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HRA Meeting Minutes – Tuesday, January 20, 2015 Page 3 1 Discussion included comparisons from 2014 to 2015 based on COLA and step increases as 2 outlined and approved by the City Council for City employees; and recent reductions in those 3 costs based on realignment of job duties and better tracking of actual responsibilities. 4 As a newly appointed member of the HRA, Member Wall sought clarification of several areas 5 of the contract, including the relationship of City staff and the Executive Director in their role 6 as City employees and negotiations of those contracts on behalf of the HRA; how 7 compensation was established; and evaluation of performance of staff. Member Wall stated 8 that his concern was that HRA responsibilities be clearly defined and understood to ensure tax 9 dollars are spent wisely. 10 11 Community Development Director Bilotta responded as to the process and role of the 12 employees and roles played by both positions, along with some administrative tasks that 13 overlapped (e.g. code enforcement) and were not historically tracked. 14 15 As a member of the HRA Finance Subcommittee, Member Masche briefly reviewed the 16 evolution of the Executive Director’s position as negotiated within the last two years as former 17 Community Development Director/HRA Executive Director Patrick Trudgeon moved into the 18 City Manager’s position, and Ms. Kelsey’s job description went from HRA Housing Manager 19 to Acting and then regular Executive Director. As part of those negotiations, Member Masche 20 noted that budget implications for a full-time person were discussed; and noted Ms. Kelsey’s 21 pay schedule and/or duties could be reviewed at any time. Member Masche noted that the 22 HRA budget had been reduced with Ms. Kelsey’s role as Executive Director and revised job 23 description incorporating Housing Management duties, reducing administrative costs overall. 24 25 Member Wall noted another concern was that not all contracts for services had conflict of 26 interest clauses, and sought consistency for all of them before approval. 27 28 Ms. Kelsey clarified that she was not an employee of the City, only the HRA, and only the 29 Administrative Assistant position was a City employee, sharing the role between City duties 30 for the Community Development Department and HRA as determined. Ms. Kelsey spoke in 31 support of adding a conflict of interest clause to contracts if the HRA determined to have their 32 attorney do so, and subsequent approval by the City Attorney, then bring them back for future 33 approval by the HRA. Ms. Kelsey advised that the contracts had initially been negotiated and 34 brought up-to-date by a previous City Attorney, and therefore, she would recommend 35 consulting the current City Attorney for any other possible items before ultimate approval. 36 37 Regarding how time is allotted and budgets defined, Community Development Director Bilotta 38 suggested that an appropriate time to negotiate it would be at joint meetings of the City 39 Council and HRA to clarify the things each party wanted accounted for and directly tracked. 40 41 HRA Attorney Martha Ingram, Kennedy & Graven 42 Ms. Ingram addressed simply the rationale for not including a “No Conflict of Interest” clause 43 for Administrative Staff and the HRA Executive Director was that Ms. Kelsey acted solely on 44 behalf of the HRA in all of her duties and contacts, with everything approved by the HRA, 45 with her not being able to do anything unilaterally. If anything was found to be in conflict 46 with the City, Ms. Ingram stated that the HRA could simply not approve anything Ms. Kelsey 47 proposed, as she was tasked to represent the HRA in all matters. 48 49 At the request of Chair Maschka, Ms. Ingram advised that each HRA was run according to 50 statutory rules, and their own specific by-laws and enabling resolutions under State Statute. 51 Ms. Ingram advised that some HRA’s have their actions approved by the City Council, while 52 others per their by-laws; but reiterated that the Executive Director’s authority did not exist 53 other than to represent the HRA. 54