HomeMy WebLinkAbout20242845.tiffGreeley -Weld Housing Authority
Meeting of the Board of Commissioners
Wednesday 10/16/24
4:30pm
Weld Trust
815 8th Ave, Greeley, CO 80631
Meeting Minutes
Attendance: Shawn Walcott, Kim Longworth, Karin Crandall, Scott James, Kyle Holman,
Olivia Milstead, Juliana Kitten, Ernest Cienfuegos -Baca, Deb Callies
- Call to Order — call to order by Shawn Walcott at 4:32 pm
- Action Item - Approval of the October 2nd meeting minutes - motion to approve the minutes
by Karin, seconded by Ernest, no opposition, motion passed.
- Update on housing authority operations - Deb
o Peakview- Deb was at the property, property looks great. Items have not been
addressed, like rent increases and flooding situation. Directed staff on what needs
to be done on this to move forward. Deb has reached out to the management group
but needs more information before moving forward. Concerns with maintenance
person are being worked on.
o Team needs to work on the office culture to get the team in a place that is high
functioning and amicable with everyone in the office. Need to work together as a
team, communication, team building, etc. Need to be made to feel a part of the
whole. Customer satisfaction has not been good. Then do training, conflict
resolution between staff and customers. HR training would also be helpful.
Organization strategy needs to be addressed.
o No supervision/leadership in building and no job descriptions, employees are not
sure of who they report to and what their job descriptions are. Positions that need to
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be created/followed for each department. Need additional help with the section 8
vouchers, hard to do 1000 vouchers with 2 people. See the org chart that Deb
provided, discussion over the positions and positions to add. Only 1 bilingual
person and she is property based, so makes it difficult for persons walking into the
office.
o ED roll shouldn't be in the every day "nitty gritty" work. Have an ED and possible
assistant to support the staff so the ED doesn't have to be involved in the every day
little issues. Attachments were job descriptions from another Housing authority as
an example.
■ Ernest questioned the availability of monies for salaries of additional
positions and back fill of positions. If we hire an ED, we would no longer
need assistance from Deb. Salaries from a year ago have dropped from over
$1 million to around $770k. Org chart that Deb presented would be in the
future and what she feels would work for this organization. Need to have
clarity around what the city and county side are doing. Need to know what
direction that is going in. City attorney has been working with internal city of
Greeley staff and the county commissioners on the best path forward for
Greeley and Weld HA's. Waiting on the county to make their decision on if
they want to continue to be joined with the Greeley HA. If the entities are
divided, then the appointees from Weld County may be asked to step down
from the Greeley board. Hire proposed positions by Deb in stages,
depending on what happens with HA structure.
Presentation on employee salaries and Salary Study - Shawn
o everyone but 2 people received their step raises, not sure why that didn't happen.
Some are making more than what the salary study showed. 3% cost of living raise
plus the step increase based upon their longevity of employment. Step system in
the salary study that was utilized. Karin has a step increase document that was
approved by the HA that was put in place many years ago. Everyone got at least a
5% raise, some got 8% and some 10%. Deb will review and provide more specific
information on the persons that did not get the full raise amounts.
- Presentation of Audit Findings - Jim Hinkle presenting.
o Austin and Anita from the HA helped with this audit as well. Gained an
understanding of the internal controls through the HA. Look for any significant
deficiencies (design flaw in internal controls) and material weaknesses (material
misstatement of the financials). Reviewed financial statements and internal
processes. Unmodified opinion finding for the financials. Federal Compliance
section is a single audit section that was reviewed next. Issue 2 audit opinions with
respect to the federal requirements. Does the organization have the internal
structure in place for compliance of federal monies received. Yes, the controls are
in place. 2nd opinion follows uniform guidance to follow the federal regulations
selecting certain programs to confirm and test if they are in compliance. Selected
Section 8 clusters to test.
o There are significant deficiencies between the financial and the internal controls.
Not a new situation, but they need to be addressed and rectified. Separation of
duties need to be addressed, should be more than one person involved in the
review, approval and disbursement process. Example of this process given by Jim.
Need a good segregation of duties for all functions relating to payments and receipt
of funds. Also a lack of a journal voucher system. When GL is changed, we need to
have them documented in writing and they need to be approved by someone other
than the person creating and posting that entry. Otherwise someone can go in and
change those transactions by doing journal entries.
o Third finding is the compliance finding, reasonable rent. Required by the
supplement to annually review each client looking at their income and how much
assistance they receive to determine they are receiving and paying as required due
to the policies. Many discrepancies of this not being completed as needed, this
needs to be corrected. This is something we have been working on when the
consultants took over. Suggestion of a checklist on the front of each file that has
been checked off at each step of the process when the review is completed. Files
are not consistent with the way the documentation is kept in the file, i.e.,
documents not in a specific order. Need to set a policy and procedure to be done
annually.
o This last one is a new finding, was not a finding previously, not sure why it was not
found before. Finding in FY 22 regarding inventory that was not reviewed this year,
not sure why this was a finding/included in FY 22 audit. Should not apply with our
line of business as items such as paint and screws, etc, are supplies and not really
inventory. Everything that was asked for was provided in a timely manner, nothing
was excluded.
o They received everything needed when asked for - open transparency. No difficulty
in the processes of the audits or any disagreements with management during the
process. Audit completed and filed with REAC and the federal audit clearing house
by 9/30/2024, which is required. Reviewed Greeley and Weld separately, not
combined. Separate financial statements issued for each entity. Judy, Austin, and
Anita all have accounting duties. External auditors work for the board, but work with
management, but report to the board. No further questions, no real surprises for
the board as we have been discussing this with the consultants. Will continue to
work with management to make sure the separation of duties is followed as well as
the GL entries.
Update on ED - 2 applicants, one with HA experience, one with ED experience but would want a
salary of $170,000.
Cityline tour for next board meeting. 4:00 on 10/30/2024, before our next board meeting. Cityline
wants to show off finished project to the board in regards to a partnership. See if there is space at
Cityline to hold the meeting after the tour. Need to be willing to let public attend the meeting as
well as publish change of location.
- Adjourn — motion to adjourn by Ernest, second by Kyle, no opposition, motion passed.
Meeting adjourned at 5:36 pm.
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