By Carol Britton Meyer

During what Chair Bartley Kelly referred to as “the quickest meeting we’ve had in a long time” – 20 minutes – the Hull Redevelopment Authority on Monday heard a brief update on a townwide survey on uses of the HRA property and released minutes outlining the alleged default of its parking contractor.

The HRA voted to release minutes from executive sessions on July 28, August 4, and August 18 regarding the lease of the authority’s parking lots. During these closed-door meetings, the legality of which The Hull Times challenged through an Open Meeting Law complaint, the authority declared Dunn Rite Parking in default of its lease agreement. The authority charged that the vendor was “not abiding by the contract” by taking cash payments, not reporting sales data to the HRA, and failing to make the lease payment due on August 1.

The Times questioned the propriety of the executive sessions under the Open Meeting Law, which allows for private discussions of contracts and legal issues if “an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the public body.”

The Times contended that by allowing parking vendor Henry Dunn to attend at least one of the executive sessions, the HRA had disqualified itself from using this provision of the law, as public discussion of the contract could not have a “detrimental effect” because all parties to the agreement were in the same room. The Times’ complaint requested that the HRA immediately release the minutes of executive sessions about the parking issue.

Click each date for the minutes from July 28 | August 4 | August 18

According to the July 28 minutes, Dunn “admits to taking cash and will not commit to stop taking cash” and “has been purposefully not sending parking data (numbers).” On August 4, the HRA voted unanimously to send Dunn a letter informing him that he was in default under the contract.

On Monday, Kelly said the letter was sent to Dunn by FedEx on August 18 and apparently was delivered to a neighbor's house by mistake. Kelly said he hand-delivered the letter last Thursday afternoon to Dunn and “hopefully he complies with his contractual obligations and we won't have to go further legally” – but if that doesn't happen before the next meeting, “that would be the next step.”

Regarding the survey, the specifications for the questionnaire design and analysis is posted on the HRA website at hra02045.com. The goal is to encourage as many people as possible to respond.

The company hired to perform this service will also analyze public responses to the survey questions, which will help in the creation of the HRA’s Urban Renewal Plan.

Requested services include working with HRA members on the design of effective survey questions and the submission of a survey report that will integrate the survey results and findings.

Applicants are required to document that they have completed at least three survey projects in the past five years similar to what is being requested in this solicitation.

The board authorized HRA Technical Operations Manager Mark Hamin to reach out to potential bidders and to post the solicitation of services on various listservs, and other outreach. Applications are due Tuesday, October 14, at 5 p.m. Bids for services must be less than $50,000 to qualify.
The HRA is expected to make a selection at its Monday, October 27 meeting.

In the meantime, Kelly said he will find an earlier HRA survey from 2001 and email it to the other board members to give them ideas for questions to ask on the new survey.

In other business at the meeting, Kelly reminded board members about a joint select board/HRA meeting scheduled for September 17 “to look at letters of interest and resumes” from candidates interested in filling the seat formerly occupied by Dennis Zaia, who unexpectedly resigned in July.

Kelly will forward the letters and resumes to board members to help them prepare for the meeting – but not to discuss before September 17 – and to have their questions ready for the candidates that night.

The next HRA meeting after the September 17 session with the select board is Wednesday, October 15.

Christopher Haraden contributed to this report.

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