Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, including without limitation the provisions of sections five, six, and seven of chapter one hundred and twenty-one B of the General Laws, in the city of Boston the housing authority shall be managed and controlled by an individual to be known as the administrator. The administrator shall be appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the mayor and the administrator shall be compensated for such service. The administrator and all assistant and deputy administrators or those in positions equivalent in authority to assistant or deputy administrators should job titles change, shall devote full time during business hours to the duties of their positions. The administrator shall be, or within six months after the date of his acceptance of the position shall become, a resident of the city of Boston and shall continue to maintain principal residence in the city of Boston during the tenure of appointment. The exception provided for the executive director in the fifth paragraph of section twenty-nine of chapter one hundred and twenty-one B of the General Laws, shall apply to the administrator of the Boston Housing Authority and to employees of the Boston Housing Authority who hold the following positions or equivalent positions should job titles change: assistant administrators, deputy administrator and general counsel; provided, however, that this exception shall not apply to any such employee who has held his position, for a total of five years of uninterrupted service as of the date of enactment of this act.

SECTION 2. There shall be a committee to be known as the Boston Housing Authority Monitoring Committee ("Monitoring Committee") which shall be comprised of nine members appointed by the mayor. All of the members shall be residents of the city of Boston and shall continue to maintain principal residence in the city of Boston during the tenure of appointment. Five of the members shall be public housing tenants and shall be appointed from a list of not less than twenty names submitted to the mayor through a process agreed upon by city-wide public housing tenant organizations and public housing development-based tenant organizations of the Boston Housing Authority. Any appointees who are not public housing tenants shall be selected by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the Boston city council, from among persons with a demonstrated commitment to publicly assisted housing with experience in, but not limited to, one or more of the following areas: public health, public safety, legal advocacy for low-income tenants, public accounting, property management or development and organized labor; provided, however, that if the Boston city council fails to act on these appointments within thirty days, they shall be deemed confirmed. The mayor shall nominate from among the monitoring committee members a person to be the chairperson of said committee. The nomination shall be subject to ratification by a majority vote of all of the members of the monitoring committee. All members shall serve terms of two years, co-terminous with the term of the Boston city council; provided, however, that the initial term shall expire on the first Monday of nineteen hundred and ninety.

Members may be removed by the mayor at any time when he deems that a member has acted with gross misconduct, has negligently performed his duties, or has violated chapter two hundred and sixty-eight A of the General Laws. Vacancies occurring otherwise than by expiration of the term shall be filled by mayoral appointment as herein specified for the unexpired term; provided, however, that a vacancy with respect to a public housing tenant member shall be filled by appointment from a list of not less than four names submitted to the mayor through the process herein specified.

All members shall be classified as special municipal employees for the purpose of chapter two hundred and sixty-eight A of the General Laws. All members shall serve without compensation; provided, however, that all members shall be reimbursed by the housing authority for reasonable expenses incurred in the performance of their duties. The housing authority shall establish an annual monitoring committee budget for staff, training and other appropriate expenditures.

SECTION 3. (a) It shall be the duty of the monitoring committee to periodically review matters relating to the management and performance of the Boston Housing Authority and to report thereon to the mayor. The monitoring committee shall review and approve the following: all principal federal and state annual operating budgets, principal annual modernization applications, and all property dispositions which would reduce the total number of housing units of the housing authority which have not been approved, prior to the enactment of this act, by the Massachusetts superior court in the case of Armando Perez, et al. v. Boston Housing Authority. The monitoring committee shall have thirty days from receipt of any such budget, application or notice of property disposition in which to notify the housing authority and the mayor of its approval or disapproval thereof. After such thirty day period, regardless of whether the monitoring committee has so notified the housing authority and the mayor, the mayor shall approve or disapprove such budget, application or property disposition. The mayor may override the monitoring committee's decision; provided, however, that if the mayor overrides, he must so act within thirty days of receiving the monitoring committee's decision and must state the reasons in writing.

(b) Proposals submitted to the monitoring committee relative to principal federal and state annual operating budgets, principal annual modernization applications, and all property dispositions which would reduce the total number of housing units of the Boston Housing Authority which have not been approved prior to the enactment of this act, by the Massachusetts superior court in the case of Armando Perez, et al. v. Boston Housing Authority, shall simultaneously be filed with the Boston city council. Further, the Boston Housing Authority shall submit monthly management reports to the monitoring committee and Boston city council which shall provide information pertaining to: code compliance, occupancy, maintenance, rent collection, and public safety for both family and elderly developments.

The Boston Housing Authority shall, consistent with section ten of chapter sixty-six of the General Laws, within ten days following receipt of a request for public record information made by the mayor's office, the city council, city councilors, or duly established committees of the city council, or the general public, comply with such request and supply said information.

(c) Within a reasonable time after submitting notification to the appropriate agency of the transfer of previously approved modernization funds from one Boston Housing Authority development to another, the Boston Housing Authority shall notify the monitoring committee and state its reasons therefore in writing.

(d) The monitoring committee shall meet at least once every three months and shall submit an annual report to the mayor in March of each year. The annual report shall be a public record for purposes of clause Twenty-sixth of section seven of chapter four of the General Laws. The provisions of sections twenty-three B and twenty-three C of chapter thirty-nine of the General Laws shall apply to all meetings of the monitoring committee.

(e) In the event of a vacancy in the position of administrator, the mayor, prior to the appointment of a new administrator, shall consult with the monitoring committee as to the qualifications for and selections of the administrator. Further, it shall be the duty of the monitoring committee to act in conjunction with the Boston Housing Authority to improve the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of housing owned or operated by the Boston Housing Authority. Subject to applicable laws, the monitoring committee shall be empowered, upon reasonable notice, to inspect and review, but not approve, all policies or reports which it deems relevant to the duties of the monitoring committee. At its discretion, the monitoring committee may develop any policy, rule or procedure which will assist it in carrying out the powers and duties herein stated.

SECTION 4. The provisions of chapter one hundred and twenty-one B of the General Laws applicable to housing authorities shall be applicable to the Boston Housing Authority except as provided herein or as inconsistent herewith.

SECTION 5. This act shall take effect upon its passage.