Redevelopment Authority - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. This is the regularly scheduled meeting of the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee taking place at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 8th, 2026. Patty, can we please get a roll call?

Commissioner Nelson. Present. Commissioner Pez-Classen.

Present.

Chair Hazlett.

Present.

Vice Chair Gotsler.

Present.

Commissioner Burrell. Present. Commissioner Snyder. Present.

Great. Can you call the next item?

Yes. Would a commissioner like to move approval of all of the agenda items within the consent agenda? So moved.

Second. Great. Can I get a roll call, please?

Commissioner Nelson. Aye. Commissioner Opez-Classen. Aye. Chair Hazlett.

Aye.

Vice Chair Gotzler. Aye. Commissioner Burrell. Aye. Commissioner Snyder.

Aye.

The next item for today's meeting is a general public listening session. This session is agenda item number B1, part of the 4 p.m. Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 meeting of the Hackam Board of Commissioners at City Hall Room 301B. The purpose of the session is to give interested persons a reasonable opportunity to present their views to Hackam's Board of Commissioners. Each speaker will have two minutes to speak. This listening session does not have a specific topic. Persons who 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 a prepared written comments those comments will be shared with the board Any comments received by 11 a.m. Today have been distributed to the commissioners per open meetings laws at a listening session the commissioners do not engage in a dialogue with the speakers but will be listening to all comments so they may receive input from the public we ask that everyone be respectful of the process and of all the folks either speaking as well as those who are here to listen after you provide your comment property management staff may reach out to you here at this meeting or afterward to learn more from you or 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 that their two minutes are up. We also ask that the audience be respectful of 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 when 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. a few more points in a summary to the speakers please everyone mute all of 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. Can I get the list of speakers please? So first one up on the list is Karen Dares. And then Carrie Moss, you're going to be next. If you would please come up to the desk and speak into the speaker. Karen. Oh, Karen Davis, sorry. Anywhere I think all of the mics should be on.

I'll start by saying good evening. I'm so honored and it's such a privilege to be present. I wrote a pretty extensive letter and I seem like a habitual pathological problem. I've rented from housing authority for over 30 years. I've never been a problem.

Excuse me, Ms. Davis, could you get a little closer to the microphone please?

Can you hear me now?

Yeah, much better. Thank you. I just want to be sure it gets recorded. Sure.

I've rented from Housing Authority for over 30 years. I've never been a problem. In fact, I was affiliated with Tony Perez and I had some very positive encounters. I believe if I can't be an asset, I'm not going to be a liability. Whatever I do, I try to do my all. Currently, as you see, I'm dealing with some disabilities, mobility issues. The place that I'm currently living in is through the Section 8 voucher. I complained to the inspectors for Hackham about the inability or it's uninhabitable, and I nearly fell numerous times. Finally, I did fall, and needless to say, Big as I am, I came crashing down on the floor. I had to scoot across to the door to get 911 in, and I called them. Thankfully, I had my cell phone present. I'm also in a not the sharpest of state cognitively. because of the fact that I deal with a neurological issue, epilepsy, and from the time that I moved in in January, February, the smoke detectors were going off in the building, the entirety, and it sounds like an alarm, or not an alarm, a train. Let me see if I can find one, and I'll shut up, I'm done. And your two minutes are up.

Bless you. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Carrie Moss. And after that, Diana Hinton. Oh. Commissioner Schneider, this might be yours.

Good afternoon. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I'm Carrie Moss. I'm a landlord for over 20 years working with Housing Authority. And in the last year and a half, It has been a nightmare, and I would like the opportunity to speak with someone from the board at another time regarding my long list of concerns. I haven't been paid for six months. They're not giving late fees. They're not sending out the paperwork, contracts, recertifications are happening six months after the It's just long. So I would just like someone to talk to me in detail over the things that are going on, which is not just happening to me, but other landlords. And it's being really hard to want to rent to a rent assistance tenant based on how this office is operating. So that would be my, yeah. Yeah, just, it's very frustrating. I mean, I have, I pointed out a mistake from last September, immediately when it happened, and they finally took their money back that they overpaid me in September two days ago. I mean 10 months when I pointed out their error, the list is long. So I would like an opportunity to discuss things in detail.

All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Zana or Tracy or Tina, would you like to reach out and get her contact information too? Thank you. Okay, Diana Hinton is next, and then after that is Ms. Newton.

Hello. So I'm here again to, I'm still trying to get some results of a complaint that I made, and they're stating that they're still waiting to get a response from Public Safety. It's a fabricated report, but I can't get anywhere with it. I'm just being ignored. And then the other thing, I have three things. My manager's telling me one thing, agreeing to one thing, and then changing her mind completely. So I need to know what to do about that, and That's enough for today. But I need public safety to act on this complaint, which resulted in a very severe lease violation. And it's been addressed from Todd, Mr. Barbeau, I've gone all the way up. I've done everything I'm supposed to do and they're just ghosting me basically. So I need to get some results quickly, not 10 months later. But that's it.

Thank you. Thank you.

ms newton you are uh... we can come up to the microphone and then but he'd sweat of the teats uh... but he's right wesley yes but it's that good evening i'm getting newton i am a rap member i am in our own secretary for common heels and i have a complaint about my manager for one she does not want to give us access to store things for events that we do the group of people the residents that i deal with are the only residents in the building that are doing anything to socialize our residents we asked to store our things in the barber shop in the beauty shop because the russians stored their things in the beauty shop and was given permission and now she's telling us we have to move it she does not want to give us another space to store our things diana operates a flower giveaway program the Sunshine Club, we play spades every Friday, we have done spades tournaments with other properties. We are the only entity that does anything to socialize in Convent. And to not give us access to space is uncalled for. And then she told a lie on me. She said that I cursed her in the lobby when I told her that Paul Williams told me to tell her to open up the kitchen door because a key to the kitchen that was an issue with the previous RO President that Ken Barbeau and Anecia Robinson gave me permission to have, the manager and the new RO President changed the locks without any warning. And we couldn't get in for two weeks. without any warning and for her to tell somebody that I told her to open the fucking door, I am highly incensed because I've got better sense than the cursor manager. I deal with people on higher levels than her and none of them can say I've been disrespectful.

Thank you for sharing.

Mr. Wesley, you're up and then Mr. Sawyer, you are up next.

Good afternoon. My name is Baptiste Wesley. I'd first like to thank the commissioners you all for serving. You all are doing a great job. And Mr. Barbeau, sitting first, you did a great job, sir. And I welcome you into the new seat, sir. Okay. I've been on this waiting list for the Milwaukee Housing Authorities since May of last year for a department. And I requested a specific place, which is Arlington Courts. Well, I went down there to the office today at 5011 West Lisbon to find out if I was still on the list. And they gave me a list saying I'm on three spots. I'm on Westline Gardens, Ogle Village, and Covent Hill. And I don't mind being placed anywhere, okay? But my steel choice would be Arlington Court. And I think that you should, and they also told me, I talked to a lady named, her name was Priscilla, actually was her name. She told me that I'm in a pool And so I say, well, what's a pool? And, you know, I said, this is just to put a name random in a cup or something and put out a name. Well, shouldn't it be a lettering as to one, two, three and down the line? If that's the case, you just put someone in this pool who just walked up yesterday. And I've been on that over a year. And this person would get on before I would. And so it's not fair. So I think there should be a time limit as well as. a numbering system of, you know, first come, first serve, and then down the line. With that, thank you all for hearing my complaint.

Thank you. Thank you.

The public also hasn't had an opportunity to provide... Oh, I'm sorry, Courtney. I'm sorry. I apologize. It's getting ahead of myself.

Hello, everybody. Um... Let me first start with the fact that you guys have, you know the rent pay system is down? People cannot pay their rent for the last two months online. I'm making sure you guys know because the person that told me is probably watching, so I'll make sure to say it. They had credits on their account. They said they had credits missing. from the overpayments or whatever. We're going to have to like situation with his baby something's already been worked out and we also had a situation would be though they had already been laid out talk to the actuals people over gambling bingo for the state laid out the rules housing was already total rules the same people that called the problem in my building preceded to go to another building and do the same thing once again even though they had already been told to leave that alone it's like they're vindictive they go from place to place doing the same thing they've been told not to do already and it's just starting to look weird like even with the rent system people have been telling the manager that should have been communicated to upper management and the commissioners immediately you know And they know it happened. The lead managers had to have known it happened because everybody that was paying online had to go get money in words and checks. I'm going to still keep working with you guys. I'm going to do what I got to do. But when we're communicating and we resolve stuff, we shouldn't be debating about the same thing over and over again. Thank you guys very much.

Thank you.

Madam Chair.

Okay.

Welcome, Charlotte. Thank you. Commissioner Moore. Please excuse my tardiness, but please mark me in the affirmative for item A, 1 and 2. Thank you. Thank you.

The public also had an opportunity to provide written comments and e-comments. None were received before 11 a.m. today. Is there anyone else who would like to 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, July 8th, 2026 meeting, the Hacken Board of Commissioners at City Hall Room 301B. I would like 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 is a resolution authorizing a request to the Department of Housing and Urban Development Special Application Center, SAC, to rescind the remaining 10 scattered site units from the approved Section 32 Home Ownership Program. HACM received approval for 40 units to be sold under the Section 32 Home Ownership Program. To date, 30 units have been sold to eligible first-time homebuyers. HUD has asked for the 10 remaining units to have their public and Indian Housing Information Center pick status recategorized to match their real life status as active occupied units. The SAC has also asked for a board resolution to move the units and effectually close out the current program. Any future proposed section 32 sale to an occupying resident or to an eligible family would require the submission of a new application. Jeanne Dawson will speak on this item.

Good afternoon, my name is Jeannie Dawson, I'm staff with the Housing Authority. Basically this is an administrative request from PIC to just recategorize these units back into active status. It's not complicated, it's just they require board approval to do it. You might have to tell us what PIC is. I'm sorry, PIC stands for Public and Indian, no, Public Housing Inventory.

Public Information Center.

I think it's Public and Indian Housing Information Center.

There you go. So that's basically the giant database that is used for occupancy of all of our units. And so those occupancies have to be certified, I think, monthly. and it has to all connect them. I don't do the PIC, so I'm not really well versed in how it's done, but that's why it's done. It's done to basically keep track of the units that are in public housing inventories. And subsidies, I presume.

Madam Chair.

Vice Chair Gatzler.

Could you please explain how it came to be that we're in this situation? I don't need like a really long drawn out explanation, but it just seems like a very unusual request to me. Which situation? Of HUD asking us to change something in PIC.

Okay, because the 10 units that were under our Section 32 approval, have been basically they've been placeholder units and they've been in that approval status for basically for years and those units are not actively being sold, instead they're being rented out and leased out. So essentially, they're doing a general cleanup. They want their data to match our data, et cetera. So we've had to go through, for example, and change the name of addresses when they change Fourth Street to Dr. Lester Carter. We've had to go and do all these things. So this is just another one of those cleanups that they're asking for us to do. Thank you.

Do you need a motion? So moved.

I don't think we need to do it.

It's a resolution, yes. Sorry.

Did you say? Did you?

Sure. No. Oh, do you have a question? Oh.

I just wanted to make sure no one else had questions before we made a motion. Yeah. Madam Chair. Yes, Commissioner Moore.

I just wanted to make sure. So these particular 10 remaining units, they're currently occupied. Yes. All 10 of them.

I believe so, yes.

Okay, got it. And so they would be now in charge. So when they talk about rescinding, you know, section 32 home ownership program, we would no longer have the opportunity to sort of sell or submit these homes for home ownership like we did the others.

We would still have that opportunity, but just not under this particular approval. So we would have to get another approval if we wanted to sell another scattered site home under a section 32.

Got it, okay.

So we'd just be closing out this approval. And then if we wanted to start a new one, we could do that.

Thank you.

If there are no other questions or comments, can we get a motion for approval? So moved. Second.

All right.

Can we get a roll call, please?

Commissioner Nelson. Aye. Commissioner a pest classin aye chair Hazlett aye vice chair Gosselaar aye Commissioner Burrell aye Commissioner Snyder aye Commissioner Moore aye Item three is a report from the secretary executive director aye

Good afternoon. This is Harold Enns, the Secretary Executive Director. I'd like to introduce our new COO, Zaina Farah. She comes with private sector experience, multifamily, HUD multifamily experience, HUD public housing experience. and HUD troubled housing experience as well as out recently in subsidized housing.

You will have to speak right into the microphone. Thank you.

So thank you. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to work at HACO and move the agency forward. I'm very excited. I've been out in the field the last couple days and meeting everyone and talking to people and there's a lot of good things out there that we can do that we will be doing actually. Yeah. So.

Wonderful. Excellent. Well, welcome, Zaina. We are so fortunate to have you join our team. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Thanks. The public housing occupancy summary, we have a 96.25% occupancy. That is including units on hold, and we have 200 units on hold, and those are units that require more work than is average for turning a unit. We have... 657 work orders were open, 372 were closed, ending with 285 open work orders. An average of 29 work orders were created per day, while only 16 were closed, causing a rise in the backlog. In the market rate tax credit portfolio, we have an occupancy rate of 93.14%, and we had a total of 550 work orders. They completed 332 work orders. leaving a backlog of 50 work orders that are 60 days old and an additional 18 work orders that are 90 days old. There's more information for your perusal. We will move on to...

update on uh... pre-meeting option and that is given by patty uh... patricia d uh... so uh... at the main meeting we had talked about a new step that the staff is taking which uh... provides an opportunity to fruit the commissioners to learn more about the agenda items if they have questions staff who are going to be presenting at the board meetings are getting together ahead of time to do kind of a walk through and get feedback from the other staff people that are there presenting and so this affords the commissioners an opportunity to learn more it's every monday afternoon after reviewing the friday agenda email if you want to learn more about the items please reach out to myself to lisa or maria uh... attending the pre-meeting will be in a first come first serve basis for the first two commissioners who request uh... attendance and the so that allows for great dialogue to happen so you really get a chance to have a discussion with the staff people and the staff people find it terribly helpful to because it lets them know what kinds of information am i bringing the right information to the board meeting in order to make it flow easier in order to get you the information you're looking for so it's really helpful that way it's a real win-win and as long as different commissioners are attending for meeting the meeting and we're not having a set list it's first come first serve we don't see foresee there being any problems with it being defined as a de facto committee or anything like that but it will have to be first come first serve no more than two But in any case, even if you're not able to make that, please feel free to give us your questions ahead of time. We can have the staff get that information, turn it around. If you can get it to us before Monday noon, we can incorporate it in the meeting. But anytime, we can take that information, try and get the answers to you ahead of the meeting and have it at the meeting so that everyone can hear it. And hopefully that'll help make the presentations flow a little bit better, make it more efficient. So that's always an option for you to bring your questions to us anyway. And you're strongly encouraged to review the attachments that are included in that Friday agenda email as thoroughly as you're able to and determine if you have any questions pre-meeting and then we can take care of that. And we look forward to hearing those questions from you. So that's the process moving forward. We've checked. We think that's going to be legally viable. We'll do a reminder to you on the Friday agenda email about that too. And that's it for that.

Thank you.

And are those meetings scheduled? Oh, I'm sorry, Madam Chair. Yes. Vice Chair Gotsler. Thank you. Are those meetings scheduled at the same time every? They are consistent every month, yeah. Mondays at 2. Mondays at 2. Thank you.

And we can include that in the Friday agenda email when we send that out.

Perfect.

Thank you. For sure what what are you I think I believe they're presenting I believe they're presenting.

Okay, so we'll turn it back over to you here CVR's monthly report

All right, good evening commissioners. My name is Tracy Sheffield, Senior Vice President with CVR Associates.

Tina Royalty, HCV Director.

All right. Tracy, can you get closer to the mic, please? Yes. Is this better? So I have a few updates for you. About three weeks ago, we did a lottery of the housing choice voucher waiting list. This was a part of our corrective action plan with HUD from applicants who applied in 2021 through 2024. The lottery randomly selected 5,000 applicants of the 8,801 that had submitted pre-applications. We sent notices out to each applicant family to let them know if they were randomly selected to be placed on the official waiting list or not and what their next steps were. That process went very well. We worked with the marketing team at Hackham to get notices out to the mayor, commissioners, other relevant stakeholders in case applicants had questions or needed anything. But we're very pleased with the outcome of that. It went very well. We were prepared to assist families in our office if they had any questions about what the next steps were. But that process is done, and now that piece of our corrective action plan is finished. Following that, we are now working with the public housing department to get ready to do a waiting list update for our project-based vouchers and public housing at the same time. So we're coordinating with the Public Housing Department and with Yardi so that we can get notices out to the families so that they know the steps that they need to take if they remain interested and being placed on those waiting lists. As far as our CMAP performance through June, things are still looking very good. We're still in high standard performer status. Our late recertifications have been reduced to approximately 600, and we are receiving partial points, five of the 10 points for that indicator, where last year we didn't receive any points. The date after I wrote our monthly report for the partial month of June, we received notice from HUD that we have been released from HUD shortfall status. This means that we can now take leasing activities and to work towards utilizing more of the funding available from HUD. So we have been working with the HACM leadership team on strategies of how we want to do this. The goal that we are trying to reach is one, CMAP points for this year for indicator 13 and utilization. but also not going too far so that it doesn't risk a shortfall status for 2027. Because of the late date and being at the end of June when we received this notice from HUD, it doesn't leave a lot of opportunity for the leasing activities that are done for the rest of the year to actually impact 2026. They will mostly impact 2027. So we're working with the team to strategize on how best to kind of balance those two items. With that, we're looking, there are an allocation of emergency housing vouchers that are available. We have approximately 71 participants right now. That funding is ending with HUD. They think that it'll approximately be run out by the end of this calendar year. A few months ago we submitted a waiver with HUD to amend the administrative plan. That waiver was received the day after we got our HUD shortfall status. And that waiver essentially means that we can place current emergency housing voucher participants at the top of the waiting list without having them reapply and potentially lose their assistance. But in order to do that, we need to amend the administrative plan, which we're working on the leadership team on. It also needs to go before the RAB board and a 45-day comment period. We're also looking to absorb our portability families. Portability families are families that have moved from an outside jurisdiction into Hackam's jurisdiction and we bill whichever housing authority the family came from for the housing costs. So we're looking at moving those families into our program so that they come out of our funding as a part of this process. And so we will continue to work with HACM leadership on the strategies that we want to use for leasing families so that we can also balance the shortfall risk for 2027. And that is all I have for you today.

Do we have any questions or comments from the commissioners?

All right. Madam Chair.

Yes, Commissioner Moore.

I think one of the questions that I have, and I hope that, you know, this is still on topic in reference to our, you know, vendors, particularly the landlords. Another situation that actually was talking to one of my aunts and She was dealing with someone that actually got evicted because the rent hadn't been paid for like the last six months. And so I'm just trying to figure out like what that, I don't know how we capture that data as far as that magnitude, as far as how many people because of a lack of payment have been evicted from their property. I would love to know how are we addressing that because again, it's it's it's alarming when people have families and children and The rent has not been paid Communication has been and this was an individual that was just like she showed me the proof and I was like, oh boy And I don't think I'm Harold that I've you know submitted that to you yet. I just had a lot going on recently But how are we dealing with? vendors, landlords, we had one come here today. How are we dealing with landlords that have not been paid in a substantial amount of time? And when I say substantial amount of time, I'm talking about more than 90 days, you know, that's, I mean, more than 60 is already bad. But I mean, significantly for me is like, okay, you're three months or more past due. Like, do we have numbers of who those are? Because these are attached to real individuals and real people. And I'm curious as to what that magnitude is, because I know that's impacting people.

Yeah, I would love the opportunity to review the case that you're speaking of so that we can look at the details of it. Because that is abnormal.

But are we keeping data, though, as to who are those vendors that, do we know who those vendors are?

We have data on, let's say it's a move process, and someone is moving into a new unit. We have to get documentation from the tenant landlord, the residential lease, and the landlord has to sign a HAP contract to allow us to begin payment. Those two documents have to match. It has to list who is living there, what the rent is. The start date of the HAP contract and the lease cannot begin before the unit passes inspection. We see a lot of errors that come in on those documents where we're having to go have communications to get those things fixed. before we can actually issue payments. So I don't know if it's that relative to that situation. The other thing that I can think of is our ownership changes. When a landlord sells a property, then there are certain documents we need to get from the current owner to show that they own the property or maybe they're a new property manager. to get those documents for them so that we can begin paying the new property owner for whichever tenant is living there. A lot of times there is a lot of back and forth on the documents there too, so again, I don't know what particular instance you're speaking of, and I'd love to be able to look at it separately to look at the details.

Sure, and I know that there are different situations for different things, you know, there was another one that you've, yeah, we were looking to resolve, but it's just a communication for me because if there's somebody moving into a property and you all give the go-ahead and then it's backtracked like whoa, whoa, wait, we still need this, this, this and this, I'm just confused because if folks are having the go-ahead, to move in somewhere because I'm assuming that you would have to authorize it for in order for the landlord to even say yay or nay. You know, people are at properties for months at a time before some of these situations need to be rectified or, you know, again, back and forth with the situation with, you know. prominent land you know and whatever developer whatever um i i'm just i i want to know the mac i i want to know the magnitude because i only hear the one-offs and those are the people that just reach out to my office those are the people that i happen to in conversation here i want to know well commission this is what we're dealing with we have X number of landlords that are 30, 60, 90, 180, like I want to know the magnitude because it feels like it's more than what it's being alluded to, right? And I don't want us to sit here and think that, and I know the work isn't easy, but there's also a lot of communication things where people are doing their due diligence. There are folks that are leaving work or missing work to come down to sit on Lisbon and it's just this back and forth and back and forth and it should not be this complicated in my opinion. so i'm trying to understand like what do those numbers look like that's what i want to know because if i'm hearing people that are being evicted because we didn't do our job that's unsettling and again lots of reason maybe to it right i may be just hearing one side of the equation but I think it's important that we have some information so that we know where we are on paying our landlords and us understanding the magnitude of that.

I can definitely get you those numbers. We track that.

Do we have any other questions or comments from the commissioners? Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Moore. Thank you. Thank you. CVR. Next item, Harold.

Public Safety Department Analytics and Initiatives Report.

Good afternoon, Marlon E. Davis, Chief of Public Safety for the Housing Authority.

Good afternoon, Captain Nicole McDade for the Public Safety Department.

Can you get a little closer to the mic, please?

Captain Nicole McDade, Public Safety Department. Awesome.

Good evening. Good evening. Uh, we did present our analytics and initiatives report the time period of May 12th through, uh, June 22nd. Uh, the first page is detailing, uh, some of the, uh, pie chart as it relates to our event locations if you'll notice on that first page there is a high volume at the Merrill Park development where the captain will discuss some of the things that are standing out and the reason why that stands out as prominent as it does We really just maintained, during this time period, our operational cadence, being mindful of the weather change and the schools being out. We concentrated on making proactivity the highest volume of what it is that we do on a day-to-day basis, ensuring that these environments are safe and secure, of course, for our residents, visitors, and staff. I'll let the captain explain what was targeted for Merrill and why you see that large increase on that pie chart, unless you have some more questions for me.

Madam Chair.

Commissioner Moore.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Captain. Can you share particularly with the, this is going to be a two-part question, because I want to know how, and dare I ask, I want to know how for the developments, how the 4th of July went, and also specifically for the Merrill Park location. I know that quite a few of the residents were not happy about the furniture. being removed in the lobby and you know i advised them that um it was you know centered around getting safety sort of back on track can you you know if you don't mind um chief providing us an update of what your you know if there's anything that you're hearing or if there's going to be an opportunity to have the furniture return or what sort of the plan um and how is merrill park being stabilized

Of course. The first part is the fourth call. We recognize some of the things that went on across the city, and we made sure we maintained a very high visible presence in our developments as well as keeping lines of sight on what's going on. And then if we did see something, the officers were engaged in notifying law enforcement to respond as they could. Of course, we can't be everywhere either.

Mm-hmm.

So was there any large magnitude events that happened that were reported to public safety? There weren't, and I'm thankful for that. I appreciate our residents and their buy-in about being a part of what it looks like to be in safe and secure environments. So we didn't have a big Fourth of July rush, thankfully. As far as the other questions, there's some good questions about Merrill Park and the decisions that were made through executive leaderships and property management. I'll let the captain speak to that as part of that strategy for Merrill Park as it relates to the furniture.

Since we attended the Merrill Park resident organization meeting on April 14th, we realized that through property management and through the resident feedback that they were having some issues over there. And so we implemented a community safety deployment at Merrill Park and that deployment included So when those public safety specialists go out, say they have a call for service, so they'll do that call for service. After that call for service, they will go back to Merrill Park. So whenever you had a call for service, you'll then go back and deploy at Merrill Park. So that's why you have on the pie chart that is so big because... After we do something, we go back there. After we do something, we go back there. We go back there. And so from January 1st through May 19th, there was 90 calls for service, and then there was 564 officer-initiated deployments. So after that meeting on April 14th, from April 14th through May 19th, there was 33 calls for service and 179 officer-initiated deployments. And then from May 8th through May 19th, there were 16 calls for service and 57 officer initiated, um, community safety deployments. So before the meeting, it was 90 calls for service. And most recently there was 16 calls for service. So our proactive, the things that we're doing and being proactive is outweighing the calls for service. Right. And so we are working with, uh, property management. Um, we are, um, dispatchers, they have the camera system up in dispatch area and they're looking at the cameras We recently noticed when Chief Davis was out on vacation, someone was actually living there. A non-resident was actually living in a vacant unit. And so me and the lieutenant, along with Milwaukee Police Department and property management, we was able to get him out of there, and he was arrested. How is that possible?

Well, yeah.

So, well, we found out because, you know, we have to watch. It takes a lot of time. So we me and the lieutenant, we had to look at the camera system. Right. And kind of piece it together. So we realized there is like a little landing roof on the back of Merrill. And then we have the laundry rooms. Right. So his mom stays there.

He's not a resident.

So he's a non-resident, but his mom lives there. So what he did was go through the window. He knocked out the screen, and he would get on the roof and walk around to the vacant unit because somehow he got in.

And the vacant unit was unlocked?

Well, somehow he pushed the screen in on the vacant unit. Oh, from the outside. Yes, from the outside. Oh, gotcha. Okay. Yes, and he was living there.

Interesting.

Yeah, and his mother knew as well, so she'll be receiving violations as well.

Who is the property manager there now? Do we have a new?

Amy Bean. She's new. Ms. Amy Bean. And she's getting trained by Ms. Anecia.

Okay.

The furniture.

With the furniture, that was implemented when I was on vacation. But, yeah, we do receive a lot of phone calls. There are some residents that are upset. But what the plan is is to get the cost for service down even more, right? And so we'll reevaluate it at a time to see if we can bring back the furniture in.

Yeah.

So there are... some upset residents. And we tell them, like we just said today, like you said, when we get the, you know, the problems down, then we'll reevaluate it and see if we can bring it back. But it seems to be working, in my opinion, because, you know, Because even when we were there on the 14th, there were people at the door trying to get in, right? And so you have people that are sitting downstairs and they're knocking on the door. And some people don't have that willpower to not let them in. Some people are going to let them in. So you don't really have that now. Like if I go over there, I see people be in the community room playing pool, very quiet. And we seem not to have those issues anymore.

I love the tactic, and I shared with residents that have called our office that I know that change is hard, number one, but number two, we were listening during that meeting because they were saying, hey, y'all need to do something, and something was done, and even though it wasn't to their liking, I see the change that's occurring, and so I just want to thank everyone Public safety for the work that they've done and just let our residents know that yes, sometimes we do things that are uncomfortable It may be temporary just to get things back under control But I love the tactic that was used to really start seeing a shift in a in a short pretty short period of time So, you know, thank you and the staff for the work that you all continue to do Commissioner Nelson

Yeah, I could really appreciate the role that public safety plays. Once again, I double in my duty here tonight. I'm a commissioner, but I'm also a six-year resident at Arlington Court. Some kind of way I missed out why the furniture was removed, but let me just tell you why furniture was removed or moved around and removed. through the years at Arlington Court. On the first floor, right where the doors are where you enter in and out, it turned into a hangout. And people were getting really loose, openly drinking. When the rules said you can't drink, they were fighting, cussing, hollering. Now keep in mind you've got people coming in from the outside public that are there on business. So it's kind of embarrassing. It's just plain ignorant if you want to know the truth. So that was our reason for removing the furniture so they had nowhere to sit and hang out. So why was it moved from Merrill Park? Because I missed that.

uh... pretty much the same thing about uh... the congregation and like the captain explained you have nine residents that are accustomed to come in and knocking on the window and somebody coming to let him in we figure we take away some of that opportunity and then work with our our partners as far as law enforcement to uh... do some enforcement action as they've mentioned on the The non-resident camping out in a vacant. The police have been there, and we partnered with District 3 very, very closely to have that part done, too, the loitering and the trespassing, citations and stuff like that. So it's still in progress. We're going to evaluate it, look at the data, and see what we can come up with to ease that furniture back in there. But it was absolutely those reasons that you mentioned, and a little bit more, too.

So looking at the giant piece of the pie that went to Merrill Park, what were The majority of the reasons for the calls, the dispatches to Merrill Park, because I didn't really hear specifically why. Were they fighting, drug activity? I mean, what was going on?

Of course. There was a combination. My public safety specialists, as the captain explained, were directed to respond to merrill park in in earnest deploy there in their not obligated time but then when they were obligated with assignments the dispatchers would either send them back to dispatch operators to send them back to merrill after they're done with say they came to arlington to take care of a mail run right sir the dispatcher or the public safety specialist himself would say i'm going back to mary or the dispatch operative say i'm sending you back to mary okay and you stay there until you get another sign we've now we've had to include a couple of neighboring developments in that rotation because we're going to be concentrating on a couple of other developments that have some of the same problems or same challenges They've now become accustomed to redirecting their, they being the dispatch operators, redirecting our resources back to Merrill. Hopefully we're not losing coverage anywhere else. But if something does come up on the radar, then that also gets put in that same type of rotation as well. So now you go back to Merrill, but then you go over to Carver. And then you go back to Merrill, and if you get an assignment, cool, but if you don't, you go back to Carver. And we do that across the whole city. Almost like a leapfrog type thing, but we go back to the same spots.

Let me say personally, once again, as a resident, the visibility... of your staff is very important. Sometimes that can deter stuff ahead of time. It could be preventative. Somebody could be deciding to hang out, start some BS. They see you guys, they become intimidated or they say, oh, it's just not worth it. And then your staff does a good job with communicating with the people that they know aren't residents, are on a list. I don't know if you got a list, pictures or what. But some of the people they recognize because they go up to them and say, hey, we already talked to you about being here. And they'll say, oh, I could be wherever I want to be. This is, you know, so there's a confrontation. But they always leave, so that's good. I'm talking about things that need to be sustained. And what I'm talking about clearly is visibility, a patrol, not where you got a pattern. Because, you know, criminally minded people will check you out and they'll discern what your pattern is, whatever. But that has helped us. that I was in the court, I don't see as many issues repeating itself. You know how something happens over and over again. So I want to commend you for that, but maintain it.

Absolutely.

Maintain it. Consistency is important.

It is. And the captain is very strategic in what she does, and I allow that space to be defined by what her strategies are. We just discussed them, but they're already, most of the time, already in motion.

Right.

So almost the last to know. But the partnership with law enforcement, property management, and public safety is something that we're trying to, uh continue to grow and and ever ever shift and pivot when we have to but it's it's it's a 24 7 uh undertaking for sure madam chair i i thank you commissioner nelson and just one yes commissioner burrell

just want to say as a resident tomorrow residents they would be okay because we had to do it out there Westline is just like a little punishment for a minute because of the simple fact us as residents we all know who's violating their oh yes so what have you or whatever so you know you do wrong you got you do crime you got to pay the time so you know uh i'm not just taking up for the residents or what have you or whatever so it is what it is you know just don't feel so sorry for the residents or don't just you know have a pity party let them crawl you know you have to crawl before you walk It is what it is. Just do what you have to do. Simple as that.

Madam Chair. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Snyder.

Thank you. So today is a year that I've been on the board. And the April 14th meeting at Merrill was the most memorable event of my year of involvement. And that was very visceral. people were really angry. I noticed that there were a couple of people who were worried about retaliation. So I was gonna ask, first of all, did you get a chance to talk to the people who were the spokespeople at those meetings? I know you went to talk to the group, but did you go talk to the individuals as well? Because they were the squeaky wheels.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. And then there were others that we talked to as well. So when, and then when we, because we're over there so much, um, you develop part, you develop relationships with certain residents and they will tell you what's going on and so forth. So absolutely.

Um, uh, well, thank you, madam chair, madam chair.

If I can put back in the queue whenever you're done.

Okay, I just wanted to know how are we increasing presence per shift with children being out now? Of course, residents have an increased company. It's summertime, you know? Yes, yes. along the lines of what you're doing are we walking the uh... developments are we uh... it in addition to the driving in the monitoring of the cabin uh... cameras how are we partnering with mpd to really leverage their resources the good questions uh... the the most important is how are we how we position you know are resources in the best way to get the best bang in the book

We devised and we came up with a split type of shift starting. So say if we have 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift, and we have a 10 to 6 shift, a 2 to 10 shift, and then a 4 to midnight, and an 8 to 4 shift, So as much as we can stretch the limited resources that we have, we figured out ways to do that through shift times. So we have overlapping shifts. That was the first question. The second question. Are they walking? Yes. Absolutely. We have established in our record management system a checkpoint system for each building where our lieutenant went into every individual building and applied checkpoints in the hallways, corridors of every high-rise, mid-rise development. And even in our family developments, they're also strategically placed, parking lot, light poles, and things of that nature, so that our officers are going there, taking their phone, I was here. That's for every development that we have. We check it and we level set the expectations. That is an on-foot deployment. They do have to get out of their car. We're not riding around in cars. We're getting out walking and talking and being in developments like the captain said, they're establishing relationships. And I would like to see what the residents think about that. It's been three years now, right? So I think we're finally moving in that direction. We've changed the narrative of public safety for the housing authority city of Milwaukee.

Thank you. I'm sorry, go ahead.

We also meet with MPD. Our lieutenant has, we have partnered with every district and we meet with them and we go over, you know, we go over our reports and they go over their reports as well and then we kind of go back and forth and say, okay, we need somebody on 46 and Hope. We notice that Dr. Polisa tell us what they need from us and then we'll tell them what we need from them as well. because they also do patrols, particularly at Merrill Park as well. It's solely our responsibility, but they assist when they can because they have the whole city too to patrol. So sometimes they can't be there. When we can be there, they can't be there. But they also do their own patrolling at Merrill Park for sure as well. And I believe College Court as well. So we do have these standing meetings, Zoom meetings. And like I said, we exchange information. They let us know some things and we let them know some things as well.

Okay, and this pertains to more like West Lawn, Park Lawn, some of the other sites?

Yes, quarterly meetings with those districts, District 4, District 7, District 3, District 5, District 2. I don't think we set up with District 2 consistently. There have been a little change there, but the high hitters, absolutely. We have relationships with those districts. I have a relationship with the district leadership, and we do frequently talk. So it's not a relationship where we're hoping that there's some partnership. There's actually some partnership and we have those quarterly meetings as part of that cadence.

Thank you. Absolutely. Commissioner Moore.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Going back just really quick, Chief, the public safety checks, I think that's fascinating because they do it at City Hall. When I'm here late and folks are going around, they would take their phone, and one time I was like, what in the world? And then it was explained to me what they were doing, and I was like, That is actually pretty smart. How often are those checks done? Is it twice per shift, once per shift? Give me a cadence on how often those checks are done.

uh... sporadic uh... when the officers get uh... the opportunities the expectations are that it on the leadership staff checks on periodically but uh... again we're talking about resource management as well yet uh... it's it's been a perfect world every building be hit every day but yeah we don't have that uh... every reality yet so It's sporadic, but they're still doing it, and it's the expectations, and everybody knows, and it's in place. And in the event that our resource pool widens and we get more recs or whatever, then that'll look totally different. But we have to concentrate on where we know we need to concentrate on. But it is regulated through SOPs and what the expectations are. So it exists. I'll say sporadic.

And then last question that I have is in relation to vacant units. Are managers expected to view, not view, what's the word I'm looking for, monitor? Like if I know that I have 10 vacant units in my building? Is it a housing manager's responsibility to check it once a week? I don't know how that works, but if something is vacant, because this is not the only time that I've heard that other people have been living in vacant units. Where does a housing manager come in when we talk about vacant units? I don't know if that's a question. That's a question for somebody.

I'll answer.

Okay.

Thank you so much, Harold. The managers and maintenance should be around and monitoring the vacant units because they're on the site. We are breaking up... We're gonna put maintenance back on the sites and get rid of central maintenance. So there should be more eyes on the sites. That does not mean that somebody's not gonna get in a unit. No, no, no, not at all. And live there illegally. But it will help minimize it. It will help public safety take care of the issue.

and typically it would be public safety's responsibility if that is an instance, we would then reach out to public safety to address the eviction of that individual.

It's not an eviction because you have just recognized them as a tenant.

Correct.

Removal, removal, my bad. Removal of a person who's living there illegally. Yes, public safety, as they said, will work with the police department to do it.

And I just note, though, the incident that happened at Merrill, the information actually came from a resident that they were dealing drugs out of there.

Yep.

And there was evidence of, you know, some drug dealing out of there as well.

Thank you for that feedback.

So it's good to, you know, the residents are helping us, you know, do our jobs.

Yep.

Right.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. They saw something and said something.

That's it. We have a comment, question from Commissioner Snyder.

I forgot my question I was going to ask. There was talk about retaliation at the meeting on the 14th. Was there ever any evidence of that after we left the meeting?

No, not that I had became aware of.

Okay, I'm glad to hear that. I have a question, Chief. I think I probably know the answer, but there was reports that ICE was parking on county property.

Yes.

I think at the domes, a couple of other places. Has there been any conversation or any instance of ICE parking in our parking lots, especially on the south side?

Not that we have been made aware of, no.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Okay. If there are no other questions or comments, we thank you all for your continued services to HACM.

Thank you. Thank you.

And Harold, if you would like to proceed with your next item.

I will combine the two.

Okay.

Yes. Make it a little quicker. It's Hackam's Sustainability Periodic Plan Report and Hackam's Recovery Agreement for May 2026. And that will be given by Ken Barbeau for the last time.

Good afternoon, good evening. Ken Barbeau, Chief Operations Officer for Program Services. So on June 26th you have a copy of a letter that we got from HUD updating us on the status of the sustainability plan. At this time we got, there's a total of 24 major findings in the plan. And of the 24, this is a good news, bad news. Of the 24 findings, HUD has deemed 14 of them completed and closed. So 14 of the 24 are completed and closed. The bad news part of it is that the remaining 10 have not been completed and are currently past due. And there's reasons why, but I'll walk through the items so you kind of get a feeling for what the items are that are remaining. So the first one, I don't know if you're following on the letter, but the first one is in the governance 05, and what that is is a cost allocation plan. We have to develop and implement a cost allocation plan. And because We now have a new CFO, Chief Finance Officer. We have a draft cost allocation plan that was drafted for us by BDO. He is gonna be reviewing it and revising it. And so John Larson will be working on this over the next month or two. In the second one, Gov 07, that is developing an asset management report to the board. This is actually an example of one where we thought it was completed and HUD said, no, no, no. And so in this case, this had been done, it had been submitted to the board, the asset management plan, if you remember last October, I think it was, we went over it. But it did not meet a requirement that was in the detail of the HUD comment, which was for any properties that had failing HUD inspections, the report needs to include the status of repairs and or capital improvements necessary to improve the conditions of the property. We summarized the INSPIRE inspection results and summarized it by type of deficiency. We did not really go into the detail of the status of the repairs and so that will need to be added to the report and then it will pass. or I believe it will pass anyway, I can't speak for HUD. Management 02, HUD must decrease its tenant accounts receivable ratio to 2.5% for each property. I will be honest, this is a long-term goal because it's going to be really difficult to get our tenant accounts receivable down that far quickly. And so we're doing what we can in terms of repayment agreements, in terms of evictions, but 2.5% is quite a small number. And so we are working on it. But in any event, that's one that may be a little harder to get to. Finance 01, so again, you'll see a lot of these are financial and because we haven't had a CFO for a while. So these are in the process of getting looked at and taken care of by our new CFO. Finance 01 is complete performance evaluations for the financial accounting staff. We've had some turnover in the financial accounting staff as well recently, and so John Larson, our CFO, is working on getting to know the finance accounting staff and reviewing their performance, and at some point we'll get that more formalized so we can close that out. Finance 02, amend or develop financial policies and procedures. Again, we have a draft. We have always had a policies and procedures. HUD wanted us to review it to see what is missing, are we following everything, and to develop any revisions that are necessary. BDO did another crack at a draft, and it was on the policy side, not necessarily the procedures side. John Larson is gonna be reviewing that as well and will come up with a revision. Finance 05, is develop and submit a new cost allocation plan. If that sounds like we've just heard that, we did. This is a duplicate that HUD has twice, once in governance and once in finance because they felt it fell into both places. So when we do that, we'll close out two items. Physical 05, develop and implement an inventory control policy and system. We had started to do that We never got very far and we now are getting back, John Larson has contacted Yardi because we have to do some setup in Yardi to be able to set up the inventory system in accordance with how they have their system in Yardi. We then have to do the first shot at an equipment roster. So we have to take a real inventory and get that all into the system so we have an equipment roster. And then we need to develop quality control process to make sure this is updated regularly. And so those three items are a shared responsibility probably between the chief financial officer and the chief operations officer to work on because part of it will be done, the actual inventory will mostly be either at the sites or in the maintenance department. And so part of it falls under the COO and part of it will fall under the CFO because some of it is financial. So that is being worked on. I believe John Larson has had a conversation with Yardi to schedule them coming in to work on the setup of the system in the next month or two. The next one, physical 07, conduct required annual inspections of all public housing properties to identify and correct deficiencies prior to the next REAC inspections. We are undergoing REAC inspections in the next couple weeks. And actually this week we even had a few already. And so... We have not done all the annual inspections, which is why it still shows up as not completed. And so we have been working to try and get caught up, not only to do this year's inspections, but also to catch up for inspections we should have done for the prior year if a property failed, we needed to do 100% inspection of all the units. And so there were a couple properties that had a score that was a failing score that we had to do. Most of our properties passed but there were a couple that were failed. So those are ones that we're catching up on and we're I think almost caught up on those. but we also have to inspect all the public housing units. That's one of the requirements, and so we're working on it is what I can say, and I don't know exactly when, but hopefully between now and the end of the year, we'll be caught up on that one. The, The finding is that the current and future CFPs, capital fund plans, for those who need a reminder as to what a CFP is, the capital fund plans have to be updated to incorporate repairs and capital needs identified in the physical needs assessments. There are two things. We've had some staff who've left recently. And so this has not been completely done. We are hiring staff to take care of this and to work on the capital fund plan and to make sure that the needs that are identified in the physical needs assessments are incorporated to the extent we can. sometimes HUD had the feeling we were focusing in on some other things and not necessarily what was in the physical needs assessment so we need to do a better job on that and I believe once we get the staff working on it that will be done and John Larson is kind of heading that up working with the CO the new COO The second one, CFP02, capital fund and budget policies do not address required actions in ELOCs. We did put together a policy on how to do changes to the capital fund. However, the required actions in ELOCS is a very specific thing and it has to do with noting expenses and noting obligations. And as you know, that has been an issue. And so we need to have a few sections that are more detailed in the plan to address some of those items in our policy. Those are the items that are still outstanding and past due. With that, so again, good thing we've got a couple more that are done. The bad news is we have a few more to be done. We are past due and so with that I'll take questions. Okay.

All right, do we have any other questions or comments as it relates to Ken's report? All right. Commissioner Yepes-Classen.

Ken, thank you for breaking down the items that are passed to. I'll check again with what was submitted electronically, but the two governance items are missing from here that are passed to. But did the HUD office give us a timeline of when we have to complete all of these? Is there an extension that was provided?

We already had had an extension, so we are beyond the extension. So we will be getting no more extensions. We are past due and need to get them done as soon as possible, which... may vary by which item it is.

And are we submitting then whenever we complete? We're submitting information on an ongoing basis as each item is completed, or are we waiting until all of them are complete to submit?

No. For example, recently I've submitted information about what BDO has given us and things, but that's not final, and so to HUD, that's still an open item until it is finalized.

Commissioner Snyder. Thank you, Madam Chair.

One thing I would add, again, Commissioner you pass classes question Under each finding there are several actions that have to be taken And in some cases we may have closed out three of the actions and completed three of the actions But the fourth one is the one that's open in that case HUD holds the whole finding Open until it's closed until the whole thing is cool under each like individual finding where you have it broken down.

I

right if you look on the on the page you'll see a number of cases where in the breakdown there might be three things in green and one in red that is the one in red is the one that's uh open and the one in ones in green are closed

Thank you. Commissioner Snyder.

Yeah, I was trying to read between the lines of the various findings, the closed ones and the ones that were still open. And I was waiting to hear, is there an inventory list of all of our property? Is that something that HUD was interested in? Or we had it, we didn't have it, do we have it now? And every one of those... properties has a lot of equipment in it. I mean, even paper is an asset. So I was curious about that.

As part of the policy, we would probably be doing a procedure where we would, we're not gonna be counting every paperclip probably. However, Excuse me. However, we will, we used to have an inventory a long time ago when I started with the Housing Authority. At some point, they went away from an inventory system because it wasn't being kept up or wasn't working right and did not incorporate it, thank you, did not incorporate it again. So we need, HUD requests, thank you. said you're a big enough size that you really need to have an inventory system and so this is our case to do that. A, it's to make sure that you know what you have and it's also to make sure that things aren't walking. Things are not walking. So there are a couple different reasons. And it's useful from an accounting standpoint as well to make sure that when property is used, when something is used, that it's charged to the appropriate property and funding source.

Madam Chair?

Yes, you still have the floor.

Oh, thank you. Was that a HUD finding, either back in the day or recently, that there was... We either didn't know or didn't report property that we owned.

Well, it had to have been somewhat of a finding to end up in the sustainability plan. I don't know that there was an official finding on it, however. And I don't believe it was ever noted as such by our auditors in the past. But HUD has identified it.

Madam Chair, that's what I meant by trying to read between the lines of the titles of the findings are not always as explicit. Maybe Karen knows, but Howard doesn't.

Madam Chair?

Yes, Commissioner Moore.

Just along those lines in regards to the property, will that go across the board to maintenance? Because there was some conversation some time ago that stuff just walked away and just disappeared. Will that same sentiments be moved, especially if maintenance is coming back to the property? Will there be some sort of inventory system for supplies there?

Yes, in fact, that'll be one of the major systems. I mean, that's, I think, where the most value is. But whether maintenance is on the property site or maintenance is centralized, either way, they're both gonna be included in the inventory system. Perfect. And it will also include not just public housing because this finding specifically addresses public housing. It will be across the board to our properties.

And Ken, the sort of system that we would use to, you know, is there something that is specifically for public housing or do we have to purchase a system in order to track those sort of high-end items or just items?

We did procure the inventory system that Yardi has. Okay. It's a module within Yardi, and so that's what we'll be using because Yardi is, we have our finances there, we have our housing data there. Sure. It's the natural place for it because it's all incorporated. Perfect. Thank you.

Madam Chair? Commissioner Snyder. Thank you.

Maybe this is for Mr. Ince. Would the record keeping, the dissemination of information to us, would that be under the auspices of the COO or the CFO or neither? Great question.

What information? Most of the stuff comes from the executive office to the board through Patty and her staff. That's the way it would come.

Is there something in particular you're asking?

No, I was just wondering if, because it could be a CFO function or it could be a COO function or it could be neither.

It will come to me and then it would be disseminated to the board.

Okay, fair enough. Okay. Thank you. All right. Are there any other questions or comments as it relates? Okay. There being none,

We have one more thing. Patricia Dee will be closing out the Executive Search Committee.

Yes, Chair and I just wanted to have just a quick note on the record. So at the September 10th, 2025 Hackam board meeting, the commissioners approved resolution R13635, creating an executive search committee, incorporating board and subject matter experts from outside Hackam who embarked on a comprehensive search for the next secretary executive director. The resolution resolved that the board established a temporary committee that shall meet from time to time as determined at the call of the board chairperson. Oh, Ken, you don't have to get out. Just stay right there. of the board chairperson until such time as the permanent secretary executive director is approved by the board so with that language in place the chair and city attorney agree that no formal action is required to officially end the work of the committee so there's no action that the board needs to take but we did want to have the discussion just to note that and with the hiring of mr ince that the work of the executive search committee has concluded and so the committee is now disbanded but the staff would like to thank the members of the committee for their diligent, detailed, and dedicated work. Their extensive time and expertise resulted in a candidate for HECM that they can be very proud of. The members of the Executive Search Committee were HECM Board Chair Charlotte Hazlett, Hackam Vice Chair Karen Gotzler, Hackam Resident Leader, and in the audience tonight, Betty Newton, and community members Michelle Bryant and Pastor Willie Davis. Thanks also go out to the members of the public, partners, and public officials who participated and provided their feedback throughout the process, both about the course of the committee's actions and about the candidates themselves. That feedback was valuable to the committee's actions and informed their considerations of the candidates. So we just wanted to make an official, put it to bed.

Yes. And on behalf, official behalf of the Board of Commissioners, thank you for your professionalism, your thoughtful leadership, as well as your unwavering commitment to the mission of Hackam and the residents we serve. It has truly been an honor to work alongside of each of you. So if I could just have my fellow commissioners to join me in giving the Executive Search Committee a well-deserved round of applause.

Yes.

Let's go. Madam Chair. Yes. Vice Chair Gatzler. Can we send them something in writing? Yes. The other members that were not you and I? Yes. That's underway. They did an immense amount of work. Yes. Immense. And I think unless you were part of it, you don't even know how many hours were spent and all the research that had to be done and everything. I must say, I think we couldn't have done any better than we did because we have Harold Ince Jr. as our CEO. Absolutely. So I want to be sure. And they were very much a part of the deliberations. Absolutely. And we counted very much on their input. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for that comment. Is there anything else before we move to the next item from our commissioners? All right. I'll turn it back over to you, Patty.

Item number four is a resolution commending Mr. Canbarbo for 27 years of dedicated service to the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee. I'm going to read the resolution, and then I think we'll proceed from there. Whereas Ken Barbeau is scheduled to retire on July 10th, 2026 from the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee after 27 years of service to Hackam's residents, voucher recipients, and the people in neighborhoods throughout the City of Milwaukee. And whereas Mr. Barbeau has served the Housing Authority and its residents in a number of roles, most recently as the Interim Secretary Executive Director unanimously appointed by this body in January 2025. Tackling the role as HACM faced the challenge of being named a troubled performer by HUD, providing a long-serving and informed hand at the rudder of the organization as he shepherded HACM's comprehensive turnaround effort to restore public trust, stabilize operations, and chart a new path forward to ensure continued services for more than 10,000 Milwaukee families, seniors, and adults with disabilities. And whereas, Mr. Barbeau's interim service allowed the Board of Commissioners and its Executive Search Committee time for a thorough and transparent recruitment process, resulting in Harold S. Enns Jr. succeeding him in the role of Secretary Executive Director. And whereas, Mr. Barbeau's service prior to being named Interim Secretary Executive Director included titles such as Economic Development and Supportive Services Manager, Director of Community Programs and Services, and most recently as the Chief Operations Officer of Program Services, where he led Hackam's mission to enhance and improve the lives of Hackam residents by providing quality supportive services, including education, employment, healthcare, youth development, senior services, and financial literacy programs. partnering with dozens of non-profits, and advocating for services and programs to enhance the lives of residents and Milwaukeeans. And whereas, Mr. Barbeau's expertise was also utilized by HACM as one of its organization's grant writers. During a time in which the organization received over $500 million in financing, which provided for new and improved housing, and additional resident services the impact of which would affect residents lives in ways big and small and ripple outward expanding throughout milwaukee and beyond and whereas mister barbos leadership defined by humility clarity and an unwavering commitment to doing what is right for the people have concerns leaves a multitude of warm memories amongst a cam staff as he never refused to request was the staff conquered the largest of projects and was expertly able to take in verbose technical jargon and quickly assess the correct and complete actions required among so many other abilities that will be greatly missed. Whereas Mr. Barbeau is a shining example of a servant leader whose principle strives to ensure that all people feel both heard and empowered, forges collaborative solutions between diverse stakeholders, and earns respect through hard work, consistency, and a deep moral compass. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee that Mr. Kimbarbo be and is hereby thanked and commended for his 27 years of dedicated service to improving the lives of citizens of Milwaukee, including public housing residents, voucher recipients, and other low-income families. and be it further resolved that best wishes of the board and staff be extended to Mr. Kim Barbeau for a long and fulfilling retirement.

All right, I guess I will stay standing because we have something to present officially. We have the outstanding service plaque here for Kenneth G. Barbeau. The Housing Authority Board of Commissioners and staff gratefully acknowledge your many contributions to the Housing Authority and its residents in over 27 years of service. dated July 8th, 2026, signed by myself, Charlotte Hazlett, as well as our Secretary Executive Director, Harold Ence Jr. Thank you.

we're going to do that yeah we're going to do that hold on one second right present the problem pictures we'll be doing a group photo by the way with the rest of us we can do it yeah yeah yeah We'll do it after. Talisa, we'll do it after we close so it's more professional.

That was a beautiful interruption.

Madam Chair, I move the adoption of the resolution.

Wonderful. Would someone like to second?

I'll give it to Jackie.

Is there a third? No, I'm just kidding. Unanimous. Wonderful. Wonderful. Can we get a roll call, please?

Commissioner Nelson. Aye. Commissioner Pesklassen. Aye. Chair Hazlitt. Aye. Vice Chair Gotsler.

Aye.

commissioner burrow aye commissioner snyder aye commissioner moore a resounding eye okay wonderful i'm very happy so um at this yeah that's it right i don't have it in front of me okay Well, oh my gosh, it's so bittersweet. This is your last meeting. I know. It's hard.

Unless you come back from one of our public. Unless I come and visit. I could come and do a public listening session.

Yes. I expect to see your name on the list. But on behalf of the Board of Commissioners, I mean, it's bittersweet. We've been through a lot, Ken, in this year and a half we've been serving as a board. Feels like more than that.

And you also invited to the resident council meeting that was on.

And didn't we think it was only going to be for a few months? Wasn't it? Originally? Yes.

Yes. Some people said six. I said, well, more likely nine.

Yes. But, I mean, we cannot thank you enough for the countless hours, the sleepless nights. I mean, you have been such a force throughout this time. phase of the organization and i mean we we cannot thank you enough for what you've done for the agency for over twenty seven years you did not hesitate when black place the call and on behalf of the commission to say hey can you so thank you for answering the call and and just not backing down and and during these tumultuous moments as you could see we we are moving the needle in the right direction your commitment to the organization continues to show throughout the work as well as the people so on behalf of this commission we thank you thank you thank you and we look this this is a see you later this isn't a goodbye it's we have you on speed dial but no But thank you so much, Mr. Ken Barbo for your 27 years of service to the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee.

Thank you so much. I wanna thank the board and the executive staff for those kind words in the resolution and for the kind words today. I'm very honored. I feel, while I feel a little, You know, I will miss the work. It's a right time because we have a good board in place with a lot of good people and good talent. We have a great executive leadership team that is now, you know, has a full three person compliment and I feel really good about retiring and leaving those sleepless nights to someone else for a while. And over the years, I've been surrounded by a lot of talented coworkers who have helped to make this a successful organization. And a lot of those coworkers I have considered mentors as well. And I also am gonna miss a lot of the residents that I've gotten to know over the 27 years and will miss them as well. So... With that, you know, I'm honored to have served the mission of this organization because I really believe that the mission of this organization is a great one and we've accomplished great things over the last 27 and a half years and more since 1944. And serving 11,000 families and keeping them housed and stable in housing is an important work. So thank you all.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

You're going to miss me, right, Ken?

I'm going to miss each and every one of you. I said me, Ken.

I said me, Ken. And you especially.

I may show up at your door to see how things are going every now and then and your meetings.

You're more than welcome.

Okay. We are moving to adjourn this meeting or moving forward to adjourn. Is there a motion? So moved. All right. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor, can we signify by saying aye? Aye. Are there any opposed? Say no. Any abstentions? All right. The ayes have it. We are adjourned.