By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
The sun shone brightly on the W.D. Alexander Operation Center as the two of the four Housing Authority of Glasgow commissioners began to trickle in for their monthly meeting. They were joined by Glasgow Mayor Henry Royse, Executive Operations Officer Sheri Lee, Capital Fund Coordinator Amy Houchens and Rich Alexander, the commission’s attorney.
Danny Gibson, commission chairperson, called the meeting to order and their attention was turned to the 12-item agenda. Among the items to be discussed included an amendment to the “Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policy,” a resolution to increase laundry costs and a proposed payroll increase.
The amendment primarily dealt with increasing required security deposits — something that has not been increased since May 2016, Lee said. She said that while the increases are still less than the security deposits requested in the private sector, it would “help narrow the gap” on possible losses the authority might incur from tenants vacating a unit while having outstanding balances. It would also help cover the costs of any damages emotional support animals might create since, legally speaking, the authority is prohibited from collecting pet rent on ESA animals.
The required security deposits would be increased by $100, Lee said, which brings the senior/disabled deposit to $350 and families to $550. Though tenants can still get up to $100 of assistance from the HERO Foundation and pay over several months with $250 or $400 down respectively.
Vice chairperson Randle Norris made the motion to approve the increases and Royse provided the needed second. The resolution was passed unanimously.
In conjunction with this resolution the commissioners also discussed increasing washing and drying costs by $1, which passed unanimously. As of March 19, the authority reported $1,054 in collections across its four laundry sites. This increase would offset the increase in utility costs and would help repair the machines should it be needed.
“We still want to provide the service because not all of our units have a washer and dryer,” Lee said. “What we’d like to do is increase it to $2 to wash and dry. We have been fortunate that the machines have held up really well so far.”
Keeping with the financial theme the commissioners considered a 9 percent pay increase for the administration as well as for the maintenance in an effort to offset the increasing cost of inflation.
“We all know about the state of the economy [and because of that] we are starting to lose employees,” Lee said. “Unfortunately there’s a lot of regulation changes coming through housing and if we don’t get some help in here it’s going to be really tough.”
Based on information provided by Lee the 9 percent increase — which was calculated looking at other jobs in the social services field — would amount to $589,136 across the 12 full-time positions on the maintenance staff and $437,320 to the seven full-time and one part-time administrator.
The brief, one-page summary of the increase also included “special grant funded” positions coming in at $171,465 and the Housing Choice Voucher Program — which includes three full-time and one part-time positions — at $135,087. The summary also indicates that the authority is going to have five open positions by the end of the month.
“If we have to give an increase to rally the troops then I think that’s the responsibility of this board,” Royse said. “You have to stop the bleeding at some point.”
The proposal passed with no contest.
In other business, the commissioners discussed and approved the possible lease of the HERO Center to the Barren County school district for use with its alternative school students, who cannot attend the College Street building due to the roof and HVAC replacement. Lee said there was no foreseeable scheduling conflicts.
“They had to start during spring break in order to have the updates completed in time for the fall so they asked if they could use the HERO center,” Lee said. “They have 30 students and we toured the HERO center [and] they were all gung ho about using it.”
The proposed lease agreement also appears on the Barren County Board of Education’s agenda for its consideration.
The next Housing Authority of Glasgow commission meeting is scheduled for May 16.
