Holyoke Veterans Home Reconstruction Access, Inclusion and Diversity Committee Meeting, 03/15/24

Meeting Minutes

A. Call to Order

• The meeting was called to order.
• Members were reminded that the meeting was being recorded.

Confirming Member Access:

• Confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear
• Members present:
  • Colton Andrews
  • Rubens Boursiquot
  • Karen Courtney
  • Andrea Gayle Bennett
  • Bill McAvoy
  • Aisha Miller
  • Michael Rybicki
  • Mary-dith Tuitt
  • Liseth Velez
• Members absent:
  • Marcony Almeida-Barros
  • Jose Bou
  • Maxime Charles
  • John Cruz
  • Colleen Fonseca
  • Jesse Flynn
  • Coleman Nee
  • Nicole Obi
  • Luz Ortiz-Rivera

B. Administrative Matters

• Committee members were remineded of the tasks before this Committee: “ The Holyoke Veterans’ Home Reconstruction Access, Inclusion & Diversity Committee was created in An Act Financing the Reconstruction of the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke to monitor diversity, inclusion, workforce and enterprise goals. The committee will receive regular reports from the project owner and contractors regarding enterprise and workforce participation. In addition, they will advise the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) on how
  to increase the level of minority, women, and veteran workers employed on the project and minority business enterprise, veteran business enterprise and women business enterprise participation as contractors and subcontractors for the project.

C. Vote to approve January 19th, and February 16th Meeting Minutes.

• Postponed due to lack of quorum.

D. DCAMM project overview and schedule update

• Nathalie Assens provided the updates on the overall schedule.
• Project schedule. Trending in a good direction. Starting steel erection in May.
• Aerial photos shared of the overall footprint. Foundation and walls. Footings for tower cranes that were recently poured.
• Other ground level photos shared.

E. Update from Commodore/Walsh

• Karellis Rivera provided an update on workforce diversity. Sitework and concrete largest presence on site. Breakdown of hours for the month of February was shared. Presented workforce breakdown for minoriy, women, apprentice and veterans as percent of total. Monthly audits are being done to ensure accuracy of data. Meeting or exceeding goals for minority and women participation. Also shared cumulative breakdown of workforce hours.

F. Outreach Update

• Megan Costa provided update on outreach events coming soon. Virtual events highlighted DCAMM projects across the Commonwealth. More workforce outreach will be conducted as workforce requirements increase.
• Charles Kelsey mentioned career fairs to be conducted in Western Mass.
• Cheryl Poppe mentioned an effort recently conducted by DCAMM aimed at all contractors that may not have self identified encouraging them to do so.

G. Public Question/Comment Period

• Liseth Velez: When can we see report showing current state of the buyout and how many of the Primes are diverse
• Nathalie Assens: stated that there will be a full presentation with greater detail next meeting.
• Nathalie also asked committee about the overall presentation format, is it helpful? It is a lot of information. Is there a preferred way to present?
  Ms. Velez stated that she is looking for percentage of total for each subcontractor. More interested in the buyout process and the subtiers that come after that and what their actual contract values are and other information related to diverse business participation. Nathalie indicated that Commodore|Walsh will be providing detailed information next month.
• Susan Goldfischer mentioned that prior meetings have included presentations on procurement laws to address the question of how packages are procured, and they can be viewed in past presentations. There is also a possibility of presenting again sometime in the future given that we have new membership. Also clarified that diverse business participation seen at various tiers of subcontracting and C|W will be providing detailed reporting next month. All the PowerPoints are available on the Committee website.
• Karen Courtney commented that DCAMM team did good job explaining the specialized nature of the facility given that it is tremendously large and complex.
• Susan Goldfischer highlighted the flyers for Massachusetts Public Construction Opportunities (MPCO) and the upcoming presentations on Zoom. Asked committee member to share the information with small or diverse firms looking to break into public construction Asked Committee to help get the flyer out to their constituencies.
• Bill McAvoy added that OSD will be rebidding trade persons contracts. TRD01 and TRD03 will be rebid in May. TRD02 and TRD 04 in October. Asked the Committee to please spread the word about these contracts. These are trade specific for tasks on which labor is under $50K. Proper licenses and and paying prevailing wage is required for these contracts.
• Susan Goldfisher provided clarification about the statewide contracts and how they are used and who uses them.
• Now open the floor to public comments or questions. Seeing none.
• Susan mentioned consideration of possible future site visits.

H. Conclusion, Adjournment and set next Meeting Date/ Time

• Next meeting scheduled for Friday April 19th at 10 AM
• Meeting adjourned at 10:47.