(i) Prevention of Personal Use of LHA Property. No LHA board member or employee shall make personal use of or permit any other person to make personal use of any property belonging to the LHA. The property belonging to the LHA shall be used in furtherance of the LHA’s purposes. 760 CMR 4.03(2)(i) shall not be construed to limit the LHA from allowing LTOs, non-profit neighborhood or community groups, or public service organizations to use the property of the LHA for proper purposes benefitting the LHA or its tenants.
(k) Restrictions on Political Activity. In addition to any restrictions on political activity imposed by federal law, no LHA board member or employee shall solicit or receive campaign contributions, or conduct political activities during work hours, on LHA property or by use of LHA resources, or shall improperly use his or her official position to coerce or influence others in political campaigns.
m) Limitations on a Board Member Who is an Officer of an LTO. A board member who is an officer in a local tenants’ organization (LTO) (or other local tenants’ association) shall not act on behalf of the LTO (or other tenants’ association) before the LHA. An officer of an LTO (or tenants’ association) who is a board member shall not contact the LHA or appear at any LHA meeting on behalf of the LTO (or other such association), and he or she shall not participate as a board member in any matter directly involving the LTO (or other tenants’ association) in which he or she is an officer. No LTO (or other tenants’ association) shall be given preferential treatment because an officer of the organization is a board member or a member of the family of a board member.
(a) Laws Restricting Certain Actions. In recognition of the value of a tenant on the board of an LHA, M.G.L. c. 121B §5 requires that one of the four locally appointed board members in a city must be a tenant in the LHA’s housing. and M.G.L. c. 121B, §5A requires that one of the four locally appointed or elected board members in a town must be a Tenant in the LHA’s housing. The only restriction imposed by the Legislature in M.G.L. c. 121B on participation by a tenant board member in the LHA’s business is that he or she may not participate in any decision which affects his or her “personal interest”. The board members of an LHA are considered special municipal employees. The Commonwealth’s Ethics Law, in M.G.L. c. 268A §19 prohibits a special municipal employee from participating in his or her job capacity in any matter in which the employee (or a family member, a business in which he or she holds an office or is employed, or a potential employer with which he or she is negotiating) has a “financial interest”. Thus, a tenant board member under the Ethics Law must avoid participating in decisions which affect his or her “financial interest” (the Ethics Commission requires such an interest either to be “direct” or “reasonably foreseeable”) and under c. 121B must avoid participating in decisions which affect his “personal interest”. These two statutory requirements should be construed in harmony with each other in determining whether a tenant board member may participate in making a decision. The Ethics Law should not be read to prevent full and effective participation of a tenant member on an LHA board so long as he or she does not use his or her position to derive some direct personal benefit, financial or otherwise, to the board member (or to a family member or to a business or potential employer described above).
2) In the event an LHA shall lack sufficient revenues to meet its expenditures in its operating budget(s) approved by the Department for state programs, the Department shall fund the deficit as provided by law. The total expenditures for salaries and wages shall not exceed the amount in the approved budget for salaries and wages without the approval of the Department.
(3) Contents of Plan. The affirmative action plan shall include, but not necessarily be limited to, the following:
(a) A written equal opportunity policy. (b) A workforce analysis, including: (i) For each department or division of the LHA, the number of minorities (this number may be further broken down by minority group), the number of women, the number of persons with disabilities and the number of Vietnam Era Veterans (VEVs) in each of the following job categories and the total number of employees in each such job category: a. maintenance and service; b. clerical;
c. managerial, technical, and professional.