10/09/2008

HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO Minutes of Commission Meeting Thursday, October 09, 2008

440 Turk Street San Francisco, California

A Regular meeting of the Housing Authority Commission of the City and County of San Francisco met at 440 Turk Street, San Francisco, California, on Thursday, October 09, 2008, at 4:00 p.m.

President A. Brown called the meeting to order at 4:08 p.m.

1.

ROLL CALL PRESENT:

Rev. Amos Brown, President Neola Gans, Vice President(arrived at 4:30) Jane Hsu, Commissioner Millard Larkin, Commissioner Dwayne Jones, Commissioner Matthew Schwartz, Commissioner

NOT PRESENT:

George R. Brown, Commissioner

A quorum was present.

ALSO PRESENT: 2.

Mr. Henry A. Alvarez III, Executive Director Mr. Roger Crawford, Assistant General Counsel

APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Larkin moved to approve the agenda. Commissioner Schwartz seconded the motion. This request was approved unanimously.

3.

GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS Henry Alvarez, Secretary and Executive Director, combined the General Communications and the Secretary’s Report by informing the Commissioners of several documents including a letter from the Office of the Inspector General which stated that the SFHA was in full compliance with the HUD Requirements for the housing Choice Voucher Program as well as a memo to the Commissioners regarding the trial run of the Madvac litter removal system.

Commission Meeting Minutes October 09, 2008 Page 2 4.

REPORT OF SECRETARY This Report was combined with the General Communications.

5.

COMMITTEE REPORTS There were no Committee Reports.

6.

REPORT OF GENERAL COUNSEL Roger Crawford, Assistant General Counsel informed the Commissioners that there will be a closed session to discuss pending litigation, personnel issues and labor negotiations

7.

TENANT REPRESENTATIVE REPORT Bill Vitale President of City Wide Council informed the Commissioners that there was trouble in the senior disabled buildings including increased criminal elements as well as troubles with custodians.

8.

PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEMS There were no Public Comments on Agenda Items

9.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS There was no unfinished business.

10.

NEW BUSINESS

A) CONSENT AGENDA NOTE: All matters listed hereunder constitute a Consent Agenda, are considered to be routine by the San Francisco Housing Authority Board and will be acted upon by a single vote of the Authority Board. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the Authority Board so request, in which event the matter shall be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered as a separate item.

1) APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2008

Commissioner Schwartz moved to amend the minutes to state that after recusing himself at the last meeting, he returned during Item B5 on the approved agenda.

He then went on and moved to approve the Consent Agenda. Commissioner Jones seconded the motion. This motion was approved unanimously.

B) ACTION ITEMS

Commission Meeting Minutes October 09, 2008 Page 3 1) RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO ENTER INTO A TWO-YEAR CONTRACT WITH AMTECH SAN FRANCISCO ELEVATOR TO PROVIDE FULL ELEVATOR AND WHEELCHAIR LIFT MAINTENANCE SERVICES AND EMERGENCY REPAIRS FOR ALL DEVELOPMENTS IN A TOTAL AMOUNT OF $565,000 FOR TWO YEARS WITH THE SECOND YEAR SUBJECT TO CONTRACTOR’S PERFORMANCE AND AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS

John Wilkinson, Director of Central Services presented this Resolution. He informed the Commissioners that staff went through the normal procurement procedures and Amtech was the most desirable candidate. Amtech has worked with SFHA for the past 5 years on other elevator contracts.

Commissioner Jones wanted to know the resident hiring history. Chris, representing Amtech, informed the Commission that they have hired residents in the past and they currently have an open position for a warehouse driver. She informed the Commission that Amtech works closely with staff from Resident Services to hire residents for their projects.

Commissioner Larkin wanted to know what the turn around time was for repairing an elevator. Chris informed the Commission that it depends solely on the type of repair that is needed. She informed the Commissioners that she is in constant contact with Maintenance to complete each job. Commissioner Larkin wanted to know the overall status of our elevators. Chris informed the Commissioners that a senior mechanic informed her that he didn’t foresee any major repairs in the near future.

Commissioner Larkin moved to approve this item. Commissioner Jones seconded the motion. This resolution was approved unanimously.

2) RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SUSPEND TENANT MAINTENANCE CHARGES FOR FY 2009.

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Anthony Ihejeto, Director of Public Housing, presented this Resolution. He informed the Commissioners that the finance department as well as public housing operations decided to suspend the maintenance charges for FY 2009. The objective is to improve the arrearages in tenant accounting by eliminating maintenance charges. Cheryl Taylor, Administrator of Finance informed the Commissioners that initially SFHA anticipated an budget of $153,000 or maintenance charges revenue which only works out to .03% of the overall revenue for the public housing program. She suggested that this can be off set by expense side deductions.

Commissioner Jones wanted to know how long we have been charging residents for maintenance repairs. Mr. Ihejeto informed him that the tenants had been charged for a long time.

Commissioner Jones recommended that we review the SFHA method of identifying the sites that are in good conditions verses bad condition with the intention of extending the suspension past one fiscal year. Commissioner Jones wanted to know if these maintenance charges were added

Commission Meeting Minutes October 09, 2008 Page 4 into the arrearages for the eviction process. Mr. Ihejeto informed the Commissioner that maintenance charges were not included in the legal process for evictions.

Commissioner Schwartz wanted to make sure that this policy was differentiated by building and condition. Commissioner Larkin commended staff for thinking of this suspension. He also wanted to know the percentage of residents who will be effected by suspending these fees. Ms. Taylor informed him that she would look into the database and get this information for him.

During this time, President Brown accepted a public comment on this item. Yolanda Wilkinson informed the Commission that she thought this was a good resolution and she applauded Mr. Alvarez for assisting her with her maintenance issues.

Commissioner Schwartz moved to approve this item. Commissioner Jones seconded the motion.

This Resolution was approved unanimously.

3) RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO ENTER INTO CONTRACTS WITH THREE CONTRACTORS FOR REHABILITATION OF VACANT APARTMENTS AT FAMILY DEVELOPMENTS FOR AN AGGREGATE AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $1,500,000 FROM THE 2008 CAPITAL FUND PROGRAM

Barbara Smith, Administrator of Modernization and Housing Development as well as Cheryl Taylor, Administrator of Finance presented this Resolution to the Commissioners. Ms. Smith informed the Commission that SFHA has a large number of families that have been waiting for two to three months for units that they have pre-leased. Most of these families have been relocated due to high priority administrative transfers such as victims of domestic violence, residents in witness protection or residents who have been threatened etc. She informed the Commissioners that we need to work as fast as possible to house these residents as well as residents on the waiting list. Of the 360 vacant units, 184 are pre-leased and that translates to about 500 adults and children who are ready to move into these units.

These contracts allow us to rehad these units faster. Our maintenance and force accounts are unable to fix up these additional units due to the high work volume they already have and we are unable to hire more workers because of resources that the SFHA doesn’t currently have. The scope for the work is extensive and many of the units require revitalization including new flooring and addition of showers. These funds are approved in the capitol fund budget with 25% of the work force hours being used for resident hiring on these projects.

Mr. Taylor identified some of the fiscal impacts of not approving this Resolution. She informed the Commission that these units cost SFHA approximately $56,000 per month that they stay vacant. That is $670,000 annually and the number grows as we keep more units vacant.

During this time President A. Brown accepted a public comment from Raquel Silva, representing MEA. Ms. Silva informed the Commissioners that the union has been in contact with the Authority and President Brown regarding this matter. She expressed her concern for this Resolution and asked that the Commission put this item over for another Commission Meeting. Commissioner Brown informed Ms. Silva that he had not been in contact with anyone

Commission Meeting Minutes October 09, 2008 Page 5 from any union and he stated that we are challenged economically and we need to make this item a priority in order to get some of our resident housed.

Commissioner Schwartz questioned if we are violating any contracts with the unions that Ms. Silva was referring to. Roger Crawford informed the Commission that we are in full compliance with all union contracts and that we are not legally violating the contracts. Commissioner Jones then moved to approve this item. Commissioner Larkin seconded the motion. This Resolution was approved unanimously.

4) RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO ENTER INTO A TWOYEAR CONTRACT FOR $200,000, WITH WOOD RODGERS INC. TO PROVIDE CIVIL ENGINEERING SERVICES ON AN AS-NEEDED, TASK ASSIGNMENT BASIS FOR ALL DEVELOPMENTS

Alicia Sisca, Construction Services manager for Housing Development presented this Resolution to the Commissioners. She informed the Commission that SFHA currently has projects that require civil engineering improvements such as building site improvements, accessible sidewalk improvements etc. The current contract has expired so awarding this contract will allow us to continue the engineering work which includes providing recommendations, provide cost estimates, and pull building permits. The consultants provide professional guidance on prioritizing modernization needs which ensures that our residents are in safe environments.

Wood Rodgers agrees to the resident hiring requirements and has followed all the appropriate procurement rules.

Vice President Gans moved to approve this item. Commissioner Hsu seconded the motion. This Resolution was passed unanimously.

5) INFORMATIONAL PRESENTATION: STUDENTS AND VOLUNTEERS ENGAGED FOR RENT RELIEF (SAVERR) PROGRAM

Cheryl Taylor presented this informational item to the Commission. She highlighted the ideas of the program, which include providing incentives for families who stay current with their rent.

Some of the incentives include relieving a month of rent for a resident with a school-aged child who maintains a certain GPA or a resident who volunteers in an approved program. Residents have to be current on their rent and portions of the residents rent balance would be relieved if they met the requirements of the program. Ms. Taylor requested approval or suggestions from the Commissioners on the program before SFHA went forward with outlining a policy and program.

Mr. Vitale wanted to make sure that the SAVERRS program was a universal program that could be utilized by seniors and residents without children. Ms. Taylor informed him that she would make sure SFHA and its partners worked with City-Wide Counsel to get the help detailing the program.

Mr. Alvarez informed the Commission that this would be the first program of its kind to be introduced to any housing authority. All Commissioners applauded staff for thinking of this program and looked forward to seeing it come to them as a full Resolution for approval.

Commission Meeting Minutes October 09, 2008 Page 6 Commissioner Larkin moved to have further information on the item and Commissioner Gans seconded the motion. This item was moved unanimously.

11.

PUBLIC COMMENTS ON ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA

John Dorsey, President of the Tenants Association at 1880 Pine Street, informed the Commissioners of the state of the windows and informed them that the windows had not been washed in 14 years. He also requested a buffer for the custodian in the building.

Demetria Page, Vice President of Valencia Gardens wanted to clarify if the SAVERSS program included the Hope VI projects. Mr. Alvarez informed her that it would include all Hope VI sites.

Deva Youngblood, spoke on the Hunters View Relocation Plan and she urged the Commission to review this Plan.

Leotis Martin spoke on the Hunters View Relocation Plan and requested that the Commission make sure to include the President of the Tenants Association in all negotiations for the Plan.

Tessie Esther, President of the Tenants Association in Hunters View, spoke on the Hunters View Relocation Plan and wanted to thank the authority for bring staff to the property to answer residents questions. She also wanted to make sure that all the Tenant Associations were included in the outreach and meetings regarding the Plan.

John Carella, representing Bay Area Legal Aid spoke to the Commission regarding the Hunters View Relocation Plan. He informed the Commission that a primary concern and issue of the residents was the right to return. He stated that he would be working with these concerned residents to draft a letter to the Commission for consideration.

Cynthia Morse, Vice President of City-wide Counsel, spoke to the Commission about several items including violence, custodians, eligibility and the issues with the private security.

12.

COMMISSIONERS COMMENTS AND REPORT

At this time Kimberly Hill-Brown arrived at the meeting and reported on a resident meeting at Bernal Dwellings, her support for the SAVERRS Program, and her issues with the Family Developments. She also updated the Commissioners on the NOAAH Conference stating that it was very informative and inspirational to all the participants.

Vice President Gans requested a report on the Resident Participation Fund and wanted information on who is in charge of maintaining those funds.

Commissioner Larkin applauded staff for the hard work that is being done in the community.

Commissioner Schwartz informed the Commission of the NAHRO Conference for the Southwest Pacific chapter. He also informed the Commissioners that he attended a Summit on

Commission Meeting Minutes October 09, 2008 Page 7 the Future of Public Housing in Washington DC. and stated that there is an effort to put together a plan to change the way public housing is funded.

13.

CLOSED SESSION A Closed Session was scheduled with the Executive Director and Agency Counsel under Government Code Section 54957 (b) (1), 54956.9, 54957.6 to update the Commission on personnel issues, pending litigation and labor negotiations. The Commission went into Closed Session at 5:45 p.m.

14.

RECONVENING OF COMMISSION MEETING The Commission reconvened from Closed Session at 6:32 pm. Mr. Crawford stated that President A. Brown, Vice President Gans, Commissioner Hsu, Commissioner Larkin, Commissioner Schwartz and Commissioner Jones were present. No decisions were made.

16.

ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Commission, Commissioner Larkin moved to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Schwartz seconded the motion. President A. Brown adjourned the Commission Meeting of October 09, 2008, at 6:33 p.m.

Henry A. Alvarez III, Secretary/ Executive Director

Rev. Amos Brown, President