The Merrimac Affordable Housing Trust Fund, hereby called the "Trust," is established to provide for creation and preservation of affordable housing in Merrimac for the benefit of low- and moderate-income households, as defined in Article 2 of the Merrimac Zoning Bylaw.
[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Meeting of the Town of Merrimac as Art. XIII of the 2016 General Bylaws. Amendments noted where applicable.]
There shall be a Board of Trustees, hereby called the "Board," which shall include no less than five and no more than seven Trustees, including the chief executive officer, to be represented by one member of the Select Board. Trustees shall be appointed by the Select Board, serve for a term not to exceed two years; and are designated as public agents for the purposes of the constitution of the commonwealth.
The powers of the Board shall include the following:
A.
To accept and receive real property, personal property or money by gift grant, contribution, devise or transfer from any person, firm, corporation or other public or private entity, including but not limited to money, grants of funds or other property tendered to the Trust in connection with any ordinance or bylaw or any general or special law or any other source, including money from MGL c. 44B;
B.
To purchase and retain real or personal property, including without restriction investments that yield a high rate of income or no income;
C.
To sell lease, exchange, transfer, or convey any personal, mixed, or real property at public auction or by private contract for such consideration and on such terms as to credit or otherwise, and to make such contracts and enter into such undertaking relative to Trust property as the Board deems advisable, notwithstanding the length of any such lease or contract;
D.
To execute, acknowledge and deliver deeds, assignments, transfers, pledges, leases, covenants, contracts, releases and other instruments sealed or unsealed, necessary, proper or incident to any transaction in which the Board engages for the accomplishment of the purposes of the Trust and approved by the Select Board;
E.
To employ advisors and agents, such as accountants, appraisers and lawyers, as the Board deems necessary;
F.
To pay reasonable compensation and expenses to all advisors and agents and to apportion such compensation between income and principal as the Board deems advisable;
G.
To apportion receipts and charges between incomes and principal as the Board deems advisable, to amortize premiums and establish sinking funds for such purpose, and to create reserves for depreciation or otherwise;
H.
To participate in any reorganization, recapitalization, merger or similar transaction; and to give proxies or powers of attorney with or without power of substitution to vote any securities or certificates of interest; and to consent to any contract, lease, mortgage, purchase or sale of property, by or between any corporation and any other corporation or person;
I.
To deposit any security with any protective organization committee, and to delegate to such committee such powers and authority with relation thereto as the Board may deem proper and to pay, out of Trust property, such portion of expenses and compensation of such committee as the Board may deem necessary and appropriate;
J.
To carry property for accounting purposes other than acquisition date values;
K.
To make distributions or divisions of principal in kind;
L.
To comprise, attribute, defend, enforce, release, settle or otherwise adjust claims in favor or against the Trust, including claims for taxes; and to accept any property, either in total or partial satisfaction of any indebtedness or other obligation and subject to the provisions of this act, to continue to hold the same for such period of time as the Board may deem appropriate;
M.
To manage or improve real property and to abandon any property which the Board determined not to be worth retaining;
N.
To hold all or part of the Trust property uninvested for such purposes and for such time as the Board may deem appropriate; and
O.
To extend the time for payment of any obligation to the Trust.
Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, all monies paid to the Trust in accordance with any zoning ordinance or bylaw, exaction fee, or private contributions shall be paid directly into the Trust and need not be appropriated or accepted and approved into the Trust. General revenues appropriated into the Trust become trust property, and to be expended, these funds need not be further appropriated. All monies remaining in the Trust at the end of any fiscal year, whether or not expended by the Board within one year of the date they were appropriated into the Trust, remain trust property.
The Trust is a public employer and the members of the Board are public employees for the purposes of MGL c. 258.
The Trust shall be deemed a municipal agency and the Trustees' special municipal employees for the purposes of MGL c. 268A.
The Trust is exempt from MGL c. 59 and c. 62 and from any other provisions concerning payment of taxes based upon or measured by property or income imposed by the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof.
The books and records of the Trust shall be audited annually by an independent auditor in accordance with accepted accounting practices.