The board received updates on unrecorded loan documents involving Medford Community Housing and discussed an equity buy-down research model and fractional payment metrics. The board also voted to approve several past meeting minutes and to recess its regular June meeting unless pressing business arises.
[Roberta Cameron]: I'd like to call the Medford Affordable Housing Trust Fund meeting for Wednesday, May 6th to order to start by calling a roll call. Madam Mayor? Penny? Yes. Kayla? Here. Roberta? Yes. Carrie? Tetta? And Lisa? Here. Moving on to item two, board minutes from the April 1st, there's a couple of minutes, yeah, so we're gonna take one at a time. April 1st, working group fundraiser for March 30th, April 15th, and April 28th. Did everybody get a chance to review the minutes for the March 30th fundraising working group meeting? If there's no edits to the working group meeting for March 30th, I'd like to request a motion to approve the minutes.
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: So moved. Seconded.
[Roberta Cameron]: All right, take a roll call. I don't have to call the people that are not here, right? Teddy? Yes. Kayla? Yes. Lisa? Yes, and Roberta. All right, moving on to the April 1st board meeting minutes. Did everybody get a chance to review the minutes from the April 1st board meeting? And if so, can I get a motion to approve?
[Unidentified]: So moved. Seconded. Penny? Yes.
[Roberta Cameron]: Kayla? Yes. Roberta? Yes. Lisa? Yes. Moving right along to the April 15th fundraising work group. Did everybody get a chance to review the minutes for the April 15th funding fundraiser working group? If there are no edits to the working group meeting, I would like to request a motion to approve. So moved.
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: Seconded.
[Roberta Cameron]: All right, so we've got Penny? Yes. Kayla? Yes. Roberta? Yes. Lisa? Yes. Cruising right along here to the working group meeting from April 28th. Did everybody get a chance to review the minutes from the April 28th fundraising working group meeting? If there are no edits to the working group minutes, From April 28th, I would like to request a motion to approve. So moved.
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: Seconded. All right.
[Roberta Cameron]: Do you want to roll call, Penny?
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: Yes.
[Roberta Cameron]: Kayla? Yes. Roberta? Yes. And Lisa? Yes. All minutes have been approved. Moving right along to item number three on the agenda is the Medford Community Housing update. And I'm gonna turn this over to Catherine, to the staff.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay, so I believe you all probably saw the email I sent about legal issues related to Andrew Grandpa and Medford Community Housing. And at this time, I can't provide too much of an update other than to say we're aware of the situation we're working with our legal counsel, and we'll provide more updates when we are able. The one other thing that I will share is that we did learn that the first loan that the board approved, the documents were signed and the originals were given to Andy Rapa, and he actually did not ever report them at Street of Demons. So that's where we are. I think going forward, we'll have to address next steps, but we're not really at that point yet. And so I'll keep you all posted. I think basically more to come.
[Roberta Cameron]: So right now there's next, when you're talking about next steps, you're referring to getting that mortgage reported at the registry.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah. So, I mean, I don't want to presume to know what the board would like to do, but either that would need to be recorded and we would need to sign a new set of loan documents. Potentially we could do one loan for $200,000. Also, I know that the board had requested additional information, which we have not received. So I think we will need at a minimum to receive that information. There may be other information forthcoming that will be important to share with the board. And as soon as I'm able to, I can share that as well. So I think, Those are sort of the main things in my mind.
[Unidentified]: Penny?
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: Yeah, great. Thank you. I guess I have two questions. One is, could someone direct me to where to find, or do we have, have you sent out a copy of the loan agreement? Because I'm curious. I'm just like, what is... what is our process to not like rescind or in any way just like just want to be aware of that process? And then just could you repeat that he didn't record it as a COD? I couldn't quite hear what you said, so if you could just repeat that, that'd be helpful. Thanks.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, what I was saying is basically after we signed all the documents, like Lisa signed it and was notarized and he signed later and was notarized, he requested the originals and said he would record them at the Registry of Deeds to like like to make it official and finalized. And I, of course, have copies of all the documents, but he has the originals and he, unbeknownst to us until recently, did not actually get them recorded at the Registry of Needs. So it's not actually, like there's really nothing official. So that the loan exists.
[Roberta Cameron]: So it is, but I'm sorry, Vinny, there is an official document. We have copies. We have the original promissory note.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Henry Rambo has it.
[Roberta Cameron]: All right. So we have executed documents. So, yes, there is documentation that the loan exists. Yes. It's just not reported. It's just not reported on the property. So right now, for a lack of a better way of describing it, it's an unsecured loan. Right. Right. My understanding, to address your question, Penny, about rescinding the loan, I think we have to check with legal on that. But in my experience, when we're signing a loan documents for for any anything, you have a three day, three business days to send the loan. And this loan was done May. It was done more like September.
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: Well, I guess I'm curious in the appetite of the group for figuring out. conditioning the next, well, let's learn more, but is the loan that we approved in the last meeting going out? I feel like we don't have these documents in hand yet, and I'm interested in connecting them if possible. Thanks.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, no, great question. And I actually had some follow-up that I was hoping to be able to have this conversation during this here. I was reading through the notes, sorry, I was not here in April, Um, it's clear that the trust did ask for documentation that necessary documentation, but what I read in the vote, the vote was not conditionally based on receiving those documents. Um, so I don't know what that means. If we have what we can do on that, because I was reading through the notes and like, there's still, They're still going back and forth with the GC about what they should be paying, what they shouldn't be paying, their use in sources documents they haven't done. So I still don't know if they actually need the whole $100,000, but I'm curious because the vote was to approve it unconditionally. There were no conditions in the vote. So do we have an AV force?
[Katherine Buckingham]: I will ask. I think we've mentioned this, but I have not gotten a final verdict on that. It's something that's being discussed.
[Unidentified]: Yeah. I feel like if I could add, I think, Chair, to your point, the $100,000 that we approved And the loan documents were all signed and notarized, just not reported. That was the 2025. Yes, likely I imagine any chance of rescinding that has passed. The 100,000, the extra, the additional 100,000 has not been memorialized to that extent at this time. I think the only thing I would note is, you know, this gentleman was suspended from practicing law. And also it mentions like, had to resign from fiduciary positions, which I would understand this position that he was representing that to be a fiduciary position. He did also show up reading the night before his arraignment. So I had a real tough weekend that weekend, I'll tell you guys. But I think that we have some bases for at least attaching conditions to any future funds and any future My only other question for staff was if the treasurer has reached out at all to staff or anyone else in the government at this point.
[Katherine Buckingham]: The treasurer, we have had conversations with him. Our director has also had conversations with the state attorney general. Yeah, we've been in touch with their new legal counsel, so we've met with their new legal counsel as well.
[Roberta Cameron]: And I want to be careful on, like, details of whatnot, because everything is so open-ended right now, and I don't want to get us in trouble with talking just want to be careful what we're talking about in the public domain. Roberta, you have your hand up. Thank you. I just wondered whether we might have leverage with respect to executing the $100,000 loan of just withholding executing that loan until the first loan is recorded. So even if it wasn't a condition, if we could just sit on it, without rescinding it until they complete that task?
Just a thought. Yeah, no, great idea. And I think there's a lot of different things. What I am hearing, what I'm hearing that we do, there are potentials of rescinding, holding off, whatever it is, the second loan, as well as maybe the first loan could be, we could say that it was null and void because he, according to what we're hearing, may not have been, he may have been serving in a role that he should have been serving in. So we'll, again, want to be careful of what we're talking about. but maybe that's something further that you can talk to.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yes, I have noted these questions and ideas and I will continue those discussions with our legal counsel.
[Unidentified]: I just had one other, as I was reflecting on it, I would like to hear if staff has heard that the lottery system is still pending and are the tenants in a good place, like there's no other issues with that. On the other hand, I think, you know, conditioning or rescinding somewhere in those, in that realm of possibilities should be discussed and considered. Obviously, I'd also want to make sure that these affordable units stay in use in the pipeline correctly managed, you know, not a difficult situation for themselves as well. So I think that's why I do wonder if, I think like Roberta is referring to, we do have some amount of quotation leverage, and if we need to use that leverage in order to maintain those units and keep them in a correct kind of group and a hand that is steady, that might be something we have to talk about. Yeah.
[Roberta Cameron]: I'll be interested to see how it unfolds, because it would be important. We don't want to displace people that we've just moved in. At a bountiful point to move in. But we are in agreement with the consortium, the CPC.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Through the chair, I know that one unit is occupied. I have not gotten an update on the other two. All right.
[Roberta Cameron]: If there are no objections, I'd like to move on to item number four, planning, development, sustainable, open house debrief. I'm going to toss it right over to Catherine.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay, so just as an update for everyone, on April 13th, our office, the Office of Planning, Development and Sustainability hosted an open house for all of our staff to discuss with the public what programs they're doing, what resources we can offer. And I attended that, and Roberta also joined as well for most of it. And just to let you all know, we provided information about the trust. And in front of you, you should all have the, yeah, that's like a half page. It is like a one-pager that's cut in half and half and half on this paper that Roberta helped put together and just you all have reviewed this language before. So that's nothing new, but people were interested in taking that. We also put up like a big kind of tripled board and asked if people wanted to share with us their thoughts about what matters to them with respect to affordable housing and we had an area where people could vote on what their priorities were with like stickers. And so we've suggested some categories and people voted accordingly. So one, by the way, I pulled the categories from an action plan. So the first one was build affordable housing, which had seven votes. The next one was preserve and convert existing housing to long-term affordability that had six votes. The next was support existing homeowners and first-time homebuyers. That had five votes. And then the last was fund housing stability programs, and that got two votes.
So just as a sense of, you know, Approximately that number of people came up and voted. Some more people spoke and chatted with us, but did not necessarily vote. And we also had a space where people could put their feedback with like post-it notes. And we didn't get too much feedback in the way of that. We just generally asked like, what is important to you? And one person wrote ADU education. Another person had a note that said having housing that blends with the area, no large high structures. And then the last note said, more affordable home ownership opportunities. Rental is nice, but opening the door for ownership would be fabulous.
So yeah, that's just kind of a summary of the event. I don't know if you want to add anything, Roberta, since you were there, or if anyone has questions.
[Roberta Cameron]: I have a question for Jeff. ADU can be Accessory Dwelling Unit, Accessible Dwelling Unit.
[Katherine Buckingham]: ADU in this term is... I just wrote ADU and I didn't ask, but I assume it's Accessory Dwelling Unit in terms of a new housing unit.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, we need to come up with different ones.
[Unidentified]: All right.
[Roberta Cameron]: That's great. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody have any questions, comments? All right, we're just plugging along here to item number five, fundraising working groups updates and next steps. And with that, I'm gonna turn it right back over to Catherine.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay, so we've had several, well, I guess two meetings this month, although three sets of minutes that you all agree, but the fundraising work has been very busy. We've had some back and forth on selecting a date. I know I previously mentioned June 11th, but for various reasons, that actually doesn't work anymore. We then looked into June 18th, but then later realized, first of all, the city health space wasn't available. And then secondly, that's actually the Thursday before Juneteenth, which is a holiday for most. So figuring it wouldn't be ideal to have it before a long weekend. So then there was concern that if we keep pushing out, it's kind of getting close into the summer. And the idea was floated that perhaps we might move to the fall, which would provide more time for planning, which could also potentially allow for more, if we wanted to do a more robust event, having live speakers or a moderated panel, inviting other organizations to table. So given that we are in May now, I think that was the way folks were leaning. Although a concern that we can talk more about later, because it's later in the agenda, There may be some board member transitions by the fall. We'll talk about that at the end, but that's just one thing to note.
One other thing I just want to say is while we have the time to talk about it, if folks do have other ideas about what they want to see at this kind of open house slash resource fair, would welcome that, including ideas about speakers or organizations that we would like to see included, especially if any of you have contacts with folks. And then the other thing I wanted to update on was that I have been in touch with City Hall Systems, which is the organization that provide, go ahead, they provide backend support for the city for other types of online payment. And I reached out to them and they said, that they should fairly easily be able to set up a donate online page on our website. So I'm working with them on getting that mocked up. I do not yet have all the new account information. So I'll need that first before it can be finalized. But as soon as that's the case, I'll certainly share that updated website for accepting online donations with all of you for your approval before we go public with that.
Roberta, would you like to add anything else to that?
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, just one thing I wanted to mention in terms of looking for potential speakers, the idea that we had talked about was to have maybe maybe two speakers to talk about the importance of funding from the Affordable Housing Trust to support affordable housing opportunities. And so Teda had someone in mind who can perhaps represent the side of home ownership opportunities. And I was thinking of some organization, someone who might be able to speak from an organization that develops affordable rental housing to talk about the importance of funding. And we don't have any names of speakers yet. We wanted to get a date finalized before we started reaching out to anyone. But I just wanted to put out there that we might be looking for ideas for who to invite to speak on the topic.
And this is in addition to having, inviting many or, you know, whatever organizations want to come to share information about what they do in Medford, what they offer to Medford residents in terms of housing resources. Like a table and opportunity.
[Katherine Buckingham]: And through the chair, just to add on to Roberta's point, I thought that was a smart approach to really, I mean, there's so many ways you could focus speakers or topics, but really honing in on the funding and then connecting that to fundraising. So just kind of the logical connection there. So I believe that was Roberta's idea. That was great. So appreciated that.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you. Um, and I've already jotted down a couple of affordable housing developers, uh, that I know of that might be once we get a date. I do want to recognize that the mayor did join the, join the meeting. Does anybody, um, does anybody else have anything else to add to item number five?
[Katherine Buckingham]: One more quick thought. Do we want, while we're all together, do we want to talk about dates or would it be better for me to just kind of look at some options, present them with folks? I don't know how much input everyone wants to have, but I thought I would get all of your perspective on that.
[Roberta Cameron]: I personally would prefer having Somebody throw out some dates, and then I can try to arrange my calendar that way. That would be my preference.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I think if we are talking about the fall, that would be fine.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you. Because then you know what's available, when's available. Yeah, yeah. Sounds good. Okay, what's going on to item number six? Equity buy-down program research. We're all right with that. I'm going to pass the ball right back over to Catherine, who's been doing some research on equity buy-down programs.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, I'm actually happy to turn it over to Juliette, who has been our research star on this topic. So if you want to go ahead.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I can start. Me and Roberta have actually been working on it together. So I'm happy to give an overview. I don't want to keep impugning it, but Roberta, if you also I'll start, and then if I miss anything, Roberta. Sure. So Roberta and I have been looking into the equity buy-down structure of a program that we talked about last month. I think, I don't know if it's, it's not like a first-time home buyer equity buy-down. The idea was that with trust funds, you would pay for the difference between the market value of the home and the affordable value of the home. So you would buy the affordable housing restriction. So we have a working document that I think I passed around that we're kind of going off of. I can also send around to the online folks later.
The first part is kind of starting to think about what a Medford program might look like. And then on the back, there's some stuff about the research we did. So Springfield has a proposed plan for this, a similar plan. It's not in action yet. There's two, a CPA funded program to go towards repairs, I believe. And then they would get the affordable housing restriction in return. So we had a couple different, like, considerations while we were thinking about this. So stuff just to keep thinking about. The first is, like, who would be eligible for this program? Would it be just single family? So you would get the restriction for the full home, or how would multi-family homes work for this. And then thinking about the AMI limit, and if there would be priority for seniors, low-income, veterans, both disabilities. And then another thing we were thinking about is the home resale model, how you would figure out what people could resell it for. The Springfield one had a few different ideas that they threw around, but the one that we were talking most about is just the simple AMI-based cap. But I know, Kayla, you mentioned this last month about concerns with how, if you have a mortgage, how it would work with limiting resale. So that is, I think, something that we would still need to think about. And then inheritance rules. Also, I think something you mentioned last month, we talked about structuring it so that it could be transferred to heirs if they are income eligible. I guess, yeah, just in sum, it's kind of challenging or isn't really a program that we can super look to to model. It's just like Springfield is thinking about it. So I think a lot of it would just kind of have to be based off of what the trust wants and their goals. So maybe we can rewrite the wheel a little. But I don't know if I missed anything, Roberta.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, I could just give an overall summary. The idea would be that targeting low-income, most likely senior homeowners, who most likely, or we could put into the program guidelines, would own their homes outright. We would pay the difference between the market value and the affordable price, take the first amount of money, and pay for any repairs needed to bring their house fully up to code, and then give them the remainder And then we have a permanent deed restriction on the house in exchange for that. And so those homeowners would then have a lower tax bill going forward based on a lower home value. And we'd be working with a partner organization who would actually manage, oversee the rehab of the homes and hold the deed restrictions, be responsible for identifying the participants and monitoring resales and so forth.
Sounds great. I've got some questions if that's okay. I read through the meeting minutes from April 1st and it sounds like there is some concern about staff capacity. I just want to highlight that. What I'm hearing is, Roberta, that there may be a third party coming in to monitor the construction as well as monitor the requirements under the the affordable housing restriction and or do anything work with the resale when the resale comes up. My educated guess would be a third party would have to be paid. So how would the payment be made to that third party? And would it be under contract? Would there be an RFP? I don't think it would come out of those CPC trust money because that would be admin.
So, yeah, just don't have to have those answers, but thoughts about it because it would be ongoing. I like the fact, I do like the idea of the affordable, you know, the difference between the market and affordable. And going towards the rehab of the program, rehab of the unit, I would say I would open it up to renter multifamily as well as single family, just my personal, because then you get for multifamily to three units in addition to a homeowner, You're getting affordable rents as well, just throwing it there. Best thing for the dollar.
Yeah, my. My idea is that this would have to be something done in partnership with a third party organization. So a lot could be negotiated and worked out with a partner organization if they were interested in taking this on. And I wonder whether it could be possible to incorporate a fee to the third party as part of the purchase agreement. with the homeowner, or if, as you point out, the organization would need to be funded with program fees to be able to make this program work.
Thank you. Penny, you have your hand up?
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: Yeah, thanks. Two things for you, Lisa. I totally agree about both single and multifamily homes. And then I guess I'm just curious if we know, is Springfield working with a third party? If so, how are they funding that? Thanks.
[Roberta Cameron]: To my knowledge, Springfield is probably where we are. They just were a bit ahead of us in writing down a plan, but they're still trying to work out who would run this and how. So we don't have an answer yet. Thank you. Do we have any next steps?
[Unidentified]: I'm happy to keep working on this for as long as I have left my internship. Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: All right. If there is no further discussion on item number six, we can mosey on down to fractional payment presentation to the City Council. With this one, I really am turning it back over to Catherine.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah. So the first subject is that on April 7th, I presented our proposal. of the fractional payment language to City Council. They were positive and referred it to Community Development Board without any edits for that's part of the process for zoning changes. However, new update is that we just found out yesterday that it sounds like EOHLC, the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, is not continuing to update the QAP for reasons related to how high development costs are. I don't know the specifics of that, but our language was predicated on using that metric. So it sounds like that metric will not be available in the way that we assumed. We have been doing some research, talking to other cities about how they're handling this. Watertown, for example, they're using TDC total development costs as, actually, I don't have it right in front of me. But actually, why don't I pull it up real quick? All right.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes. So it sounds like we may be needing to tweak the language.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah. Actually, Juliet, on the computer, could you pull up, I just saved a document.
[Unidentified]: I didn't want to publish it anymore.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, it's acceptable.
[Roberta Cameron]: And then to the AMI based on how many people are in the household, so if it's an 80, let's just say it's like an 80%, you really start using it, I think 70% of the AMI, depending on the calculated number.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you calculate it backwards from the rent going up to the unit value. It's actually, it's pretty,
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay, sorry, I pulled this up. So it says they took the total development cost number and then used HUD construction price indice data to account for inflation. Sorry, this is not the full thing. Anyway, the point is we don't have A conclusion yet on what we want to do this, like, literally, we're just getting research today. Some other cities do fractional payments totally differently. And I don't think we want to revisit. I mean, it's up to the board, but I don't think we want to revisit all of that. I think it's just like finding a good benchmark and target it to.
So I can obviously we will continue to look into that, like, as quickly as possible. So I think. Probably the next best step is at the next meeting, present you with what we found, have a discussion, figure out what that means. Depending on if and how much things are tweaked, I don't know if we need to start over or just because it was supposed to be discussed at the Community Development Board tonight. I think they will push it. They actually have a super packed agenda anyway. I don't even know if they could have gotten to it today, actually.
[Roberta Cameron]: Actually, I gave you the wrong one. Summable is actually an average of compatible properties, the average sale price minus the affordable structure. I'll send it to you. It's fairly easy to do it, but you do need some data that you'll have to get a calculator. But I can send you that if it's helpful. Just finding different ways of calculating. Because then you're not relying on HUD to update their construction costs, the total development costs, that could go That could be, like, crazy depending on what's going on with the cost of construction.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah. But, oh yeah, and to close the loop with the Watertown thing, they just put together a memo of, like, a short-term fix that they are going to revisit their actual zoning as well. So they have not done that yet either. And then a couple other cities do it kind of differently, but... I'll send you the system.
[SPEAKER_09]: We have a spreadsheet.
[Roberta Cameron]: Does anybody else have anything to add to that? Thank you for the update. All right. Posting along to financial updates. With this, I'm going to turn it over to Catherine.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, so we did already talk about the situation with loan money not having been disbursed yet. Um, given that there are really no other major updates, uh, we have not officially moved money from old trust into the new trust account. So we're waiting to do that. And we can get updated figures on how much interest has accrued. Um, and so at our next meeting, I'll share an updated, uh, spreadsheet, but just wanted to let you all know about that and happy to answer questions.
[Roberta Cameron]: Anybody have any questions? Well, all right, we are cruising along. Item number nine, term limits, Dr. Friend.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay, so also, as you all may remember, when the trust was started, it was decided that terms should be staggered. And so this year, three members have terms expiring on July 1st. So that would be Chair Lisa Davidson, trustee lessons and just like I said, I was like, I think I actually said it. Lesson and Roberta Cameron. So if you are not planning to continue your term, please let me know. Students.
[SPEAKER_09]: it to be renewed?
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yes. Thank you for asking that. Yeah. If you intend to, well, please let me know either way if you're staying or leaving. If you plan to stay, I can provide you with a letter that we've used previously for other members who wish to stay on. And hopefully that's very simple.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: All right. All right. Any questions, updates? All right. Moving on to item number 10, regular status updates. Katherine?
[Katherine Buckingham]: Well, one update to share is not regular, but so sad Juliette will be leaving us. But for happy news, because she's graduating from Tufts with a master's in urban environmental planning. I'm hoping that we can convince her to stay for another month or so, as long as she's able to. But this may potentially be her last board meeting. So I just wanted to let you all know that. Hopefully we'll see her again for a little bit longer, but I just wanted to thank Julia. She's been amazing, incredibly helpful. I'm very sad that she's leaving. So yeah, I just wanted to mention that.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, thank you guys for letting me sit in on these and help out. It's been really great.
[Roberta Cameron]: I want to take a moment to say thank you. I hope that this is not your last meeting, at least be able to come in one more meeting in June. um sweet mistake to get you all that. But really, I want to say thank you. And before the meeting started, I asked what her rose and thorn was during her internship. And her rose was working with Catherine, and she really did not have a thorn. No thorns. What a great experience. It's been great. I really enjoyed working. And I also asked her one sort of follow-up, and I'm gonna give her an opportunity to plug it, if there was anything that you could change, like what, during this, or within your issue. I'll plug it. I guess I said that, I mean, it's,
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I think that it would be wonderful if Medford had unlimited resources and staff to dedicate to every project that we wanted, but I don't think any city in the country experiences that. So I think that obviously we're just like everyone else, not everyone. You have to rank your priorities, but everyone has such great ideas that I would love to see them all.
[Roberta Cameron]: So what my brain heard was Medford staff does an amazing job with very little resources and could do more with more resources. I do.
[Katherine Buckingham]: have a more logistical update too. We have discussed that if we were having the open house, I mean resource fair on June 11th, that we would do that in the regularly scheduled board meeting. However, given that that will be postponed, I wanted to open it up to the board to discuss whether they would like to have a regular meeting the first Wednesday of June. There had also previously been talk of having June's meeting be more of a social event. Just to note, I assume slash hope we will have more updates to share on some of the topics we discussed earlier in this meeting. So these are all just things to consider, but I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of that in terms of our schedule for meeting next month.
[Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Through the chair? Yes. Maybe you could keep us posted, Catherine, on what type of updates you have or even the chair. And if there's just a couple, we could put those in writing to the board by BCC so there's not open meeting law violations. And then the June 3rd meeting could be an outing of some sort. But if you have a ton to share and you need a meeting, then obviously we can pivot to have a meeting.
[Katherine Buckingham]: The one, Chair, I like that idea. My one concern is that I do know that Medford Community Housing is eager to hopefully get funds dispersed as quickly as possible. So I don't know if there will be a resolution possible. I just, I know that that is one of the many considerations. I'm not saying that that means we need to meet, but I just wanted to flag that since That's been one of the things that has been highlighted. Yeah.
[Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yep, that's that's why I just ran out of my 6 o'clock event. I was hoping to not miss that update.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah. Yeah. Um, the June, I would appreciate flexibility. Uh, there's. Where I work, we're doing budget, it's budget season. Um, so keep the update. What's happening with that? I can appreciate the housing need, but I'm going to put an asterisk. To the best of my knowledge, they have not even submitted a payment request for the first level.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, I don't want to say too much, but I just wanted to share that perspective.
[Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you.
[Katherine Buckingham]: And I will absolutely keep you posted, Madam Chair, with any updates about timing. But also, yeah, I see Penny has her hand up.
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: Oh, yeah, so I guess are we holding the date of June 11th for a social event? And if so, what kind of outing are we talking? And then I guess, like, in the past, I think when we had application review, we have, like, an emergency meeting or an off schedule meeting or something like that. So just, like. how do we decide, like we kind of had decided in advance and staked it out. I'm sorry, I don't remember if we talked about a July or August recess, but I'm just thinking if we have like periods of a couple months, how would we then like call that meeting if something comes up and we want to meet about it? Thanks.
[Roberta Cameron]: If there's no objections, I like, the mayor's, uh, suggestion of doing an email BCC figuring, figuring out, um, and then with updates of something like that. And was it really June 11th? That's a Thursday, June 3rd.
[Katherine Buckingham]: I think what he was referring to is we had discussed, if we had the resource fair, that would be June 11th, and we would do that in lieu of a June 3rd board meeting. So then if we want to do a social event, we could go June 11th, because that was what was most recently on folks' calendars, presumably. Or June 3rd is another option. Really, anything is an option, of course. So I'm just happy to do whatever works for the most number of folks.
[Unidentified]: I just, I know personally, I, I scheduled over by June 3rd, just because of that, but generally otherwise couldn't even be available. I just happened to scheduled over. And then, um, I believe we are going to keep July 1st. Right now. Right. So I just wanted to confirm that as well. And then August was the month that we. The drafted say, like, we're not going to be August. Okay.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah. And I have a conflict on June 11th, just until probably about 7.30-ish to the 19th. Penny, do you have anything to add?
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: Oh, yeah. I appreciate the spirit of the outing and a social gathering. But given the calendar, I might move to have a recess for June unless you know, decided via the email process and then resume our regular meeting schedule for July and get updates via email as needed. Hope that captures where we're at. Thank you.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Through the chair, one other thought I just had too is given that this would be a social out in any way, the one we were talking about in June, I could always just send out kind of a very informal poll if folks want to meet, and you can reply to me individually and I can figure out if that's possible, but we don't need to inflate on that.
[Roberta Cameron]: Right. That sounds the best. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other updates?
[Katherine Buckingham]: Do we need to finalize that we go with Penny's proposal, like we want to officially kind of have a June recess and then pick up July 1st. Just to confirm for my own understanding, that's our conclusion?
[Roberta Cameron]: In my head, I thought you were going to do a poll for- I'm just talking about official board votes.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yes.
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: I'm fine. Should we- Well, I need a second, I think. I think that's it.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah. I'll second the motion. All right, then we will do a roll call vote for the motion to recess the June meeting unless there are updates necessary. Madam Mayor? Yes. Penny? Yes. Kayla? Yes. Roberta?
[Unidentified]: she may be like getting into her.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah. Yes. And Lisa. Yes. Motion approved.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Then in the status updates bucket as well. The only other thing I wanted to kind of announce to the board is there is MHP Mass Housing Partnership is an organization that offers the Housing Institute. It's kind of like an annual conference, and I thought that might be of interest to board members. I'll send out an email tomorrow with information if you're interested in going. I know Penny went last year. I went last year. I thought it was very helpful. And in fact, I was just looking at the agenda today, and it's a two-day event. I believe it's like June 25th, 26th. It's the Thursday, Friday of that week. And actually, on the Friday, there is an optional free like early morning breakfast for affordable housing trust fund members. So I think the day starts around nine maybe and the breakfast is at eight or something like that, but I'll share that information with everyone. But yes, I just thought that might be of interest.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: All right, any other updates or anything?
[Katherine Buckingham]: No, you have Penny.
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: In the context of updates, I just wanted to thank Juliette and wish her good luck and with appreciation. Thank you so much. Thank you. You pulled us forward greatly. I appreciate all your help.
[Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you. I second that. Thank you, Juliette. Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: All right. Hopefully we'll see you in June.
[Katherine Buckingham]: I have one other thought, if that's OK. Yes, please. I need to check on the specifics of the language about actual term expirations. I believe the term expires July 1st. So I'm not sure if that would mean attending a July meeting or not.
[Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I can answer that. What? Sorry. Oh, if somebody's term expires July 1st, they serve and they have the option to serve until reappointed or replaced. So just let me know who wants to be reappointed, and then we'll go through the process, fill out the one-page application, and just go through the council process.
[Katherine Buckingham]: OK. Great. Perfect. Thank you for clarifying. I just wasn't sure, yeah, July 1st, if the meeting's on the 1st, would that need to put that clarifies? Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: Perfect. All right, on that note, I'd like to ask for a motion to adjourn. So moved.
[Vice Chair Penelope Taylor]: Seconded.
[Roberta Cameron]: And we'll do a roll call. Madam Mayor? Yes. Penny? Yes. Kayla?
[Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Roberta Cameron]: Roberta?
[Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yes.
[Roberta Cameron]: Lisa, yes. Meeting adjourned.
[Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Thank you, guys. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: Have a good night.
[Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Good night.
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