May 21st COMIDA Meeting

Summary of COMIDA Meeting for May 21st, 2023
Observed by Deborah Rice Gordon
This COMIDA meeting can viewed at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkaF1m0gn5U
Public Comments: Monitoring reports:
A local labor monitoring report was given by Joe Spinelli.  In March, the residency of 525 workers was checked with 7 having proof of residency issues.   For April, the residency of 480 workers with 11 being non-compliant.
Brian LaFountain gave the local labor exemption report.  Two exemptions were granted to a contractor at the Fairlife Project due to lack of local certified expertise in specialized construction techniques.  This claim was refuted by Troy Milne, who explained that the contractor needs to be certified and not the employees and requested that be reflected in the records.  In his opinion, local iron workers should have been employed.  The third waiver was for the Gannett building project due to the installation of a specialized storage system, which was not bid on by local contractors.

Financial report
As of April 30th, $6.9 million has been allocated to the workforce development program.  Year to date revenue is higher at this point in the year as compared to 2023. 
 
Project Application Reviews:
Requests for sales tax exemptions, recording tax exemptions and/or real property tax abatements were approved for the following projects: Project Modifications:
The following modification request was approved: Governance Committee:
Jay Popli gave reported that a revision to the housing policy is being discussed.   The policy may be ready to be presented to the Board in June.

Executive Director Report: The meeting was adjourned.