Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners met April 25

Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners met April 25.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

A Meeting of the Board of Commissioners (“Board”) of the Houston Housing Authority (“HHA”) was held on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 at the Houston Housing Authority Central Office, 2640 Fountain View Drive, Houston, Texas 77057.

Chair Snowden called the meeting to order at 3:06 p.m. Secretary Northern called the roll and declared a quorum present. Chair Snowden offered the use of an interpreter to be available to Spanish speakers who may need assistance for public comments only. Ms. Elizabeth Paris was asked to introduce herself in Spanish and let the attendees know of her service.

Present: LaRence Snowden, Chair

Kristy Kirkendoll, Vice Chair

Kris Thomas, Commissioner

Andrea Hilliard Cooksey, Commissioner

Stephanie A.G. Ballard, Commissioner

Dr. Max A. Miller, Jr., Commissioner

David A. Northern, Sr., Secretary

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Chair Snowden stated the Board has had an opportunity to review the March 21, 2023 Board of Commissioners meeting minutes and asked for a motion to adopt the meeting minutes.

Commissioner Miller moved to adopt the meeting minutes and Commissioner Thomas seconded the motion.

Chair Snowden asked if there is any discussion or objection to the March 21, 2023 Board of Commissioners meeting minutes. Having none, the minutes are adopted.

Chair Snowden said we will now move into our new business.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Secretary Northern stated the Commissioners have a written report but wanted to briefly go over a few items.

I'm excited to announce that we were able to launch our Affordable Housing Houston Website so that we can provide more opportunities for our citizens and our clients to find affordable housing throughout the city of Houston. We also had a Homebuyer Event where the HHA partnered with the City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department as a participant in their April Homebuyer Fair. We had a booth set up to share information about our agency with the hundreds of people that came to the event, this was in support of the city’s initiative to build 3,000 new affordable, disaster-resilient, energy-efficient homes. We had an Easter community event at Oxford Place and the Random Acts of Kindness day at Cuney Homes. The All-Star players from TSU came over to Cuney Homes and spent some time with the residents.

Chair Snowden said kudos to launching the Affordable Housing website. We are working with our PFC's and trying to provide services for our clients and others within the city that need access to affordable housing. This website really provides a good service. If you haven't had a chance to see it, please do because it provides some great information that the community needs.

I want to make sure that it's noted that during the All-Star event, it was really focused on HBCU’s and so for those that are products of historically black colleges and universities, it was really an opportunity for those individuals to shine. For those of us that work at HBCU’s as well, I got a chance to walk over and be a part of it. Kudos for that and the involvement of Cuney I think everyone came out.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

Chair Snowden stated that speakers will be allowed three (3) minutes for public comments. Speakers will only be allowed to speak once. I will inform you when your three minutes have expired. The Board will generally not provide responses to the comments or answer any questions. However, HHA residents making comments are encouraged to clearly state their name and the property where you reside. We will have someone from the property management team or from our staff, to reach out to you directly regarding any issue or concern you may have

Chair Snowden asked if there are any individuals that would like to make public comments at this time.

Jack Baber: In the near future you will be evaluating three more apartment projects to the one project you recently placed under the PFC affordable housing program in our district. The first project was 210 units and removed $29 million of assessed valuation from our tax roll. The three projects you will be evaluating will remove another 16% for total reduction of our taxable value of $117 million and the elimination of about $410,000 of revenue. PFC program districts like mine agonize over operations aging infrastructure and tax rates and then, out of the blue you change everything.

First issue, while you may not be required, I would suggest that you consider giving other public servants like me a heads up and a chance to advise you of what effect your actions may take on our operations as well as the lives of our taxpayers and residents. The second issue is the fact that you will be considering making more than 20% of our tax base nontaxable. Is that a fair and equitable sharing of cost for affordable housing programs? that's my question. 20% is a big chunk. Maybe you can consider limiting your programs to no more than 5-8% of any authority’s tax base, not 20%. Additionally, the unpredictability of this program undoubtedly has risk factors. Third issue is that we can't replace all of our tax revenue then the 550 single-family homes in our district, more than 75% of which are homesteads over 65 veterans or handicapped, their tax rates will have to go up and increase and meet our obligations. You have Middle St. Partners application coming for 964 more units but we have no idea when because that's not a notice we get from HHA. They scored 67.5 out of 100 on your score. 67.5 is not a very good not a sufficient amount to justify what you're doing in my district and the other districts as well.

I don’t know why you do so many projects in one district? I just don't know. Thank you for your time.

JB Lyman, HPD Tech Ops: Here in support of Resolution 3613, the Flock LPR cameras. We have about 1700 officers that have access to this depending on which side city. The number of officers is based on camera availability in the area.

Anibeth Turcios, GNMD: In support of Resolution 3613, Flock LPR cameras. GNMD enhances the district and increase economic activity in commercial property owners and businesses. The District promotes public safety in the area and works to create a safe environment. One of the things we do is try to seek additional investments in public and private funds to come into our area and infrastructure projects to come into the District. We support the use of flock cameras to assist with HHA public safety because it has helped us. Seeing the enhancement and beautification in the area and it’s also deterred some of the crime in the area. We are currently working with local law enforcement partners help their security and some of the issues near north side and we have found the camera will be really helpful in deterring some of the crime currently in the area.

Pamela Guerra, GNMD: We have partnered with HPD to give them access to Flock LPRS. We have found that we have found that local law enforcement has been able to address multiple safety issues and arrests. We have expanded our cameras into 6 counties. Chief Finner and his assistant Chiefs have expressed their gratitude and our officers are thankful to have it.

NEW BUSINESS

Resolution No. 3612: Consideration and/or action to authorize the President & CEO or designee to Write-off vacant tenant accounts for January 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023.

Secretary Northern stated that Resolution No. 3612 will be presented by Rhonda Foster, Asset Management Director.

Ms. Foster stated Resolution No. 3611 requests That the Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners authorizes the President & CEO or designee to write off vacated tenant accounts in the amount of $130,266.29 and make necessary changes and corrections pursuant to the memorandum from George D. Griffin III, Vice President of Housing Operations, dated April 4, 2023 to David A. Northern, Sr., President & CEO. Accordingly, staff recommends the Board adopt this resolution.

Chair Snowden stated that the Board has heard the reading of the resolution and asked for a motion to adopt Resolution No. 3612.

Commissioner Cooksey moved to adopt Resolution No. 3612. Commissioner Thomas seconded the motion.

Chair Snowden asked if there is any discussion or objection to adopting Resolution No. 3612. Having none, the Chairman called for a vote. All voted in favor therefore Resolution No. 3612 is adopted.

Chair Snowden said to let the minutes show that Commissioner Kirkendoll arrived at 3:14pm.

Resolution No. 3613: Consideration and/or action to authorize the President & CEO or designee to execute a contract with Flock Safety to furnish and install License Plate Reader (LPR) Cameras at all HHA properties. The contract with Flock Safety is a sole-source award, which has been approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Secretary Northern stated that Resolution No. 3613 will be presented by Jay Mason, Director of REID but before he does, I want to go over a few details.

Sole Source is a program that HUD has when we do procurement. We decided to go with the Sole Source because that's what the Houston Police Department utilizes. We wrote HUD and and they approved the request. Mr. Terry and myself met with the Police Chief Finner last year and talked about public safety and what will work well to help us create a better opportunity for our clients to be safe and deter crime on our properties and so we decided to go this route and partner with the Houston Police Department.

Mr. Mason stated Resolution No. 3613 reads That the Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners authorizes the President & CEO or designee to negotiate, execute and make necessary changes and corrections to a contract with Flock Safety to furnish and install License Plate Reader (LPR) cameras at all HHA properties in an amount not to exceed $2,284,080.00 pursuant to the memorandum from Jay Mason, Director of REID, dated April 4, 2023, to David A. Northern, President & CEO. Accordingly, staff recommends the Board adopt this resolution.

Chair Snowden stated the Board has heard the reading of the resolution and asked for a motion to adopt Resolution No. 3613.

Commissioner Miller moved to adopt Resolution No. 3613. Commissioner Ballard seconded the motion. Chair Snowden asked if there is any discussion regarding this resolution.

Chair Snowden stated he would like to hear from the Flock representative before we approve resolution.

Flock: I'm a former police officer and criminal investigator. I can tell you I've seen in this last year and a half since I've been here making an incredible impact not only in my community but across the greater metro. When I first started I worked a lot with political subdivisions, which is a brand-new territory for me, outside of law enforcement agencies and different partners that we have. I promise you’ll see significant impact.

Chair Snowden: In protecting the use of the equipment, protects the property but also the community around, right? Is it just watching the license plates that come in and out of our property?

Secretary Northern: Sir, the way the cameras will be displayed on our properties, it will also show the streets and not our entrances and exits.

Chair Snowden: I was just noting that 18 are designated at Cuney and then another 14 Fulton and I don't see a large number at Irvinton, etc.

Secretary Northern: The number of cameras is based on the property size and number of entrances and exits. Another benefit is that if we decide to move forward with our Choice Neighborhood Initiative, we can we can take those cameras and move them elsewhere.

Chair Snowden: I want to make sure our clients guess my thing is not only drawback is not a drawback officer want you to know is not a drawback but you have to raise these questions is that I like protection is that to make sure that our clients and individuals don’t get the wrong perception of them being spied on or you know Big Brother watching over them I would also ask and get with Jennifer and Etch to make sure that as we're communicating this to the clients and make sure they are aware of what we are doing and what the benefits are. Also, to make sure that as we are using this, that we are using it as a tool to benefit us and that it's not used as a tool to cause additional issues or concerns that our clients, who are already at times feeling like they are being watched, things like that. I don’t want them to get that type of feeling.

Secretary Northern: We have communication plan we plan on going out to the property to also pass out information for those individuals that may not come to the meetings and to reassure you and reassure our clients the only time the camera kind of attacks a plate is if the police have already put the plate in the system. It records every play but until the plate is entered into the system by HPD going system, then it connects.

Flock: There's also a very robust ethically designed auditing feature for the platform. Everybody's kept above board, HD has a policy and procedure on how they're able to use utilize it. Furthermore, this is not something we're keeping for years. We actually have a 30-day rolling delete retention policy.

Chair Snowden asked if there is any objection to adopting this resolution. Having none, Resolution No. 3613 is adopted.

Chair Snowden stated at this time, the Board will move into Executive Session.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Chair Snowden suspended the Public Session on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 at 3:41 p.m. to convene into Executive Session to discuss personnel, legal and real estate issues in accordance with Sections 551.074, 551.071 and 551.072 respectively, of the Texas Government Code.

PUBLIC SESSION RECONVENED

Chair Snowden reconvened Public Session at 4:32 p.m.

Secretary Northern called the roll and declared a quorum present.

ADJOURNMENT

Chair Snowden remarked this concludes the items on today’s agenda and declared the meeting adjourned at 4:33 p.m.

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