Minutes, October 20, 2020

Minutes from the October 20, 2020 Clarksville CDC Monthly Meeting

In support of citywide efforts to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), the October 20, 2020 Monthly Meeting was held via Zoom.

Board Members in attendance: Aly Byatt, BJ Friedman, Paula Hern, Malcolm Greenstein, Kim O’Brien, Mary Reed, Chris Thomas, and Gregory Tran.

Others in attendance: Rose Gabriel, Ellis & Wilder Tran, and August Byatt.

1.   On a motion by BJ, seconded by Paula, the minutes from the September 15, 2020 monthly board meeting were approved as corrected.

2.   BJ Friedman, CCDC Treasurer, presented the monthly, quarterly, and year-end financial reports. The reports were comprehensive, a big step in the way the board reviews our financials. We experienced a few hits this year—a lot of unexpected repairs this year, and some higher than expected expenses (auditing fee increase and insurance payment schedule not matching our fiscal year.) Rent losses due to COVID were offset by a federal PPP grant which was used to cover Rose Gabriel’s salary for two months. Additionally, we have incurred some expenses related to both the new house at 1611 W. 10th and Haskell House repairs that will be covered by City loans and grants, but these funds have not yet been received.

 Minutes from the October 13, 2020 Finance and Operations Committee meeting appear at the end of these minutes.  

3.   Rose Gabriel, Director of Property and Finance, gave her monthly report.  There is a recommendation from the Finance and Operations Committee to add providing egress for 1821B Waterston to the list of projects using OWANA money. This will be brought to the board next month. The project would be moved to the priority list.

Tenants at 1011A Charlotte gave notice of leaving. One tenant is currently on a payment plan. Another tenant has not provided a check for October rent yet. This tenant has requested to extend their stay in CCDC housing through December. The board agreed that the granting of this request depends on this rent check.

4.   Rose reported on progress on the new CCDC house at 1611 W. 10th Street. Mary was (finally!) able to close on the loan for the project. And the memo of agreement with American YouthWorks was signed.

5.   Rose reported on progress on Haskell House repairs. Kim McKnight, Program Manager, Historic Preservation and Heritage Tourism, Austin Parks and Recreation Department, will look over the new roofing material in the “near future.” Kim has recommended a contractor out of Dallas for the work, but Rose will look into getting someone local that could complete the job sooner.

6.   The board considered CCDC rental policies. After much discussion, the board decided to maintain our policy when selecting new tenants to give priority to families with children (up to age 18) but to be open to the possibility of allowing a tenant to stay in CCDC housing beyond the time the youngest child “ages out.” Mary and Malcolm will review the CCDC Housing Application to make sure its language is in line with this policy.

7.   Mary updated the board on the presentation of Community Vision Award from the Austin Chapter of the American Institute of Architects to the CCDC. The presentation of the award will now be on-line. The award/trophy was dropped off at her house and now she is asked to put together some comments for the award ceremony.

8.   Under Other Business, the board discussed the issue of splitting water meters and billing for water usage for some tenants. The option of splitters is not practical due to the expense and difficulty of installing splitters for the 8 units and 4 meters involved.  After various options were discussed, a motion was made by Malcolm and seconded by Aly, to adopt the idea of billing tenants in these units per the monthly water bill for the units, divided by the number of occupants (no matter age) per unit and given to the tenant to pay separately from rent payments. The water bill would go out when the bill comes in. Notices will go out to tenants that they will be responsible for paying a portion of the water bill as their lease comes up for renewal. New tenants with a new lease will know from the beginning they will be responsible for their portion of the water bill.

9.                 The board did not meet in Executive Session.  

Actions taken via Electronic Vote: 

10/16/20: The board voted to allow a tenant whose lease was set to expire at the end of October, remain through the end of December on a month-to-month basis, pending current rent payments. This item required immediate action and could not wait until the October board meeting.

9/21/20: The board voted to renew the CCDC’s Line of Credit, in the amount of $50,000 at Frost Bank. This item required immediate action and could not wait until the October board meeting.           

9/21/20: The board voted not to renew the lease at one of the CCDC’s properties. This item required immediate action and could not wait until the October board meeting.

Minutes from October 13, 2020 Meeting of the Finance and Operations Committee

Attending: BJ Friedman, CCDC Treasurer, Chris Thomas, CCDC Vice President, Paula Hern, Mary Reed, CCDC President, and Rose Gabriel, CCDC Director Property and Finance

Everyone reviewed the financials for September as well as the end of FY P&L and BJ and Mary asked Rose for some clarifications and requested some changes.

BJ compared the CCDC’s September bank statement against deposit slips, debit transactions and receipts for that month.

Everyone reviewed the most recent needed Maintenance and Repair doc for the CCDC in preparation for recommending to the full board other things to spend the OWANA money on if there is any money left after pursuing the board’s #1 priority for the funds – adding a second ingress/egress at the properties that have just one – now that it’s been determined that the installation of water meter splitters at some properties is impractical. Mary and BJ asked Rose to make changes to the Maintenance and Repair doc and to send the updated doc to the committee members so they can further discuss the doc via email.

The committee did not have time to discuss the issue of property inspections because Rose had a 2PM meeting with SCORE members regarding how to return the CCDC’s EIDL $. However, Mary and Chris did identify some specific information they would like Rose to provide the committee members before the committee’s November meeting so that they will be more informed about when and how inspections of the CCDC’s properties are currently conducted and options for how they might be conducted instead.