Present: Cory, Kate, Bernard, Angelia, Jeb, Russ (facilitator), Reyna, Tif, Paul (minutes), Chinhae, Jennifer, Joy, Natalie, Dwain, Graham, Richard, Jill, Ivy, Serenity, Quinn, Lorenzo, Leah, Diane, Venus, Colby, David Houke (social worker for Dwain)

Robert C. (first meeting), Brad P. (first meeting)

Minutes approved.

Nominations for Steward are up on the commons door.

There’s going to be a maintenance meeting on Thursday.

(Steward) Officer Reports

Quinn, food buyer: Sorry I’ve missed other officer reports. I’m still maintaining the kitchen and doing shopping, but it’s light shopping, since less is getting used from the commons kitchen now.

Bernard, kitchen manager: I did a deep clean on the commons. DCU and kitchen cooks aren’t doing anything. They’ll have an opportunity to do more cleaning, then there will be no-shows. People need to clean dishes and throw out the trash in the commons.

Colby, events: Halloween’s comin’ up!! Are you excited? There’ll be food, and drinks, and a giant rainbow skeleton. Thanks for coming out to the birthday party yesterday!

Serenity for Ivy, board: Co-opportunity Fair is happening Oct 22nd at Dadalabs. We need volunteers from both houses. Look at the email.

Serenity, maintenance: We caught 25 rats in a single unit. Gilberto has been filling our holes. We’ll be doing bi-weekly maintenance meetings going forward, so the 2nd and the 16th of next month. Please come if you’d like to be on maintenance or help out.

Leah, board: David our operations manager will be reducing his hours to focus on his new consulting business. He’d like to specifically be available Monday and Thursday, so it might take a few days for him to respond. This is a trial thing. Please talk to me if you have any concerns.

Kate, treasurer: We’ve paid NASCO $100,000 of the money we owe them. There’s another $60,000 or so - we’re still figuring out maintenance spending & vacancy reserve funding for both houses. We set up an account for ordering food, and I’d like to connect the food buyer to that account. We might need to get a chargeback from the dryer repair company, and that’s on my todo list as well.

Richard, labor: I’ve been working to get my robot up and running. It will generate labor charts for us, and already is. It’s given me a good view of everything, but some people are under-allocated hours so I need to fix that. I was thinking about starting no-sign no-shows again in November - that’s automatic no-shows of people who don’t sign for their labors, with of course an open-contact policy for members to tell me they did actually do their labors.

Reyna, membership: Jeb is our new member. Ya’ll are caught up on the Dwain issues.

Tif, bookkeeper: We have 5 people on payment plans.

(Corey, Bernard, Reyna) Member Review of Dwain Fuller for:

• Failure to maintain a reasonably clean and sanitary living space.
• Failure to routinely clean up pet waste.
• Frequently smoking cigarettes within the unit.

The above reasons have often created an unsafe and unhealthy living environment and thus prevented the co-op from renting out that space to any prospective members.

(We discuss this agenda item first.)

Dwain: This all happened when I lost my insurance. This happened in a two-month timeframe.

Cory: This has been a problem for longer than that.

Dwain: The smoking, yes-

Cory: Other problems too.

Cory: One ground rule I want to establish: please don’t assume what other people are capable or not capable of.

Russ: Normally we allow review signers to talk about the issues raised and give the person reviewed a chance to respond.

Bernard: We’re not trying to persecute anyone. We’re not able to rent out the second room in Dwain’s apartment. There’s heavy smoking in that unit. We have people who want to move in and go inside and say “absolutely not,” because of the conditions and the smoke. Not smoking in the units is part of our rules. We’re taking a financial loss because we can’t rent that room out.

Dwain: The past three days I’ve been outside the house more. I haven’t been smoking in the house. I vape inside - that’s a nicotine product. The unit wasn’t painted when I moved in.

Reyna: As membership coordinator, I can very much verify that people have been interested in the space and refused to once they saw the condition. One of them was unhoused and refused to live in the space.

Clarifying question (CQ): How long have people been passing on this space? Reyna: About a year and a half, pretty much the entire time I’ve been MemCo.

Point of information (POI): He can’t afford the whole unit.

Dwain: I got puppy pads down for her to urinate on. We cleaned up the rat feces. The smell is completely different now.

CQ: What is the evidence for these complaints, and when did they happen?

Kate: I’ve been going there regularly and cleaning a few times a week. As of 3-5 days ago, he was still smoking. The dog misses the pads a lot. That’s what I’ve observed. Evidence of the previous instances have been all the prospective members who rejected living there.

Cory: Our Steward sent out an email about a month ago worrying about how bad the conditions were there and asking for volunteers to help clean it up. That’s also evidence.

Bernard: I love Dwain, he’s my neighbor, but his smoking seeps through the outlets and walls into my unit. People who come over to my place can notice it. It’s in bad shape. There’s a lot that needs work done on it.

Dwain: It’s hard to do with a broken hip.

Frog: Tracey, Dwain’s son, said he was open to living here as a non-member and caretaker for Dwain.

POI: We’d need more information on non-member living and timelines.

David: Hey, I’m Dwain’s social worker. Is smoking allowed in the units?

POI: It is not allowed.

David: Is there money for maintenance repairs and fixes? POI: Yes.

POI: The Steward email wasn’t panicking, it was asking for help.

POI: My unit has been in bad shape in the past, and it’s gotten better through our work and the work of other co-opers. I don’t think this is intentional on Dwain’s part. The smoking we can deal with - he’s aware of it as a problem.

Lorenzo: There are other units that have animal poop in them. It happens. She’s an elder dog. People should give some leeway.

Beryl, maintenance: We’ve had to kill at least 20 rats in Dwain’s apartment. The holes have been patched multiple times and they’ve chewed new ones.

POI: A bunch of these issues came up before the rats or the last 3 days or the last 2 months. They’re ongoing problems.

Bernard: It’s the cleanliness of the apartment and the smoke, that’s the problem. We have to maintain our budget and we do that by keeping our rooms filled. No one wants to live there, because the conditions are bad.

David: Dwain is aware of the problem. If we can be specific about what is required, I can help get him resources for those things. We’re in the process of getting his benefits reinstated; we identified the problem and re-filed. We have a volunteer coming out once a week - not enough, but it’s a start.

(Someone offers specific avenues for relief.)

POI: Dwain communicated to me that “not routinely cleaning up pet waste” is not accurate, because he was cleaning up pet waste but his dog makes it faster. What are the specific actions he needs to take?

POI: The pet pads are not often replaced or changed. That’s not happening, or it’s falling on unpaid volunteers, who also can’t be doing it reliably 100% of the time.

POI: We’ve talked about moving Dwain’s son in to serve as a caretaker. We’ve talked about moving Dwain into the commons library space, because it’s smaller and easier to clean, but we’d have to foster his dog out somewhere.

Reyna: I think the smoke is the major deal-breaker for potential members who would otherwise be interested in the space.

CQ: It’s the smoke, it’s the pet waste - is there anything else specific to this unit that needs to be addressed?

Dwain’s closing thoughts: Not many people come to check on me. I’m trying my best. I’ve been smoking for 53 years. I used to have 6 hours a day from a daily caretaker, and I lost that.

Cory: No one here wants to kick Dwain out, we just need to figure out how to resolve this problem, because it affects him and it affects all of us.

(We ask Dwain to leave so we can discuss the next steps.)

Serenity, maintenance: He seems committed to not smoking in the unit. He’s bought vapes. Maintenance is prepared to paint the space. We can get new paint and use vinegar tricks to get the smoke smell out.

POI: Painting the unit needs to happen regardless.

Quinn: I’d advocate for a behavior contract with “no cigarette smoking in the unit” in perpetuity and that his pet waste problem be well-managed when he gets a full caretaker again.

Cory: I want to suggest that in 90 days we’re not going to permit Dwain to lease a single room - he’d have to rent out the whole unit, with the condition that he can sublet to a family member or caretaker - someone who is not a member, who does not have co-op labor or abilities, but helps Dwain cover the rent for the whole unit.

CQ: Is that something that’s been discussed with Dwain?

POI: The Steward has talked about this with Dwain and his son, who seems up for it, but they don’t have all the details.

POI: The idea of bespoke contracts makes me nervous. I’m not sure his son is a reliable partner.

Richard: We have three options: do nothing, create a behavioral contract (technically an “eviction hold-off agreement”), or ask him to leave the community (end of contract, a notice to vacate). In the straw poll you can vote for any or all of the three, and we’ll discuss the plurality winner first.

CQ: Would we be requiring Dwain to change lease as part of a behavioral contract, or do-nothing while making separate arrangements about his lease?

POI: I think we can add options in the behavioral contract.

(We straw poll. Behavioral contract wins.)

POI: I’m not sure how we would define a requirement to sign a new lease.

Cory: Yeah, I thought he was month-to-month, not with a contract expiring in almost a year.

CQ: Do we feel like adding a rule not to smoke in the unit is enough about that?

POI: I think it should be there. The smoking inside absolutely has to stop.

POI: I’m concerned about the potential subletting.

POI: If there is a need for an accommodation for someone who lives here, it is unreasonable to require that their live-in caretaker be a co-op member.

POI: Do we want this special sublet lease to be decided by the house or deferred to the membership coordinator?

Cory: I don’t think we need to get into the details when it hasn’t been requested yet. I’ll look into subletting language.

Behavioral contract stipulations:

In the interest of maintaining a safe and healthy living space, Dwain will agree to,
1. Absolutely no smoking tobacco in the unit. Approved
2. To the best of your ability, ensure pet waste is routinely and entirely removed from the unit. Approved
If requested as an accommodation, the cooperative approves Dwain to sign for a whole unit and sublet out a room for a caretaker or family member. Approved

Behavioral contract approved unanimously.

No new business.