Present:

Graham(minutes), Paul, Cory, Kate, Josh, Logan, Phoenix, Bernard, Leah, McAllen, Chinhae, Cayla, Eskae, 2 new people, Philip, Karen, Jill, Russ

2 new people

Minutes pass

Cory: board found accommodations sheet

Josh: 2 elections are contested, grab a ballot and vote by 1p.m. tomorrow if you haven’t voted yet

(kate) There are two budget options up for a vote. The first would entail a thirty dollar rent increase, and would not include officer stipends. The second would entail a fifty dollar rent increase, and includes officer stipends. Both budgets include a reduced food budget and rollover maintenance funds from NASCO. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wFXspXG-YXLzxwZ_7pmEY85aoJNmccF296HJZKRMNRw/edit

Josh: reads agenda item

Kate: explains 2 budget options. Has reduced trash pickup to twice a week, reduced “special project budget. Reduced for buyer budget to $400. Officer stipends is the main difference between options. Stipends were supposed to make officer positions more appealing. We used to not have them, so there’s that.

Logan have we heard from naaco about maintenance reset. Kate says naaco has a set amount they can reimburse. They also have a pool that is shared by all properties for special circumstances. Maintenance reset will have more staff hours for Daniel to do maintenance here. We should be able to take care of stuff on our own once we get maintenance stabilized.

Paul: we should look at past years budgets to compare with current. Kate has previous years’ budget if people want to see them.

Cory: we spend the same amount on maintenance, but plan on getting reimbursed more.

Bernard: is it $30/$50 per unit or room? Kate says it is per room not lease.

Bernard: so the rent increase would go to paying stipends? Kate says yes.

Leah: The budget appears to have $800 more per month, $500 is going to stipends, what is the other $300 going to?

Cory: it is because we were paying more to officer stipends than we budgeted, that has been corrected

Leah: asks where excess money is going exactly

Kate: says it mostly to paying expenses.

Kate: most people don’t do officer job for stipend. If all the officers are fine with not having stipends

Leah: asks if officers are thinking of leaving, most of them say no.

Cory: as steward, didn’t see stipends as a good motivator to get people

Josh: thinks removing stipend is a bad idea, thinks a stipend is a good thing to get people to do jobs. Its a band-aid like using maintenance funds.

Logan: it seems like stipend is a temporary thing, once we get in good standing it could end

Kate: when doing budget stipends were a big part of budget. Talked to Paul who mentioned removing them. More rent increases are coming and this is needed. May have more budget options in future, but things were dire when this budget was created

Eskae: loves to see people run for positions, its a responsibility, is willing to help in any way.

Cayla: coop values labor at $15 an hour, this is on top of that

Josh: this is a poverty focused coop, we keep choosing this way

Logan: as someone on a fixed income, if rent increases she may not be able to live here, but coop still has to pay for stuff.

Kate: a bunch of people leaving is a huge exodus of knowledge, new people have to relearn everything, would be against our mission statement, would be as bad as officer exodus. Other coops around here are higher rent. Rent increase would change culture.

Cory: Board members are not supposed to have stipends so that will be taken away. Its not really fair to give stipends to some but not others. Will have to raise rent again in a few months.

Bernard: we are way past when a budget should have happened, why not wait until next increase and do it all at the same time:

Kate: our lease payment has increased, we have very little extra money. We can pay lease and bills but not anything else

Cory: what we owe to nasco went up in may of last year, board did not budget until several months later. We were already paying lease out of reserve.

Bernard: would like a better understanding of what future rent increase will look like

Kate: we will know more once nasco gets their numbers to board.

Cayla: extra expenses were for accountants on ctap program, that will go away. Barrack tried to buy out trailer park, didn’t work out.

Cory: board is looking at cost cutting measures for future

Cory: straw pole
$30 increase, no stipends: most people
$50 increase, leave stipend: a few people
We will get back to people with exact procedure in lease.

Paul reads contract stating we have to give 30 day notice for rent increase

Kate: rent increase will probably begin in march, and we will vote on a new budget in June.

(kate) Discuss replacing or repairing washers

Kate: budgeted for having washer income. We will discuss repair or replace.

Cory this can be discussed at maintenance meeting Wednesday at 7:00

(Cayla) Removal of officer stipens for board rep as it is not allowed by the CHEA Bylaws

Cayla: I may need to pay all the stipend back, and people may need to decide that

Cory: the board will probably have to decide stuff like that

Cory: does the house thing she should pay it back? People say no. If the board feels money should be paid they will say so.

Cory: We can vote on removing officer stipend for board rep immediately.

Cory does pole to vote on stipend removal
Vote passes