Holyoke Veterans Home Reconstruction Access, Inclusion and Diversity Committee Meeting, 12/15/2023

Meeting Minutes

A. Call to Order

• Meeting called to order at 10:00 a.m. 
• 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:
  • Rubens Boursiquot
  • Karen Courtney
  • Andrea Gayle Bennett
  • Bill McAvoy ( Represented by Meghan Costa SDO)
  • Aisha Miller
  • Luz Ortiz-Rivera
  • Michael Rybicki
  • Mary-dith Tuitt
  • Maxime Charles
• Members absent:
  • Marcony Almeida-Barros
  • Colton Andrews
  • Jose Bou
  • John Cruz
  • Colleen Fonseca
  • Jesse Flynn
  • Coleman Nee
  • Nicole Obi
  • Liseth Velez

B. Administrative Matters

• Welcomed Maxime (Max) Charles to the Committee. Max is the is the SeniorManagement Consultant and Vice President of Massachusetts ConstructionManagement with over twenty years of experience in all phases of constructionmanagement. He is also the President of the Massachusetts Minority Contractors Assocation.

C. Vote to approve November 2023

• Postponed due to lack of quorum.

D. DCAMM project overview and schedule update

• Joe Fazio provided an update on project status for the most recent 18 months. Shared schedule as it stands. Project is about 6% complete but very early in construction.
• Shared images of the site and work in progress. Important accomplishments with the sitework. First images of CIP concrete being poured for foundation. Nathalie Assens shared aerial video of the site.

E. Update from Comodore/Walsh on Workforce (Karellis Riveria)

• Workforce - shared the workforce report for the early package and main project.
• Outreach events – slide of recent events held and those currently scheduled throughout CY2024.
• Ongoing efforts – Diversifying the workforce and growing the SDO certified vendor pool.

F. Outreach Update

• Charles Kelsey provided update on recent and upcoming outreach initiatives. Next is June 12th on-line Mass Construction Opportunities event. Asked members to pass along invites to these events. OSD has reopened the Tradespersons statewide constructs for construction services under $50,000. Trades under tradespersons contract 1 and 3 opened 5/15. First set closes end of June. [Note: After this meeting, the bid close date for TRD01 and TRD03 changed to July 17, 2024.] Tradespersons contracts 2 and 4 will be reopening in October. The flyers on this were provided to committee members and included in the PowerPoint slides for todays meeting.
• Susan Goldfisher elaborated on the importance of the OSD reopening of trades persons contracts.
• Questions or comments.
• Maxime Charles indicated a desire to see the subcontractors listed on the project along with their diversity distribution.
• Nathalie Assens indicated that such a report was shared at an earlier meeting. Maxime was referred to the DCAMM website link of the September meeting where the report he was interested in could be found.
• Karen Courtney shared her appreciation of aerial views of the site and ongoing work.

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

• Meeting adjourned at 10:32.
• Next meeting is scheduled for Friday, 1/19/2024 10:00 a.m.