June 18, 2026 Norwalk Housing Foundation Annual Meeting Minutes
MINUTES OF A MEETING
DRAFT- NOT YET APPROVED
These minutes are subject to approval by the Board at a future meeting and may be revised.
The Annual Meeting of the Norwalk Housing Foundation Board of Commissioners was convened at 5:32 pm on June 18, 2026.
Location: Zoom Video Conference
Present:
Brenda Penn-Williams, Chair
Liza Bermudez-Montgomery, Vice Chair (arrived at 5:40pm)
John Church, Treasurer
Isaac Walcott, Commissioner
Teneshia Jacobs, Commissioner
Staff Attending:
Adam Bovilsky, Executive Director
Charmaine Davis-Ford, Director of Finance
Lisa Endo, Director of Development
Leroy Fender, Director of Maintenance
Linda Rolle, Director of Advancement
Donna Lattarulo, Outside General Council, Lattarulo Law Firm, LLC (arrived at 5:35pm)
Roll Call:
At 5:32 pm, Chair Penn-Williams opened the meeting. Chair Penn-Williams recognized Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs, Commissioner Walcott and Treasurer Church, as present and acknowledged the presence of a quorum.
New Business:
Chair Penn-Williams moved to adopt:
A. Meeting Minutes May 8th, 2025
Treasurer Church seconded the motion
There were no edits to the meeting minutes.
Ayes
Chair Brenda Penn-Williams
Treasurer John Church
Commissioner Issac Walcott
Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs
Absent at Time of Vote:
Vice Chair Liza Bermudez-Montgomery
All in Favor. Motion carried.
Treasurer Church moved to adopt:
B. Statement of Assets and Fund Balances - March 2026
Commissioner Walcott seconded the motion.
Charmaine Davis-Ford took the floor to present the Foundation's Assets and Fund Balances. As of March 2026, the Foundation reported total assets of $1,385,181, and total liabilities of $8,174 leading to a surplus of $1,377.007.
Mr. Bovilsky highlighted the Section 8 assets that are held in the Foundation. The amount totals $78,713.
Chair Penn-Williams raised the possibility of Section children being recipients of the Scholarship program, specifically because the Foundation is earning income from the Section 8 fund interest.
Mr. Bovilsky explained that this would be a process & policy change and would lead to substantial increased funding needs including increased staffing. Further discussion and planning would be needed.
Ms. Davis-Ford highlighted that the 12-month income raised as of YTD March was $491,495 and total expenses were $329,806.
Ayes
Chair Brenda Penn-Williams
Vice Chair Liza Bermudez-Montgomery
Treasurer John Church
Commissioner Issac Walcott
Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs
All in Favor. Motion carried.
Commissioner Walcott moved to accept:
C. Major Funding Sources - March 2026
Treasurer Church seconded the motion.
Mr. Bovilsky took the floor to share the Major Funding Sources and acknowledged that the top donor was the Bauer Foundation. The Norwalk Housing Foundation acknowledged the continued generosity and support of George and Carol Bauer.
Ayes
Chair Brenda Penn-Williams
Vice Chair Liza Bermudez-Montgomery
Treasurer John Church
Commissioner Issac Walcott
Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs
All in Favor. Motion carried.
Treasurer Church moved to accept:
D. Scholarship Disbursements
Chair Penn-Williams seconded the motion.
Linda Rolle took the floor to share that the Scholarship Committee was given a budget of $280,000 to spend. The Scholarship Committee awarded the full $280,000 to 52 students. There is a total of $79,200 of unspent scholarship funds. This is an unusually large variance which is due to various causes including students awarded the money but never requested the actual disbursement because they received enough in other scholarships and grants, are no longer enrolled full-time or other personal reasons. The variance is being further researched to better understand the causes.
Ayes
Chair Brenda Penn-Williams
Vice Chair Liza Bermudez-Montgomery
Treasurer John Church
Commissioner Issac Walcott
Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs
All in Favor. Motion carried.
Treasurer Church moved to accept:
E. Fundraising Update
Commissioner Walcott seconded the motion
The report presented is a 4-year look back at the total fundraising that has been generated. Total raised is $2,665,304 + 50 laptops.
Out of the $2,665,304, $1,566,628 was raised for Housing Activities (Learning Center, Envision Center, NHA Activities & Partnerships). The additional $1,098,676 was raised for the Foundation for the Scholarship Program.
Ayes
Chair Brenda Penn-Williams
Vice Chair Liza Bermudez-Montgomery
Treasurer John Church
Commissioner Issac Walcott
Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs
All in Favor. Motion carried.
Commissioner Walcott moved to accept:
F. Norwalk Housing Foundation By-Laws Revision
Treasurer Church seconded the motion.
Linda Rolle took the floor and explained that the by-laws were created to memorialize the current governance of the foundation including committee nominations. The by-laws further document the role of the Scholarship Committee which serves in an advisory capacity, making recommendations for how much each student should receive while final decision making technically remains with the Executive Director.
Treasurer Church asked for clarification about the Scholarship Grant decision process between the committee and the Executive Director. Ms. Rolle confirmed that the committee will make an award amount decision on a per student basis, and the Executive Director has final sign-off on the disbursement of the funding. The Executive Director and Charmaine Davis-Ford give the budget cap to the committee, and as long as the committee stays within the budget cap, the Executive Director generally does not override the Committee's recommendations. The executive director verifies that all check requests are within approved amount and Scholarship policy.
Ayes
Chair Brenda Penn-Williams
Vice Chair Liza Bermudez-Montgomery
Treasurer John Church
Commissioner Issac Walcott
Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs
All in Favor. Motion carried.
Vice Chair Bermudez-Montgomery moved to accept:
G. Scholarship Policy
Commissioner Walcott seconded the motion.
Adam Bovilsky shared that the scholarship policy, like the bylaws revision, memorializes the existing rules of the Scholarship fund. It will help to make the Executive Director's decisions on individual scholarship requests easier by establishing clear paraments for the Scholarship Committee and Scholarship Recipients. The committee collaborated with the Executive Director and Director of Advancement on the creation of the policy.
Chair Penn-Williams asked for further clarification on the funding limits. Ms. Rolle explained that the program funds 2 year and 4-year undergraduate and graduate programs and in rare instances can fund technical programs.
Major components and requirements were highlighted.
Fully online for profit programs are not covered by the program.
Ayes
Chair Brenda Penn-Williams
Vice Chair Liza Bermudez-Montgomery
Treasurer John Church
Commissioner Issac Walcott
Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs
All in Favor. Motion carried.
Chair Penn-Williams moved to nominate:
H. Brenda Penn-Williams as Chair of the Norwalk Housing Foundation
Commissioner Walcott seconded the motion.
No additional nominations were made from the floor.
Ayes
Chair Brenda Penn-Williams
Vice Chair Liza Bermudez-Montgomery
Treasurer John Church
Commissioner Issac Walcott
Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs
Treasurer Church moved to nominate:
H. Liza Bermudez-Montgomery as Vice Chair of the Norwalk Housing Foundation
Commissioner Jacobs seconded the motion.
No additional nominations were made from the floor.
Ayes
Chair Brenda Penn-Williams
Treasurer John Church
Commissioner Issac Walcott
Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs
Abstained
Vice Chair Liza Bermudez-Montgomery
Treasurer Church moved to nominate:
H. Isaac Walcott as Treasurer of the Norwalk Housing Foundation
Vice Chair Bermudez-Montgomery seconded the motion.
No additional nominations were made from the floor.
Ayes
Chair Brenda Penn-Williams
Vice Chair Liza Bermudez-Montgomery
Treasurer John Church
Commissioner Issac Walcott
Commissioner Teneshia Jacobs
Commissioner Walcott moved to adjourn.
Commissioner Jacobs seconded the motion.
All in favor. Motion carried.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:18pm.
Respectfully submitted,
_______________________
Adam Bovilsky, Executive Director