Housing Authority of Milwaukee Board Meeting – June 10, 2026
Good afternoon, everyone.
This is the regularly scheduled meeting of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee taking place at 4 p.m.
on Wednesday, June 10th, 2026.
Patty, can we get a roll call, please?
Commissioner Burrell.
Present.
Commissioner Snyder.
Commissioner Paz Classen.
Chair Hazlet.
Present.
Vice Chair Gotzler present.
Commissioner Nelson.
Present.
Commissioner Moore.
All right.
Moving on to the next item on the agenda.
The approval of the consent agenda.
Would a commissioner like to move approval of all items within the consent agenda?
So moved.
Second.
Okay.
Roll call, please.
Commissioner Burrell.
Aye.
Commissioner Nelson.
Aye.
Commissioner Paz Classen.
Aye.
Chair Hazlet.
Aye.
Vice Chair Gotzler.
Aye.
Commissioner, I'm sorry, Commissioner.
Commissioner Snyder.
Commissioner Moore.
Aye.
Okay.
Sorry, I took it out of order.
The next item for today's meeting is a general public listening session.
This listening session is agenda item number B1, part of the 4 p.m.
Wednesday, June 10th, 2026 meeting, the Hackham Board of Commissioners at City Hall Room 301A.
The purpose of the session is to give interested persons a reasonable opportunity to present their views to Hackham's Board of Commissioners.
Each speaker will have two minutes to speak.
This listening session does not have a specific topic.
Persons to wish to speak, if they have not already done so, should sign up at the sign in sheet located at the side table on your right.
For those who have prepared written comments, those comments will be shared with the board.
Any e-comments received by 11 a.m.
today have been distributed to the commissioners.
Per open meetings law at a listening session.
The commissioners do not engage in a dialogue with the speakers, but we'll be listening to all comments so they will so they may receive input from the public.
We ask that everyone be respectful of the process and of all of the folks either speaking as well as those who are here to listen.
After you provide your comment, property management staff may read out, may reach out to you at here at this meeting or afterward to learn more from you or to provide you with information related to your comment or question.
It is critical that speakers respect the two-minute time limit in place for all speakers, so signs will be held up to let people know when they have 30 seconds left and to let people know when their two minutes are up.
We also ask that the audience be respectful of the speakers while they are offering their comments.
Whether you agree or disagree with what they have to say, you wouldn't want anyone to interrupt you while you're making comments, and the same is true for other speakers here today.
Please, for your fellow neighbors and our residents, be considerate of their time to speak and let the board hear their comments.
Please, everyone mute your phones.
All comments should be addressed to the commissioners.
Any member of the public is welcome to share their input.
If you are a Hackham tenant, voucher program participant, landlord or staff, and are willing to share that information.
The board would find that information helpful, but neither being a resident or participant nor sharing that information is required to speak.
Speakers may be asked to return to their seat or leave the meeting if they do not follow the instructions in order to ensure all of us in the room can hear unruly or disruptive behavior from either speakers or the audience is prohibited.
First speaker we'll hear from today is Betty Newton and then Diana Hinton.
You'll be on the on-deck circle.
Betty, if you'd like to come up to the front.
Okay, I am uh from Convent Heels.
I am the RO secretary.
I am a RAV member, and a couple of things that I wanted to talk about was an unsafe ramp, and it's the ramp that goes to our parking lot.
Uh Hackham did some repairs to it, but at the top of the ramp, there's a cement section that crosses over into the parking lot.
That is cement.
There are several cracks in it, and there is a very large hole in it.
Which makes me think someone, and we do have two residents with wheelchairs that are very heavy.
That is a very, very concerning safety issue.
The other thing I wanted to talk about was the four team maintenance issue.
Where we have a roaming team of four maintenance people, no maintenance people in our buildings full time.
It's not working, it's not working because our building lacks a lot of the cleaning, a lot of the repairs the way you immediate.
I've had a light out in my bathroom shower for over a year.
It's not the first time it went out because somehow water gets in there and it puts the light out wrong.
They repaired it, it happened again, and it's been out, and I've asked several times for it to be completed.
Our maintenance man, when he was there, said he didn't know how, he didn't know where to buy the light that goes in it.
To me, Hackham could improve by putting ambassadors in all of our buildings.
They could also use surgenatorial workers, which would be no cost to Hackham in all of our buildings.
I am the person that works for SARE that actually places people.
So that is a way to improve the short staff of our maintenance staff.
Okay.
Thank you.
Ms.
Hinton, you are now up, and then Mr.
Sawyer, you will be uh following Ms.
Hinton.
Welcome.
Um, I have my only real concern at this time with Hackham is um public safety reports, notification to residents that they are involved in public safety reports and information put in the reports through staff of public safety and housing authority invoice.
So that's my number one concern is why are these reports being generated one-sided and nothing is verified as to be true or not true.
So that's all for me.
Thank you.
Mr.
Sawyer, you're next.
Hello, everyone.
Welcome.
First issue, um, major issue that's going on with residents.
Um, housing authority hasn't had a grievance procedure fully in place for at least five years.
I did do some research.
Um, everybody's looking to get those scores up.
I did find out there's a loophole, at least from what I'm finding out.
That can lower your score.
It has to be dealt with.
I was at the RAV board the other day's issues that I've talked about in the past as far as certain people and stuff, because it was never nipped in the butt.
Okay.
Uh, people were actually reaching the point where they start talking about common ground and stuff again.
Something I said they had done before when they targeted people.
I told them after I got fed up with it, it's all recorded.
I said you guys are starting to move into an area where you're talking about illegal activity.
I'm not going to continue to have the conversation.
Um, when it comes to employees, it's kind of like if you're trying to get married or date.
If you keep the bad ones in the position, you're not going to get the good ones because you've been in too much time going through a cycle with the same old people doing the same old things, not trying to correct their actions, especially you could you could read them the entire law, every handbook housing has, and you're going to end up with situations like we had, where the residents are literally the ones doing public safety's job trying to stop the employee from beating up on an employee on a resident.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else who wishes to provide comment today?
There being no additional speakers at this time.
This concludes the public listening session, which was part of the 4 p.m.
Wednesday, June 10th, 2026 meeting of the Hackham Board of Commissioners and City Hall, City Hall Room 301A.
I want to share the thanks of the Board of Commissioners for those who took time out to provide their comments today.
They appreciate hearing from you and value your input.
Item number two on the agenda is a resolution approving amendment to contract 23002 to Otis Elevator Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for elevator maintenance and repair services at various sites in the amount of 333,333.
Staff recommends exercising the option to renew the contract for another year pursuant to the terms of the contract.
The current contract authority is a not-to-exceed amount of $1 million expiring May 31st, 2026.
The amendment will add a not to exceed amount of $333.333 to the contract and extended through May 31st, 2027, with the option to extend uh up to one additional one-year term.
All of the terms and conditions of the contract remain in effect.
Tim Hoy and Ken Barbo will speak on this item.
Welcome.
Please state your name and title.
Good afternoon, Chair and Commissioners.
My name is Tim Hoy.
Thank you for your time today.
I'm the procurement and contracts officer supporting the modernization and development services department.
I present matters uh from a procurement contractual and compliance perspective.
Today I'm presenting a one-year extension of the authorities elevator maintenance contract with Otis Elevator.
Although this item is a standard one-year extension of the authorities' existing elevator maintenance contract, is an important action that serves both the authorities and our residents' best interests for the following reasons.
Number one, it ensures uninterrupted maintenance and support for a critical life safety system with no lapse in service, especially during this approval process.
Number two, it maintains current pricing with no increase in contract costs or fees, while avoiding the administrative burden, transition costs, and service risks associated with changing vendors.
And number three, it retains OTIS elevator with a proven record of reliable performance in a market with limited number of qualified elevator maintenance contractors.
The answer is yes.
Excuse me, Mr.
West.
Can you read the question?
Sure.
Uh the question was uh uh.
Let's see.
What is the uh of the proposed not to exceed amount of 1,333,000 million, including all funds previously expended encumbered underneath under the current contract uh and of the existing one million, um, what has been committed or spent?
Okay, thank you.
Sure.
Um, so the newly requested amount is based on prior expenditures and is intended to cover the next one year period.
Uh just one last thing.
Um, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge uh the authorities' ongoing partnership with performance elevator consulting.
Uh, the firm under Paul Rosenberg provides independent expertise in contract auditing, uh, modernization planning and technical review for the elevator program.
Um he's been an invaluable partner for the housing authority and us at uh modernization development services.
So for these reasons, staff respectfully requests the board's approval of this item, and I am available for questions.
If you haven't asked already.
Thank you, Mr.
Hoy.
Do we have any questions of the commissioners?
Commissioner Moore, I just had a quick question.
So when any of the elevators and any of our developments go down or we have issues with them, again, this is not including the regular maintenance.
So I understand, you know, there and their requirements to do regular um yearly inspections, whatnot.
However, when um elevators outside of that regular maintenance, um, when elevators go down, or if there are issues, is it this is the company that um services them?
That is correct.
And um, and when a request is submitted, um, what is the turnaround time um for uh a technician to come out and take a look at it?
Uh when we submitted our um request for proposals, uh we provided a contractor's responsibility responsibility for work.
And so what you're talking about is callback services, and the contractor must be on call.
First of all, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Perfect.
Um a standard callback, um, there's two different callbacks.
One is a standard one that may not be an emergency.
Um the service, um, the commencements of that service must begin within two hours of notification from the housing authority to the contractor.
So they have two hours to respond.
Now, if it was an emergency um acknowledgement by any authorized service personnel must be within 10 minutes of notification by the housing authority.
So it's a very quick turnaround.
Excellent.
Thank you, madam chair.
Thank you, Commissioner Moore.
Madam Chair.
Yes, Commissioner Snyder.
Thank you.
Um, because almost any contract um is new to me until I've been I've cycled through, um, I have a couple of questions.
Uh, Otis is a national company, is it not?
Yeah, Otis is I do believe is the largest uh elevator service company in the country.
Okay, yeah, you see there, you know, if you look at elevat when you're in an elevator, if you look around and don't talk to people, Otis is on, you know, a lot.
Yes.
Um but my question is has it has to do with the contract.
Um is this an extension or is this a new contract?
No, this is an extension.
Uh the original contract um was designed to be a three-year contract with uh two amendments.
So this would be considered the first amendment to extend for one year, and then we and then we extend the additional dollar amount.
Um was it I'm assuming it wasn't no bid back in back three years ago?
It was a is a request for proposals.
So um we had um a number of uh bidders that we um received um complete proposals from.
Do you recall who they were?
Um I I can tell you this.
Um the same that there aren't many, first of all, um, but the same vendors that we currently are working with also um provided proposals.
Uh Otis um was the one that uh we chose um as a group, and and also Paul um from PEC.
Uh he selected TK Elevator, um is currently under contract um at Westlawn for a few of the um buildings there, and then uh the final one is uh Schindler and uh Schindler is our um provider at uh Convent Hill.
Um there's a few smaller ones that I can't recall off the top of my head, but there aren't many.
Our policy is to select the uh lowest bid, is that not true?
Responsible, yeah, that's correct.
Um, lowest responsive and responsible bid.
Thank you, Mr.
Hand.
Um, what were they?
The lowest bid or the lowest responsible bid?
Well, is it this is an interesting bid because um they didn't they did not provide uh uh uh if my memory serves me, they're not provide a lump sum, but what what they did was they provided um a rate um based upon all 13 uh public housing sites and the nine LLC sites.
So there wasn't a lump sum.
What we did select them on because of uh request for proposals, was their history, what's their qualifications and their experience, and then their rates um we took into um uh consideration.
I will say too that um this is a contract that um was um uh approved um by this board, obviously not by um the same uh same commissioners today.
That was approved in 202 uh 2023.
There was a the previous contract was also an OTIS, and that was 2018, and so we have a good history of them and a good amount of data that we could fall back on to create um a final award.
Okay, last question, manager.
Sure.
Um I I got shot down once before thinking that you know that Milwaukee contractors as long as they were a reasonable bid, maybe not the low responsible bid, but a reasonable bid might get some sort of uh um what's the word I'm trying to think of preference, preference.
But Mr.
Barbo, um let me know under no under certain terms that that was not that was not permissible under our contracts.
But I but trying to think for the for the life of me, there is a Milwaukee elevator company, because they have a big foundation, and I was trying to figure out any of the grant writers around the table remember.
There's somebody, Commissioner, I'm sorry, Vice Chair Gotzler.
I'm a commissioner too.
Commissioner, I believe the company went out of business and took its assets and formed the foundation.
So I don't believe I now I could be wrong.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr.
Roy, but I don't believe that there is a local elevator repair company in Milwaukee anymore.
Um now it's been a few years since I did construction in Milwaukee, but those are the those are the three that you typically get the responses from.
Well, the nice thing about Otis is that um on a quarterly basis we meet um with the elevator team that services all of our locations, and they're located right here in Milwaukee.
So even though Otis, even though they're headquarters may be it could be Illinois, they do have a Milwaukee office, and um we do chairish at the ship because we can meet with them at any given notice.
Okay, thank you, madam chair.
Madam Chair, thank you, Commissioner Moore.
I think just along that that point, um Howard, I I know there was a small local um Milwaukee-based company.
Uh, there was a um staffer that retired from the city, she worked as an elevator technician for ages, started her own business, um, but small, wouldn't more than likely be able to handle a contract of um of this size, but they're very few and far in between, I'm sure.
You're correct.
Thank you.
Do we have any commissioner Nelson?
Uh yes, uh, as related to Otis elevator, we hear about the lowest bid, and I know that's a major factor, but what about uh response to call service, say elevator goes out?
How do they compare OTIS to other uh people who uh put in proposals?
How do they compare in those areas besides being a lowest bid quality of service to be important, response time?
Because I stay in one of the buildings, and what's really a pain in the butt is uh the longevity of time of uh the repair taking place.
We have to consider sometimes you have to get parts, you know, there's a lot of factors involved, but you know how people are uh they don't dwell that deep into what Otis has, or do, they just want elevator to work?
So, how does that play into accepting a proposal?
Size being the lowest bid, quality of service, respond times, repairs, things of that nature.
Well, how do you look at that?
Yeah, you know, I we do we do rely upon their um we do reply, we we do apply.
Let me see how I can explain.
They when we provide the request for proposals, we give them uh responsibility of work that they must stick with.
Um I for one am not a uh elevator uh technician or an expert, but who is uh performance elevator consulting, and um not only that do they work with us um the check to make sure that the invoices are correct, they also check um those response times in those invoices.
Um he checks uh the billing to make sure that there's no there are no fees or transportation costs that are not part of the contract.
Um he keeps a pretty close uh um eye um uh Otis and and the local uh maintenance tax to make sure that they do uh um respond um in appropriate time now I don't have data um current data to support um what their response times are, and we don't request that at the time of the RFP, um, but it's something that we take in consideration as far as their history and their expertise and their experience as compared to uh the other uh elevator companies.
So, how is their response time, meaning Otis?
Well, I I wish I could ask uh right now and have some of the property managers um here um to possibly respond.
Um, and I know that you first hand may have some experience with that.
Is that data we record?
I'm sorry, is that data we record as far as the response time is what you're asking?
Or if there is a service, uh uh an elevator service request are we documenting because I'm gonna ask for a you know data request, but I would love to because I I think you bring up some valid points.
Apologies for talking out of time.
Okay, okay, Commissioner Moore.
I do know that when the uh when it's after hours, um, it is recorded in terms of when it's reported to public safety.
And then public safety makes the call uh to the elevator company, and the elevator company responds as to when their person is responding.
Now it there may be times where say it's 3 a.m.
and uh one elevator is working, and so the uh they say their person will be there maybe at 8 a.m.
Uh since there's still one working elevator.
Uh so it may not be within the two hours, however, you know, we um we do track that on that side when it's during the daytime, that's usually tracked by the property manager.
Uh we maybe should look into whether the um the elevator contractor can help us in terms of determining what the response rates are.
Um, obviously, when there's a part needed, that time varies because once they come out assessed, yeah, we are part of it, yeah.
But on the regular uh the regular repairs, uh they should be coming out.
We expect the time that we requested in the RFP, and if they're beyond that, we can always hold them to the to the contract terms and reserve the right to terminate if really the service is bad.
But usually we call them in, tell them what our concerns are and work out a method so they get better.
Um I think we will have to talk to performance elevator about monitoring that more carefully.
And did you state your name and title for the report?
Oh, I apologize.
I am Ken Barbeau, I'm the chief Operations Officer for Program Services.
Thank you.
Okay, that answered my uh inquiry.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you, Commissioner Nelson.
Madam Chair, Commissioner Moore.
Um, um, and and I'm so glad we have folks with, you know, just lived experience.
That's why this is so, you know, I I I love I I just love that.
I have to say that.
Um, but when we're this is helpful because as we're thinking about um extending contracts, if we don't have any data points around centered around how they've done, right?
Or or you know, we have a plethora of spaces that have elevators, um, uh, you know, which ones are the ones that normally go down or the response time, like these ones are really old.
We're gonna have to, you know, replace this in this year, whatever.
Um, but it would be good to know in the future as we're you know, looking at extending contracts that we have some data points to go with them to just say this is how they've been doing because we're we're saying we're gonna extend somebody for a year, and we have no clue on what the response time is, you know, um our you know uh in some of the developments that you know people just don't show up on time, whatever.
I don't know, but I think we need to definitely have some data points along with you know, if we're extending contracts, just information to help us make good decisions because we don't have a representative from every you know every um housing development here.
We have a couple, right?
And they can only speak to where they live, right?
And so um that is definitely something that I would love to know.
The other quick question is um timeline.
Do we can we put this on hold and come back next month, or is this time sensitive?
The the previous uh contract um ends this month, and so we would need to uh do the renewal um probably this week.
Got it.
And that's today, I think.
But as a result of this meeting, we will uh contact the property managers, make sure that they have the daytime response times to make sure that there are uh answers to your question.
That would be amazing for this the next renewal.
Thank you.
Thank you, Harold.
If I if may add something, um it's not um unheard of to ask that question for for data points and um uh specific uh uh callback times.
Um, at any given note, at any given time, um, we've actually asked MODIS to provide reports on those very things.
Even though we don't I don't have a mechanism to track it, they do.
And so if there's anything um, you know, such as that that data that we can get, I can I can ask Paul and Emily from our from ONUS elevator, and they usually respond uh promptly with with reports.
That that works.
We've had one Olga's looking for some um feature um they want to do future planning, they wanted to see what the performance has been with their elevators over this past year.
So, I would love to do that.
No, thank you.
I would love that for the just for the last contractual year, you know, um response times, the the elevators that they've serviced.
You know, it'd be nice to know that hey, we've gone to this particular development once a week, or you know, it just it gives us some information so that we understand, you know, oh wow, we we have some issues with these developments, whatnot.
But I would I would love to get a um a more in-depth report um from them on because you know we're paying them lots of money, of course.
And thank you.
Thank you.
Um message was received loud and clear, and Mr.
Hoy, you can take that back with your quarterly meetings and see how you can coordinate that and bring it back to the board.
Thank you so very much.
So um, we do need a motion.
So, I'm sorry, Commissioner Vice Chair Godzilla.
Yes.
I move that we approve the amendment to the elevator contract.
I second.
Thank you.
If we need a roll call.
Can we get a roll call, please?
Commissioner Burrell.
Aye, Commissioner Nelson.
Aye.
Commissioner Snyder.
Aye.
Commissioner Pez Classen.
Aye, Chair Hazel.
Aye, Vice Chair Gotzler.
Aye.
Commissioner Moore.
Motion passes.
Item number three is a report from the Secretary Executive Director.
Um, it is my great pleasure to introduce our new CFO, uh, John Larson.
Can we clap for him?
Has been a long awaited position.
Absolutely.
Welcome to the team.
Can you please state your name and title?
You're so anxious to hear it.
We recover public funding agency and across the country.
So really excited to be able to get that here.
Okay.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Welcome.
We are so glad to have you join us.
You've been showing up now for almost six weeks.
So I I think we're doing really well here.
We're on the roll.
Yeah.
I also would like to announce that a offer has been um put out and accepted by a new COO who will be starting July 6th.
That is awesome news.
So thank you so so very much.
And we will let you continue on with your report.
Thank you, John.
We will have an update uh from John and Ken about BDO activities.
Welcome back, John.
Ken Barbo, I'm the Chief Operations Officer for Program Services.
Dramatically in need of assistance from folks who knew a little bit of what they were doing.
We at that point decided we needed to contract with somebody to provide some urgent uh accounting advice and services when needed and technical assistance.
Uh BDO is a uh a firm, it's a worldwide firm, but uh they have a strong uh accounting uh practice in uh PHAs.
They work with a number of uh public housing authorities across the nation.
Uh and uh we put together uh a uh we contracted with them for services that were provided as we requested them, so they were not it's not a regular contract, it's we identified some areas where we needed services, and when we requested them, then they would uh bill us on a on a labor and materials rate.
So uh we have uh since July uh January, they've been doing some check-in meetings with us on what our questions were because they agreed to take questions from our uh finance director and our Trivo Finance Manager.
Um, and so we do these very short check-in meetings.
Um we have uh also uh walked through our cash management procedures with them.
They provided some guidance, they provided some, they had some good questions about are you making sure you're uh getting the management fee, the asset management fee?
Are you looking at uh getting these fees from uh the capital fund program, which can help your financial position and so uh we were doing a lot of what they requested, but they were good questions, and we walked through it just to make sure that we weren't missing anything.
We also uh worked with them recently uh on some assistance with the audits on the uh financial data schedule when you um are doing an audit or or complete a uh calendar year or a calendar year or fiscal year, depending on what you're on.
We're on a calendar year.
Uh you have to submit an unaudited FDS, financial data schedule to HUD.
And these are unaudited numbers that are basically just out of your trial balances out of your general ledger, but you have to put it in a template that HUD has, uh, and it's a very specific format, you know, by each property by each program.
And so uh we I did not have a lot of experience in that, neither did our finance director at the time.
And so we hired uh them to help us pull data out of our trial balances, put it in the right format, and submit it uh to HUD uh before their due date uh that would which avoided a failure to submit from HUD.
That's good news, it may not have gotten us lots of points, but it saved us from a failure to submit.
And so um that was done.
That is, you know, the first rough draft of those numbers.
They will go through iterations where we'll revise them.
That's not abnormal.
That's something that all PHAs go through when they submit the unaudited numbers, they go through revisions.
Um, and then there will be a submittal of audited numbers once we have an audit, and that's usually put into FDS by the audit firm itself.
Uh, in addition, uh they are also have started to assist us on LLC audits.
Uh we are seriously behind in our LLC audits, and uh they should have.
I mean, in a normal world, they're done by February, the end of February.
Um March is not unheard of, um, but but you know, we are now in June.
So uh they are assisting us where we need some assistance.
They uh have taken on a couple items.
I mentioned a few here, the 2024 Highland Gardens LLC.
They're working on some reconciliation issues that we're having uh with subsidy receivable, uh the 2024 townhomes at Carver Park LLC.
There's a few questions there.
The Westlawn 7 LLC, uh they're responding to some audit auditor questions.
Our auditor on all the LLCs is SVA.
Um and uh West Lawn 5 as well.
Uh and so uh they are also trying to assign get a identify a staff person who can work on multiple uh LLCs so that we can finish all the prepared by client documentation that has to get uh submitted to the auditor, so and uh double check what our staff has submitted has uh prepared as well.
So um we are utilizing them to the extent we can and to the extent we find it useful.
Uh additionally, uh they've assisted us on the uh sustainability plan.
They've done a rough draft of an accounting policy.
Um, the CFO is going to be reviewing that.
He will probably be taking portions of it, maybe revising portions wholly, you know, from it, but we'll be coming up with a revised accounting policy as well as a uh cost allocation plan.
These are two items that are in the sustainability plan.
Uh we need to submit them as soon as we can.
Uh, I think originally I had estimated by the end of July, um, but we need those uh completed so that we can submit them to the field office and close out those items.
So those are items that BDO has been uh doing, but because we've mentioned BDO at previous meetings, we thought it was important to kind of go through a little bit of what work they're doing for us.
With that, I'll take we'll take any questions.
Do we have any questions, comments of the commissioners?
Okay, they're being none, madam chair.
Commissioner Snyder.
Of course.
Um maybe Mr.
Ans.
I'm not sure either one of you wouldn't accounting policies and some of the other things that you were talking about.
Should I would say in a perfect world go through a finance committee review of which we don't have one at the moment the answer is yes and no I mean it depends on the housing authority and uh the development of the finance committee um some housing authorities will have experts who understand that policy uh most of the time the uh the housing authority will either have an expert such as John who can create the policy or uh we hire outside uh an expert in that field um but then there are housing authorities that do have uh uh accountants uh on uh their committee or on staff that would know what they're actually reading and it would be reviewed by them madam chair yes you have the floor oh thank you which are you recommending um I would think that uh for liability and that would be an attorney question I think that an outside contractor would be the best because it pulls the liability off of the housing authority um correct Greg Cruz with the city attorney's office everybody can everybody can talk a little bit louder we don't have to whisper everybody's listening apologies sorry patty we gotta record this everybody I mean certainly you can shift liability under a contract and ensure that a contractor has you know you know insurance and things like that so if there are mistakes that you know it's not hack them going out of pocket um there's a contractor that you can lean on um yeah so yeah I think generally speaking that's accurate thank you madam chair um so let me go back to the yes and no um one of the things that we talked about before you came was the establishment of a finance committee yes which I just think is good practice um I don't know about for a uh for housing authority but certainly for most nonprofits and so my question was use I my question was uh which are you recommending the yes or the no and I think we got it I mean you asked about a policy correct um there are two components to this the policy is one the finance committee reviewing the uh monthly budgets and uh questioning why we are there are anomalies on that that is absolutely excellent it also gives the board a uh a comfort level because it's coming from the other board members that have looked at it so that they know that it that we are not hiding information or covering anything up not that our staff would but it can happen um and it it helps with transparency so having a finance committee in general is a good thing yes so just to make myself clear um I I didn't think about anything until I heard the word policy and I I don't I can see what you're saying that there's certain things policy or not that should be that there are different uh ways of being able to address it but I heard the word policy and I went immediately to uh a government part of my governance responsibility right right no I mean your question was a good question and yes there were two parts to that question fair enough thank you commissioner Snyder do we have any other questions comments just uh Commissioner Nelson Mr.
Barbot, uh you had stated earlier that we're behind in uh the LLC audits, and of course we're getting assistance from uh BDO, correct?
Correct.
So how well are we doing now that we get getting assistance?
And what I'm trying to do is uh distinctly separate, we're behind.
I join us board because I want to help move forward and not just continue with problems, but the essence of the question is in generally, generally speaking, what are we doing to move beyond being behind?
Um, and you could just state it generally.
Well, we hired John.
We hired we hired a CFO.
I'll just need to hear.
Everybody's different.
So I'm trying to obtain what I need as a commissioner.
Okay.
So A, uh, we brought on BDO in the before even John came on board because and they've only really been working on that LLC issue for probably the last two weeks.
And so it has been a very short period of time that they've been working on that one.
Um in addition, now that we have the CFO, uh, he'll be evaluating staff capacity and our staff uh skills and experience uh to assist in making sure that we have the right people in the right places so that we can get this done and trying to get to why are we behind uh and what is causing that.
Um and so uh John, do you have any anything in general that you want to add to that?
Um the only thing I do want to add is it is uh a priority uh to get those audits done.
So um I can't really speak to an evaluation or an assessment of why that has happened.
But we also are going to have cross-training in departments so that um people aren't working in silos and if uh John leaves, things won't stop dead like they did in the past.
Right, that's correct.
So I want to say thank you.
Once again, everybody's different.
As a commissioner, I don't want to assume anything.
And to me, communication is very important.
So when I ask the question, it's because I personally need certain information.
I'm not gonna assume anything.
This stuff is too critical to play games with.
No, and the fact that you asked questions may have prompted other people to hear something they were not aware of.
So that's it's great for asking the question.
Okay, thank you.
Uh thank you, Commissioner.
Vice Chair got that.
So that's just open the door for me to say, do you between or uh among the three of you basically?
Do you have any sense of when the remaining audits for the LLCs will be completed?
You I think you said by the end of July.
Do you think they'll all be done by then?
I said by the end of July we would have the review of the uh the accounting policy, the cost allocation plan.
I'm sorry.
Uh so on the audits, I can't, I do not have enough information to give you a good timetable.
I know that our uh finance manager for um for uh Travot has done some preparation of uh the prepared by for uh prepared by client uh work papers for the auditors.
Uh the auditors have wanted to make sure that the first audits are complete and accurate first and finalized before they move on to new audits.
Uh and I believe some of the issues that we're seeing is in the area of reconciliations, so I want BDO to help figure out what these issues on reconciliations are and what might be causing that.
Thank you.
And the only thing I have to add is uh it we are uh I will ensure that everything that was in our control is done as quickly as possible.
We are a little bit dependent on the auditors uh can do their work.
Um so it's hard to say exactly what we're gonna do.
Sure.
Okay.
Thank you.
Um we will turn it back over to Harold to complete his report.
As the board knows, um, we got our CMAP score for 2025, and it was a 35.
Um a corrective act.
We received a letter from HUD asking for explanation.
That's the next item.
Okay.
I think you're in order to conclude it.
Yes, my reports can.
Okay.
So that concludes uh the item number three, the report from the Secretary Executive Director.
Okay.
Item number four is a presentation regarding C VR CMAP 2025 scores and the corrective action plan.
And uh if someone could explain what CMAP is too at some point.
Tracy Sheffield, Michael Tonovitz, and Tina Royalty will speak on this item.
And I don't know if you have anybody else.
But Harold, we will we didn't mean to interrupt.
We just for the record had to read the item.
No, but is there something else?
You would like to.
Yes.
So if you would like to complete your thoughts around what you were saying.
So I was gonna introduce C VR to explain uh what happened for 2025 and uh the corrective action that they have actually been doing to correct the program.
Uh, so that it operates correctly.
So you will hear scores and all as to where we are as of today.
Okay.
And turn it over to C VR.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Please state your name and titles for the commission.
I'm Michael Tunovitz, I'm co-president of CBR.
Tracy Sheffield, senior vice president C VR.
Senior Royalty HCP director.
Welcome everyone.
Well, good evening, everyone.
I'm gonna just do a Tracy's gonna get into the weeds, but I'm gonna do a high-level overview for the board.
CMAP stands for Section 8 Management Assistance Program.
It's it is 14 indicators that HUD uses to measure the performance of the voucher program.
Each of them have different point values, and you there are certain thresholds you have to meet to get those point values.
Some are 20 point indicators that are considered extremely important.
Um are only five or 10 point indicators, but each of it, and Tracy will talk about it more detail.
Each of them they're there, some of them are measured based upon something you must do every year.
For example, the board uh, I believe it was last fall, adopted what are called utility allowances and payment standards, things you just have to do once a year as part of the program.
Some of them pertain to are measured by quality control.
Um, so you have you're doing your constantly reviewing your files and assessing.
How are you doing?
Are you properly pulling people from the waiting list?
Are you properly calculating the families income and therefore their share of rent?
And some um in some of them are measured through a system called PIC, public information center, which we're gonna talk about a little more later, but I just I and so and then so we'll talk.
Some of those are some of those scores we have we assess how we're doing internally and monitored, but at the end of the day, HUD gives the final scoring on how we do on some of those indicators.
Um and remember that we're gonna talk about PIC more in detail when Tracy gets into her presentation.
So, Michael Tracy Sheffield, senior vice president with CBR.
Um, so uh as Mr.
Ints mentioned, we uh we actually got a 34 um for last year.
Um out of uh for our performance for the entire year.
Um, as Michael mentioned, there are 14 indicators that HUD uses.
34% and the total score, not 34%.
34%, yes.
There's a there's a point score and a percentage score, and sometimes that can get confusing.
Um so I'm going to go through each of the 14 indicators.
Um for any of the indicators that we did not receive uh points for last year.
I'm going to explain what corrective actions we took on those matters and where we stand um uh currently with our scores.
Um the first indicator is um for waiting list selection activities.
So this makes sure that we follow the selection process when pulling families off of the waiting list for eligibility.
We did receive full points for this the uh last year, and we are currently in 100% compliance this year.
Indicator two is rent reasonableness.
So when a family moves um to a new unit, or there's a rent increase, things like that, we do a uh a review to make sure that the rent that the landlord is charging is comparable to unassisted market rents in the area.
We did not receive points for this indicator for last year, but we have taken uh several measures uh since that period to um to correct these items.
One of the things that we did, uh which I've discussed in the prior board meetings, is an implementation of an API process used through affordablehousing.com, which is where we get the comparable information.
Um, what this process does is improves the consistency of the unit data that we pull, reducing human error.
Uh we also um increased our quality control reviews of these files to make sure that the staff are doing uh items appropriately.
Um currently, as of uh through the first quarter of 2026, we are also receiving 100% compliance scores for this indicator.
Indicator three is adjusted incomes.
This is making sure that we're calculating uh the adjusted income for the family appropriately, which in turn uh affects their tenant portion of rent.
Uh last year we did not receive points for this indicator.
Uh we have been doing ongoing training with the staff.
We've increased QC overtight oversight of the file review process.
Um, and the retraining includes income calculations and documentation standards, um, and we did a heavy focus on correcting any legacy files and improving consistency moving forward.
Um our first quarter scores also for this indicator at a hundred percent compliance, um, so far receiving full points for this year.
Uh as Michael mentioned, uh, there are things that you do once per year.
Uh, indicator four is utility allowances.
We did do a resolution uh at the end of last year to set new utility allowances for January 2026.
So that indicator is done and solidified for the year.
And we are receiving full points.
Indicator five is quality control inspections.
Uh, this indicator essentially makes sure that our inspectors are um inspecting according to former HQS now inspire standards.
Um, what we do is we have an inspector go out and QC the uh original inspection, make sure it was done correctly.
This indicator makes sure that you do the appropriate number of QC inspections based on the number of units that are being assisted for that calendar year.
Um so we look at a cross section of neighborhoods and a cross section of neighbor of uh the inspectors itself and um make sure that we get the appropriate number of QC inspections completed based on the number of units that are assisted for that year.
Inspections enforcement is indicator six.
This was another indicator that we did not receive points for in last year.
This indicator um tests whether any enforcement actions need to happen, whether it is uh a landlord who did not correct inspection deficiencies within the required time frame or tenant caused deficiencies to an inspection uh within the required time frame and making sure enforcement activities, which could be abating um abating the HAP that goes to the landlord otherwise and stopping that payment, or proposing tenant uh termination if they did not complete their actions.
We even strengthened we've strengthened enforcement tracking timelines.
Um we have reinforced the use of our abatement tracker that we have in our inspections management system, and we've improved our coordination between the inspections and case management teams with stricter follow up and photo uh follow-up protocols for failed inspections.
Um, through uh the first quarter, we are also in 100% compliance for this indicator for this year.
Yeah, but I just want to share one tidbit on this.
We were we were 100% compliant with this by the second half of last year, but because we have to look at the entirety of 2025.
Where were we at the beginning?
Where were we at the end?
We just even though we we were there at year end, we didn't feel right certifying compliance because we weren't there at the beginning of the expanding housing opportunities as indicator seven.
Um, this is another one we've discussed in the last few uh board meetings.
What we needed to do was include um a map that tells tenants who are moving where the areas of opportunity are in the Milwaukee area where they can um they may have lower crime rates, more job opportunities, um, easier uh transportation access, things like that.
Um, that also deconcentrate poverty.
Um, and so uh we had we did reach out to um to a member of Hackham to try to get uh any mapping that was available.
I think that person also reached out to the city, they were not able to get mapping, um, and so we went outside for this mapping and got it done.
Uh, it just wasn't done by the time the fiscal year ended.
Um, but that is done, and I have included how we've integrated it into the briefing materials on page three of our report.
So you can see um how we've indicated that and how it's presented to families so that it can help them make better choices on where uh to reside and and think about those things as they're looking for housing.
Indicator eight um is another one of those.
You do one per year.
Um we did do a resolution at the end of last year for payment standards for uh January 2026.
Um, and that indicator has been finalized, so we are in compliance.
Indicator nine through 9 through 12 and 14.
Um, these are all indicators that come out of the uh system that Michael uh reported on, HUD's PIC system.
Um, this information is reported monthly, and we use these reports to track our our scores as we move forward.
Um, for indicators 10 through 12 and 14, we receive we would have received either full or in part points for all of these indicators, with the exception of one thing happening, and it's called the pick reporting rate.
To simply explain the pick reporting rate, if an agency has 100 families that it serves, it expects to see to receive 100 reports of that information.
If you if it only receives uh full reports for 99, you have a 99% pick reporting rate for some simple terms.
Um, by the end of the calendar year, uh also for this uh for these four indicators, um, you have to have a 95% pick reporting rate or higher in order for those scores to actually count.
Um, and what happened at the end of last year in December was that report that reporting rate was at a 94% instead of a 95%.
So it did not count the points we would have otherwise received for compliance uh for those indicators.
I did not include indicator nine um in this, and we did not self-certify points for indicator nine for um for annual uh annual recertifications because we were still working through the late recertifications at that point.
So we wouldn't have received points either way for that specific indicator.
Um indicator 13 is uh utilization.
So this looks at either the number of vouchers that you have leased or your annual budget authority and making sure that you are um utilizing uh the funds or the vouchers that HUD provides.
Um we did receive full points for this indicator.
Uh one thing that I would note for this year is um we are still in a funding shortfall, which means that we cannot issue vouchers to Section 8 tenants or HCV tenants at this time.
Um I have sent a request to HUD's shortfall team to review our status, as I think we are out of shortfall officially, but they have to release us in order for us to issue vouchers.
Um and so we're I think he he indicated that he was available next week.
So I should have more information at the next board meeting on if they're officially taking us out of shortfall.
Michael, is there anything else you wanted to add about that right now?
No.
Okay.
Madam Chair.
Commissioner Moore.
Forgive me, just really quick.
So when we talk about issuing new, we're requesting that we start issuing new vouchers because whatever we currently have has already been issued.
Am I saying that right?
So we get a set number of vouchers to issue.
Over time, you have something that happens called attrition.
So tenants either port out to another program, or they get terminated if they're not in compliance.
Um, and that number of vouchers that are actually being used starts going down.
Got it.
So that means that in simple terms, that an agency has to pull more families off of a waiting list to fill those vouchers once they become available.
So that's what we're looking to get to a point to with HUD.
Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner Moore.
Just a bit more clarification.
Just so you know, if if for any reason HUD does not fund 100% of the vouchers allocated, we're I I say we, but no housing authority is allowed to lease up beyond the available funding.
So that's when we say we're shortfall, HUD did not adequately fund the program.
So we had to stop all those new leasing activities.
But we're optimistic that in the second half of the year we're gonna restart that.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Yes, Commissioner Burrell.
Um I know, but some people might be a resident of someone.
Say, for example, they have a voucher already and um they want to move, they can't take their voucher and move right now, right?
No, they can.
If they have a voucher right now, they can move.
They can either move to another location in Milwaukee or they can exercise their right, which is called portability, and they can take that voucher to another part of the country, California, Georgia, Florida, where hat wherever, as long as that agency also provides housing choice voucher assistance.
Okay, thank you.
I just wanted to let me add clarification because when you're in shortfall, normally if some a family's in a project-based unit, um, they can move with the next available voucher.
But if that so families in a project-based unit and we're in shortfall, there is no next available, there is no next available voucher.
So that so they're they're so there, so but if somebody's just in a tenant-based unit, they can feel free to move, but we can't moving somebody out of it, we can't give somebody a voucher in a PBV unit because we have to fill that next PBB unit, so it would actually result in increasing leasing.
So yeah, I know it's a it's it depends on your circumstance.
I know it could be a little complicated, but just so again, the tenant-based families can move with assistance to project base can't until we're we're released.
So, thank you.
I just wanted to make sure in case someone else is uh listening if they do hear this.
Thank you.
Set a calling me all the time.
Thank you, Commissioner Burrell.
Thank you.
All right.
If I can proceed, uh indicator 14 is family self-sufficiency.
So the family self-sufficiency program is a kind of a sidecar program to uh tenant-based or project-based assistance where the family um can work towards achieving goals for self-sufficiency.
This could be uh credit counseling, uh if they have an interest in home ownership, getting a job, getting their GED, things like this, they can use this program to get connections to resources.
Um, this particular indicator, we share responsibility with the Hackham FSS coordinator.
Um, the coordinator will work directly with the families on their goals and trying to help them reach them.
This is a five-year program.
Um, our responsibility is making sure that their FSS information gets reported to HUD.
Um, so this is one that we work coordinate with um Hackab's FSS coordinator on.
Um, for this indicator, we would have received five of the 10 available points for uh for last year, um, if it weren't for that pick reporting uh rate issue that I mentioned earlier.
Um, in order to try to get more families, um, because we do have mandate what's called mandatory FSS slots, um, the goal is to try to get more families participating in this program.
So we coordinated with the FSS coordinator um at Hackham to try to increase marketing efforts to make more families aware that this program exists, this program is available to them.
Um we got a some flyers from the uh coordinator that we placed in the lobby at 5011 West Lisbon.
We let our customer service staff know like this is what this program is.
If anyone shows interest, let's get them in contact with the coordinator.
Um the coordinator also provided um targeted outreach to families who may be good candidates for this program.
If they just got a job or if then they're in connection with other supportive services like temporary assistance for needy families, those can be good good qualifying families that may uh benefit most from this program.
Um the other half of the points for this or the other portion of the points for this indicator is the percentage of families that um are receiving escrow or generating escrow.
Um, what escrow means is so there is a baseline um amount of income that when the family starts the program, what their earned income is when they start the FSS program.
As they get more earned income, their tenant portion of rent goes up and the hap payment assistance goes down.
There is um that happen that would have otherwise been uh paid, it goes into an set aside a escrow account for them, and if they graduate successfully after that five year period, that money can be released to them.
If you recall early in 2025, we um provided escrow payments to about 14 participants um that had been waiting.
Um so that it's kind of a two-part indicator.
Um, but we are working with the FSS coordinator to try to get increased interest and participation in the program um to help get this uh the scoring, the scoring up for this indicator.
Madam Chair, Commissioner Moore.
Really quick, and um how many FSS coordinators do we have?
Hold on.
There are actually two FSS coordinators at this time.
Um we do receive a reduced funding from HUD this year.
Uh, but at the moment we still have two folks who can do that.
Um we only get funding for a half of an FTE from HUD at this time, full-time equivalent at this time.
Okay, so stay there right there really quick, Ken.
Um, sorry, Barbo, uh Chief Operations Officer for program services.
Um can um, so really quick because the the mandatory slots, how many, how many what is the number of mandatory slots that we have to fill?
I believe it's 93.
Okay, so and is it like does it work on a calendar year?
I just need some help understanding.
People sign five-year contracts, and so at any one point in time, you're serving 93 people uh in the pro.
You can uh that's the number they're looking for.
Got it in in sort of this five year over the yeah, they sign up.
But every year we do have to have 93 slots.
Okay.
Um, so so with that, does our FSS um coordinators are they going out?
Like what is their responsibility since we only have a couple?
Are they going and and I'm gonna come back to the 93 question, but um, what is their responsibility to really support?
Because this is important.
And you know, when I talk to residents, they don't know that we even have this option available, right?
Um, so what is their responsibility in recruiting?
Because 93, it sounds small, but it it sounds like it might be a lot of work to just get 93 folks.
Well, and and people always are dropping in or out of the in or out.
Sure.
So um, yeah, they are responsible for recruiting.
Uh I do know because I see the mail go out that they're sending information to people, they're making calls.
Uh as uh Tracy mentioned, they're working with staff that with people that they have identified who want to, you know, who call asking for help with finding jobs and things.
So those are good candidates for the FSS program because in the FSS program, and and if and we also promote it through Hackham Hub at times as well, because we have had people who have uh finished their five year contract or maybe they even graduated early yeah and have earned 20,000 or more dollars through the program that they can use as a down payment for a home or they can use it for whatever they like.
Sure sometimes they use it to pay off credit.
Sure.
But that is if they graduate from the program that money that they have put away.
Now that is as Tracy said the difference between what their earned income was at the beginning of the program and at the and during the program if it increased their rent their portion of the rent that increasing the rent that's what goes into the escrow account wow okay and then lastly um of the 93 where are we at I don't think I don't I can't remember if I caught that number roughly it's somewhere in the 50s or 60s.
Okay thank you thank you so much.
I'm not sure I heard you correctly did you say Ken that we have we are only funded for a halftime person.
We are this year um we had been funded last year for two slots uh and the reason was I believe because we've been doing the reconciliation of all the 505 eights our pick numbers were down and that was what HUD is basing it on is the numbers that are in pick.
And so technically a halftime person is expected to manage 90 well it'll be over the course of a year it'll be more than 95 but you know a hundred let's say a hundred and twenty different potential households in the program.
Am I am I missing something?
No you're bot on I mean that's what HUD HUD funded us based on the numbers and pick.
So what HUD is looking at is we had X number and pick a half of a full-time person a part-time person can handle that we would have to give back up to 93 to hopefully get that funding back.
Wow and actually I think we I mean we'll get you get increased number of positions based on the number so you you don't even have to get up to the 93 necessarily but you have to get a certain number of that I think it's 75 but um but the fact of the matter is even if you lost let's say we lost funding completely we would still need to make sure we're serving the people who are currently in the program through the end of their contracts that's a part of what a housing authority when they sign up for the FSS program because it's voluntary uh that's part of our commitment.
Right.
And so wait for clarity commission or more I'm sorry.
We have two or no how many people do we have as far as coordinators we have two full time full time coordinators.
They were they were both on staff last year as well but we're currently only getting funded from HUD for half of a person.
I got it but we're paying for working for the rest of the difference covering the difference thank you.
Yes.
Commissioner YFS Glass okay I don't know if this is on or not but so just to clarify too um because I I sounds like every year new participants are added and then it's a five year contract with them.
So it's possible that the coordinator is meeting with more than the 95 or 45 or 54 that they have signed on for the year.
They could have folks from the four years that haven't been completed previously.
So from open contracts.
You may you only don't have to sign up.
Once you hit you know your certain goal, you don't have to keep signing people up every year.
But you as long as they continue in the program.
If they drop out, then you do.
You just have to have an active enrollment.
Yes.
Yeah.
Not every year 93 new ones.
The questions.
Okay.
So to summarize, as of uh our latest summary for this year, um, of the 145 points that uh we are eligible to receive through CMAP.
Currently, we are eligible to receive 125 of those or 86% compliance.
This pushes us currently um at uh obviously we have the rest of the year, um, which we'll continue to do testing, but currently we are um well above the stand the minimum standard for a standard performer under CMAP.
So we have made a lot of progress.
That's great.
Thank you.
That's that's the improvement that the commission is looking for.
Um 80% compliant is a significant jump from where were we last year?
34.
I would just like to highlight that.
34 to 125 out of 86.
There's a percent score, the percentage.
Yes.
Yes.
So I mean, that's a significant jump, and that's certainly commendable efforts on your um behalf.
And I'll leave it right there.
But thank you all for um the increase in activity.
And if we're at 86 percent as of June, or was that as that's um first quarter um for first quarter?
That's great.
So projecting a hundred percent.
I don't know if we have three forms of the year to go with those scores, but we are hopeful.
Just don't go backwards.
We're gonna try our best.
We're gonna try our best.
Okay, wonderful.
Um, do we have any other questions?
Can you uh Commissioner Yepes Class and then Commissioner Barra?
Hi.
Um just uh two more questions.
Maybe it could be one, but um, what are the next levels and then you know what above standard, you know, like what's next, and then um, you know, how many more points do we need to get there?
Yeah, so um there are three classifications.
There's three classifications.
There's troubled, there's standard, and there's high performer.
So right now we're at a standard um as the interim uh score for so far for this year.
Um to receive a high performer status, you have to have a 90% or higher where at 86 currently, and what do you need for standard?
Um 60 percent or higher 60 percent to 89 percent, thank you.
You're welcome.
Commissioner could potentially do it.
Yes, we can do that.
Commissioner Burrell.
This is uh this is concerned of some concerns.
I get uh phone calls all the time regardless of phone services, and also emails.
How often I mean how often do I mean how long does it take for, say, for example five me email you all to get a response on that, and then also regards of phone calls, regarding uh residents trying to contact the office, don't get through.
I'm a witness.
Uh I just bury my sister, um my niece of mine was uh house broken into and it took three or four days.
She came to the office, caught and I was right there to call.
So how long?
I mean, how can we uh make this service uh uh better service?
I mean, you know, in order for the residents to reach out to you all as well as you know communications commitment.
So if they call through, we do have a call center still through the 5650 number.
Um, we do have agents that take calls every day.
Um, but depending on the number of calls that come through, it could take longer for our agents to reach those people.
Um, so we do have a callback feature that's available.
If they don't want to wait on old, they can indicate that they want to receive a call back, and as soon as an agent is available, they'll receive uh a call back.
In most cases, um, it's a 24 hour process through that.
Um, I have seen it go above that.
Like if it's a a Friday, sometimes you're gonna receive a call back on a Monday.
Um, I have seen it in some cases go above that 24 hours, but I other than a weekend, not counting a weekend.
Um, but I don't think I've ever seen it go up above like two days, hit that two-day mark.
Um, when it comes to the ticketing system and our um HCV support email, which is our general email.
What happens is those tickets come into our ticketing system and they get assigned to whichever staff member is um addressed, you know, is addressing that type of action or that type of inquiry.
Um, I have seen it it depends on the situation.
Um in some cases we can resolve it immediately, in other cases it may to may need to be assigned to another staff member to address.
Um, and so sometimes it can take several days to a couple of weeks, even depending on how difficult the issue is.
Okay.
Do we have any other questions, comments?
C VR staff.
Okay.
Well, thank you all.
Thank you very much.
This is exciting.
It's 5 30.
Sure, hold on to your horses.
Okay.
Right.
Don't get me started.
We need order.
We do have a question or comment from Commissioner Snyder.
Of course.
Um Madam Chair, um, I don't want to go into the city attorney's force field of death.
I know better by now, but I I did want to talk about the soldiers' home, but it wasn't on the calendar, it wasn't on the agenda.
So I don't want to bring it up and have you be any more mad at me than you are uh for bringing up something that wasn't on the agenda.
I wondered if we could have a short brief conversation about that or not.
It's not recognized on the agenda.
So if you would like to have the conversation privately with counsel, you're more than welcome to do so.
I would rather have it publicly, but maybe next month.
Okay, and we can consider that for next month's agenda as far as an update.
Soldiers.
Okay.
All right, duly noted.
Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner Snyder.
All right.
Uh is there any other business, new business?
Okay.
Okay.
There being none, can I get a motion to adjourn?
So we'll second.
All right.
Uh all in favor say aye.
Any opposed?
Any abstentions?
All right.
I have it.
Housing Authority of Milwaukee Board Meeting – June 10, 2026
The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) Board of Commissioners held a regular meeting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in City Hall Room 301A. The meeting covered a consent calendar, a public listening session, a contract amendment for elevator maintenance, a report on BDO accounting services, and a presentation on CMAP scores and corrective actions.
Consent Calendar
- The board unanimously approved all items on the consent agenda, as moved by a commissioner and seconded. Roll call recorded all ayes.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Betty Newton (Convent Heels resident, RAV secretary, RAV member) raised concerns about an unsafe ramp with cracks and a large hole, posing risks to wheelchair users. She also criticized the four-team maintenance model, citing a bathroom light out for over a year and a lack of on-site maintenance. She recommended placing ambassadors and using surrogate workers at no cost to HACM.
- Diana Hinton expressed concern about one-sided public safety reports that are not verified, and the lack of notification to residents involved in such reports.
- Mr. Sawyer (no affiliation stated) stated that HACM has not had a fully functional grievance procedure for at least five years, which could lower performance scores. He also raised issues about employee misconduct and residents having to intervene in conflicts.
Discussion Items
- Elevator Maintenance Contract Amendment – Tim Hoy (Procurement and Contracts Officer) and Ken Barbo (Chief Operations Officer for Program Services) presented a resolution to amend contract 23002 with Otis Elevator Company. The amendment adds $333,333 (not-to-exceed) and extends the contract through May 31, 2027, with an option for one additional year. Staff highlighted uninterrupted service, no price increase, and Otis's proven performance. Commissioners questioned response times, data tracking, and the lack of local bidders. Ken Barbo noted that after-hours calls are tracked by public safety and daytime calls by property managers, and agreed to request performance data for future renewals. The amendment was approved.
- BDO Accounting Services Update – Ken Barbo reported on the contract with BDO, a firm providing urgent accounting advice and technical assistance. Services included check-in meetings, cash management review, assistance with the Financial Data Schedule (FDS) submission to HUD (avoiding a failure to submit), and support on LLC audits that are behind schedule. BDO also helped draft an accounting policy and cost allocation plan for the sustainability plan. Commissioners asked about the timeline for completing LLC audits and the establishment of a finance committee. New CFO John Larson was introduced; a new COO will start July 6.
- CMAP 2025 Scores and Corrective Action Plan – Michael Tunovitz (co-president of CVR), Tracy Sheffield (SVP of CVR), and Tina Royalty (HCP Director) presented. CMAP (Section 8 Management Assistance Program) measures 14 indicators. The 2025 score was 34% (or 34 points out of 145). Corrective actions included implementing an API for rent reasonableness, increasing quality control, and improving enforcement tracking. For 2026 (first quarter), the agency is on track to earn 125 out of 145 points (86% compliance), placing it in the "standard" category (60-89%). High performer status requires 90% or higher. Discussion also covered the FSS program (93 mandatory slots, currently in the 50s-60s enrollment), the funding shortfall preventing new voucher issuance, and the PIC reporting rate issue (94% instead of 95% in December 2025). Commissioner Burrell raised concerns about customer service response times; Tracy Sheffield explained the call center callback feature and ticketing system.
Key Outcomes
- Elevator contract amendment approved – Motion passed unanimously (roll call: all ayes).
- CMAP progress noted – No formal vote, but the board acknowledged the improvement from 34% to 86% compliance so far in 2026.
- Request for performance data – Commissioners directed staff to obtain elevator response time data from Otis for the past contractual year to inform future renewals.
- FSS coordinator funding – Noted that HACM funds two full-time FSS coordinators but receives HUD funding for only half a position, covering the difference.
- Voucher issuance – Staff requested HUD to release HACM from shortfall; expected update at next board meeting.
- Adjournment – Motion carried to adjourn after no further business.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, everyone. This is the regularly scheduled meeting of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee taking place at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10th, 2026. Patty, can we get a roll call, please? Commissioner Burrell. Present. Commissioner Snyder. Commissioner Paz Classen. Chair Hazlet. Present. Vice Chair Gotzler present. Commissioner Nelson. Present. Commissioner Moore. All right. Moving on to the next item on the agenda. The approval of the consent agenda. Would a commissioner like to move approval of all items within the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Okay. Roll call, please. Commissioner Burrell. Aye. Commissioner Nelson. Aye. Commissioner Paz Classen. Aye. Chair Hazlet. Aye. Vice Chair Gotzler. Aye. Commissioner, I'm sorry, Commissioner. Commissioner Snyder. Commissioner Moore. Aye. Okay. Sorry, I took it out of order. The next item for today's meeting is a general public listening session. This listening session is agenda item number B1, part of the 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 10th, 2026 meeting, the Hackham Board of Commissioners at City Hall Room 301A. The purpose of the session is to give interested persons a reasonable opportunity to present their views to Hackham's Board of Commissioners. Each speaker will have two minutes to speak. This listening session does not have a specific topic. Persons to wish to speak, if they have not already done so, should sign up at the sign in sheet located at the side table on your right. For those who have prepared written comments, those comments will be shared with the board. Any e-comments received by 11 a.m. today have been distributed to the commissioners. Per open meetings law at a listening session. The commissioners do not engage in a dialogue with the speakers, but we'll be listening to all comments so they will so they may receive input from the public.
openpublica.com