1 1 HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF NEWARK 2 NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 3 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021 4 x--------------------------------x 5 IN THE MATTER OF: * 6 THE REGULAR MEETING * TRANSCRIPT 7 OF THE HOUSING AUTHORITY * OF 8 OF THE CITY OF NEWARK * PROCEEDINGS 9 Commencing at 5:00 p.m. via Zoom * 10 x--------------------------------x 11 HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF NEWARK 12 500 BROAD STREET 13 NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 14 B E F O R E: 15 HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF NEWARK 16 EDDIE OSBORNE, President 17 MARTINIQUE COSTA, Commissioner 18 FAUSTO BAEZ, Commissioner 19 NORMA GONZALEZ, Commissioner 20 BRIAN LOGAN, Commissioner 21 ALIF MUHAMMAD, Commissioner 22 23 24 ANTHONY HOFMANN, C.C.R. 25 LICENSE NO. XIO1854 2 1 PROFESSIONAL STAFF: 2 3 VICTOR CIRILO, Executive Director 4 KATIA OLIVEIRA, Executive Assistant 5 ELIO MENA, Counsel 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 I N D E X 2 PAGE 3 Opening Statement 4 4 Public Participation 5 By: Kim Barnes 5 6 By: Anna Bell 12 7 By: Myrna Brown 16 8 By: Dedria Smallwood 20 9 10 Items for Approval 29 11 12 RESOLUTIONS PAGE 13 H-1 through H-13 31 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: It is now 2 5:00 o'clock. This meeting will now be called to 3 order. 4 Mr. Chairman, can I get a reading of 5 the Open Public Meetings Act. 6 MR. CIRILO: As required by NJSA 7 10:4-6 known as the Open Public Meetings Act, notice 8 of this meeting was provided in the following 9 manner. On December 30, 2020 notice of this meeting 10 specifying the date, time and location was 11 transmitted to the Star Ledger, El Nuevo Coqui and 12 to the Clerk of the City of Newark. 13 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can we get a roll 14 call. 15 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Logan. 16 Commissioner Brian Logan. 17 Commissioner Fausto Baez. 18 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Present. 19 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Martinique 20 Costa. 21 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Here. 22 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Norma 23 Gonzalez. 24 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Present. 25 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Alif 5 1 Muhammad. 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Here. 3 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Eddie Osborne. 4 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Present. 5 MR. CIRILO: Mr. Chairman, we have a 6 quorum. 7 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: We are now going to 8 move to the public speakers. Each speaker has five 9 minutes to speak. 10 MR. CIRILO: Mr. Chairman, we have a 11 list of speakers. Just for the record, we have 12 distributed a speakers update list so that moving 13 forward we have updates on all the items that are 14 presented before us. 15 The first speaker, Mr. Chairman, is 16 Ms. Kim Barnes. 17 MS. BARNES: Good evening, everyone. 18 Kim Barnes, 147 Riverside Court. I brought a packet 19 this evening because I'm totally, totally 20 unsatisfied with the issues and concerns that I had 21 brought before this Board. The refrigerator has 22 been abated, but I brought pictures to let you see 23 that how it was handled. I will give y'all these 24 things. I also am highly upset with the way they 25 did the treatment for the mices. I am going to pass 6 1 this stuff out to you guys so y'all can see the 2 holes are still there. I have a great -- 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You only have 4 one of these? 5 MS. BARNES: Yeah, and I am a diabetic 6 so now it is no longer business, it is personal 7 because I am a diabetic and the fact that I have 8 medication that has to be refrigerated and it took 9 too long. I also have in there the receipts for the 10 food that I had lost last month and my thing is I am 11 going to June, July and August, but I am not eating 12 September's and October's money that I had spent 13 because my son was still in the household and so was 14 my grandson was still in the house at that time. 15 But my thing is and I still haven't 16 met with Khalif Mohammad -- I mean Khalif Thomas. I 17 haven't met with him either. My thing is that I 18 hate to be ignored. Here's the rest of the receipts 19 for the stuff and I want this to be personally noted 20 in the record that I am somebody's mother, 21 somebody's grandmother, somebody's great 22 grandmother. Y'all don't want nobody to be treated 23 that way. NHA is going to the dogs. Y'all becoming 24 slumlords. That is exactly what happened, y'all 25 becoming slumlords and my thing is I was told when I 7 1 held my rent for this month that I was in violation 2 of the lease, but let me say this. Y'all in 3 violation of my tenant rights of health, safety and 4 sanitary. I have the right to hold my rent when I 5 am not receiving the service that I'm supposed to 6 get. When you go to the store, you want your 7 service rendered and that is the same thing I want. 8 Y'all ain't never had no problem out of me as long 9 as I have been a tenant here in Newark Housing 10 Authority. My rent was always paid. My public 11 service has always been current and still current to 12 this day. Yes, I do stuff for my tenants. 13 My tenants around there complaining 14 about the appliances that they are not getting. The 15 manager told them they are not getting it because it 16 is for the new residents. Come on now, these 17 residents have lived there for a certain length of 18 time over -- and another letter that I got stating 19 to me that the appliances is on an expiration date. 20 These people have lived there like I live there and 21 my thing is if these things last ten to fifteen 22 years, if you got there in 2000 and we are 2021, it 23 is time for a new refrigerator and stove. These 24 people are coming at me. So I have to come at you 25 guys because I have to hold y'all accountable just 8 1 like they hold me accountable to be their voice for 2 them. Come on now, y'all got to get it together. 3 Then with Khalif Thomas, my thing is 4 we set up a meeting to walk the site. Yes, Ms. 5 Nance is the manager of that site, but she don't 6 live there, we do. There are certain things she 7 don't see just like the utility boxes that houses 8 the Public Service and cable. Them boxes was turned 9 over. They are now duct taped so what do we do to 10 fix that, come on. It is an upkeep. Y'all are 11 landlords. You are supposed to make sure your 12 property is up-to-date. Every three years it is 13 supposed to be up to code, come on. 14 I also put in there my degrees, my 15 bachelor for science, a master's in national 16 organizational leadership. I got three classes to 17 go before I have a Ph.D., a Doctorate, yes, three 18 classes. So I know what I am talking about when I 19 come before you guys. And a non-profit because that 20 is what I am majoring in, non-profit management. 21 Thank you so much. And here's the 22 medication that I could not get done. Have a good 23 evening. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Ms. Barnes, we 25 are really, really, really trying to really make you 9 1 satisfied. They gave us a list here of things they 2 had did for you. They said that Director Thomas is 3 going to forward an e-mail to you and walk the 4 grounds with you and he's right behind you. It said 5 that you did receive the refrigerator seal is 6 damaged. 7 MS. BARNES: I did get the 8 refrigerator. I got a brand new refrigerator. That 9 issue has been abated. 10 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: That is great. 11 We are still checking on the maintenance staff, the 12 ratio at the site. We have a meeting set up with 13 the company representative, not Section 8 being 14 answered. We were speaking to the director of 15 security. These dumpsters will be soon. That was 16 just some of the things and I was really complaining 17 because me and you are on a special project. 18 MS. BARNES: I got to talk to you 19 afterwards. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: And I said I 21 have to be with you sometimes a lot more than 22 everybody else and I didn't want to hear it and 23 Pastor Rouse was promising me. I didn't understand 24 what is wrong. 25 MS. BARNES: There is a hole where the 10 1 mice ate through the wall. 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: They fixed 3 that, right, Pastor? 4 MS. BARNES: They ate back through it. 5 It goes from my closet to that room. 6 MR. ROUSE: They fixed it, but as she 7 said, the mice ate back through it. 8 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Ms. Gonzalez said 9 she wants to be part of that walk through too. 10 COMMISSIONER COSTA: They ate through 11 the same hole? 12 MR. ROUSE: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER COSTA: They can't use 14 old fashion -- 15 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Brillo. 16 MR. ROUSE: They are coming back to do 17 that again. A part of this whole issue is not just 18 Ms. Barnes' unit. It is the whole row that they 19 need to treat and there is a plan already in place 20 because the whole row and because of the fact that 21 we have people who do not upkeep their house the way 22 they should and they also have garbage that they are 23 placing in front and in back instead of going to the 24 dumpsters which they have at Riverside Villa and 25 those people have been ceased over and over, but 11 1 they have not been obedient. So we are treating the 2 entire row that her unit is on because that is the 3 issue and, of course, they are traveling because Ms. 4 Barnes never had this issue before until we have new 5 tenants of course. So they are bringing some 6 friends with them that wasn't there before. So we 7 are treating the whole row and Darren has been down 8 there and his team has been down there and they did 9 come last week. They came unannounced because they 10 came because they needed to do some prestuff before 11 they really do the treatment, but it is being taken 12 care of. The problem issue is we have the whole row 13 and we have some people that are untidy and their 14 units are a mess. 15 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Really only 16 two situations. You got the mice and we got Khalif 17 and then she'll be satisfied. 18 MS. BARNES: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: There he is 20 right here. 21 MS. BARNES: He needs to do the whole 22 complex. I need him to do the whole thing. 23 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You ain't got 24 to e-mail him before you go tap him. He's a good 25 guy. 12 1 MS. BARNES: Let him know Ms. Barnes 2 will be there. He don't know about Ms. Barnes. 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: He's learning. 4 MR. ROUSE: We can put it on the 5 record that the date is November 14 for the first 6 full treatment of the whole row, big treatment and 7 the 24th is the second treatment for the whole row. 8 COMMISSIONER COSTA: When are they 9 going to plug the holes? 10 MR. ROUSE: The holes are going to be 11 plugged. It was done by one of our BMRs which Ms. 12 Barnes recommended to come in and do it, but that 13 person actually has not been at work all this time. 14 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Next speaker. 15 MR. CIRILO: The next speaker we have 16 on the list, Mr. Chairman, is Anna Bell, 839 17 Frelinghuysen Avenue. 18 MS. BELL: Hello. 19 MR. CIRILO: Good evening. We can 20 hear you. 21 MS. BELL: Can you guys hear me? 22 MR. CIRILO: Yes, we can. 23 MS. BELL: I would really, really like 24 to know why I have been waiting about my tub and 25 this isn't a new issue. This is an old issue and 13 1 management and Ms. Rouse sent me e-mails getting in 2 touch with the contractor and they do not give you a 3 new tub. Now, first and foremost please stop 4 telling me that because Kretchmer there is bathrooms 5 down there people are getting new tubs. I have been 6 here since 2008. The tub is killing me. The glaze 7 is like paint. I have to put -- what do you call 8 it -- a mat or something in there in order to use my 9 tub. I cannot clean my tub because, guess what, the 10 glaze is coming off like paint. 11 Also, we have asked our manager about 12 our hallways, our garbage shoot and she tells us she 13 is short-staffed. How long is she going to be 14 short-staffed and we can't get nothing done. That's 15 what she tells us all the time is that she's 16 short-staffed. We also ask if the staff can help us 17 get our TA office done because we are three women 18 and one man. There is furniture in there that needs 19 to come out because it used to be a cat room, the 20 cat sprayed on all the upholstery, furniture, 21 however you want to put it. We are three women and 22 one man and we cannot take that stuff out of there 23 and all she keeps telling me is she's short-staffed. 24 We cannot get our TA up and running because it 25 smells like cat. 14 1 That's pretty much it. 2 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Thank you, Ms. Anna 3 Bell. 4 MS. BELL: They are letting the people 5 in at night. I was on the phone this morning with 6 Mr. Broner and I opened the door and there is a 7 flier on my door. We need to have no solicitors in 8 this building because they are letting them in at 9 any time in the evening also and they are knocking 10 on these seniors doors and they are scared. So we 11 need a no soliciting thing put up or let your guards 12 know that they can't come in the building. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Ms. Bell, what 14 building are you in again? 15 MS. BELL: Excuse me? 16 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: What building, 17 what is your address again? 18 MS. BELL: I am in 839 Frelinghuysen 19 and 46 Evergreen is also having the same problem. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Okay, thank 21 you. 22 MS. BELL: We have people in 23 wheelchairs. One of my neighbors is in a 24 wheelchair. One lady, an elder at 7:00 or 25 8:00 o'clock they are knocking on the peoples' 15 1 doors. The people have to stop letting them in and 2 ask who you voting for and they have to keep both of 3 the doors locked because they are getting lazy and 4 they leave it unlocked and that's why we have all 5 the friction of people that is not residents coming 6 in. 7 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Anybody want to 8 respond to this? 9 CAPTAIN BRONER: Just -- 10 MR. CIRILO: We will follow up with 11 your tub. I actually had a conversation with 12 someone about that, Ms. Anna Bell, and I will work 13 with our central maintenance department to take a 14 look at that. I am particularly interested in the 15 quality of the glazing and just because I want to 16 take a look at yours and see an example of how the 17 glazing may not be holding and then how we should 18 consider a full replacement. So we will be 19 following up with you along with our central 20 maintenance department as soon as we get an 21 opportunity, okay. 22 MS. BELL: I sent pictures. Mr. Rouse 23 has them and I sent them. 24 CAPTAIN BRONER: I spoke with Ms. Anna 25 Bell in reference to her complaint regarding 16 1 security, the doors being open and what they are 2 going to do. We are going to require your security 3 guards make a change and put different security 4 guards in and make a better supervisor over there to 5 make sure they follow through with the doors. We 6 also spoke -- 7 MS. BELL: We have a lot of activity 8 going on from that 12:00 to 8:00 shift especially in 9 46. 10 CAPTAIN BRONER: We are going to 11 address it and have a meeting. 12 MS. BELL: All right. 13 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: We are going to 14 follow up on the matter. 15 MS. BELL: Thank you. 16 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Next speaker. 17 MR. CIRILO: We have on the list Myrna 18 Brown. Ms. Brown. 19 Thank you, Ms. Anna Bell. 20 MS. BROWN: Good evening, everyone. I 21 just want to say right now thank you Mr. Cirilo, 22 thank you Mr. Rouse for the situation from last 23 month with the person that need to be removed from 24 North 13th Street. Still a little friction, but it 25 is moved. Thanks for the cooperation for the family 17 1 for what you done. 2 I have a question. Are there any 3 updates in your occupancy policy? You didn't do no 4 updates, did you? Everything is still the same? 5 MR. ROUSE: Yes. 6 MS. BROWN: The reason I'm asking is 7 you know I represent Section 8 people. I represent 8 public housing tenants that come to me for 9 situations that they have asking my advice, what 10 they need to do because I know the policy and I 11 teach them the policy and let them know their 12 rights. I'm a rights person. This tenant called 13 me. She is a little upset. She's a zero income 14 resident. She gave everything she needed to her 15 manager. She also just had a major surgery. She 16 feels the manager is harassing her. She has a 17 notice from the manager told her she has to evict 18 the premises within ninety days and I told her don't 19 bother right now, be well. The manager cannot put 20 nobody out. She has to take you to court. I think 21 it is unfair that whatever managers you have that is 22 doing this to the people, the way they are treating 23 the people, the staff and it is sad. It is sad 24 because I done been through this agency and been 25 here a long time. You got some good people and you 18 1 got some bad. Some of them is Yogi Bear, but I'm 2 Boo-Boo so anybody know the cartoon of Yogi Bear and 3 Boo-Boo, that's it, but it's not fair to just really 4 treat anybody wrong. Whether you are at the top, 5 the bottom, what salary you make, it's not fair that 6 they are treating the residents like this and I 7 think it needs to be changed. It has to be a 8 change. We have to accept it as residents and also 9 staff has to know. If you don't know what you are 10 doing, it's okay ask somebody. Just don't take it 11 among yourself and just throw something at somebody 12 or treat them the wrong way. We all here in a 13 learning process and I think that we all should be 14 working together, not a part from one another. 15 Whoever put you here, however you got here, that's 16 beyond of how you are supposed to treat the person 17 here. If you didn't get here to help the people, 18 you need not to be here. I don't care who put you 19 here because just like they put you here, you can be 20 removed from here and there is ways that can be done 21 whoever it may be. 22 I don't have anything else because I 23 have a little family thing going on. That was my 24 family member down there at Terrell Homes as well as 25 previously we had to bury someone before that 19 1 incident happened. So I will come back next month 2 with anything else. 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Ms. Brown, 4 could you deal with the Director because all the 5 asset managers are him. 6 MS. BROWN: Mr. Rouse, I have no 7 problem. I tell him names who -- 8 MR. ROUSE: Who it is? 9 MS. BROWN: You want it in the record? 10 MR. ROUSE: No. 11 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Just tell him 12 who the manager is. 13 MR. ROUSE: I would like to put on the 14 record, thank you, Ms. Brown for bringing that to 15 our attention. This past week two weeks we made 16 sure all of our managers, assistant asset managers 17 and some of the operations staff attend a training 18 for customer service and confidentiality. They 19 spent half the day with that so we can address 20 issues such as that. So I just want to let you know 21 we are addressing that. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Thank you. 23 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Thank you. 24 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Next speaker. 25 MR. CIRILO: Next speaker we have on 20 1 the list is Dedria Smallwood, Ms. Smallwood. 2 MS. SMALLWOOD: Yes, hello, good 3 evening, everyone. Thank you for letting me speak. 4 Mine is basically simple and to the point. Good 5 evening, everyone and I thank you for letting me 6 speak. 7 Director Cirilo, this is not personal, 8 it is not directed towards you. It is directed 9 towards the people that you direct. For years we 10 have been getting several -- well, new directors. 11 We have had directors before you. Each time we come 12 the tenant presidents come down here who have the 13 tenant president maybe at that time they come down 14 to the RAB meeting with their complaints, concerns 15 and issues. This has been going on for years. 16 Basically, the same complaints and concerns and 17 issues hasn't really ever change. They don't ever 18 change so each time that they do come with the RAB 19 people are to come up here to the Board of 20 Commissioners and inform them of the tenants issues 21 and concerns. I gather that is how it goes. I am 22 not too sure. But each time for the past twenty 23 years those same concerns and issues have ever been 24 corrected. We still living in those turmoil off and 25 on. 21 1 Now, when the Board of Commissioners 2 informed us that we will be getting a new director 3 that they highly recommend and I guess you guys, you 4 know, elect and select them. I don't know how it 5 go, but they highly recommend we are going to be 6 getting a new Commissioner, but each time we get a 7 new Commissioner you never hear no plan in motion on 8 how the previous Commissioner or Board planned on 9 preserving whatever property housing had to operate 10 it. It is never a plan in motion on how they are 11 going to upgrade the property, at least where I live 12 at. If that is their intention on preserving it for 13 the future, we never hear that. The only thing I 14 have noticed is that it's the plan for the lawyers, 15 the security to allocate what their money is going, 16 but there is never a plan on how you are going to 17 upgrade housing or the properties that is worthwhile 18 preserving so the residents can have something for 19 the future. 20 Where I live at the only thing I 21 notice that we get every so often when we get a new 22 director every four to five years we might get new 23 locks on our doors which get broke or they might 24 give us a cheesy playground for the children. 25 That's it. We don't get no upgrade on nothing else. 22 1 Everything remains the same. So I'm trying to 2 figure out is it your intentions to preserve or are 3 you going to let it just continue to stay neglected 4 because that is what it looks like and I know HUD 5 issues out a good sum of money for each director to 6 encourage them to take the position as well as give 7 good money out for you guys to run housing. But I 8 don't see where the money is -- it's not for me to 9 see where it is going because it is evident that it 10 is not going where it should be going because we 11 still living in turmoil. Now, everyone know if it 12 was a different race living in housing, none of this 13 would be going on. They probably wouldn't even have 14 to come down here because everything would be in 15 order, in check. We wouldn't be coming down here 16 complaining about this, that and the third. It 17 shouldn't be this way. We would just like for one 18 director to come in and do right by the property of 19 housing as well as for the people that have to 20 reside there. We haven't had that yet because 21 everyone is steady putting their hands in everybody 22 pockets, but it is not going on the property. 23 That's my complaint. It is not fair 24 to the people that have to live there. It is just 25 not fair in no way. We get part of the bare, you 23 1 know, you got the minimum, you got the bare minimum. 2 We get part of the bare. That is all we get each 3 time. No one is taking time out to do right by 4 housing property. That's all I have to say and 5 thank you guys for letting me speak. I just would 6 like to see one person that has a conscious and care 7 about the upkeep. 8 Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Ms. Smallwood. 10 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Chairman. 11 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Hold on, Mr. Baez. 12 Hold on one second. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Ms. Smallwood, 14 that was an excellent conversation. The E.D. came 15 up with some ideas where we are talking about taking 16 it to RAD, it helps. It is limited in public 17 housing what you can do to be able to go out and 18 finance and everything he's doing, some projects 19 like that and that is going to help Bradley Court. 20 I was just debating with the CFO right there about 21 Bradley Court of them putting up four hundred 22 thousand dollars of new doors. I went to Bradley 23 Court myself. The townhouse is not that bad. I 24 think it is one or two that is in trouble, but the 25 big problem is I know that Khalif we have to talk 24 1 about it, it's the old -- we consider the old 2 projects. So it is the old masonry walls and 3 everything. 4 MS. SMALLWOOD: Yes, I understand 5 that. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: What we had to 7 do, we need a mason, but when I grew up a painter, 8 you know how to plaster too. So we are on it. I 9 mean we are on it. We really want to do something 10 because I walked it myself. 11 MS. SMALLWOOD: You walked the 12 grounds? 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I walked the 14 grounds and I walked the townhouses. I was in the 15 townhouse. I seen that there was one not available 16 and I seen where the water is being flooded over 17 there by the townhouse. 18 MS. SMALLWOOD: That is an ongoing 19 thing. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Water being 21 flooded, but I think Khalif was on that and I went 22 in about five or six apartments and we just got to 23 get -- 24 MS. SMALLWOOD: Did you go in the 25 complex? 25 1 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 2 MS. SMALLWOOD: Did you see the 3 buildings? 4 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I see where it 5 need like you said. 6 MS. SMALLWOOD: It need a whole place 7 over the, whole place needs to be upgraded. We 8 never not once ever that I ever heard anyone say we 9 got a plan in motion where we are going to upgrade a 10 property, whichever one you guys planning on 11 preserving for the future, but even though you do 12 eliminate a lot of your properties, but we don't 13 ever see a plan in motion where one director 14 probably started something so that when a new 15 director come in he can continue it out. We haven't 16 had that. 17 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I am going to 18 promise you this Chairman here, our hearts are in it 19 and we are going to do it. We're just arguing about 20 a half a million dollars in doors with Bradley 21 Court. Am I right, Sam, just talking about it. 22 MS. SMALLWOOD: That is all we keep 23 getting is doors or new locks, but they break them 24 and we are back at square one again until the next 25 go-around and we are right back at it again, new 26 1 doors. 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Is the 3 security getting better up there? Is it getting 4 safer up there? 5 MS. SMALLWOOD: It is at a standstill. 6 It all depends. It is off and on. It all depends 7 on the mood of the people. 8 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: That is one of 9 our main areas worrying about security at Bradley 10 Court. 11 MS. SMALLWOOD: That is where the 12 plans are at, at lawyers and security. They have 13 some plans for where their money is going to be 14 allocated maybe. I'm not too sure if it is actually 15 going. 16 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Are you in the 17 TA up there? 18 MS. SMALLWOOD: No. 19 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Who is the TA? 20 MS. SMALLWOOD: Andre. I don't know 21 if he still has it going on, but he's the tenant 22 president. 23 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I know the 24 chair is going to, you know, we are going to work 25 with you. 27 1 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Let's see what Mr. 2 Baez has to say. 3 MS. SMALLWOOD: I am not talking about 4 Bradley Court. I am talking about y'all properties 5 period. There is never a plan in motion. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: It is. He is 7 trying to take it to RAD. We can get more money. 8 In other words, it is limited in public housing. If 9 he goes to a situation with RAD, maybe his plan 10 to -- 11 MS. SMALLWOOD: I understand that. 12 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: So we can take 13 the money. There is a lot of money that we can 14 really build these places back like they are 15 supposed to be. So it is just limited especially 16 after the Trump era where it was money cut. You 17 look at the budget it is like zero. 18 MS. SMALLWOOD: This was prior. This 19 been going on. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We are going 21 to do better for you. 22 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Mr. Baez. 23 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Please, I'd like 24 to say something. Chairman, first of all, I'd like 25 to request a special for the next RAB meeting. I 28 1 was spoken to tenants and Mr. Carter because there 2 is a lot of residents complaining they don't see the 3 Commissioners, they don't see people from the Board 4 meeting attending to their meeting. I did request 5 from them that I want to come to the next RAB 6 meeting at 500 Broad Street which I believe is the 7 last Wednesday of the month. 8 So the reason why if I strongly 9 believe there is a lack of communication that we are 10 missing from the residents and I hear a lot of 11 complaints of resident don't know nobody. So my 12 idea is that I strongly believe we can come to the 13 Board meeting like I requested. We should explain 14 to them that I strongly believe that the tenant 15 president is the one that share the communication 16 with our residents. I do believe that is one of the 17 things are up there, however, like I said, Director, 18 I want to take the director because I don't see no 19 director coming to the residents to see how 20 everybody is doing and I see Director Cirilo has 21 been doing that. 22 So to answer the question for the 23 young lady, yes, I'd like to come to the family 24 service to tell all those tenant presidents that we 25 need to share the communication for the residents 29 1 for them to know what is coming. 2 Thank you, Mr. Chair. 3 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: You're welcome. 4 Any other Commissioners want to speak? 5 Next speaker. Thank you, Ms. 6 Smallwood. 7 MR. CIRILO: That completes the list, 8 Mr. Chairman. 9 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: That completes the 10 list of speakers. We are now going to move to Items 11 for Approval. Items for Approval, Board monthly 12 activity report. I need a motion and second. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Chairman, 14 E.D., is this the activities report right here? 15 MR. CIRILO: Yes, that's correct. 16 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I have a 17 problem with this and I want to address it later. I 18 think we should wait because I don't want this to go 19 in the record. Something we talked about earlier. 20 I don't want this to go into our record. So I want 21 to hold up on that one. 22 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Hold up on the 23 vote. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes, because 25 there is some questions. 30 1 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Board transcripts, 2 we need a motion and second. 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will move it 4 for you. 5 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: I will move. 6 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Seconded by Baez. 7 MR. CIRILO: On the Board transcripts. 8 Commissioner Logan. 9 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 10 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 11 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 12 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 13 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 14 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 15 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 16 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 17 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 18 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 19 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 20 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes. That 21 is going to take us to resolutions. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Chairman, can 23 we have the E.D. read them out separately for 24 transparency. 25 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Any member of the 31 1 Board may request any item be removed from the 2 consent agenda and be considered separately. All 3 remaining items will be read together. 4 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: I would like them 5 to be read, number seven and eight. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I would like 7 to request, Chairman, each one be separate. 8 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: We are going to do 9 them all separately anyway, Commissioner Baez. 10 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: No problem. 11 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Mr. Director. 12 MR. CIRILO: Okay, Resolution 01, that 13 the NHA Board of Commissioners authorize the 14 Executive Director to execute a contract with 15 Sherwin Williams Company for paint and associated 16 supplies for its operations and central maintenance 17 departments in an annual amount of a hundred and 18 fifty thousand dollars for an aggregate contract 19 amount not to exceed four hundred fifty thousand 20 dollars or three years, whichever comes first. 21 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Roll call and vote. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will move it 23 for you. 24 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Moved by 25 Commissioner Muhammad. 32 1 COMMISSIONER COSTA: I will second. 2 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Seconded by Costa. 3 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 4 Commissioner Logan. 5 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 6 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 7 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 8 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 9 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 10 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 11 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 12 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 14 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 15 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 16 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes. 17 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Move on to the 18 second resolution. 19 MR. CIRILO: Second resolution reads 20 that the NHA Board of Commissioners authorize the 21 Executive Director to execute a contract to Falak 22 Construction, Incorporated for agency-wide roof 23 repair and replacement. The initial contract term 24 shall be for a period of two years with an option to 25 renew at the discretion of the NHA for one 33 1 additional year for an aggregate contract amount not 2 to exceed 1.3 -- I'm sorry, one million three 3 hundred twenty-nine thousand nine hundred 4 ninety-five dollars and eighty-three cents or three 5 years, whichever comes first. 6 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 7 and second? 8 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will move 9 it. 10 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Moved by 11 Commissioner Muhammad. 12 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: I will move it. 13 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Logan. 14 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 15 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 16 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 17 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 18 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 19 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 20 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 21 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 23 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 24 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes, the third 25 resolution. 34 1 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes. 2 The third resolution reads that the 3 NHA Board of Commissioners approve the write-off of 4 collection losses in the amount of a hundred and 5 thirty-six thousand three hundred eight dollars and 6 fifty-nine cents from the tenant accounts receivable 7 balance for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. 8 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 9 and second? 10 COMMISSIONER COSTA: I will move. 11 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Moved by 12 Commissioner Costa. 13 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: I will move it. 14 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 15 Commissioner Logan. 16 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 17 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 18 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 19 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 20 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 21 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 22 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 23 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 25 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 35 1 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 2 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes. 3 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Resolution number 4 four. 5 MR. CIRILO: Number four reads that 6 the NHA Board of Commissioners approve the fiscal 7 year 2022 annual operating and capital budgets and 8 authorize their submission to the New Jersey 9 Division of Local Government Services. 10 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 11 and second? 12 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Mr. Chairman. 13 COMMISSIONER COSTA: I will move. 14 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I just want to 15 say something. Remember there is some things you 16 have to answer for me on these next resolutions, 17 okay and I want to go ahead with this because I know 18 we have a sixty-day mandatory to do this so, you 19 know, I will move it. 20 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Moved by 21 Commissioner Muhammad. Seconded by Costa. 22 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Second. 23 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Commissioner 24 Gonzalez, you want to say something? 25 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: No, I was just 36 1 going to second, but Costa did it. It is okay. 2 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Roll call. 3 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 4 Commissioner Logan. 5 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 6 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 7 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 8 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 9 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 10 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 11 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 12 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 14 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 15 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 16 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes. 17 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Number five. 18 MR. CIRILO: That the NHA Board of 19 Commissioners confirm the fiscal year 2021 capital 20 fund program award of twenty-three million six 21 hundred seventy-eight thousand three hundred 22 eighteen dollars and approve submission of the CFP 23 five-year action plan 2021 to 2025 to the U.S. 24 Department of Housing and Urban Development. 25 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 37 1 and second? 2 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: I will move it. 3 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Second. 4 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will second. 5 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Mr. Muhammad. 6 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 7 Commissioner Logan. 8 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 9 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 10 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 11 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 12 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 13 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 14 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 15 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 16 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 17 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 18 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 19 MR. CIRILO: Motion passes. 20 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Resolution six. 21 MR. CIRILO: That the NHA Board of 22 Commissioners approve the NHA's 2022 annual budget 23 for the asset management projects for the Central 24 Office Cost Center, the Urban Renewal program and 25 the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program for the 38 1 fiscal year beginning January 1, 2022 through 2 December 31, 2022. 3 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 4 and second? 5 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will move 6 it. 7 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Move it. 8 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Moved by 9 Commissioner Muhammad. Seconded by Commissioner 10 Logan. 11 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 12 Commissioner Logan. 13 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 14 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 15 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 16 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 17 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 18 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 19 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 20 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 21 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 22 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 23 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 24 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes. 25 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Number seven, 39 1 resolution number seven. 2 MR. CIRILO: Resolution number seven, 3 that the NHA Board of Commissioners authorize the 4 Executive Director to execute a shared services 5 agreement with the City of Newark in connection with 6 the demolition and removal of debris from the Seth 7 Boyden site in accordance with the N.J.S.A. 8 40A:65-1. 9 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 10 and second? 11 Before we move on it, Mr. Muhammad. 12 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: E.D., I seen 13 you put up some pictures today that they are doing 14 something at Seth Boyden. What are they doing, 15 asbestos? 16 MR. CIRILO: Yes, the company has 17 started the demolition process by doing the 18 preassessment and mitigation of the existing 19 environmental issues. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Okay, that is 21 fantastic. 22 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 23 and second? 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will move 25 it. 40 1 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Second. 2 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 3 Commissioner Logan. 4 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 5 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 6 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 7 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 8 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 9 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 10 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 11 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 12 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 13 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 14 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Abstain. 15 Motion passes. 16 MR. CIRILO: Resolution number eight 17 is a pending legal opinion that the NHA -- 18 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: What happened to 19 number seven? 20 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: It passed. 21 MR. CIRILO: Resolution number eight, 22 pending legal opinion. That the NHA Board of 23 Commissioners authorize the Executive Director to 24 execute a Quitclaim Deed to Saint James AME Church 25 as to 582-586 Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and 41 1 101-105 Shipman Street, Newark, New Jersey for the 2 purchase price of one dollar subject to the terms 3 and conditions noted in the contract. 4 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You want to 5 defer this? I want to make a motion to defer this. 6 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Chairman. 7 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Go ahead, Mr. Baez. 8 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Just for the 9 record, I'd like to say that this property, that 10 church very soon however they built another church, 11 a mega church across the street and three years ago 12 at Baxter they were selling the property for four 13 hundred fifty thousand dollars. So I do believe we 14 should not go into that because we should get 15 something out of it. So my vote is no, I'm not 16 voting on that. I believe we can get something out 17 of it. Because I already know they are about to 18 sell it or lease that space to whoever. They are 19 building a mega church across the street from there 20 and, like I said, two years ago the active priest 21 that was there, the active president, he was trying 22 to sell that property for four hundred fifty 23 thousand dollars. He couldn't sell it because that 24 belongs to the Housing Authority, I remember that 25 clear. So how we going to give it up for a dollar 42 1 when we can get something out of it for some money 2 for the Housing Authority. 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I'd like to 4 defer it. 5 MR. CIRILO: Is there a second on the 6 deferment? 7 So, Counsel, we are making a motion to 8 table the resolution. 9 MR. MENA: Correct, postpone, not 10 vote. Whether it is deferred or tabled, we are not 11 voting. That is what the motion is, right? 12 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 13 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: We had a whole 14 conversation about this. 15 MR. MENA: Is there a second? 16 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Second. 17 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: I'll second. 18 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Logan seconded it. 19 MR. CIRILO: On the motion to defer. 20 On the floor there is a motion to defer on the 21 floor. 22 Commissioner Logan. 23 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 24 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 25 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: I'd like to defer, 43 1 yes. 2 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 3 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 4 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 5 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes, but I 6 have a question. Who put the motion to defer, 7 Commissioner Alif and Baez? 8 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 9 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Thanks. 10 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 11 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 12 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 13 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 14 So we are going to defer this to the 15 next meeting. 16 MR. CIRILO: Resolution 09, that the 17 NHA Board of Commissioners authorize the Executive 18 Director to execute a Memorandum of Agreement and 19 make necessary changes with Local 74 United Service 20 Workers Union approving a 1.5 percent wage increase 21 for its members retroactive to January 1, 2021. 22 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 23 and second? 24 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: I will move 25 it. 44 1 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Commissioner 2 Gonzalez. 3 Can I get a second? 4 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Second. 5 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Seconded by 6 Commissioner Baez. 7 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 8 Commissioner Logan. 9 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 10 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 11 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 12 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 13 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 14 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 15 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes, yes. 16 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 17 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 18 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 19 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 20 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes. 21 Resolution number ten, resolution 22 number ten reads that the NHA Board of Commissioners 23 authorize the Executive Director to execute a 24 contract addendum extending the contract term 25 through December 31, 2021 and approving a 45 1 1.5 percent wage increase for its members 2 retroactive to December 1, 2020 for members of Local 3 55, LIUNA Residential Construction and General 4 Service Workers Union. 5 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 6 and second? 7 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will move 8 it. 9 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Second. 10 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 11 Commissioner Logan. 12 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 13 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 14 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 15 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 16 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Abstain. 17 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 18 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 19 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 21 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 22 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Abstain. 23 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes. 24 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Resolution number 25 eleven. 46 1 MR. CIRILO: Resolution eleven reads 2 that the Newark Housing Authority Board of 3 Commissioners authorize the Executive Director to 4 execute a Memorandum of Agreement and make necessary 5 changes with Local 32, Office of Professional 6 Employees International Union approving a 7 1.5 percent wage increase for its members 8 retroactive to January 1, 2021. 9 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 10 and second? 11 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will move 12 it. 13 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Move it. 14 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Second. 15 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 16 Commissioner Logan. 17 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 18 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 19 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 20 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 21 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 22 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 23 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 24 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 25 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 47 1 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 2 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 3 MR. CIRILO: Motion passes. 4 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Two more 5 resolutions. 6 MR. CIRILO: Resolution number twelve, 7 that the NHA Board of Commissioners authorize the 8 Executive Director to execute a Memorandum of 9 Agreement and make necessary changes with Skill 10 Trades Association, Incorporated approving a 11 1.5 percent wage increase for its members, 12 retroactive to January 1, 2021. 13 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 14 an second? 15 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will move it 16 for you. 17 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Move it. 18 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 19 Commissioner Logan. 20 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 21 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 22 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Abstain. 23 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 24 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 25 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 48 1 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 2 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 4 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 5 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 6 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes. 7 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Resolution 8 thirteen. 9 MR. CIRILO: Resolution thirteen reads 10 the NHA Board of Commissioners authorize the 11 Executive Director to approve a 1.5 percent wage 12 increase for the exempt employees retroactive to 13 January 1, 2021. 14 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can I get a mover 15 and second? 16 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: I will move 17 it. 18 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Second. 19 MR. CIRILO: On the motion, 20 Commissioner Logan. 21 COMMISSIONER LOGAN: Yes. 22 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Baez. 23 COMMISSIONER BAEZ: Yes. 24 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Costa. 25 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 49 1 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 2 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 3 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 4 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 5 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 6 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 7 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes and 8 that concludes the resolutions. 9 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You want to go 10 back, Chairman, to the activities. 11 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: E.D., I'd like 13 to call our HR director. 14 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: This is for the 15 monthly Board activities report? 16 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 17 MS. CARTER: Good evening. My name is 18 Dashay Carter, human resources. 19 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I have some 20 other questions, but the most important question I 21 have is on the back of this list it has the 22 different people. It has leave of absence, Workers' 23 Comp and termination and in termination there are 24 some peoples' names that shouldn't have been there 25 that wasn't terminated. Why are they there? 50 1 MS. CARTER: May I see a copy? So 2 this is how the report is generated through IT. My 3 office has sent -- once this was brought to my 4 attention, my office has sent a change to put 5 deceased if that's the individual you are referring 6 to. 7 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Who is the 8 person that was deceased? 9 MS. CARTER: Ms. Zacharias. 10 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Chairman, I 11 wanted some silence if you would do it, some silence 12 for Zach. He was a good young man, beautiful young 13 man, left a wife and two beautiful boys and this 14 one -- 15 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Want to move it 16 first? 17 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I'd like to 18 say the moment of silence. 19 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: At this time on 20 behalf of the Board of Directors, we want to take a 21 moment of silence for Zacharias. 22 (Whereupon, a moment of silence was 23 kept.) 24 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: HR person, 51 1 Ms. Carter, Doran Robinson told me she resigned. 2 MS. CARTER: Again, this is how the 3 report is generated so in our system, in our HR 4 system each of them is classified a resignation, a 5 death, a termination, but this is how the report -- 6 I don't know why, but this is how the report 7 generates through IT so, again, I don't know if you 8 guys got the updated report, but we sent out an 9 updated report this afternoon. 10 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: This is all we 11 have so because this young lady I know she might 12 want to look for a job and I don't want it in the 13 record anywhere she was terminated. 14 MS. CARTER: It is not in the record 15 that she was terminated. 16 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I am talking 17 about our record. 18 MS. CARTER: It is not in our record. 19 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Our record as 20 Commissioners when we vote on this, this goes into a 21 public record so I would like it to be amended and 22 we will vote on it, but be amended. 23 MS. CARTER: That is fine, absolutely. 24 So just because terminations in your Board report 25 should have been separations from the Housing 52 1 Authority. So you would have to go back and there 2 are some people who resigned and it is under 3 termination. 4 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I'm concerned 5 about this one. 6 MS. CARTER: Absolutely. 7 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can we do this one 8 and not worry about going back? 9 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: So, Elio, 10 that's what I want to make a resolution. 11 MR. MENA: What I would request is 12 that we will leave it up to Ms. Carter's discretion 13 whether she wants to resubmit the corrected HR 14 portion and vote that into the record or if you want 15 to wait until she makes the correction for you to 16 take the vote. It is up to you. 17 MR. CIRILO: You can table the 18 approval. 19 MR. MENA: Table the approval. 20 MR. CIRILO: We can amend it and bring 21 it back next month. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Okay. We are 23 going to table it. There are some questions I have 24 to ask Chairman while I have you up here. 25 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Can we vote this in 53 1 the minutes for the transcript. 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We are going 3 to table it. 4 MR. CIRILO: We can vote on it next 5 Board meeting. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Any new hires 7 on the upper level? 8 MS. CARTER: No. 9 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: What's the 10 percentage of your mandate for the virus? 11 MS. CARTER: So we also sent out -- we 12 have seventy-six percent fully vaccinated. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Seventy-six 14 percent? 15 MS. CARTER: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: What was our 17 deadline? 18 MS. CARTER: November 4. So you have 19 seventy-six agency wide is fully vaccinated. 20 Fourteen percent has received their first shot so 21 tomorrow we are hoping for them to have their second 22 shot. Seven percent of the agency hasn't received 23 the shot and we have one person of the agency with 24 an exemption and two percent on leave. 25 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Chairman, you 54 1 know, I happened to talk to Ms. Carter, you know, 2 how we say in the street I'm big on her. She's 3 young and she is intelligent and I like the due 4 diligence that she did because I was getting a lot 5 of phone calls from Muslims and I have been a Muslim 6 for fifty-two years and as a Muslim me individually 7 was the first one to get in line to take the shot. 8 Matter of fact, in Islam you are starving, you can 9 eat poor. So I know she was having a hard time with 10 that. I just wanted to put that on the record that 11 I support you and I love the way you did your due 12 diligence because she had the Koran over here, you 13 even had the Da'wah. A lot of people do not know 14 what the Da'wah is, a group of scholars come 15 together so I wanted to tell you I supported you on 16 that. 17 MS. CARTER: Thank you. 18 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: As a Muslim I 19 am supporting you and as an individual and I 20 appreciate your due diligence on that. 21 MS. CARTER: Thank you. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I need to talk 23 to somebody in recreation. 24 MR. CIRILO: Mr. Lewis is on the line. 25 Mr. Lewis, are you still on the line? 55 1 MR. LEWIS: I'm here. 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Marquis, how 3 are you? 4 MR. LEWIS: I'm good, how you doing? 5 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: State your name for 6 the record, Marquis. 7 MR. LEWIS: My name is Marquis Aquil 8 Lewis, senior manager for recreation and community 9 affairs. 10 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: My concern is 11 maybe I'm old school because I remember growing up 12 in the neighborhood house at Hayes Homes and Boys 13 Club at Stella Wright and we had our recreation, 14 everybody had recreation. I don't see these 15 facilities giving the youth that kind of thing like, 16 for instance, you know, like you got the TREC, but 17 you really in the same area. You are not like, you 18 know, you have the townhouses, but it is like really 19 the same area and you got the Waterfront and every 20 time I go over there, I don't see the kids in the 21 area and how do the kids in the Housing Authority 22 that we have on Broadway, how do they get involved 23 in it and, of course, the Clubhouse is pretty good. 24 What is going on with this recreation 25 because I just don't get the feel that the kids in 56 1 Newark Housing are benefiting from our recreation 2 like we used to do in the fifties and sixties. That 3 is my question. 4 MR. LEWIS: Our organization is full 5 of young people every single day. We have open gym 6 in all our centers which you can go into the open 7 gym activities. We have a tournament happening in 8 some of our centers. Actually, we are -- before I 9 go on, a young lady right now who is going to help 10 us with getting college students to come in and help 11 us with tutoring in our community centers. Our kids 12 coming in, we have karate in our -- 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You have 14 karate in every one of them? 15 MR. LEWIS: We have karate at the TREC 16 and we have karate over at the Waterfront. 17 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: So the 18 Clubhouse, what is going to go down in the 19 Clubhouse? 20 MR. LEWIS: At the Clubhouse we have 21 boxing. We have boxing. We have the ribbon cutting 22 on November 5 for our boxing academy program. That 23 is going to be there. We have Bali dancing that is 24 happening over there. We have a lady doing that who 25 is experienced in Bali and Broadway dancing. 57 1 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Marquis, the 2 Clubhouse, for instance, that is in the middle of 3 everything. Are them kids from all that area, are 4 they benefiting from our Clubhouse? 5 MR. LEWIS: In the area we have our 6 townhouses in the area. The townhouses are directly 7 across from there. It is not Newark Housing any 8 more, but we do a lot of kids from there do come 9 over and participate in the program. What we have 10 there is -- well, during the day we have You Build 11 who is there, our children over age accredited and 12 also we have our Newark Street Academy kids who are 13 there. We also have during the day getting their 14 studies to get their G.E.D. or high school diploma. 15 Some of them are even getting trades and 16 construction work as well. We have two kids who 17 actually just got their license to be in the You 18 Build program so the boxing program is something 19 that was very demanding activity so we did our due 20 diligence on putting our heads together and really 21 make this boxing program happen and we are happy to 22 announce that it is finally happening and going to 23 be ready and up and running on November 5. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Marquis, for 25 instance, where the TREC is at, where do you attract 58 1 the people from because you only have the townhouses 2 and six, seven hundred of the tenants there are 3 senior citizens. What are you doing for our senior 4 citizens right there? 5 MR. LEWIS: Our senior citizens we 6 have our senior citizens program. It is a vo-tec 7 program where we have Zumba, we have line dancing, 8 we have bingo, we have game night there with our 9 senior citizens and we also even have our computer 10 program. 11 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: How do the 12 kids in the Waterfront that live in the Broadway 13 area which is further down from Grafton Avenue, how 14 do they get down to the Waterfront? 15 MR. LEWIS: How do they get to the 16 Waterfront? Our Waterfront program we have children 17 that are over at the Waterfront. They have karate 18 as well. 19 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: But I'm asking 20 how do our -- like our sites on Broadway which is 21 further down the road, you know what I am talking 22 about, how do those kids benefit with the 23 Waterfront? I know Grafton Avenue they benefit, but 24 I am talking about how do we bring those other kids 25 in? 59 1 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: You mean physically 2 bring them in? 3 MR. LEWIS: How do they get in? 4 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Do we have the 5 transportation set up? 6 MR. LEWIS: No, we don't have no 7 transportation program set up and that is something 8 I have asked for in the past. I'm going to ask and 9 I've been working myself trying to find if 10 somebody's willing to donate vans to our recreation 11 department. 12 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I know at the 13 TREC a lot you rent for occasions. 14 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: What about the 15 buses that the Housing Authority owns, can they 16 share? 17 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We have buses, 18 okay. We need so we can pull people from the other 19 like the kids over on Litman over there on Seventh 20 Avenue that might want to come over to the 21 Waterfront and everything. We have to give them an 22 opportunity. Are you making any money over there? 23 Are you bringing any money in because that is what I 24 asked. 25 MR. LEWIS: Yes, we are. We are 60 1 bringing in money through our rentals and we have 2 donations. Our rentals one thing I am trying to get 3 away from, but it brings in most of our money is 4 repasses. We have like three or four repasses a 5 week that bring in revenue to our centers. Also, 6 renters when it comes to receptions, parties, baby 7 showers, birthday parties. So the most popular 8 center happens to be the TREC and Clubhouse when it 9 comes to rentals. On that standing we also have 10 basketball, a contract with the Newark Public 11 Schools and also with our Exit Academy Vocational 12 Schools for our basketball season and volleyball 13 season. 14 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Thank you, 15 Marquis. Come up out of there with the 16 transportation so other kids in our different sites 17 can benefit. You follow me, that could really 18 benefit from the situation. Thank you, man. 19 MR. LEWIS: All right. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Can I talk to 21 security. 22 MR. LEWIS: Thank you. 23 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Thanks, 24 Marquis. 25 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Are there any other 61 1 Commissioners that want to say anything to Marquis 2 before he steps off? 3 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Good job with 4 everything, Marquis. 5 Captain. 6 CAPTAIN BRONER: Commissioners, 7 Director. 8 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Captain, it's 9 easy for me. Are we in compliance with the 10 municipality of Newark, New Jersey? 11 CAPTAIN BRONER: We are not in full 12 compliance with the senior buildings. We are with 13 the family sites. We are not in full compliance 14 with the COVID. 15 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: What are you 16 going to do about it? 17 CAPTAIN BRONER: I currently submitted 18 a budget to finance and it is under review at this 19 current time and we are going to go forward. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I see when I 21 ride around that in some of the tougher sites. I 22 see a lot of police presence because I live on Court 23 Street so Oscar Miles I ride by a lot. Explain to 24 me how they are doing that because what is that 25 street, that little side street, not Court Street, 62 1 what is the other side like they blocked that off. 2 CAPTAIN BRONER: Mercer? 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: It is like 4 blocked off. Is it blocked off all the time. 5 CAPTAIN BRONER: It is recently 6 blocked off. A lot of that is based on 7 intelligence. That area over there is particularly 8 gang related. 9 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Could you give 10 me a list or tell me the different places where the 11 Newark Police are blocking off? 12 CAPTAIN BRONER: The only place they 13 are blocking off right now is the street in Oscar 14 Miles complex. 15 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Not Bradley 16 Court. 17 CAPTAIN BRONER: Not Bradley Court. 18 They have a -- there is only two places that they 19 have like twenty-four hour security. What they do 20 at Bradley Court is they station an officer up there 21 along with our security patrols and they monitor the 22 complex. 23 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I know we had 24 a conversation and I was saying maybe we can get a 25 waiver from the City. 63 1 CAPTAIN BRONER: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I called 3 Councilman that I haven't talked to her about five 4 months and she said no waiver. She said we better 5 get in compliance she said because she's forcing 6 Colonies and Pavilion. She said we better get in 7 compliance. She also said, E.D., she is going to 8 call you and take a tour of every one of her sites 9 in the Central Ward. 10 MR. CIRILO: Maybe the City can help 11 us with financial. That would be terrific 12 especially you have all that money that you 13 mentioned. Maybe you can help you us lobby to get 14 in full compliance. 15 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: For us to get 16 in full compliance. 17 MR. CIRILO: We can talk to the 18 Councilman. 19 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Our Chair I 20 don't want him strangling us. 21 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Why don't we 22 schedule a public safety meeting and put some stuff 23 together on paper. 24 MR. CIRILO: That is right. We have a 25 friend on the Council. That could help us with 64 1 financing. 2 CAPTAIN BRONER: Sounds good. 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Maybe get 4 along to help us with our budget. 5 CAPTAIN BRONER: That will always be 6 helpful. 7 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Shared services 8 agreement. 9 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Because maybe 10 like we can stay with the unarmed guards and the 11 Newark Police are there, they cover. That is what I 12 was asking a question about Oscar Miles because you 13 don't need an armed person there because the police 14 are there. 15 CAPTAIN BRONER: They locked it down. 16 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: That is one 17 place we wouldn't have to have an armed because with 18 that there has to be an armed person there eight 19 hours I believe and that is locking it down. I'm 20 good with you. Can I speak to -- 21 CAPTAIN BRONER: Thank you. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: -- finance 23 which is probably going to be easy too, finance. I 24 got the answer, but I didn't get a chance to read 25 them when I was walking out the door. What is -- 65 1 how much money are we making in redevelopment last 2 year within a year? Right here it says you have 3 almost five hundred thousand dollars. 4 MR. MOOLAYIL: Yes, last year four 5 hundred ninety-one thousand. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Why so low? 7 What I am saying to you why so low because I 8 remember when MARs was there it was millions. 9 MR. MOOLAYIL: The redevelopment 10 programs, the developer fees see that is based on 11 their cash flow situation in every property. Mainly 12 this money, this four ninety-one is for the Blue 13 Point West property because they are having cash 14 flow based on if they have positive cash flow, they 15 give us the money. We had ongoing conversation. 16 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: That is our 17 deal, they have to have positive cash flow to pay 18 us? 19 MR. CIRILO: It depends on how the 20 operating fund is negotiated with the partner. 21 Often times if you negotiate into a deal where you 22 put in a -- really what we call a waterfall, that is 23 really against you. You probably will never see a 24 nickel from the developer before the site sees a 25 majority of the revenue unless there is some cash 66 1 flow at a certain level, then it trickles down to 2 you, but that is why negotiating is very critical to 3 make sure that you put yourself in a good position 4 in the waterfall. We have spoken about a lot of 5 money coming in when the previous administration was 6 here. I would like to see the balance sheet. 7 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I don't 8 understand. We are paying them, paying their 9 security, but we are not making any money. It is 10 like coming out of our budget. We are paying for 11 their security and we in the red. I don't 12 understand that. 13 MR. CIRILO: Again, it's the way the 14 contracts are negotiated a while back so. 15 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Like Baxter 16 and Aspen and all these beautiful developments, the 17 one on Irvine Turner, they are not giving us any 18 money? 19 MR. MOOLAYIL: That in the past 20 happened. We are not expecting any other money from 21 other developers. This is the only one. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: That is the 23 Boulevard so Prince Street, what's the name of that? 24 No money from them that we are paying for their 25 security? 67 1 MR. CIRILO: That's the Roizman 2 property. 3 MR. MOOLAYIL: No. 4 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Okay, how we 5 doing on the 501(c)3? You said we filed. How did 6 we get behind four years because I am a little 7 familiar. 8 MR. CIRILO: The previous 9 administration didn't file the paperwork. 10 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: So we didn't 11 file it either? 12 MR. MOOLAYIL: We filled. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I asked the 14 question, he said the previous administration 15 didn't. He's been on since 2017 so did he file 16 2017, '18, '19 also? 17 MR. MOOLAYIL: Yeah, we just -- we 18 have filed the 2018 and '18, but we are 19 communicating with the IRS. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You just filed 21 it? 22 MR. MOOLAYIL: Then we resubmitted 23 again in '17, '18, '19. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: How do you 25 have a 501(c)3? A lot of people don't know that is 68 1 a very powerful tool, that non-profit. So it sounds 2 like it is going for eight years we didn't file and 3 I know generally a 501(c)3 you don't file they are 4 on your butt, they quit. I seen pastor, am I right, 5 I seen big churches go to jail, right? 6 MR. CIRILO: There is hundreds of 7 non-profits. 8 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: They go to 9 jail, right, they go to jail. How do we get away 10 with eight years. Let me ask you a question. Are 11 they going to reinstate us retroactive? 12 MR. MOOLAYIL: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Some of the 14 stuff we talked about already so I am going to move 15 really quick. We covered a lot. We covered this in 16 that committee meeting so Section 8 I'm good because 17 we covered a lot of this. 18 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Any Commissioners 19 on the phone, do you have any comments? 20 MR. KNIGHT: Good afternoon, 21 Commissioners, Duane Knight, Section 8 director. 22 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Hello, Mr. 23 Knight. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You know what 25 I need to know, how do we issue Section 8, do we 69 1 issue, we have a waiting list? 2 MR. KNIGHT: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: So we have a 4 waiting list, right? 5 MR. KNIGHT: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Do we have a 7 separate waiting list, do we have a senior waiting 8 list? 9 MR. KNIGHT: There is a regular 10 Section 8 wait list for the tenant based voucher and 11 then we have a waiting list for the project based 12 vouchers. So the sites where we have project based 13 vouchers we also have a wait list for the sites. 14 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Let's deal 15 with the project based so we have a list for that? 16 MR. KNIGHT: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: And we have a 18 senior list for that? 19 MR. KNIGHT: What we have is we have a 20 preference for seniors on the tenant based voucher 21 list. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: All the 23 questions I am asking you why is Lincoln Tower have 24 so many vacancies? 25 MR. KNIGHT: And there are a couple 70 1 reasons for that. One of them is the seniors on a 2 project based voucher have been exhausted. The 3 other thing -- 4 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Wait a minute. 5 We got -- can we open this back up, E.D.? 6 MR. CIRILO: Yes, we are opening up 7 the list. We are allowing the site to open up the 8 list so the site is going to run the list. 9 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: In other 10 words, if a senior citizen want to move in the 11 building that we have project based, they can go 12 straight to the sites? 13 MR. CIRILO: To that site. It moves 14 it faster than having to go through the program. 15 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: What about the 16 regular voucher, just the regular voucher, do we 17 have two lists or just one list? 18 MR. KNIGHT: That is just one list. 19 That is only one list. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: That is 21 closed? 22 MR. KNIGHT: Yes, it is currently 23 closed and that is the list we are issuing vouchers 24 from right now. When you hear me report a voucher 25 number in terms of like a hundred. 71 1 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: How about last 2 month? 3 MR. KNIGHT: A hundred and fifty 4 something. 5 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You also got 6 where a person is homeless? 7 MR. KNIGHT: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: How does that 9 go? 10 MR. KNIGHT: So we work with the City 11 of Newark's health department and Office of Wellness 12 Services to assist and place and offer vouchers to 13 clients. 14 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: So they have 15 to meet a certain criteria? 16 MR. KNIGHT: And they come through 17 essentially the City's homelessness services. They 18 are referred to us by the health department to 19 receive that voucher. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: In order to 21 get on the list, you have to go to the Newark health 22 department? 23 MR. KNIGHT: Yes. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You have to go 25 to William Street? 72 1 MR. KNIGHT: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You have to 3 apply there? 4 MR. KNIGHT: Yes. And typically how 5 that works is a client presents themselves as 6 homeless or at risk for homelessness and the health 7 department does like an intake, assess the needs, 8 seeks to place them and if they are on the street, 9 get them off the street immediately and then work to 10 get the necessary paperwork to refer them to us to 11 be able to issue them a voucher because that is 12 still time to search for a unit if a voucher is 13 issued. 14 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Now, I just 15 heard something the other day and I need somebody to 16 explain it to me. We had a public housing tenant 17 the way I'm hearing it and the tenant had mold in 18 her house so now we gave her a voucher. What is 19 that called when we give a public housing person a 20 voucher because I thought when a person had mold in 21 the house, we just either abate it or we move them 22 to another one of our pieces of property, how do 23 that go? 24 MR. KNIGHT: Without knowing the 25 specific, I don't know the specifics. 73 1 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I am just 2 trying to say if we could do it, somebody said we 3 did it. 4 MR. KNIGHT: The administrative plan 5 has some certain criteria where clients who are in 6 public housing get issued vouchers and I mean in the 7 instances where like demolition/disposition where 8 like Terrell Homes where they're demolishing, that 9 is one possibility. Oftentimes where vouchers 10 become really critical are reasons for security and 11 safety. Say the family, somebody in the family has 12 been threatened or at risk for their safety. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: So a real 14 serious emergency. 15 MR. KNIGHT: Those are typical where 16 it is already placed in the family outside of the 17 community. 18 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We don't give 19 away a lot of those, do we? 20 MR. KNIGHT: Not since I'm here. It 21 has to be usually pretty serious. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: One more 23 question. I'm finding out and people didn't get 24 vouchers and the apartments is so hard to get now in 25 Newark, but you give them extensions. How long, in 74 1 other words, you get a voucher, how long do you have 2 the voucher? 3 MR. KNIGHT: So we grant extensions in 4 thirty day increments as clients need them. 5 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: So thirty 6 days. 7 MR. KNIGHT: Right. As clients need 8 them we would grant additional extension, but what 9 we also did in an attempt to make our clients more 10 competitive in the marketplace, we actually raised 11 the payment standard for the vouchers at the 12 beginning of September so clients can try to command 13 a little bit more. 14 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I have 15 somebody in my building, a security officer. I said 16 you have an apartment, he said no. He said I can't 17 find one. 18 MR. KNIGHT: COVID has created some 19 slow down in the market because people are not 20 moving out, that's correct. 21 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I'm good. I 22 need occupancy. 23 MR. KNIGHT: Thank you, Commissioners. 24 MS. RODGERS: Hello, Commissioners, 25 Executive Director, Sekina Rogers. 75 1 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I don't know 2 what you said here. It looks like for the last 3 couple months we are going back slide. At one time 4 we were fifty something people and now we are back 5 netting only thirty something people. I don't 6 understand why we are going down instead of going 7 up. 8 MS. RODGERS: So as I stated before 9 because of the pandemic it's been really, really 10 hard to get to applicants. The process is just 11 slowed down significantly. So my team and I have 12 been doing mass screenings to try to get applicants 13 ready so I will give you an example. Say I schedule 14 for one week a hundred and fifteen people. I might 15 get thirty, if that, and then when we go through the 16 eligibility process, some of them don't make it. 17 Some of them are on Section 8. Some of them is just 18 bad data. I just don't know what to do. I will 19 give you an example. 20 I screened somebody and I remember his 21 name specifically because he was from Jersey City. 22 He had a unique name and so I got a call from 23 somebody and said, listen, I got an apartment offer, 24 I'm trying to reach out to the client because the 25 mail is slow, things are slowing down. So we are 76 1 trying to do everything to speed it up including 2 managers to get the apartments leased. They said, 3 you know, I will call the phone number. It is out 4 of service. I called the emergency contact number, 5 that is out of service. Do you have another number 6 and this was literally one day this week. We saw 7 and met with this person at the Clubhouse in July so 8 already we have bad data. Unfortunately, our 9 population is really hurting and either they move a 10 lot, we can't catch up to them. We try so things 11 are being slowed down. 12 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Could you come 13 back in a month with a plan to get us back up 14 because you were cooking at one time. 15 MS. RODGERS: I am trying, but we do 16 have to take into account I have two people out on 17 FMLA and we have a lot of vacation time that I have 18 to give the employees because of the pandemic 19 vacations were suspended earlier in the year. So we 20 have X amount of days. 21 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You are saying 22 we are going to be low for the next couple months? 23 MS. RODGERS: Yes, it is possible. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: That is crazy. 25 I see all the sites failed with an F except for 77 1 Stephen Crane elderly. Everybody else failed on the 2 report card. Everybody failed. That is not good. 3 You got to come up with some kind of plan, please. 4 MS. RODGERS: I do have some stuff 5 that I have. I ran a list so it is really not that 6 many. My biggest two areas that I have to fill is 7 Kretchmer 2-17 and 21A. 8 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Just do the 9 best you can, but -- 10 MS. RODGERS: I'm planning every day. 11 I am on it. I am assessing. I am finding out new 12 things every day and strategically going through it. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: None of our 14 lists are open in your department, right? I know 15 one time the senior citizens were. 16 MS. RODGERS: All the mixed 17 population, yes, which is elderly, near elderly and 18 disabled. 19 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: They are still 20 open? 21 MS. RODGERS: Absolutely. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I need -- 23 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Somebody grabbed me 24 at the Mayor's and said we have six hundred 25 vacancies. 78 1 MS. RODGERS: It is possible, but that 2 is what we have. Remember, we have what the staff 3 is responsible for and then we have the apartments 4 which is capital fund units and those are long-term 5 vacancies that regular maintenance is not -- am I 6 right, Mr. Rouse? Long-term vacancies that the 7 maintenance staff is beyond their skill set so it 8 requires either a contractor, a skilled trades Local 9 55 union to do those units and is usually in such 10 disrepair it takes a long time to turn those 11 apartments so that's two different things. I'm 12 just -- my responsibility is to lease what is 13 available, but the other thing in terms of getting 14 the apartments ready, that is an operations side. 15 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Chairman, we 16 have to come up with something that is -- it's 17 embarrassing. We have to come up with something. 18 You do the best you can. 19 MS. RODGERS: I will continue to keep 20 you posted. 21 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Occupancy and 22 Khalif. I was seeing something the E.D. sent me and 23 it was Khalif. 24 MR. ROUSE: I would like to address 25 that. The E.D. talked about the six hundred units. 79 1 Part of those six hundred is Terrell Homes as well 2 so that number includes that six hundred. 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: No, no, no, 4 sir. 5 MR. ROUSE: That is two seventy-five. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Terrell Homes 7 is not in it. Terrell Homes is not in it. I look 8 at it. I see it right there in my office. What I 9 am asking you about the senior sites, we had a 10 meeting that you sandbagged me, but it was okay. It 11 was a good sandbag with the director of recreation, 12 Pat Council. It was a good meeting and my concern 13 was about the senior citizen buildings where there 14 is only one visit per person at a time and they got 15 an 8:00 o'clock curfew. When we came out, we agreed 16 that it was not a mandate. The way Pat told me the 17 mandate he wants to support y'all, the landlord. It 18 wasn't a mandate that this is how it was ran and 19 then I seen something real quick in the answer that 20 you say you are going to make a change now. 21 MR. ROUSE: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I couldn't 23 read it quick, I'm sorry, but could you tell me what 24 you are going to do for the people, the senior 25 citizens so we can have more than one person come up 80 1 and see us or we got to be 8:00 o'clock we can't 2 have no visitor after 8:00 o'clock. 3 MR. ROUSE: I put it in the report, 4 Commissioner. The stats for our senior sites for 5 this week was good and the stats for the last thirty 6 days we had one positive case. For the last sixty 7 days, we had four. So we're progressively doing 8 much better. So after talking with the managers 9 today because I want to get the managers buy-in and 10 agreement to it that after we have concluded this 11 round of booster shots which have begun with Newark 12 Housing Authority. It started this week with James 13 C. White which did very good and then we are going 14 to all the senior sits and give booster shots and 15 more people are getting vaccinated that before 16 Thanksgiving we should be done with that. Then we 17 will open it up to have more than one guest for the 18 senior site buildings. 19 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You are going 20 to take that time limit off. I am sixty-eight years 21 old. I will be sixty-eight Saturday so what I'm 22 saying, look, you are going to tell me I can't have 23 a visitor after 8:00 o'clock. 24 MR. ROUSE: What we did talk about the 25 managers is that we will move past 8:00 o'clock to 81 1 10:30 because of the fact that -- 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We great 3 grandfathers and we have to be in there before 4 10:00 o'clock. 5 MR. ROUSE: Not be in, but people in 6 the building. 7 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You have to do 8 better than that. 9 MR. ROUSE: It helps with safety, 10 Commissioner, and also 10:30 is before the second 11 shift leaves and we also part of that program when 12 people come in. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: The senior 14 citizens in Newark are the most highly vaccinated 15 people in the City. We now how to take care of 16 ourselves. We took care of you so what I am saying 17 to you -- 18 MR. ROUSE: I want to take care of 19 you. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: What I am 21 saying to you the socialization is very important 22 for us. 23 MR. ROUSE: Can we do 10:30 for a 24 little while and then we will move past it for a 25 little while. 82 1 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: No. You 2 know -- 3 MR. ROUSE: It helps us too because 4 overnight guests become permanent residents and then 5 we can't get them out. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: The townhouse 7 is doing what they want. I can walk in a townhouse, 8 the young people thirty and forty years old do what 9 they want because I am sixty-eight years old you 10 can't let me do what I want and I'm more responsible 11 and I got vaccinated and I take care of myself and I 12 wear my mask and everything, but the townhouse 13 people walk in and party, party. That is not fair. 14 500 Broad Street I come down a lot. 15 There is people outside. I know City Hall I can go 16 to City Hall. I can go to the courts, everything is 17 open now, but these people are outside waiting and 18 the business is being taken care of on the street. 19 You know, are you visiting, what's your address. 20 Our people are outside taking care of business. Now 21 we are supposed to get some machines, right? 22 MR. ROUSE: Kiosk machines. 23 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Where are they 24 at? 25 MR. ROUSE: There is a kiosk machine 83 1 at 500. 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I have the 3 resolution that we signed said we are supposed to 4 have a whole lot of them. 5 MR. ROUSE: We have them. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We have to 7 come up with a better plan. The security instead of 8 being security, they are customer service guys. 9 MR. ROUSE: What happened was the 10 tenants who enter the building must take a 11 temperature check and must go through security 12 check. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Seventy-five 14 percent when they come down they are standing 15 outside the building. One day I came by here, there 16 is a line of people and they are talking their 17 business outside. They are bringing their files 18 outside. I am like I thought we had a privacy 19 issue. 20 MR. ROUSE: We have to make an 21 appointment with occupancy and Section 8 and the 22 security guard will get the person out of occupancy 23 Section 8 to bring the person in. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Only if you 25 have an appointment? 84 1 MR. ROUSE: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: The regular 3 people just asking for general information. 4 MR. ROUSE: We have boxes for them to 5 get the information. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We have to do 7 better, Pastor, because what I am saying to you 8 people are just standing outside. I was riding by 9 and I looked. I sat there for about an hour and 10 just watched. People cursing everybody out or 11 somebody, you know, I am just saying they have to be 12 better because now you can go into City Hall, you 13 can go and Essex County Court you can go in all 14 these places you just have to have a mask on. I 15 don't know if you want a person has to be vaccinated 16 to come in the building or something, I don't know 17 what you want to say. I go to the shows last time 18 you had to be vaccinated to go in there. I am going 19 to say you have to be vaccinated or maybe come up 20 with a better plan because that is tacky. Any other 21 building you can walk in the building, you know, so 22 I mean just come up with a better plan. The 23 security system there was a resolution that y'all 24 bent me over backwards about doors and everything 25 that we spent six hundred seventy-five thousand 85 1 dollars, you know, remember the resolution. 2 MR. ROUSE: Yes. So we have I think 3 your question was how much do we have paid to date. 4 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: First, where 5 is it. 6 MR. ROUSE: That's the -- 7 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: It was 8 resolution H-20 -- I'm sorry, I said it wrong for 9 doors, locks. Where is the stuff at, where is it 10 at? 11 MR. ROUSE: The system has been in 12 place. All sites have been finished. Only thing 13 now remains are the printing of the badges. 14 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Nobody is 15 using it. It is the same way we come in the door, 16 where is it. I mean y'all bent me over backwards. 17 Y'all made a special meeting for this, remember 18 that. It was for a certain door locks and security 19 and I don't see it, but have we spent this money? 20 MR. ROUSE: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Have we gave 22 them the six hundred ten thousand? 23 MR. ROUSE: Yes. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We gave them 25 the money. 86 1 MR. ROUSE: The program has been 2 installed. 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Where it is, 4 it's not installed. 5 MR. ROUSE: It's installed, 6 Commissioner. 7 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I went into 8 two of them. They bring them in and tell you where 9 to go. 10 MR. ROUSE: It is installed. Only 11 thing we are waiting for now are the badges to be 12 completed. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We paid these 14 people six hundred something thousand and this thing 15 is not working. 16 MR. ROUSE: It is in the process. Let 17 me say this. We have people in place that was 18 handling this process who are no longer with us who 19 are no longer working with us. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We paid six 21 hundred thousand dollars on something that y'all 22 convinced me on which I thought was a good idea 23 because that stopped a lot of problems. When the 24 people come in they have to show their ID, they get 25 a tag and when they come out they have to get the 87 1 tag back so you know how long the person is in 2 there. Y'all sold me on it. 3 MR. ROUSE: It also stopped a lot of 4 issues because the doors are hooked up. People 5 can't get in and out. We can't have people coming 6 in the side doors and things like that. 7 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I have been to 8 two of your sites. I didn't see it nowhere. What 9 is the name of the site, I will ride by tomorrow. 10 MR. ROUSE: All the seniors sites with 11 the exception of Kretchmer is hooked up. 12 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I was there at 13 800, 815 today. 14 MR. ROUSE: Sixth Street, yes, it's 15 there. It's just waiting for more I.D.s. 16 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: It is not 17 functional. 18 MR. ROUSE: The doors are functional. 19 We are waiting on the cards. The doors are 20 functional. 21 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We spent that 22 money. Like the Mod situation we have three hundred 23 six. Khalif is going to answer this question, 24 Khalif Thomas, how we going to get this Mod because 25 the Chairman is messed up because he found out -- he 88 1 found out we had six hundred empty apartments. 2 MR. THOMAS: A lot of vacancies we had 3 which is in Mod. Senior sites there was a couple 4 conversations what we are going to do is on the 5 financial side we are trying to like preliminary 6 speaking we are trying to expand Local 55 to make 7 sure we have a zero vacancy rate in those senior 8 buildings first and then we will start lifting the 9 other areas. 10 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Khalif, you 11 know we trust each other. How long it is going to 12 take you to do this, clear this up, how long? 13 MR. THOMAS: I can't answer that. 14 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Maybe a year. 15 MR. THOMAS: Hopefully, Local 55 did a 16 hundred and ten units so I will try to do math based 17 on those units. 18 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: They did a 19 hundred ten from where to where? 20 MR. THOMAS: October. They did a 21 hundred and ten units. I will compare those numbers 22 to see how long it takes to turnover a unit. 23 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Thank you. 24 COMMISSIONER COSTA: I want to ask 25 something. After the Force Account turns these 89 1 units let's say for the senior building, what is the 2 plan to make sure that six months later we don't 3 have twenty, thirty vacancies in the these buildings 4 again? 5 MR. THOMAS: After we do the initial 6 repairs to try to get it turned over to get to zero, 7 we have to work with our on-site staff to keep up 8 with the preventative maintenance and routine 9 maintenance on these units so we don't have to go 10 back to those high vacancy rates. 11 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Okay. 12 MR. THOMAS: That's the plan. 13 COMMISSIONER COSTA: That needs to be 14 in place so we can focus on other priorities. 15 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Why did 16 Kretchmer get an F and everybody else passed in 17 certifications? 18 MR. ROUSE: They wasn't the only one 19 that get an F, but the report reflects -- 20 recertification reflects the F because we have a lot 21 of folks. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Riverside, why 23 did they all get an F? 24 MR. ROUSE: Because we have people in 25 legal and the way the Board report comes to you is 90 1 that it includes all of those who are in legal as 2 well. 3 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: They owe a 4 certain amount of rent? 5 MR. ROUSE: Or they didn't show up for 6 recertification. That means it ends up in legal and 7 that gives them an F. So we talked to IT. We are 8 going to work with IT to change that so you will 9 have a column on the Board report that says legal so 10 that it won't be an F because once it is in legal 11 they're technically not responsible for that. 12 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: All right. So 13 I remember I was going on tour and I was over 14 Broadway, what is that site? 15 MR. ROUSE: North Point, Trenton 16 Terrace. 17 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: The two young 18 ladies when I walked, wait a minute, y'all used to 19 be at Kretchmer. They are over here now. Did you 20 replace them at Kretchmer. 21 MR. ROUSE: People were transferred. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Did you 23 replace those two over there at Kretchmer? 24 MR. ROUSE: There is one person at 25 Kretchmer now. 91 1 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: James C. White 2 is the only one that had a passing grade in 3 collecting money. You did better ninety percent 4 overall, but why James C. White is the only one that 5 is collecting money? I know you got a problem with 6 the mixed units. 7 MR. ROUSE: James C. White wasn't a 8 senior site. James C. White always been making sure 9 they pay their rent. The reason why you see that on 10 the Board rent, again, is because of the clinic. We 11 went rent overall for the month of September we had 12 ninety percent rent collection for the agency 13 overall, but you will see that F in there because of 14 the delinquent rent and we are working on making 15 sure that those who owe rent be placed on a payment 16 plan, apply for the rental assistance and also we 17 are working with the City on an MOU to receive that 18 as well. When you see that again, that is because 19 of the delinquent rent. We have delinquent renters. 20 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: You moved up. 21 It was to ninety percent. 22 MR. ROUSE: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will give 24 you props. I just don't know why. Sam, this 25 agreement we have with the City water, are we still 92 1 doing this agreement? You want to look at this 2 agreement. Is there anything, do we still pay them 3 on a monthly basis? 4 MR. MOOLAYIL: We pay that, but the 5 City never sent us back. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: This agreement 7 is really no good, right? 8 MR. CIRILO: What agreement is that? 9 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: For the water. 10 So are we paying them anything on a monthly basis? 11 MR. MOOLAYIL: The last payment we 12 made was in December, end of December we made the 13 last payment. 14 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We ain't paid 15 them in a year? 16 MR. MOOLAYIL: No. 17 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Come on, 18 Chairman, I thought we were paying them on a monthly 19 basis. 20 MR. MOOLAYIL: Again, the last Board 21 resolution passed. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Where is the 23 money at we are supposed to be paying? Where is the 24 money? 25 MR. MOOLAYIL: You put it on hold on 93 1 that. 2 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I'm good, 3 Chairman. Chairman, I don't know if we could do it 4 today, but I want to have an executive session 5 because I want to ask about something, but I don't 6 want to ask while in public. 7 MR. CIRILO: We can have the executive 8 session today, sure. 9 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Just the Board 10 members. 11 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Khalif and 12 Pastor Rouse. 13 MS. BROWN: No pastor, Mr. Rouse. 14 MR. CIRILO: We can't close the 15 meeting until after the Executive Session. 16 We will ask the members of the general 17 public to step out because we are on Facebook right 18 now. So we have to pause Facebook as well. 19 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: We are going 20 to have Khalif. Khalif is not here, right? 21 MR. THOMAS: No. 22 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: And legal. 23 (Whereupon, the Board went into 24 Executive Session.) 25 (Whereupon, the Board reconvened into 94 1 Public Session.) 2 MR. MENA: If there are no other 3 issues, we will entertain a motion to adjourn. 4 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: I will make a 5 motion to adjourn. 6 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will second. 7 MR. CIRILO: On the motion to adjourn, 8 are we live, one second. 9 Okay, Commissioner Gonzalez has 10 joined. We are back live. 11 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Roll call for 12 adjournment. 13 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: I will make a 14 motion. 15 COMMISSIONER COSTA: I will second. 16 MR. CIRILO: Motion for adjournment, 17 Commissioner Logan. 18 Commissioner Baez. 19 Commissioner Costa. 20 COMMISSIONER COSTA: Yes. 21 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Gonzalez. 22 COMMISSIONER GONZALEZ: Yes. 23 MR. CIRILO: Commissioner Muhammad. 24 COMMISSIONER MUHAMMAD: Yes. 25 MR. CIRILO: Chairman Osborne. 95 1 CHAIRMAN OSBORNE: Yes. 2 MR. CIRILO: The motion passes. 3 Meeting is adjourned. 4 5 (Whereupon, the proceedings were 6 concluded at 6:50 p.m.) 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 96 1 C E R T I F I C A T E 2 3 I, ANTHONY HOFMANN, a Certified Court 4 Reporter, and Notary Public within and for the State 5 of New Jersey, certify that the foregoing is a true 6 and accurate transcript of the stenographic notes of 7 said witness(es)who were first duly sworn by me, on 8 the date and place hereinbefore set forth. 9 10 11 12 ___________________________ ANTHONY HOFMANN, C.C.R. 13 LICENSE NO. XIO1854 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25