Houston Daily

Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners met Feb. 18.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

I. CALL TO ORDER

A Meeting of the Board of Commissioners (“Board”) of the Houston Housing Authority (“HHA”) was held on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, at the Houston Housing Authority Central Office, 2640 Fountain View Drive, Houston, Texas 77057. The meeting was called to order at 3:00 p.m.

II. ROLL CALL

Present:

• Joseph “Jody” Proler, Chairman

• Alton Smith, Vice Chairman

• Cynthia Aceves-Lewis, Commissioner

• Stephanie A.G. Ballard, Commissioner

• Eric G. Carter, Commissioner

• Kristy Kirkendoll, Commissioner, 3:04 pm arrival

• Kenneth C. Li, Commissioner, 3:04 pm arrival

• Jamie Bryant, Secretary

ABSENCES: None

III. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

a. HHA Board Meeting Minutes: February 4, 2025

b. HHA Special Board Meeting Minutes: February 6, 2025

c. HHA Special Board Meeting Minutes: February 13, 2025

Chairman Proler called for a motion to approve the meeting minutes for February 4, 2025, February 6, 2025, and February 13, 2025.

On motion by Commissioner Smith and seconded by Commissioner Ballard, the Board unanimously approved the February 4, 2025, February 6, 2025, and February 13, 2025, Meeting Minutes.

IV. INTRODUCTION OF THE INTERPRETERS

Chairman Proler offered the use of interpreters to be available to Spanish, Mandarin and Vietnamese speakers who may need assistance for public comments only.

V. PUBLIC COMMENTS

Reverend Mackey: Mr. Bryant, congratulations on your recent appointment. Thank you, Chairman Proler, Vice-Chair Smith, and Commissioners. I am here on behalf of the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council as well as the neighborhood, joined by Marty Page, President of the Super Neighborhood committee. I just wanted to follow up again today Resolution 3858. Thank you to each of you for tabling this resolution at the last board meeting and allowing time to revisit the situation. I especially want to say thank you for coming back out to the community, hearing a lot of what the community had to share, and a lot of our citizens reinforcing what we shared during our initial meeting. I actually said it felt like progress again, seeing you all back out in the community and engaging with us. That's where we initially began. So thank you all for that. But I do want to continue to say it is our hope, going forward, that after your due diligence, you will consider voting no and continue to keep Columbia Residential as a developer and hopefully fast-track this project as so many people are waiting. I would like to say I thought about it after you all left this Saturday, according to scripture, it said the poor would be with us always. God said that if you do it for the least of them, it's like doing it unto Him. I really realized the gravity of your work. Your work is very serious because you have a lot of lives and families whose lives are in the balance based on your decision. So again, it is our hope and prayer that you would vote no, that you would move forward with the development with Columbia, and that these families receive affordable housing that's so necessary. Thank you.

VI. OLD BUSINESS:

a. Resolution No. 3858: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the Houston Housing Authority to take such actions necessary or convenient to terminate the Memorandum of Understanding with Columbia Independence Heights, LLC and proceed with procurement of a developer for the development of Independence Heights II (the “Project”), to take such actions necessary or convenient to facilitate the development of the Project, and the execution of all required documents therefor.

Chairman Proler: This is to be reviewed during Executive Session.

VII. NEW BUSINESS

b. Resolution No. 3861: Consideration and/or take action for the incoming President and CEO of the Houston Housing Authority (HHA) to assume all duties, roles, and responsibilities granted to the Interim President and CEO for HHA and all HHA Entities/Affiliates.

Chairman Proler asked for a motion to approve as written.

On motion by Commissioner Li and seconded by Commissioner Ballard. The Board unanimously approved Resolution No. 3861.

c. Resolution No. 3862: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the President & CEO or designee to write off vacant tenant accounts from January 1, 2024, to March 31, 2024.

d. Resolution No. 3863: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the President & CEO or designee to write vacant tenant accounts for April 1, 2024, to June 30, 2024.

e. Resolution No. 3864: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the President & CEO or designee to write off vacant tenant accounts for July 1, 2024, to September 30, 2024.

Ricardo Harris: These resolutions are due to the vacated tenant accounts for individuals who have left the program and had residual balances owed to the Housing Authority. Once this write-off has taken place, we will be able to record it in the HUD system as outstanding debt and also turn it over to a third-party collection agency that we have a contract with.

Commissioner Carter: Do we have a history of collections using the third-party attorney group that says this is worthwhile? It seems to me that these folks' lives are hard enough anyway, and if we're suing them and taking judgments in Texas, not actually collecting money, we're just going to make life harder for people. So, as I understand it, these residents can't come back until they satisfy this case.

Ricardo Harris: Correct.

Commissioner Carter: So why are we suing?

Jennine Hovell-Cox: So, just to clarify, they are not being sued, to my knowledge. These accounts are just being sent over to a third-party collection agency, which tries to collect the amounts that are owed. They're not being referred to a third-party law firm.

Secretary Bryant: I sat down with Ricardo on Friday to get a clear understanding of the processes around this and how these accounts are working because there's 3/4 worth we're writing off today and some of those are administrative that we will solve going forward. So, you will see quarterly, us bringing it back to the board when there are write-offs. We are also working with our property management companies to make sure we are diligently handling and documenting things. Some of it's not so much about our grace policy, because I think we do a good job with our residents, but what I'm constantly reminded of, is if we let somebody stay too long and is not paying their fair share, we have a long list of residents who need the housing, who are ready to get in there and abide by their agreements. There is progress; as you can see, the amounts are coming down, and this is something that we're tracking. As far as the collections go, I asked the same question to Mr. Harris and that is something we're going to track to see whether or not it's actually producing any fruit. But also, I was very concerned and wanted to just make sure we would understand the policies and procedures of our third-party collection agents to make sure that they're not overly aggressive or doing anything outside of what would be considered the mission of HHA.

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: Ricardo, I just wanted to say that I was very impressed with this presentation. I thought it was very thorough. You outlined the process. I think it was a year ago that I think we had to write off uncollected debt. We were concerned about the high amounts, and we asked that the process be explained. You have done that very thoroughly, I appreciate that. I love the historical context and the trend going downward and that uncollectible accounts are significantly decreasing. Thank you for your efforts and there's just a lot of transparency here. So I really appreciate all your work and the help you have prepared extensively to present this to us.

One question that I had was related to comps. I think Jamie, you're going to look at public housing comps. What's the typical percentage of collectability, and where are we in that range?

Secretary Bryant: Yes, absolutely, and we’ll work on it.

Chairman Proler called for a motion to approve Resolution Nos. 3862, 3863, and 3864 in seriatim. On motion by Commissioner Ballard and seconded by Commissioner Smith.

Chairman Proler called for a motion to approve Resolution Nos. 3862, 3863, and 3864 in their entirety as submitted.

On motion by Commissioner Li and seconded by Commissioner Ballard. The Board unanimously approved Resolution Nos. 3862, 3863, and 3864.

f. Resolution No. 3865: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the President & CEO or designee to negotiate, execute and make necessary changes and corrections to a contract with Waste Management for Solid Waste Removal Services.

PRESENTED BY: Ricardo Harris, Director of Asset Management

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: I'm assuming we currently use Waste Management? Ricardo Harris: No

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: Who do we currently use, and how much do we pay? Ricardo Harris: Waste Connections and it is $370,000.

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: For two years?

Austin Crotts: That's for one year.

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: So this is a significant increase. Is the $467,000 for two years? Austin Crotts: The $467,000 is for one year.

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: So it will increase from $370,000 to $467,000. Do you have an explanation for that?

Austin Crotts: Some of it is just market adjustment. We did a 3.5% adjustment on our independent cost estimate. So that ended up at $407,000. So we're just a little bit higher than that.

Secretary Bryant: Ricardo, you might want to let her know what the second-highest bid came in. Ricardo Harris: There were two bidders. The second-highest second bid was $532,000. Austin Crotts: Waste Connections didn’t respond.

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: Thank you.

On motion by Commissioner Carter and seconded by Commissioner Li. The Board unanimously approved Resolution No. 3865.

Chairman Proler: Before I go to Resolution No. 3866, I would like to welcome our City Councilman Castillo to the meeting.

g. Resolution No. 3866: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the President & CEO or designee to authorize the implementation of a Credit Card Policy to ensure transparency and prevent abuse as it relates to Houston Housing Authority (HHA) operations.

Chairman Proler: This is something that this board brought within the last four months, and as chairman, I want to thank everyone in this organization. This was a promise made and a promise kept. We promised we would deliver this policy in February and we did it.

PRESENTED BY: Austin Crotts, Procurement Manager

The resolution reads, That the Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners authorizes the President & CEO or designee to implement the Credit Card Policy pursuant to the memorandum from Austin Crotts, Procurement Manager, dated February 14, 2025, to Jamie Bryant, President & CEO.

As Mr. Chairman Proler mentioned, this policy will make our processes transparent. All charges will be recorded in our financial system so that they are visible and have gone through an approval process. Credit card charges are only used in instances where our normal pay processes cannot be utilized. Our normal pay process is usually by check, but when we have vendors that will only take credit cards, it will be put into the system like any other purchase request. They'll do a purchase order, they'll go through the approval process before it comes to the procurement department, and we'll make a charge against the credit card.

On motion by Commissioner Smith and seconded by Commissioner Ballard. The Board unanimously approved Resolution No. 3866.

Secretary Bryant: I just want to clarify for everybody because it was important to me as we move forward with this credit card policy. Unless I approve it, only five credit cards will be issued to Houston Housing Authority employees, so there will be a very limited number of people, and we will keep tight control over that.

h. Resolution No. 3867: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the President & CEO or designee to authorize the implementation of a Fleet Policy to ensure that the Houston Housing Authority (HHA) vehicle rules are followed and that the use of the vehicles adheres to guidelines and policy.

PRESENTED BY: Austin Crotts, Procurement Manager

The Resolution reads, That the Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners authorizes the President & CEO or designee to implement the Fleet Policy pursuant to the memorandum from Austin Crotts, Procurement Manager, dated February 14, 2024, to Jamie Bryant, President & CEO.

This policy outlines the rules and regulations for checking out a vehicle, checking vehicles, and that there's an accident if they receive any moving violations, toll violations, or parking violations. All of that's covered within the policy.

Chairman Proler: Thank you. Again, for the record, this is another action that this board asked to be done, and I appreciate the work that everybody and the legal team have done. A promise made and kept. With that, I'll ask for a motion to approve as submitted.

On motion by Commissioner Li and seconded by Commissioner Carter.

Chairman Proler: Is there any discussion?

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: I just had questions about the fleet of 16 vehicles that HHA owns. I'm curious: how many vehicles do other public housing agencies have, and what are they used for?

Secretary Bryant: That's a great question, Commissioner Lewis. It is something that I asked Austin about just before this meeting. The fleet policy controls the vehicles we do have. What we have not had a chance to get into yet is the usage of them, the need for them, how we finance these things going forward, and whether we have too many vehicles or not enough. That’s what is next on the list for me to work with Austin, to understand the total usage and cost around the whole fleet.

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: OK. So then, I think my only question is, who authorizes the use of the vehicles? What controls are in place for that?

Austin Crotts: Any employee is authorized to use the vehicle as long as they're a full-time employee of the Houston Housing Authority. We get a copy of the driver's license. HR, upon hiring, will do a check on their driving record, and we will take a copy of their driver's license and a copy of their most current insurance. Not that we charge their insurance, but we have to be able to prove to our insurance company that the person, if they were an accident, is insurable. As long as they have business off-site and they pass the driver's license screen done by HR, they are eligible to use the vehicle.

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: So, I can be an HHA employee and decide that I just want to use the vehicle for business purposes, and I don't need written authorization from my supervisor or anything?

Austin Crotts: No, not for that, but HR will be coming to the board in the future with an actual travel policy. The travel policy that they've been working on says that if they are an HHA full-time employee working in this office and they do business off this site, they're supposed to use an HHA vehicle unless they have authorization from their department head or vice president. So there's the policy right now that they're working on currently says that they have to use one, and there's like 2 exceptions to that, and that would be the inspections group, which spends most of their time outside of this office. And if you were going to a site for a meeting or something and then going home, you would be exempt. That may change between now and the time it is presented to the board, but right now, that's the way it is written.

Chairman Proler called for a vote. The Board unanimously approved Resolution No. 3867.

i. Resolution No. 3868: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the President & CEO or designee to execute a contract with Omega Builders Group LP to replace the Trash Chute located at 75 Lyerly Senior Development in the amount of $142,655.00.

PRESENTED BY: Jay Mason, Director of REID.

Resolution 3868 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 Omega Builders Group LP to replace the Trash Chute located at 75 Lyerly Senior Development in the amount of $142,655.00. pursuant to the memorandum from Jay Mason, Director of REID, dated February 14, 2025, to Jamie Bryant, President & CEO.

We engaged a consultant to do an analysis of the trash chute at Lyerly, a five-story public housing facility that we currently own, and it was determined that the trash chute was past its useful life. Based on their assessment and construction of documents, an ICE was created in the amount of $142,000. This was provided by our consultant, and a construction document package was submitted to several contractors to bid, and the most responsible bidder was Omega Builders Group in the amount of $142,655.

Chairman Proler: Has the HHA had any experience with Omega Builders Group on any previous project? Jay Mason: Yes, they recently installed another trash chute for us, and we have done a lot of work with them. Chairman Proler: Was it done according to budget and on budget?

Jay Mason: Yes, Sir.

Commissioner Aceves-Lewis: Was the cost similar?

Jay Mason: It's a five-story building, and there are different conditions. For example, this specific project has a concrete enclosure that they need to remove in order to install the trash chute. It’s Apples and oranges compared with the last project that we had.

Chairman Proler asked for a motion to approve Resolution No. 3868 as submitted.

On motion by Commissioner Li and seconded by Commissioner Smith. The Board unanimously approved Resolution No. 3868.

VIII. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Chairman Proler suspended the Public Session on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, at 3:26 p.m. to convene an 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.

IX. RECONVENE PUBLIC SESSION

Chairman Proler reconvened the Public Session at 5:10 p.m.

OLD BUSINESS

Resolution No. 3858: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the Houston Housing Authority to take such actions necessary or convenient to terminate the Memorandum of Understanding with Columbia Independence Heights, LLC and proceed with procurement of a developer for the development of Independence Heights II (the “Project”), to take such actions necessary or convenient to facilitate the development of the Project, and the execution of all required documents therefor.

Chairman Proler: May I have a motion on Resolution No. 3858 as written?

Jonathan Brush: To clarify, an affirmative vote would authorize termination, and a negative vote would not pass the resolution.

Commissioner Carter: I move that we vote no on this resolution.

Seconded by Commissioner Ballard.

Chairman Proler called for a vote, which was unanimous. The Board did not adopt Resolution No. 3858 as written.

Chairman Proler: Before we move on, I want to task, as the Board has with our new leadership team and our real estate team, and thank them for all the hard work they've done to help us and position us. To execute this project the way it should be, the way it was intended to be and to preserve the memory of Ms. DuBose, who fought so hard to see this project through. So thank you all. Thank you, Commissioners.

NEW BUSINESS continued

j. Resolution No. 3869: Consideration and/or take action to authorize Houston Housing Authority’s refinance of The Peninsula Park Apartments, located at 4855 West Fuqua Street, Houston, Harris County, Texas 77045.

Chairman Proler: Jay, is this time sensitive?

Jay Mason: Yes, it is. Mike Rogers will help a little bit. I think we are coming up to the maturity date on the loan. We entered into a soft loan just to cover the debt until we got this one from a new lender. I think the request was to get a $9 million loan on this property, which you're seeing here in this resolution, and that will pay off the short loan and allow the loan to carry through.

Secretary Bryant: Mike, are there some clarifications you'd like to make?

Mike Rogers: In the original financing on the deal, was bond financing, and the terms of the bond financing had a mandatory redemption that came up last year, I think September 1. When we started working through that with the lenders and everything, we were advised not to go down that route because the mandatory redemption is essentially as expensive as issuing a brand-new bond. So you were looking at the property having to come up with several $100,000 of legal fees to get the bond ready for redemption. Citibank, who was the original lender, stepped up and said that they would give us a bridge loan to allow us to go out into the marketplace and look for a permanent loan. So we took the bridge loan because we couldn't allow things, to not go forward with the bond redemption. Now, the bridge loan is maturing I believe it is either April first or May 1st.

Chairman Proler: I really would like to see if we could go to Citibank and ask him for a short-term 90-day extension, please, just to allow the team to get up to speed on this. I'd like to see the current financials on this property. This just kind of hit me from left field. Rates are all over the place right now. We've got to approve a lot of deals and lenders, so if we can get a short-term extension, if it's not possible, then it's not, and we'll have to call the special meeting to get this. I don't want to put the property at any risk, but I just feel like we need to get a little bit better vetted on this, especially the new group.

Mike Rogers: Yes, sir.

Chairman Proler called for a motion to TABLE Resolution No. 3869.

On motion by Commissioner Li and seconded by Commissioner Smith. The Board unanimously approved to TABLE Resolution No. 3869.

k. Resolution No. 3870: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the update of the previously approved lender in Resolution No. 3808 for the August Friendswood transaction.

l. Resolution No. 3871: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the update of the previously approved lender in Resolution No. 3807 for the Augusta North transaction.

m. Resolution No. 3872: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the update of the previously approved lender in Resolution No. 3804 for the Mia LXMI Westchase East transaction.

n. Resolution No. 3873: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the update of the previously approved lender in Resolution No. 3805 for the Mia LXMI Westchase West transaction.

Chairman Proler: I would like to make a motion to approve Resolution NO. 3870, 3871, 3872, and 3873 in seriatim. They are strictly approvals to change lenders on previously approved transactions. We see this quite often, especially in the environment we are in right now.

Commissioner Carter motioned. Commissioner Smith seconded the motion.

Chairman Proler asked for a motion to adopt Resolution Nos. 3870, 3871, 3872, and 3873. Commissioner Li motioned, and Commissioner Carter seconded.

Chairman Proler asked if there was any discussion or objection to adopting Resolution Nos. 3870, 3871, 3872, and 3873. Having none, the President called for a vote. All voted in favor, so Resolution Nos. 3870, 3871, 3872, and 3873 passed unanimously.

o. Resolution No. 3874: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the President & CEO or authorized representative of the Houston Housing Authority to facilitate the acquisition of The Henry at Jones Road located at or about approximately 11925 Jones Rd., Houston, Texas 77070, and the execution of all required documents therefor.

Chairman Proler called for a motion to TABLE Resolution No. 3874.

On motion by Commissioner Aceves-Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Li. The Board unanimously approved to TABLE Resolution No. 3874.

p. Resolution No. 3875: Consideration and/or take action to authorize the President & CEO or authorized representative of the Houston Housing Authority to facilitate the acquisition of The Henry at Woodland Hills located at or about approximately 14807 Woodland Hills Dr., Humble, Texas 77396 and the execution of all required documents therefor.

Chairman Proler called for a motion to TABLE Resolution No. 3874.

On motion by Commissioner Aceves-Lewis and seconded by Commissioner Li. The Board unanimously approved to TABLE Resolution No. 3874.

X. ADJOURNMENT

Chairman Proler: This concludes the items on today’s agenda and asks for a motion to adjourn. On motion by Commissioner Carter and seconded by Commissioner Li.

Chairman Proler declared the meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m.

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