money from those accounts for repairs. Jeff said yes and that is where most of their funding goes. Jeff said that they also have mortgage payments that go out monthly as well from that account. He said that in the accounting detail when we enter invoices for MGG, we then transfer funds from their accounts to the General Operating account to pay their portion of the invoice.

Ms. White asked if we have a current good list for outstanding balances because Dr. Wicker wanted to know. He said that we have invoiced everything and yes, we do have it. He said that when she left, there were boxes of invoices that had not been entered into the system, so when you would go into the system, for items that need to be paid, you would only have gotten the ones that are in the system, which are not everything outstanding. Jeff said that our objective was to get everything invoiced and try to stay current. He said that is why in some cases, he knew that the first list that he gave to the board was inaccurate because he called some vendors who said that we did not owe them. He said that he told Anesha that we must get all invoices in the system and last week we finally got all invoices in the system. He said that we are to date with the City of Sanford; he said that he is caught up with the payment plan with the City of Sanford. Mr. Goodson said, also remember that the monthly bills continue to come as well. Jeff said that also, some water bills were also being paid down.

Ms. White said that sometimes we were making payments, but we were not telling them where to apply the payments. Jeff said yes, we have discovered that with some other vendors, and every day, we are discovering something else. He said that like Pitney Bowes has two bills. Ms. Dalrymple said that you must watch Pitney Bowes, she has worked with them, and they can be shady. Jeff said that we are learning this information as we go. Jeff said that he could produce the items to be paid. Ms. Aeschliman said that it would be good to have a copy so that we can see what is going on. Jeff said that he and Anesha discovered that it took Gabby so long because she was invoicing each individual unit for say Duke Energy, but we are now batching those payments to pay the whole property, and we give the company the details of how to apply the payment.

Ms. White asked why or how people in the financial departments through different means like ACH, checks, credit cards, etc. Jeff said it depends on the vendor and some prefer ACH or checks over other methods. He said that for example, more of the local vendors want a physical check, but some of the larger companies prefer direct deposit. Ms. White said that it seems confusing though because it is a lot to keep up with. Jeff said that some people are not set up for direct deposit though. Ms. White said that maybe we should create a policy to let vendors know how we will issue payments so that it is not so hard. Dr. Wicker said thank you! Ms. White asked if he figured out where the Roto-Rooter went, and Jeff said that he just needed to find out the account holder's name; he is still within the Statutes of Limitations.

8. HCV-Section 8
Page 15: For the new members, VASH, we do not control those vouchers, we manage them for the VA, so we can't do anything about whether they lease up or not; the numbers do not count against us on our SEMAP score. Ms. White reiterated that there are 126 people with vouchers and 126 people looking for a place to live and Sherri said yes, between Lee and Harnett County. She said as of August, we are at 101% utilization and did not issue any vouchers during September because we were already over the utilization rate in September, it will bring it back down to 100%. She said that she would rather be over than under and lose points on SEMAP. Ms. White asked if there were any questions. There were no questions.

9. Resident Services Report
Mr. Goodson met with Shkera and the dates for National Night Out have changed so our date for National Night Out is this Saturday from 12:00 pm until 2:00 pm at Garden Street and Clark Circle. They will block off the circle, according to Shkera, they rescheduled it based on the city's big event. Mr. Ferguson said that Saturday will be for the neighborhoods and Tuesday, October 1st will be the one that the city is having; it starts at 6:00 pm. Mr. Goodson said that we will have the firetrucks and police vans at the event. Also, Macedonia Church will provide hot dogs; Domino's pizza will be provided, and we will have a DJ. Two gift cards for $25 each. All the kids will get something. Mountanaire will give out chicken dinners with sides for about 8. Ms. White asked if we would provide transportation for the other tenants and what made her pick Clark Circle. Mr. Goodson said when he was here previously, that is where they had a huge one, but he is not sure why she chose Clark. Mr. Ferguson went down the list for the community National Night Out events so if they cannot go to the one on Clark Circle, they should be able to get to one of the other locations. Ms. Dalrymple asked if Shkera needed any help and said that she would attend the event. Mr. Ferguson said that he would send everyone the National Night Out

Mr. Goodson said about the first Sunday meeting resident council letter, that Shkera said that it must have been a typo that she did not catch.

He said that she's given out Boys and Girls, online financial literacy to help tenants. He said that there are some other things like housekeeping events that we need to get Shkera involved in.

Mr. Goodson said that the 8609s were completed.

Ms. White said that she asked Mr. Goodson to get the board members iPads, and the board approved it. The iPads have been ordered. He said that he would make sure that they give the board an iPad cover and screen protector when they receive the I-pads.

Mr. Ferguson said that he spoke with Sherri and Mr. Goodson regarding getting someone with the Sanford Police Department and Major Jamie Thomas, who is a good friend of his, said whenever we want an officer to speak with, he can speak with us regarding crime at the properties. Sherri said that she would like to set up a meeting with him and the managers; Mr. Ferguson said that he would set it up. He said the agency should get the mayor involved to get the crime under control throughout the apartments. Ms. White said that we used to have a crime task force. Mr. Ferguson said that we used to have community policing where their only job was to walk around in all the housing projects; their hours were sporadic so that people would not know when they were going to be around, but everyone knew them. Ms. White said that we need to bring back this committee. Sherri said that the managers are trying but we cannot get the police department out here and that is why she asked Mr. Ferguson for help.

10. New Business

Action Item 1: Collection Write-Offs. Ms. White explained that this is money that we can write off because it's for people who have left without paying their rent also if someone passed away and left a balance, we would not collect from an estate. Ms. White said that we usually do write-offs monthly, Sherri said that before she started doing them quarterly, they were not done for two years, but she can start doing them monthly. Ms. White said, whatever the HUD guidelines say. Ms. White asked for someone to make a motion to approve the write-off amount of $2692.36 for public housing. Ms. Dalrymple moved to approve the motion; Ms. Aeschliman seconded. All were in favor, the motion passed unanimously.

Action Item 2:

11. Commissioners' Comments
There were no additional comments.

12. Public Comments
There were no public comments.

13. Closed Session
There was no closed session.

14. Adjournment
Ms. Dalrymple made the motion to adjourn. Ms. Sinnamon seconded; all were in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 7:14 pm.

Marcus D. Goodson