Regular Meeting -- May 21, 2023
The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 2:30 pm via Zoom. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting by Zoom: President Kathy Lee, Vice President Kim Pillsbury, Treasurer Penny Chambers, Secretary John McGarey, Oceanna Latham. Executive Director Robert McGarey was also present at the meeting.
The Mission Statement was read aloud at the beginning of the meeting. The board read the March 19 meetings minutes and they were approved.
Squatter. The board wants the squatter gone because he is a toxic wrecking ball. As an organization we have been hit hard and are damaged.Ê We are trying to staunch the hemmorage and then eventually heal.
The squatter has been working on our property for a long time but has now deceived the police and exercised squatters rights and will not leave, meaning we cannot rent to Crystal who has been counting on this residence.Ê It is deeply troubling for the entire community and the police have come out a number of times but they were not able to solve the problem.Ê Sammm and Lia have taken on much of the burden for this since Bob was gone when the worst conflicts happened.Ê The eviction process was begun by Bob with Earls help as soon as he got back from Phoenix with the papers being filed on the 13th of May with the court date being set by the 30th.
The squatter refused to do a 15 minute job that we paid him for for a full week and had already worn Bob's patience thin so he was fired for that.Ê The squatter had broken in through the upstairs window while the stairs were broken and being repaired so no one else could go up there and claimed to the police that he lived there.
Sammm in particular has had a hard time through this and the board thanked her.Ê Lia and Tim were also thanked by the board.Ê There were yelling sessions which were difficult to deal with.Ê Sammm wanted to protect the center so she volunteered to help.Ê We had a criminal trespass order to keep him out however it did not apply due to a technicality.
We paid the squatter a lot to refinish the wooden floor up there and he never did that nor did he finish the final plumbing job that we paid him to do.Ê We paid him slightly in advance of him finishing the job and he never finished it.Ê He also spent $5000 of our money at Home Depot possibly much of it for himself.Ê
The board considered suing him to attempt to recoup the rental losses he has created for us but decided since we believe he has no money to speak of and that would just take our time and money to pursue this would not be valuable enough.
GoodwheelChairs employee. David Blackwell was ready to get into a fistfight with the squatter to protect the center.Ê GoodWheelchairs was not accessible (because of thet squatter) to get to for David to help working on that so there were unfortunately no sales.Ê David was angry and emotional and angry at Bob and the squatter for some of the spray they used on the garage apartment. Unfortunately he kept escalating, which made Lia more uncomfortable about him being there than the squatter.Ê He was so intimidating that Bob fired him and he left.Ê Bob reported that he brought a chaotic energy to the center so it is a relief that he is gone. There was a problem with David's truck as well and it had to be towed. Ê
Tenants. One of our tenants is behind on his rent by a whole month.Ê He lost a lot of his customers suddenly and has been looking for a job.Ê Bob gave him a grace period of 1 month and he has several times used that grace period and caught up.Ê The board talked about shortening his grace period but Bob likes it where it is right now.Ê Kathy has worked with him before and did not have a good feeling about how aggressively he is searching for a job but we don't have any impression that he is trying to scam us. Ê
Possibly we could pay him for cleaning.Ê He is also not vaccinated. Ê Bob will tell him that the board has expressed concerns about the arrangement and they will consider hiring him for doing work.Ê The board also spoke about writing a contract for him to schedule him to catch up on rent over the span of four months . Ê
Additional Help. The board spoke more about the concern we had about Tim squatting in the garage apartment.Ê We don't suspect he will try to squat but it is very important to the Board that he does not stay especially after the current squatter leaves.Ê The board discussed doing an eviction notice now for Tim just to cover things now to make sure.Ê We discussed drawing up as official letter stating he is not living here.ÊHe has done a good job and is on good terms with Sammm. Ê
Kathy is going to investigate squatters rights and whether Tim actually has squatters rights.Ê Regardless the board decided for Bob to speak with Tim and probably send eviction notice. Tim was largely involved in restoring access to the apartment by rebuilding the stairs so access to the apartment has been re-established.Ê Tim is homeless as well and is staying in the garage apartment with the squatter but the board doesn't believe he will squat based on their analysis of his personality. Ê
Tim has taken over as goodwheelchairs manager.Ê Tim and Sammm sold one chair while Bob was gone.Ê We think he will be better than David was on the phone with customers.Ê Tim may not be the right choice long term but he is doing it for now. Ê
financials. Due to paying repairs and paying the squatter and for various other reasons we were at $67,000 in the bank at the last meeting and now we are at around $30,000 although we did receive a $10,000 check so we probably have $40,000 of assets but are confused about exactly where the other $37,000 went. ÊThe HPC did get paid by Crystal $3000 deposit for rent but also refunded her the money. The Board anticipated him being done by March 1 and planned for Crystal to move in that day, so we have lost her deposit plus March, April, and May's rent. Ê
The 990T forms are done for Bingo and the Bingo tax was paid by May 15.
The board doesn't have financial information since Sammm has been preoccupied by the squatter invasion. Ê
The board wondered how we find out where the other $37,000 go?Ê We are not able to account for where this went because of all of the damage we are trying to deal with otherwise due to the squatter.Ê Once we stop the hemorrhaging from that we may be able to heal.
Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at around 4:30 pm.
Minutes submitted by John McGarey, Secretary, May 21, 2023.
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Executive Director Presid