Annual Meeting Minutes, April 16, 2024
Minutes from the April 16, 2024 Clarksville CDC Annual Meeting of the Members
The meeting was held at the Haskell House.
Board members present: BJ Friedman, Paula Hern, Malcolm Greenstein, Kim O’Brien, Thomas Schiefer, Chris Thomas, Gregory Tran
Others Present: Jon Montgomery, Kathleen Ellis, Znobea Williams, Felecia Miller, Vanessa Lively, Eric Fox, Kristin Fox, Karen Kennard, John O'Brien, Randi Shade, Katie Van Dyke, Brad Prak
1. Presentation of the “2023 State of the CCDC” Annual Report
CCDC President Mary Reed was out of the country. CCDC Vice-president Chris Thomas read her report, which is attached at the end of these minutes.
2. Presentation regarding the CCDC’s Financial Status.
CCDC Treasurer BJ Friedman presented her 2023 Financial Report. It is attached to the end of these minutes.
Discussion following:
· A member shared information about available City of Austin grants (Elevate and Nexus) that might be sources for Haskell House events. This information will be shared with the Haskell House Advisory Group.
3. Presentation regarding the CCDC’s housing program.
Brad Prak, Prak Property Management (PPM), CCDC’s property manager, reported that a highlight of the past year was a collaboration with Paul Balmuth & Associates, who evaluated all of our existing properties, noted needed repairs, and provided cost estimates. The biggest priorities were tackled first—foundation repairs at 2 of our properties. (These projects were completed in the early months of 2024, paid for by private donations and a grant from the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation.) We will continue to move down the list of large repairs, utilizing existing funds while also continuing to explore additional funding sources. Brad reported on internal systems that have been put in place to assist tenants, including allowing them to pay their rent and place work orders online. Also, PPM provides tenants the option of utilizing “Credit Builder”—a service than can assist them in improving their credit ratings.
In response to a question about setting rent rates, Brad responded that for current tenants, income is always assessed and considered when considering an increase.
The Board thanked Brad and the staff of PPM for raising the level of professionalism and service provided to both our tenants and the maintenance of our properties.
Discussion following:
· A question was raised regarding what tenants we are serving. In the past, it was pointed out, CCDC housing served former Clarksville residents who had been displaced. When and how did the the current policy—renting to families with children under the age of 18—go into effect? The response was that CCDC has rented to families for quite some time now. The exact time the policy went into place could not be remembered, but long-term board members said at least 15 years, perhaps longer. The policy shifted because when vacancies occurred, we could not identify former Clarksville residents who income-qualified and were interested in returning. The decision to rent to families with minor children was made to take advantage of our proximity to Mathews and its feeder schools, providing increased access to high-quality schools to low-income children.
· Members in attendance asked about how CCDC vacancies are posted. Response: through the Housing Authorities and non-profits with clients looking for housing. Suggestions were made of ways to spread our net wider, in hopes of getting word of vacancies to former Clarksville residents.
· It was asked if CCDC has a prioritized list of need repairs for our properties. Brad responded that we do.
4. Announcement of Election Results.
BJ Friedman, acting as Election Administrator.
Note: Prior to the noon deadline for ballots to be submitted, Katie Crago Blanton withdrew from the race. Her votes were not counted.
BJ was assisted in tabulating the ballots by board member Gregory Tran.
A total of 97 valid ballots were counted. There were 4 ballots from folks who were not members of the CCDC. There were 2 ballots that were blank.
Kristin Fox. 31
Malcolm Greenstein 64
Paula Hern 76
Karen Kennard 31
Kim O'Brien 70
Mary Reed 67
Randi Shade 37
Chris Thomas 55
BJ thanked everyone who ran and voted, commenting that it was great to have such a great turnout and also to have new people who are clearly interested in participating in the governance and function of the CCDC.
Note: In the lead up to the election, 76 new members joined the CCDC, bringing total membership to 184.
A General Discussion following the conclusion of business focused on creating ways to increase involvement in CCDC operations.
Suggestions included:
· Set up committees
· Find ways that people/members can participate in ways beyond helping at events
· Expand our talent pool by reaching out to members and availing ourselves of their skills
· Consider a different meeting time. 6:30 is a hard time for people with children to get involved.
· Give voice to people who “are not at the table.”
2023 Annual Report
Submitted by Mary Reed, CCDC President
2023 was full of accomplishments, but it was also dominated by worries about money, namely where the money would come from to pay for the many, often expensive, property repairs the CCDC needed to make. They existed because unbeknownst to the CCDC board, the organization’s previous property manager been not been diligent about identifying and addressing needed repairs.
For months we grappled with where the repair money would come from. We explored whether an organization might give us the money in the form of a grant; brainstormed with individuals in the affordable housing, real estate and development fields about our options; considered selling the Neighborhood Center to raise the money and held a Special Called Meeting to discuss this possibility; and considered funding the repairs with money from the Austin Housing Finance Corporation. During this process we learned that most affordable housing grantors want to fund the construction of new housing, not fund repairs to existing housing. We also decided that taking money from the City came with conditions that the board and the CCDC’s property management firm did not believe were good for the long-term viability of the CCDC’s affordable housing program. And we concluded that selling the Center was our option of last resort.
As the year wore on, things began to look up a bit. For starters, John Henneberger with Texas Housers asked Paul Balmuth with PB Construction to assess the CCDC’s properties and come up with good cost estimates for addressing all needed repairs. After inspecting the CCDC’s properties, Paul estimated that the cost would be close to $400,000, which, while still a lot, was considerably less than the $1 million dollar figure we had been working with. Also, the Texas Affordable Housing Corporation gave us $10,000 to spend on repairs at 1817A West 10th and a board member said they would donate $20,000 to that same cause. In addition, we received a $50,000 unrestricted donation from an anonymous donor. All of that, combined with the wise and carefully-considered financial decisions the board made in consultation with Prak Property Management, the company that manages our properties and maintains our books, meant that we ended 2023 feeling a lot more positive.
Also, earlier in 2023, Kim O’Brien spearheaded the CCDC’s first participation in Amplify Austin’s “I Live Here I Give Here” citywide fundraising campaign. We set a goal of raising $10,000 and raised $9,122, but after qualifying for a couple matches, the total amount we raised was close to $11,000. The CCDC used all of that money to help support its affordable housing program.
Meanwhile we hosted another successful ice cream social, and there was a stunning upset in the homemade ice cream competition: 14-year-old Beckett Raftus beat perennial competition winner Gregory Tran. I think we all look forward to this year’s rematch.
We also co-hosted our annual Christmas Caroling party with OWANA. This year’s party, which featured “snow,” holiday crafts, food and beverages, followed by caroling at the Haskell House and around the neighborhood, was our biggest party ever.
Last year, the CCDC focused a lot of its efforts on the Haskell House. For example, the House was part of Austin Museum Day for the first time with live music, fun activities for kids, including Haskell House jigsaw puzzles, cookies and lemonade. The House was open all afternoon and many people from all around Austin visited the House for the first time and learned about Clarksville’s history.
We also began Clarksville Conversations: Sundays at the Haskell House to help promote the House. Clarksville Conversations is a quarterly speaker series that focuses on Clarksville history, gardening and current issues of interest to the neighborhood. Our first speakers in the series were Jessica Gilzow with PARD, who spoke about how to plant a pollinator garden, and State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, who provided a wrap up of the 88th State of Texas legislative session. By the end of the year, the CCDC had already nailed down its 2024 speakers.
And the CCDC established the Haskell House Advisory Group to give descendants of former Clarksville residents, like Charles Clark and Hezikiah Haskell, as well as people of color with an interest in Clarksville history, the opportunity to help tell Clarksville’s story, initiate projects to enrich the experience of visitors to the House, and help the CCDC market the House and events happening there to Austin’s African American community. We also hoped that members of the Advisory Group would become docents, which would diversify our pool of docents.
Our efforts to promote the Haskell House paid off in 2023. In 2022, just 105 people visited the House, but last year we had 431 visitors. However, this is an understatement because some visitors to the House do not sign the Haskell House login sheet. We are happy especially pleased with the visitor increase considering that virtually no one visited in July and August due to the brutally hot temperatures.
Also in 2023, several groups of Mathews 4th graders visited the House as part of their Texas history curriculum. They were fascinated by what they learned about early Clarksville and by the photos in the House. Some of them also got to be part of a documentary about the House that PARD had commissioned.
Also, during 2023:
• We totally redid the CCDC’s website to make it more dynamic, engaging and informative and became active on Facebook and Instagram.
• CCDC board member Paula Hern joined OWANA’s Steering Committee. Her attendance at the Committee’s meetings will help strengthen the relationship between the two organizations.
• Kim O’Brien joined OWANA’s zoning committee. Her participation at committee meetings is especially important in light of the developments planned for West Lynn.
• The CCDC hosted a meeting for neighbors to hear from Zydeco Development, who now owns the property on the east side of West Lynn from 12th Street to Café Medici. At the meeting, residents learned about Zydeco’s plans for that area, shared their concerns and got their questions answered.
• And finally in 2023, the CCDC continued to face obstacles – mostly city-created – to getting its project at 1611 West 10th completed, and the organization filed a lawsuit against the first contractor hired to pour the driveway there. That contractor took our money and disappeared.
2022-2023 Annual Financial Report
Submitted by BJ Friedman, CCDC Treasurer
This report covers the Fiscal Year Oct 2022-Sept 2023. I am happy to report that our finances are in much better condition than they in FY 2021-22.
As usual, our biggest source of income came from rents. The 2022-23 fiscal year saw $212,400 coming from rents on our 11 properties.
Another plus, we received an anonymous gift of $50,000 in February 2023. With Kim and Mary developing an incredible marketing blitz, we made our first foray to raise money through the “I Live Here, I Give Here” campaign. That project brought us a little over $10,000 in donations, largely from folks who had never before contributed to the CCDC. Because of this big gift, an influx of new money, as well as several other large donations totally around $5000, we have been able to begin to make much needed repairs to our properties.
Another source of new, although limited income, has come from the opening of the Haskell House as a museum. With the renovations to the house, we have held all CCDC events there, which has resulted in another source of income – about $3000 last FY.
Construction of the house at 1611 W 10th brought in about $45,000 in revenue from reimbursements from our “grant”. These reimbursements are for expenses we have incurred to construct the house. Kim will provide more details later.
Another grant for $10,000 was obtained to help with repairs at our property at 1817 W 10th St. A board member has also pledged a significant amount of money to repair this property. These repairs have begun in the current fiscal year.
Based on donations, grants, gifts, and excellent financial and property management by Prak Property Management, we were able to begin to remedy the neglect and mismanagement by a former property manager and to avoid the sale of the Pauline Brown Community Center.
Our greatest expenses are for our property management company, Prak Property Management fees, employee expenses, and maintenance and repair costs. The construction costs for the new house at 1611 W 10th were about $42,000. Other large expenses included $44,000 for roof repairs, partially offset by insurance, and $21,000 for property and liability insurance.