New Rochelle Municipal Housing Authority Board Meeting: July 14, 2014

Written By: Robert Cox

New Rochelle Municipal Housing Authority Board of Commissioners Regular Meeting – August 11, 2014

Announcements and Discussion Items include:

  • New Resident Commissioner Shirley Oakley.
  • Presentation by Heritage Architects on bids for 2014 Capital Fund Program RFP.
    2014 Agency Plan disapproved by HUD based on demolition costs submitted for 2015.
  • The City of New Rochelle Sex Offenders List indicates that one of the individuals on the list is using an address of a NRMHA building.
  • HUD has taken the position that allowing “medical marijuana” is not a “Reasonable Accommodation” so the NRMHA has the discretion to deny an applicant who is medically required for “medical marijuana”.

After attending the New Rochelle Municipal Housing Authority Board of Commissioners Regular Meeting June 9th, I wrote an article describing a dozen changes that should be made to bring the meetings into compliance with New York State Open Meeting Law; another as an Open Letter to New Rochelle City Manager Charles B. Strome.

Several of these changes were implemented at the July 14th meeting and stricken from the list:

1. Relocate NRMHA meetings at City Hall and integrate the meetings into the existing system of broadcasting and archiving video of those meetings on the City’s cable access channels and web site.

2. Implement term limits for Commissioners with an enforceable commitment to support FOIL/OML or not be appointed or re-appointed.

New NRMHA web site

3. Display meeting announcements on the NRMHA web site; offer a calendar or announcement section for meeting notices.

4. Provide meeting agendas and related documents on the NRMHA web site; create an archive for past meetings.

5. Place signage outside the meeting room to direct the public to meeting location.

6. Provide hard copies of meeting agendas and related documents at the meeting.

7. Remove the food and drinks; room that might be have been set aside for seating was taken up by a table containing sandwiches, snacks, soft drinks, ice, cups, plates, napkins, etc.

NRMHA August 2014 Meeting 1284

8. Discontinue the practice of serving food and drinks during the meeting.

9. Meetings scheduled to start at 5 p.m. did not begin until 5:30 p.m.

10. Document circulated to the board but not made available to the public, not posted on the web site was not provided upon request — Draft RFQ & Bracey Redevelopment Draft.

11. Information about board members on the web site including names, photographs, bios, date of appointment, length of service, lengths of terms, end of terms, there is no contact information provided for individual board members.

12. Information about elections for the two “resident” positions on the board.