Thankful Housing and Redevelopment Authority to order. Roll call, please. Bowie? Jost? Here. Kim? Here. Nager? Here. Yang? Johnson? Here. There are four present, three absent, being Commissioners Bowie, Naker, and Yang, and they are excused. All right. So before we begin, it'll be a pretty brief meeting. But I still felt the need to really have the conversation and to kind of share with you all just some of the pieces that we've been talking about around budget. And so I find those to be really important conversations here in this body. So just a preface. We'll be out of here really quickly,
but I still thought it was worthwhile to keep. Item number one are the minutes. Approval of the July 2025 HRA meeting minutes. Okay. Everybody's had a chance to review those. So I'll take a motion for Commissioner Permovsky to approve. All those in favor? Aye. All opposed? Four in favor. Zero opposed. The minutes are adopted. And item number two is staff report SR 20 five-one 158, discuss 2025 budget contingencies. Wonderful. So I, can preface this here that I can if Director Newton, if there's anything that you wish to add, I can. But other than that,
I just kind of wanted to bring this forward to our, to our body as well, because as you know that we have two outstanding housing trust fund contingencies, both of which we are aiming to, obviously address ideally before we begin the budget conversations in 2026. But also just in general, I wanted to provide just an update to my colleagues as well and then also make sure that you've seen both the memo response, the response that was given to us by Director Reesee prior to this discussion, as well as the memos that were drafted and sent out to the directors to
address both tenant protections and departmenting staff. There isn't an action today, and there won't be an action, until we are able to follow-up, with the directors and the administration once director we see returns. But wanted to make sure that everyone saw the memos that went out and kind of what is requested. And then I also wanted to just be very very transparent in as the chair and as well as with the budget contingencies, we wouldn't release those contingencies unless every condition and every question that's in the memo is answered. And so I just want to share,
like, for the next few weeks, we don't have to do anything. This, the HRA doesn't have to take a vote on anything until, we are at a point to release the contingencies. And the feedback that was given to, the directors in both the tenant protections piece, so Director Caliso and Director Wiese. And for the permitting staff piece, Director Wiese, and all of the folks that are involved in that. Like, it was sent to multiple, multiple people, including the mayor and the deputy mayor as well. The deputy mayor would have been here today as well, but she is at EOC, and the mayor and I have had a chance to connect. And so I do plan to to intend to connect again with director Wiese when
she returns, because I did find the response to be inadequate. And so I just wanna be able to share with you all, like, just the steps for addressing that and the approach and the reason why next week you will not see a budget contingency, action item on the agenda, because we do not need to make one. And so this is the deadline that was given to them originally, And it seems like they'll be able to work with that. And other than that, I'm sure Director Wiese would be here as well. But she is out on a planned vacation. So Chair, if I can just add one point of clarification. I believe the memo says something about if requests aren't there by a deadline that
money would be returned to the housing trust fund. It's still in the housing trust fund. It's never it's never left the housing trust fund. Mhmm. And I think some of director Wiese's responses were in trying to respond to that chicken and egg situation. So just to make that clear, like, some of the work hasn't been done because it can't be done if there's not an accounting unit. And because the money's never left the housing trust fund, there's no accounting unit to put it to. So I just want to add that context, but, you know, I think, again, having the conversation when she's here can be more of a discussion about it. So Yeah.
I think that one of the things that I will share that I found to be slightly off putting was the the acknowledgment that she was not aware of the deadline. And just to declare to my colleagues, the deadline was mentioned multiple times in different iterations in person as well as in writing. And the deadline is it put was put in place in part to be able to move on to the 2026 budget conversations without having a bunch of lingering, items that still need to be addressed. So I will still, be working towards, trying to get especially with the time that we have and some more, time that we've been able to buy back slightly within, the city with a lot of things that are going on,
we have probably the rest of August to address these in ways that we may not have foreseen in the beginning. But, it is still my intentions to have follow-up conversations with them to talk about it. But, there were you know, it's still unclear to me what questions, the director may have about her permitting staff piece. She mentioned that the memos didn't make sense, which I'm slightly confused by and not necessarily understanding what questions she might may carry, but we were not able to connect before she was out. And so she'll be able to return in, I think, the week of the eleventh. Commissioner Provostki.
Yeah. Thanks, sir Johnson. I I'll say, you know, aside from all the context of sort of how the conversations went or what what was shared or or whatever, I'll state up top that I'm supportive of the positions that are sort of earmarked for, you know, the tenant protection staffing, the permit staffing, both of those things. I think obviously, I was not here for you. I made that decision in the budget, but I'm supportive of those decisions. And I think we always have this again, aside from the contingency fund housing trust fund element, we always have this interesting thing that's come up multiple times in different settings of
you budget for a certain position. Obviously, hiring doesn't happen on January 1. So you budget a certain amount. How much does it get spent? Does that change the sort of cash flow, the annual spend that first year? Because you don't hire till it so all of those things are sort of silly little elements that shape the the way it works. But aside from all of that context supportive of the the positions and then the only piece of context I'll share coming from it on the outside of sort of reading the attachments and hearing about the context. The only possibility I thought for confusion was possibly because I wasn't at first perceiving
the two different contingencies because I was when I was first experiencing it cold. So I wondered if that's possibly what she was responding to, but I don't wanna speak for anybody. But I it was helpful to sort of see the exchange and then even the context you give today. Because I think I'm assuming the shared goal for everyone is, like, these positions are needed. Let's find a way to make them work. How the accounting and money moving is sort of one thing, but in general, just one to signal global support. Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner Provostki. I share those same things. I mean, obviously, you guys know I was pretty active in tenant protections.
I'm looking forward. It does sound like Director Kaliso has had a chance to work on some of the requests from Office of Financial Empowerment. So I think things are in progress. It's just the response didn't necessarily address the middles in those cases. I also just feel really strongly that when we talk about tenant protections, we passed the ordinance with the intent of having it implemented in a year. And the planning phase of that is almost equally as important. And so still very supportive of those and appreciate those comments as well, Commissioner Prabotsky, because I think that's part of where some of the explaining and just kind of
being able to answer the question of contingent on what I think is really important to our office, but also to this body is, like, being very transparent about when we're going to put something, I think, just in an overall budget space. Whenever, especially for what I'll be looking for in the future, if commissioners within the HRA are considering putting something into a contingency piece, being that this is a newer experience for some of our staff as well and how to address them, that I think being able to have this middle phase actually done earlier in the process could be very helpful for them of knowing what it is we are trying to achieve.
Like, what is the information that we need? What is the information that we want? Because we might be able to even address those prior to the ending of the budget cycle year discussion. And so if there are, like you know, when we think about contingencies while we have the ability to do that, I think it's still going to be really important to be transparent about the what. And so this was definitely, like, our first generation. It kind of mirrors that of what we've done with a couple other related contingencies separately. And the only reason why it's here within the HRA is because it's housed in our housing trust fund. Otherwise, they would most likely have to follow the council process as well.
And, chair, I'll just add a little bit more context too, because I know, a council member, you weren't here last year. This contingency process is not something that's been done before that I'm aware of. I think the city attorney's office is even still trying to figure out what it means. So, ideally, the decisions would be made during the budget process, and either it's approved or it's not. Or it's approved, and there's some more information. But it it was not actually approved. Like, the money was never put it, never moved from where it needed to be. So the process was, not perfect. Not a criticism. It's just whatever the the goal was,
the mechanism was was, not something that we've done before. And and, so we ended up with some confusion just by virtue of trying to do something that hadn't ever been done or really vetted. So we just have to work through it at this point. I'd just like to add one further clarifying comment, if I can. So we still because we have a special policy within the HRA about budget amendments, so even those funds that are non contingent, we still have to do a resolution. So just to clarify, we'll have another resolution coming before the board for those noncontingent budget amendments that we
need to do. So just so everybody's excited about that. And that's in the legislature now, so you'll see that coming, Chair. But that's it's clear that it's the ones that did not have contingencies. So can you just share a little bit about that, as a preface? Because I think this is something that we've heard has housed right now within CAO. But what specifically will be included in that resolution? I Chair Johnson, I think there are some additional items in the budget that are for the ones that are over $100,000 those do have to be approved by resolution to move those within the budget.
And that's a special HRA policy that was passed in 2017. And I can provide you that policy if you want to before the meeting. But Yes. I think in advance of that resolution coming forward, any items that pertain to financially, we had the budget to actual presentation previously. So any sort of things that would be moving in or out of the housing trust fund or the HRA budget should probably be itemized for us to see. Chair Johnson, we will do that. Rhonda is working on that resolution, and we'll make sure that we have an itemization as part of that resolution. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. All right. Any other questions related to this item? Well, one thing, we'll most likely have an update at some point. That resolution will most likely be coming, I think, on the was it first read next week? Yes. Okay. And then it will exclude those that are held in contingency because at this time, my recommendation and then also we won't be bringing forward anything to address the contingencies until the contingency is met. But other than that, that's all I have, and I'm happy to give some time back because I know we'll have a little bit of a longer council meeting. So with that, we are adjourned.