[Katherine Buckingham]: Hello everyone, we've got a quorum now, so I'm going to begin recording the meeting.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Thank you for your patience while we meet quorum here.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: The meeting of the recording in progress for August 13 to order. I just said all of that. That happens. We'll do it one more time calling the meeting to order. Do a little bit of a roll call. We've got Kayla here, Roberta. Terry? Penny? Here. Mayor? Madam Mayor? Present. Lisa? Here. Okay. And then we are going to, did we want to do the minutes first or do we want to do the- Let me just jump to the presentation first. All right, perfect. Thank you. So we're going to take a couple of things out of order today. We're going to move on to, jump right to either four, Yes, Item 4, 703 Fellsway West funded inquiry. As indicated in the email staff sent from the city, the city staff sent, the developers of 703 Fellsway West will be providing a present project and anticipated request for funding.
[David Brosnan]: Great. All right. Well, thank you, Madam Mayor and Madam Chair. My name is David Brosnan, and I am a board member and an officer. I'm the treasurer of Metro Community Housing. Also joining us is our president, Henry Grappa. Good evening, everyone. He is remote, as you can see. The purpose of our presentation tonight is to explore the possibility of getting a few more dollars to finish up our project at 703 Fellsway West. Our project is very close to final completion, and we are frankly, still getting the bills in from, on both the hard costs, the construction side and the soft costs side, the consultants and the various design professionals that we've had to engage to get it going. I hope not to take up very much of your time tonight. I can give you a little bit of the history of the project. This project was first thought up back in, I think, 2018 or 2019. Our original presentations to the CPC, to the North Suburban Home Consortium, and to the bank, which was then Century Bank. It's now Eastern Bank, were made in 2019. Funding was approved in 2022. Construction started midway through the year in 2023. And the construction end has run into, quite frankly, a few snags, a few overruns. And we've been working very hard with the contractor to try to keep costs under control. At one point, our project was kind of, we decided that we would, in understanding with the contractor, we worked to, set aside some of our gripes and some of their gripes and try to get the project done and push toward completion. We are now in the punch list. and just make sure it all meets with the specifications and the drawings that have been made. We did have to make some tough choices along the way. We had to kind of to control costs because costs have risen, frankly, during the time that the project has been going on. So this morning I ran some of the a computer here. I keep getting tongue tied on this. The consumer product, consumer, what are they? Calculator. And we looked at it at three milestones. So since we signed the contract with the contractor, So part of this is inflation driven. So project driven, and we can talk about the project stuff later. But since we signed the contract in 2023, we've had 5.9% inflation. Since we got our funding approved, 5%. Inflation. And since we wrote the pro forma that has been circulated to everyone, we've had 20.9%. Requesting will be roughly 12% or about $200,000 if it's agreeable to the board. We are certainly willing to talk about that. uh from our point of view to see that we could pay the deal with the change orders that have come through and also recoup some of the soft costs that have been on so we pay an architect uh, to be our site eyes and ears and to look at things. And he, um, he actually assembled the punch lists, um, that you've seen. Hey, you know, he's indispensable to the project and, uh, he came in at a very critical time. Um, he, he, he's a terrific, um, has a terrific eye for things and has given us excellent service and advice, but he sends a bill every month. And as long as the project goes on, he'll be doing that. So that's one example of a project driven cost. Other examples are the fact that certain things that were specified on the drawings by the designing architect, Don Valenti, are no longer made or are no longer available. We look for something of equivalent quality and value. And oftentimes, we are finding that it's costing more to do that. We have had to We've had to make some decisions. And one example of that is the flooring. We have vinyl sheet flooring in every room of the building except for the bathrooms, which have ceramic tile, and maybe the front lobby, which is going to have a heavy duty carpet that will clean your shoes as you walk in. And there have been, I'll be very honest, it seems to have been, this one, a tough project. The site was very tough. We thought, initially, the excavation went very well, up where we were expecting all the ledge to be, at the back of the lot. But where we ran into the real excavation fight, where we were running into ledge all the time, was kind of down toward the sidewalk. And when we were trying to get utility lines through. And that turned into just a lot of stops and starts. We can discuss any of this, but We think that we've been prudent in the things that we've done. One other thing that when our last winter early this year, when things were stalled, we did sit down with the contractor and her attorney and with Henry, we negotiated a memorandum of understanding that I've included with the contract, to make sure that we had an enforceable target date and some consequence if the target date wasn't met. Now, in a perfect world, we'd be collecting money every day. Unfortunately, we can't hold our contractor responsible for National Grid. And National Grid is the one that we've still got here. National Grid has not hooked up to power. Their legal team told us earlier this year that they've changed the way that they want to bring power onto our site. the house next door that we own, the power came into the back of the house. National Grid is now planning, and we expect it to happen within days of this meeting. If everything we're told comes out right, and this is in fact what will be the case, they plan to put a new utility pole right on the corner or next to our lot out on the Pell's Way. They have to arrange a state police detail to do that. And they're going to connect our power to that. That alone caused the change order because the electrician now had to bring the electric service connection out back to the house. And I can regale you with But we think that this project will get done very quickly after the power is hooked up. We wish to invite everyone to our grand opening. And we would respectfully ask you to consider a grant of $200,000 or up to $200,000 on this. And we would be happy to entertain any comments or questions that you have. We understand You're not going to decide this tonight, but we're certainly happy to provide any information you need. We've downloaded the application, and it was just my own schedule prevented me from getting it complete in time for the... Our recollection is three units, Do you restrict it in perpetuity? Yes, yes. So we have just about all of our funding, the bank requires that. And so we have one single bedroom unit and we have two three bedroom units. We believed at the time of design that the three bedroom unit was a lot better for families. They might have a boy or girl that they could. And we believe we're going to find a lot of applicants for this. We've engaged an affordable lottery agent fair marketing agent to assist us in this. And, um... And we saw, through the chair, we saw any other table grants that have gone back to home or... Well, from what we're getting from Malden on that, um, we've... We don't think there's any home money left, actually.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Did you file an application on the city's current CPC route?
[David Brosnan]: Well, we were in the process of doing that and we were encouraged maybe to make this stop first and to see because given the timeframes involved and given the the fact that we had already received grants from the CPC. And given their cycle of funding, we were, Catherine and Teresa encouraged us to explore this. And so this is our stop. As far as have we, have we looked at other things? Well, I can tell you, um, metric community housing has, has, um, if you look at the developers fee, well, We've spent a lot of that money trying to get the project done. So we're not gonna walk away with a lot of money in our treasury to spend. Our priority is to get this done, get tenants in there. And I would not presume to do so. The contractor on the last five requisitions has not marked up. overhead and profit on the project. So that is a significant amount of money between the two of us. And again, we think, you know, just judging at the bills that are coming in and the bills that we already have pending, And the amount we've spent on soft costs and on construction, the amount I've mentioned would just hit the sweet spot and put us in the right place. And we can, there are any other questions? I guess.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: There's a couple of questions here.
[Penelope Taylor]: I have some as well, but I'm gonna hold off. Penny? Yeah, thanks to the chair. kind of to your last point, I was wondering, you said the ask is a little conservative, so I just, I didn't all admit I got these documents right before, so if it's in them, I apologize, but. Well, they were just created right before. But will this finish the project? Is this what you need? Do you need, is this the real amount that you will need to complete this project and get all the finished?
[David Brosnan]: Books have not been closed on the project and won't be until every sub. And we also have a period of negotiation with the general contractor for what is covered by an allowance, what is a legitimate change order, and what is not. We have our opinions about those things. We are not going to pay the contractor for doing rework. of things that were found to be unacceptable. And we are not going to pay for things we've already paid for once. So all of those things have to be scrutinized. And we are going to look at those very hard and try to get that number down as low as possible. We know that there's no bottomless pit of money, and no one's more aware of it than we are. But the project is at like 98% right now of completion. So if you, and we invite you to do so, if you want to come to the site, give me a call and I'll walk you through. There are three apartments there with appliances. and I think locks on the doors as of today, and running water. And the only thing we don't have is working electricity off the street yet, where we're kind of patching the power through from our adjacent property. But, Henry, I don't know if you have, The email that we got from the contract showing some pictures of some of the punch list items that were being completed in the last couple of days.
[Henry Rappa]: I can certainly try to pull that up. I want to jump in with a couple of quick things too before we get into the question period. These are going to be local action units. I'm told by our lottery agent that they have already approved the marketing plan.
[David Brosnan]: And- So DHCD has approved that, is that- Yes, correct. Okay.
[Henry Rappa]: And one of the things I wanted to point out to the trustees is that we really kept a lid on all Costs David and myself have given a lot countless hours of free time to the project. I have done all the legal work. with the contractor's attorney without cost. David has been over there practically every week at meetings. We've really kept a tight grip on it. Our executive director retired. We did not fill that petition because we've used whatever free cash we've had to pour back into the project. I would shudder to think if we actually, David's experience in construction, I am as well. Because of that, we've been able really to keep things on track. We've picked up problems before they could become more of an issue. When the zip board was installed in the spring of 2024, The zip board sent by the supplier had mold on it and it was installed. The contractor had to remove it and reinstall it at her expense. David and I frequently were at this project trying to make sure things stayed on the rails. So, when we're coming in asking for more money, I do want all of you to understand that it wasn't as any result of not budgeting properly or not watching things. We made some good cuts when we could. The site was definitely challenging with the utilities. And just the general core inflation, as David said, this budget was set in 2022 with home. And the real problem we're seeing now, I know there was a question about did we go back to home. I shudder to think what's going to happen in the future with federal funding of projects like this. It seems to me like that's an adage of the past. You know, we try as a community housing organization to do something that some of the other affordable housing developers are not doing. We try to have units that will accommodate a family, that will allow for families to be part of the community. And a key point that David brought up is we're not even getting a semblance of the developer's fee that was anticipated in the beginning. And that developer's fee doesn't line anyone's pockets. A developer's fee is what helps our organizational bottom line. But again, that's where David and I running the organization without the executive director, we've been able to save that money for a period of eight months. It's helped us get through this period of of expenses. And really, you know, to the contractors, I give her credit too. I mean, she is not making anything on this project because the cost overruns had been, just the inflationary cost overruns had been a real problem for everybody. I think You know, doing it on a tight budget is a good thing, but this has been really challenging for us. And that's why we're coming back and asking for a bit more just to close out the books. Like David had said, we have a consultant who's been invaluable in making sure that the project went smoothly, that there were not errors, and he'd been on site checking to see that things have been done properly, so we can be proud of the project is built. So I just wanted to jump in with those points. And I know you have questions, and David is happy to answer them, and I am as well.
[David Brosnan]: And I'd just add to what Henry said, I'm not sure, well, this is an affordable housing trust, so you must be familiar with the term what percent of AMI area mean income, median income. These units are intended for 60% AMI, which is far lower in amount of income than most developers who throw a few affordable units into a much larger development. They tend to be up around 75, 80%, if not more of AMI. So we think we're doing a service and we think we've held the line as far as we possibly could. I don't think we'd be responsible. if we didn't try to make sure that the books were balanced and try to close it out as efficiently as possible.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Did you have any other questions? Any, Caleb, do you have any questions? No, I think that's it. I do. So thank you. You answered my question about AMIs. So I'm glad to hear 60% AMI. Glad to hear the tenant selection plan has been approved. And it sounds like HLC has approved the tenant selection plan. Is that what I heard? HLC Housing and Community Living Development.
[David Brosnan]: State agency, DHC.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Last known as DHCD.
[David Brosnan]: They change those letters all the time.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. Who approved the tenant selection plan?
[Henry Rappa]: My understanding is I still call him DHC CD as well, but it's been approved by the appropriate successor agency to that what we use services for our housing lottery agent. I. Explain to them in depth, and I believe Catherine Buckingham has been fabulous. She's helped a lot with that. We've got the local action unit application. Everything the affordable housing restriction, which was recorded at the time of her financing. D. H. well, the new agency is reviewing that I've worked with them before on a few occasions. To put things together in quick order, so it's my understanding. We should be ready to start advertising before leasing these units out because obviously for us, we want 2 things. We want to get people into this lovely new building. We also want to be able to get some of the rental stream. They help carry cover our carrying costs. I mean, obvious we're still paying insurance and taxes and utilities on this structure. We want to get people in there. And the good news is, you know, I'm told we're moving along at a very quick pace on that, which is something that I'm relieved at, because I really need this building occupied by, say, late October.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: I think that would be ideal. The question was asked about home money, and I heard that it sounds like Malden says there's no more home money. Is that because you've reached the maximum allowed for maximum subsidy per unit for this development, or is there just no more home money available?
[David Brosnan]: We have not checked on what the current maximum subsidy per unit is right now.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: It goes back to the date of the poll memo.
[David Brosnan]: Then we did, we did max that out.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: That's why there's no more funding available.
[David Brosnan]: But Paul Goldstein this morning told me, and I was, I was kind of asking, you know, you know, to include people when we, when we finally open the place. I asked, is there anyone in the Boston POT office? He says, I don't think there's anyone left. the bus there is there is there's at least one person i don't know she's visiting there but so that was kind of surprising to me because i i think they do they do a lot uh and uh i i'm not well i will hope yeah that's funny opinion
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: No, we'll, we'll keep this here. I've got a couple more questions and I apologize, but I'm looking at everything and you say you've got an estimate of $200,000 to get this through the finish line and everybody don't get me wrong. Like I, everybody, we're here to create housing. We're here to put in people in affordable housing, but looking at it and looking at the numbers and you know, your contract. here that you shared with us is the same amount of your MOU. And what I read through the MOU was it was stopped because of getting, because of price increases, right?
[David Brosnan]: Well, I would say we got to a point with, The contractor was not moving expeditiously. The project was behind schedule significantly. There were some disagreements with the contractor about what we would pay for and what we would not pay for. And there was, at the time, some discussion about, you know, is this worth finishing? And we came to the decision that we did not want to leave a half-finished building there. We did not see that getting, trying to go after the contractor's bond or firing the contractor and trying to bring a new contractor in. The advice we got after, talking to people we know and and and what was that we would double the cost of what was remaining you know if we had spent half the money at that point we'd need much much more than we're talking about we're probably talking now about you know, probably seven or eight hundred thousand dollars that we'd have to add to our budget because of that. So. Because the contractors would simply mark up the price because they were walking into a bad situation. Had we tried to approach it from a point of putting a claim against the bonds? Well, our What we found out there was that the first thing the insurance company, who writes the bond, would do would be to try to mediate the whole situation. And we said, well, we don't need to go through all that exercise. We can sit down with the contractor ourselves, and we can work it. So to get this project up and going again, and to push it toward completion, Metric community housing had to set aside a few of our gripes. And the contractor had to set aside a few of their things. What greatly encouraged us to move on this path was that, as you see in the MOU, the contractor agreed that other than certain defined areas, that the bulk of the project would be delivered under the original contract amount. And that is why we stayed with that contractor and pursued the memo of understanding. And even at that, here I am today.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: I appreciate you walking me through one more time. National grid, it sounds, so through this, if they didn't meet their target date, after, I think it was June 16th, a $500 fine, I'm going to call it. I believe it's $250 a day.
[David Brosnan]: I'm not sure it's $500. Yep, $500. Results in liquidated damages of $500 for each calendar day after June 16th is what I see here.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: You're saying that part of it, you can't charge them for something that they have no control over. That's national grade. So my question is how much of this $200,000 is actually associated with, let me rephrase that question. How much of these punch lists can get done? And does any of these punch list items associate with this additional $200,000?
[David Brosnan]: I don't think it's broken out in quite that way. I think we're seeing, and those that are piling up, I don't think it's a matter of them get, I mean, the punch list items will be done imminently almost irrespective of this. It is not, you can see there is a section of the punch list that's national grid related things.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: But what I guess, I guess my, I want to be clear in my question, right? Because I understand that this project has been going on. I understand that it's been speed bumps and there are hiccups going on with the development, inflation going on with the development. There's, If I did my math correctly, it is over $460,000 per unit of subsidy that went into the property, what is going into the property. I'm looking at this and it says that if it's not completed by the date of, I think it is June, completion date of June 10th. And I understand like there are some things that are beyond the control, but when you think about completion date, according to the MOU says that includes the, and the punch, there's quite some, there's still a lot of items here that are not necessarily related to the national grid. So I'm just thinking about dollars. I'm just thinking about, you know, you all are taking, just taking a big hunk of it already with your developers fee, developers sounds like, There may be some sort of understanding with the contractor that you're not going to get hit with other other bills like it doesn't sound like that. It sounds like they're they're not other bills that they're they're. Labor and stuff, they're staying within costs, right?
[Henry Rappa]: With the exception of change orders that may have been necessitated by different circumstances. We definitely had more issues with the utilities in the lower part. I mean, that was, they had a really hard time getting the water line in. But basically what she agreed to do was hold the line on her costs and do what she was supposed to do at that charge. We run into the issue, as David was saying, we have other costs, additional architectural costs, additional consulting costs, things that have increased by inflation. We could make the change on the hardwood floor to the vinyl plank without in any way jeopardizing the integrity of the product. But there are some issues that we just can't. When I looked at it, and I looked at it from the substantial completion, Idea, she she does believe me. I've held her feet to the fire in that of her attorney She you know, we were up against home being right getting our last disbursement by a point in september or we weren't going to get it. We I held Both her attorney and her feet to the fire Really with putting some fear into them of what was going to happen This project didn't get done the substantial completion. They did a good job of getting close to that June 16th date. It should never have been that long. I'm the 1st to say it drove me crazy and took whatever here I had and made the rest fall out. But the reality is. A lot of the things now, like testing the fire department system, and the electrical services, and all of those things are really related to national grid holding us up. And another example that David had brought up was the moving of the electrical panel, because on the plans, it was supposed to be in the back. They were originally supposed to put a pole in the back. And then midstream, or not even midstream, at the end of the stream, they decided they were going to change the location of the pole. Which, you know, created the cost. And we're not the type of developer that can pass that on to the people who are renting or the purchasers of the units. It comes out of our pocket. Thankfully, you know, we had the developer fee. Well, we don't have the developer fee, but that acted as a cushion for us that we could. survive and pay a few things out of that and you know, we didn't have to retain legal counsel to deal with the contractor's attorney and David had done a lot of assistance when they were questions that came up about you know Structural things and water lines and things like that. He's able to give it expertise, you know, I'm always Cautious and we have to come back and ask for money because I never want I take David and I take a lot of this We would never want anyone to think we didn't do a good job with our original target and that we're off. I think between the inflation and between a few of the things that were really unforeseen, like the national grid, I don't know why they were so unreasonable. I don't know why they forced us to do it in the front. I don't know why they've taken so long. They also tied my hands because you make a good point. If I had all the electrical installed in there, then I can go to the contractor in good faith and say you missed a target date. But the first if I go after her, the first word her experienced attorney is going to say to me is you haven't delivered me electrical power yet.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: But Henry, I hear what you're saying and I can appreciate the national grid and the head of it that comes along with it because I experienced it in my day job as well. However, I'm looking at the thing and I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. It sounds like you guys have done a really good job at trying to mediate with your contractor, but I'm looking at this and it says that for the completion, In the completion of all punch list items identified by the consultant and taking off your electric, taking off anything that goes on with the national grid, there are items on this punch list that was provided today that are not associated with the national grid, right? So I understand that there's some things that are beyond your contractor's control, national grid beyond the contractor's control, but there are things on this punch list as dated. I guess it was dated 730, which is past June 16th. As of today, there are only a few highlighted items. Is there any movement? Is there any more negotiation that you can do with the contractor? I hear that you guys have been through the wringer already, just trying to think about dollars just trying to think about you know what ifs you know you gotta have a plan b what where's where's your plan b and going and having something where you have a document which i heard was enforceable for everything for everything except for things that are beyond their control the item number one uh procure and install hydraulic radiation units and stairwells, wash or dryer room. Does that have to do with national grid? Install panel board covers on apartments, sub-panel locations, intercoms, HM doors, install glass lights at HM doors and basement. Like some of these things are not necessarily associated with national grid items.
[David Brosnan]: True, some of them are not. What can be a little bit of a complicating factor with deadlines is that when there are approved change orders, change orders generally represent two things. First, a change in the contract amount. And second, a change in the deadline. Oftentimes, a change order will say, this will add so many days to the deadline.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: But you didn't supply that.
[David Brosnan]: I did not, because we have not been formally given all the change orders on the project just yet. And this is one of the things that we're trying to head off here.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: All right. Like I said, I'm just wrapping around the information that you provided, wrapping around the information that you shared with us. And, you know, things in writing, I just I want to get a full picture of the understanding. I'm looking at it as I'm speaking for me personally and not the trust. But when we're using public money to fund something. We want to make sure that we're using it responsibly. Again, when I say we, I mean me because I don't want to speak behind or anybody, but we want to make, I want to make sure it's being done responsibly and making sure it is. And I understand you guys have been through the ringer. I know about home. I know about the four year, uh, completion date and you guys are there. I'm coming out and by completion, it means rented, like units, like heartbeats in those units. The deadlines that you guys are up against. So I just wanted to let you know.
[Henry Rappa]: Home has been fairly accommodating with that. They're not forcing us to have it fully rented, which was a great relief because myself and the lottery agent, We're working feverishly under a lot of stress. And again, thank you to Catherine for helping us out so much with that. The home is going to make the last requisition payment, which, again, we all know with Washington, I was concerned if we didn't get that last payment, the next fiscal year, we may never have gotten it. And then we would have had, and the contractor was made well aware of these things too. Last December was a very tense time, to say the least, with her and her attorney. And David and I had, as he alluded to, we had some long conversations. And as they say, the devil you know sometimes is better than the devil you don't. She was compliant in the end, delivered a good product. I'm personally a little annoyed that we had the delays we did because it created a lot of stress on David and myself. but that's, I'm at least proud that we have a product that we can be using to help people in the community. With respect to your question on the damages penalty in that MOU, That is something when change orders come up and she's going to have change orders. We're well aware of that. That that is something that is going to be negotiated as part of change or she she's going to have more change orders than what we're coming in asking for. We're asking for the absolute least that we think we can use to complete out of this. I, it's not. I wanna make clear to the trustees, we're not coming in asking for more to give her more. We're asking for more just so we can get out of this without owing 200 grand that we don't have. She's not gonna get a blank check out of this.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: No, I appreciate that. And that's not what I was suggesting. So if that was the perception, please, that's not the perception. That's not what I intended, excuse me. I'm just looking at the documents, right? And when a completion, when something is completed and when something says that completion is all punch list items, that includes to me in my head, the way I interpret it is I've already got my change orders. I've already paid all of the things. I'm probably only holding back 10% of each funding source that is coming into play so that there's not a gift, right? So it's, I hear the pickle that you're in and I can appreciate the pickle. I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. Again, you have an agreement that is supposed to be somewhat, somewhat has some teeth to it and change orders are still coming in and things are still happening and the punch lists that are here is not all associated with a national grid. Therefore, I want, I, can you tell me why at least? Go ahead.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: To the chair, maybe since I think I heard earlier that we might not be voting on this tonight, maybe we should wait for full, full board anyway, and we, a little more time to review the documents, but maybe we can just make a list of what you want to see or what we want to see for that, for David and to provide us before we take information, that they maybe have some time to gather and can get us a full picture. That sounds like a good thing. Thank you. Maybe each item, you'll be spending the $200,000 on itemized by amount, and then any other concerns.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and I was just thinking, like, more so, like, look, have you toyed with the idea, maybe not penalizing the full $500 per day, maybe there is a little bit something that you can do a penalty per day for some of the items. I'm just trying to think creatively as well as.
[David Brosnan]: No, that's a very useful suggestion. And my approach to this was going to be that we have to get our architects and Henry and the, uh, and the contractor in a room together and, and, uh, you know, the contractor is as contractors do, they're trying to get as much as they can. And we are going to sit there with our, um, review of the, um, of the change orders and, and get them cut down to something we think is very reasonable. and appropriate to what was done, and not just, you know, because this subcontractor handed a bill, then all of a sudden, you know, we owe it. But also, we do have the liquid data damages, and that can be part of this discussion as well. But I think you would be wrong to go into that discussion with empty pockets, which puts us in a really bad position, frankly. So again, we're happy to work with you on this. We're happy to get you any information that you're looking for. And we can certainly provide you with a breakdown. But until we've had the big powwow and sat down with everybody and closed the books on this thing, some of it is still subject to a little bit of variation here. And I would ask your indulgence in that. You know, we can try to show you where the big cost drivers are, certainly. But some of it is going to take some tough negotiation here.
[Henry Rappa]: Also, one more quick thing on liquidated damages. I have a fairly good idea of how her attorney, who's an experienced construction attorney, is going to approach it. And he's going to obviously come at this from a perspective that we didn't have power, we didn't have the electrical, so that we really don't have a right to assess liquidated damages against him. My feeling is that as soon as National Grid gets that electrical line hooked up, at that point, the $500 today does start immediately. I think prior to that, It's going to be a bit of a negotiation in a perfect world. We would have had our power on that property on June 15 and I would have been able to send a letter to her attorney on June 16 saying we are now enforcing the full teeth of the liquidated damages clause. their argument's going to be that we weren't ready for a lease up anyways because we don't have power, so that we don't, that liquidated damages has now become a penalty and not a reimbursement for actual damages. I don't think he's gonna get tremendously far with it, but that is something I see them arguing, because the first thing anyone does with a liquidated damages clause is they always argue it's a penalty.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So through the chair, can you, do you plan on, based on this meeting too, do you plan on maybe letting the developer know that once the national grid work is done, you're going to start instituting that penalty? Because not only is that in your MOU, but also in contract, but also because the affordable housing you trust in Medford, is it interested in potentially helping with this project and is making that somewhat of a recommendation or if you need us to make it a requirement, Maybe use that as a little help to get a project done.
[Henry Rappa]: I think that does make sense. I mean, you know, one of the things I've tried to do with this contractor and her legal team is to work with them, but in a stern manner. But certainly in this instance, yes, I can. The day the power is connected, I can send that letter to them. And I'm also going to let them know that, you know, we have heard from the Affordable Housing Trust that they want us to start enforcing this liquidated damages clause. The big thing for me, though. Yeah, the big thing is.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Go ahead. I'll make a motion then. we get an itemized breakdown of the $200,000, and they send a letter to the contractor within seven days, letting them know that we may be getting some funding from Affordable Housing Trust, but the trust is going to be requiring us to enforce the damage clause. So this is just forewarning that when National Grid is done, that punch list should also be done.
[Henry Rappa]: That does make good sense to me because at that point, once they have power, their argument that we're not suffering any damages because we couldn't lease up the property anyways is no longer valid. That's when any arguments that her legal team could have that it's a penalty rather than a reimbursement would be completely wiped out. So I have no problem doing that. Yeah, hopefully she'll be done with her country.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: So we'll get you a list. We'll get you a list that we're not really voting on. Today was more of a presentation. We'll get you a list of all of the items that we would like to have at the next meeting that you are coming and actually asking for funding. And I will give you a snapshot, an updated performa. showing the actual costs is going to be this is the performer that you gave us is um the original i want to see a updated one to the best of your ability okay well um that that we can start working on all right excellent did anybody else have any questions before we move on to the next item do we need to talk about this list of items, or are we going to be doing that in a different part of a meeting?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: We can do that separately. We can each separately send Catherine a list of what we'd like to see. But just don't CC everybody.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Everybody. Yeah. OK. And then Catherine will get that list to you all. Very good. Very good. Yeah. All right, excellent. Well, thank you. You are more than welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting. But if you want to go, thank you very much for joining us today, introducing the project.
[David Brosnan]: All right, well, thank you very much for hearing us today. And we'll be working very hard to get you everything you're looking for. And it's been.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Approval. All of the minute minute minute for. Hello. To review the minute meetings from May, June and July. Yes, a motion to approve. Yeah. Then we'll do a roll call. All right, and then the next. Is the next round and there were no applications. All right, so the next item on the agenda is we're going back to item three. There were no applications from the NOFA that we released earlier this year. The trust may discuss how to proceed with issuing future funding, including potential transition to accepting applications on a rolling basis throughout the year.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Also, I did want to, I printed out, information from legal counsel about the ability to do that. It sounds like that should not be an issue in terms of doing a ruling application, but just in case you wanted to review.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: So we can transfer, transition from, although we did the RFP this time around, I think it was fairly good RFP because we had so little money and hopefully one day we will have a lot of money and developers can come.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Just one question. Was there any expressions of interest and just people couldn't make the deadline or was there really just no?
[Katherine Buckingham]: No, I don't know. I wasn't involved when it was distributed, so I'm not exactly how wide the audience was, but I think it's just because the trust is new. There's not as much recognition of that opportunity for funding or awareness. So that's something that the board can keep in mind for future.
[Penelope Taylor]: Through the chair, do we have a sense, you know, I know on our NOFA we stated like how much money we have to apply for, if it's rolling, is there a way to kind of like Or would we even want to? I'm just throwing out the idea that we wouldn't have a ticker of how much money we have available. I'm just curious how folks think that part would work in terms of a rolling option.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: So in my experience, it's once we start getting funding applications, we would ask the trust staff to do financials to show us what we have in our account, what we haven't committed. so we're not overextending ourselves. That's how I've seen it done in other ways. So, you know, and especially like developers, there's a lot of feedback that we got from the developers and when we did the stakeholder meetings, like being flexible in our application process, making sure that we're taking applications in a timely manner, so they can get their one-stop application for the state. I'm trying to actually trying to get the funding for the one-stop application and all their commitments. And so, I mean, this doing it based on a role, I think may benefit the developers more so than doing another app RFP.
[Penelope Taylor]: Can I ask one more question? I guess I'm asking it out loud to all of us. I don't know if you have the answer. Would we want, would we set like a standard practice, like timeline for us of like, you get something in and then at the next meeting we discuss it and then at what time for just thinking of like, for our own sake, kind of knowing that. And then also just if that's what we communicate out to developers, so they have a sense of like, if you get it in by now, it could be likely processed by us.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Like deadlines that says if we're meeting the first Wednesday of the month, if you want your application to come in and to be reviewed at the meeting, you need to have everything submitted by X date. And that gives us time to review and stuff like that.
[Penelope Taylor]: And then we would review it on like X or try to commit to like a certain process that we would follow. I don't know. I like deadlines a lot, so that, to me, seems like I would want that for us and to communicate out and to live with this.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Yeah, so I think just generally what I thought about the RFP process was that there'd be a somewhat standard process that would give the developers enough time to meet the standard EOHLC deadlines. I mean, they don't change them by, you know, more than two or three months every year, right? On top of that, it would also maybe give us room have a standard kind of timeline throughout our year. So we're not constantly getting applications and also being able to assess the application sometimes, you know, in some way in competition with each other, this is a scarce resource. And if you give it to a very nice project at the beginning of the year, and you don't see the very nice project at the end of the year, I think having it all at once had a certain amount of appeal to me personally. But I do understand we were new. You know, I think we were very quick to try to get some things out, which is great, but I think, um. Uh, yeah, we should try to assess how we want the regular schedule to be. And then if there's going to be 1 off things, maybe. And do it on 1 off basis here and there.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, I agree, especially with the limited amount of funding that we had this time. It was a fair. In the, uh. making sure that all the stakeholders have the ability to do it. I mean, we can continue the conversation when we have more trustees here. Yeah.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Maybe that's a good idea, too, through the chair, because it seems like we've got no... Exactly. The whole board can decide what to do with the 150 more and how much we can add to it.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: just to kind of go off of the mayor's, this application didn't come in within the deadline of our RFP. So if we're doing, this is why we're thinking about sort of broadening it out. And it's not a complete, I mean, today wasn't an application, today was a presentation. Right. An informal presentation. A very informal presentation. But we can continue the conversation. We have August, remind me, August 27th?
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yes, the last Wednesday of August. And then also September 3rd, the next Wednesday is the annual meeting. And just as a reminder, the August 27th, the vision behind that was that this meeting we would review applications, should any have come in, and then the 27th we could invite people to come in to discuss. So that aspect is not relevant.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So through the chair, will the 8th, 27th be canceled because no applications came in, so we only have to meet once that week?
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: I got the impression that these folks here, Medford Community Housing, is looking for a commitment from the trust sooner rather than later. That was my perception of what the conversation was, but it will depend on whether or not they're able to get a completed application in on whether or not whether one of you can make a difference to them. I don't know. Maybe you can, when you send them the list of items, ask whether or not they can wait until the September meeting.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, I'm happy to do that. I will also just note that we have, in addition, I don't know how long we want to go, but discussion of the community meeting and input for the action plan. So that's just another topic keep in mind that would require discussion as something.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Right. And I think maybe we can table that discussion if everybody is open to tabling the discussion of the community meeting to September, maybe the 27th or September whenever to another meeting. I'm suggesting this only because the three trustee, like we were here, I don't know Mayor, were you able to be on the, it was, I think you may have had a conflict at the Poet Laureate Ceremony. Yes. And to be able to present it to all the trustees when we're all here, does that suit? Are you open to table number three, five? I think 6 or 5, 6, so we'll continue the conversation on table on on 3, a motion to table by. and six.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Okay, I'll make that motion to table through five and six until at least the 27th of August or the 3rd of September, depending on when we meet next.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[Penelope Taylor]: Thank you, Chair. Can I ask a question? Do we have a set date that we're presenting the action plan at the City Council or is the date of that discussion impacts when that is? I'm just trying to make sure we're not like spacing everything out.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: There is no date necessarily yet. Okay.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: They don't meet next until the 9th of September for their regular meeting. We'll have 2 meetings in September and then we'll start 2 meetings after that every month. I would second the motion.
[Maria D'Orsi]: No, no, no, that was me saying I, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We're doing a quick little roll call because we are not all in person.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Actually, we are in person. Please do a roll call. Okay. Everybody. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Perfect. Thank you. All right, so we did that. Then meeting schedule item number one, I'm going to pass on Catherine.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Um, yeah, so I've actually covered this. We have the August 27th and September 3rd. Um, so just, uh, if we wanted to keep those, that's basically the discussion. And then also I wanted to highlight that the Community Preservation Committee invited. We want to have some coordination or collaboration with them in terms of how to receive Housing related requests.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: September 9th, a Wednesday. It's a Tuesday Tuesday. It's a Tuesday. Okay. And we can add that back to our next meeting as well. Just so we have more trustees. Sorry about that guys, we are back. Alright, so we are now moving on to item number 8, Board of Trustees Vacancies Appointments Updates.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, I was just going to let people know that we did have some applications. I sent along a couple of potential recommendations and And that's where we are, so I wanted to show that we did have interest. So we have to make a decision.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, I think I remember one name. So I've reviewed all the names and my office will make that appointment this week. OK, great.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: And we'll be full again. All right. And then the Board of Trustees elected positions just putting it out there. According to the Declaration of Trust, trustees shall annually elect officials consistent of the chair, vice chair, and treasurer. These positions will be voted on at the September 3rd annual meeting, our first annual meeting. Are we going to have cake? There's no official guidance about the duties of the associated roles with each role provided with the declaration under the declaration. But I wanted to put it out there like there's there's three roles. Again, the chair, the vice chair and the treasurer. I am the chair. The duties that revolve around the chair is facilitating this meeting. meeting with staff and usually once a month pre just to prepare for the for the meeting go over the agenda um and the vice chair is patley penny you want to just do a quick little yeah uh i my main responsibility is facilitating when the chair either cannot or asks me to yeah and uh moral support i guess
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And then I'm both interested in continuing.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. Just so we can know for the I was going to say that, like, I'm happy to continue on as the chair. But I also know that maybe somebody else wants to wants to do the chair. So I'm like, you're open, but nobody's nobody toes will be stepped on if anybody expressed interest on on becoming on running for the chair. The treasurer is Kerry. Kerry's not here. We don't have any money. But eventually, I would imagine that the treasurer will be working very closely with the staff once we do start getting money. We do have money, sorry. We have $300,000, and we may be giving out some money soon, but we'll be working together to make sure. Isn't there enough funding in there? $350,000. I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. I'm not sure. Um, so we'll be voting on those. That's that's in September. Not that next meeting in September. So if you are interested in running, please let Catherine know. So meetings. Um, and we have hit the end of the meeting. Does anybody want to make a motion? Or does anybody have any questions or comments before we make any motions?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I'll just maybe get the, um. comments on what you want the developer or Metro Housing, Community Housing to provide us by the end of next week maybe. Oh that's so perfect. I definitely. That gives everybody a little time to review the documents. So the 22nd just in case we meet with them on the 27th.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. That is perfect. So everybody will give a cap. I think Catherine when you send out an email to to the trustees, can you just let them know after reviewing the documents if there's any other documentation that they want to see with an application that would be fabulous? Yes. All right. Thanks. All right. Do we want a motion to adjourn? Yay. Second. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Penelope Taylor]: Aye.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Penelope Taylor]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Penelope Taylor]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Penelope Taylor]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Oops, I'm like, taking the new lots of print copy of the document. They sent him at the yeah. Oh, only if you have an extra recording staff staff. So that might be all of them. Or you might have taken a couple of them. I'm not sure if there's staff.
[UHZzywcUcK0_SPEAKER_03]: No, I printed mine because I had, I had scribble notes. So, yeah, I think that might not be all of them.
|
total time: 3.32 minutes total words: 330 |
|||