Ypsilanti City Council members walk out of meeting after heated discussion
A heated discussion regarding the Ypsilanti Housing Commission and its financial woes caused two City Council members to walk out of the meeting Tuesday.
Mayor Pro Tem Lois Richardson walked out of the council meeting.
Jeffrey Smith | AnnArbor.com
Mayor Pro Tem Lois Richardson and Council Member Ricky Jefferson left the meeting after expressing displeasure in the leadership of the YHC and the recent transfer of the Section 8 voucher program, which provides funding for low-income housing. They were particularly upset at Mayor Paul Schreiber's refusal to remove housing commissioners from office.
“We have been dealing with this issue for years,” Richardson said. “It’s not something that has just come up. It’s like a boil that took some time to explode… We lost a very valuable program in the city. We should have acted.”
Jefferson told AnnArbor.com he decided to walk out because he is frustrated with the way things have transpired.
"We’ve tried to get them to be open with us, we’ve had a lot of meetings with the commission," Jefferson said. "The more we talked to them the less we would get. Walking out is basically saying that not only do we rescind our support and approval of those on the board, but today we’re saying we’re removing our support from Mayor Schreiber not recommending them to be removed."
The Housing Commission has been under fire from the federal government, which has cited a litany of financial and management problems. A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report cited dozens of issues with YHC leadership, its Board of Commissioners, the agency’s financial management and the condition of its properties. Among those were poor and questionable accounting practices and $20,000 in unaccounted for funds.
HUD delivers federal funding to local housing commissions that manage property for low-income residents, and the agencies must comply with strict HUD guidelines and standards.
In July HUD notified the commission that its Section 8 voucher program faced a “significant and unrecoverable” $228,407 shortfall in funding.
At its Aug. 14 meeting, the city council voted unanimously, with Schreiber absent, to pass a resolution that rescinded its support of the initial appointments of the housing commissioners Ma'Cheryl Jones, Deborah Strong, E. Renee Smith, and Bernice Ethington.
Despite the resolution's passage the City Council does not have the power to remove commissioners, only the mayor does.
Commissioners are nominated by Schreiber and approved by City Council.
Richardson asked Schreiber to exercise his power to provide council with a resolution that would effectively remove the housing commissioners from office.
Schreiber said he was “not prepared” to do so at that time.
“Council says it is trying to protect affordable housing,” Schreiber said. “The action council took was counter to that… We need a working commission. If we just dismiss the housing commission with no one to come in its place, we will be jeopardizing affordable housing, and I will not let that happen.”
Schreiber said council's resolution was a "half-baked" way to get around state law.
"Once people are in public office, you can't undo that," he said. "I think council needs to get a grip and we need to support our commissioners that we have at this time."
Council Member Daniel Vogt told Schreiber that council's resolution was only a way of council showing the lack of confidence it has in the YHC.
After Schreiber declined to remove the commissioners, Richardson then moved to adjourn the meeting and hold a closed session to discuss the matter. A closed session was already scheduled to take place at the end of the regular meeting to discuss contract negotiations.
Council members Brian Robb and Jefferson supported and voted in favor of the movement, but Schreiber, and Council Members Daniel Vogt and Michael Bodary voted against it, tying the vote. Since Richardson was unable to secure enough votes, the meeting was not adjourned. That's when the two walked out.
Council Member Mike Bodary expressed frustration with the housing commission.
Jeffrey Smith | AnnArbor.com
Bodary said he understood the frustration with the YHC and agrees it needs to be revamped but said he was in favor of giving the mayor more time to sort the situation out.
"There is not a cure for this," Bodary said. "I just do not believe we need to stop the housing commission in its tracks by firing them all now without replacing them with the skill set that HUD has told us to find."
However, Bodary said his patience is running thin, and he wants to see a search under way for new commissioners by the Sept. 18 council meeting.
"We really need to do a fast and furious search," he said. "We can't go on with these people that have allowed this to happen right under their nose. ... I will be patient with you for a short time longer but my patience is going to run very thin by next council meeting."
The scheduled closed session occurred at the end of the meeting and at that point, Jefferson and Richardson returned.
Earlier this month, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development decided against offering an alternative to the Ypsilanti Housing Commission that would have enabled the commission to keep its Section 8 voucher program.
The commission signed a resolution Aug. 13 enabling Interim Director Eric Temple to transfer the program to the Michigan State Housing Authority. HUD said the transfer may be effective permanently.
The YHC operates 218 public housing units and the commission has 271 Section 8 vouchers — not including the 68 that have yet to be made available for people seeking to live at Hamilton Crossing, the former Parkview Apartments at South Hamilton and Harriet.
MSHDA will now be responsible for all of the Section 8 vouchers.
Katrease Stafford covers Ypsilanti for AnnArbor.com.Reach her at katreasestafford@annarbor.com or 734-623-2548 and follow her on twitter.
Comments
Monica R-W
Thu, Aug 23, 2012 : 4:21 a.m.
There seems to be plenty of fault and blame to go around (thanks SEC Fan for asking very pointed questions on this manner and it would be great to see them investigated by this news resource in the future). Still, the larger question is what going to occur with the FAMILIES, INDIVIDUALS and CHILDREN in Ypsilanti City's public housing communities who receive Section 8 (and/or I assume Section 236 maybe?) vouchers or subsidy? Are these families/individuals going to lose housing altogether? Will HUD assist these families with retaining their current homes or provide alternatives for new affordable housing, if need be? What's truly sad, besides the official(s) in charge of Ypsilanti Housing Commission losing hundreds of thousands of dollars from its operational budget, is that families in need of stable housing situations might be directly impacted by this.
Katrease Stafford
Thu, Aug 23, 2012 : 2:16 p.m.
Monica, Thanks for the comment. SEC Fan is correct. Although the Section 8 voucher program is being transferred to MSHDA, officials told me the vouchers will still remain in the Ypsilanti community and no families will be displaced.
SEC Fan
Thu, Aug 23, 2012 : 1:38 p.m.
my understanding is that with the transfer of the program to the State, there will be no changes for the end-users (recipients).
Mick52
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 9:41 p.m.
If there is $20k missing and questionable financial practices this organization should have been audited as soon as that information to come out. Thanks to SEC fan for some detail, but I find this story lacking in detail to figure out what the problem is here. Could it be that Ypsilanti just cannot afford their part of this? Usually to get federal funds you have to come up with some matching funds too. And if Ypsilanti can't afford this program perhaps that is the core issue here?
glimmertwin
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 3:56 p.m.
More fuel to the fire that the local, state and federal government should not be in the housing business. It would be one thing if they were capable of managing it, but obviously they can't. It sounds like these problems have been going on longer than section 8 housing residents are supposed to receive section 8 housing benefits. Seeing it's "transitional" and all.
michael Limmer
Thu, Aug 23, 2012 : 1:03 a.m.
Many of the local providers of housing would be in a snit if they couldn't have that guaranteed money from government.
Speedy Squirrel
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 2:23 p.m.
Is it not dangerous to leave the current management in place? The fact that 20K is missing from such a small office would seem to suggest that an immediate leave with pay for the whole staff is warranted until that can be resolved. Further, who says that we want more section 8 than we already have? Isn"t section 8 tax exempt? We are already carrying more than our fair share of the low income housing load.
pseudo
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 3:36 p.m.
Speedy - a couple things to note here: 1) Ypsilanti has very little control over 'where' section 8 vouchers are used. Some vouchers go with a project, some with special programs and some with the renter. So on any given month a renter with a voucher though the Ypsilanti Housing commission may be in the city of Ypsilanti or in any township or anywhere in the county. Same vice versa. 2) YHC is NOT the only public housing agency with public money that operates in Ypsilanti City (or townships or whatever). The Federal and State levels of public housing have their own private partners (some good, some merely parasites on the backs of the poor) all over the place so it is very very unclear and uncontrollable as to where public money is used to assist the poor with housing. YHC is but one player in this game. And...we don't know that any money is actually missing. We do know that YHC was so poorly administered that it has signed up to spend 280K more than its projected revenue.
LXIX
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 2:16 p.m.
It is comforting to know that Ann Arbor politics is free from money corruption. As is Lansing politics. As is Federal politics. As is Global politics. As is ZZZAP... stupid humans.
slave2work
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:35 p.m.
How sad. It feels vaguely like wayne county.. Get it together Ypsi!!. Downtown looks and feels like it's coming alive.. keep things on the right path and don't screw this up.
jim
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:20 p.m.
"We really need to do a fast and furious search," (Bodary) said...... Not exactly the phrasing a Democratic office-holder should be using these days....
xmo
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:12 p.m.
What a Resume enhancement for "housing commissioners Ma'Cheryl Jones, Deborah Strong, E. Renee Smith, and Bernice Ethington! To fail at their jobs and have Ypsilanti City Council Members walk out in frustration! They should be notice by the President for their "OUTSTANDING WORK" and get a Federal Job, perhaps with HUD!
Chase Ingersoll
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:09 p.m.
The only reason it is taking so long to "sort out" and "find people with the right skill sets" is the aversion public officials have toward the most qualified people - those with private sector property management experience. Look at the bios/resumes of the current board. None of them have so much as a wit of private sector management experience, that would be expected of even an entry level apartment leasing agent, but here they are setting management policy and practices, or lack thereof for a multi-million dollar housing operation.
EyeHeartA2
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:03 p.m.
Did anybody call anybody else "Shrek"? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZQLxVO-qjM Guess it's not as bad as Detroit. Yet.
jim
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:21 p.m.
I want to see somebody sing Happy Birthday to themselves whil wearing a tiara.
ypsilanti
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 12:54 p.m.
I don't fault these two council members. They should have been afforded an opportunity to discuss these personnel issues in a closed session, and it was extremely unprofessional for the others on council to vote against doing so. I can't begin to imagine how frustrated they must be with the mayor, who has never been very decisive. This problem has been festering for years, and the program is now in jeopardy because of mismanagement and lack of oversight. Hopefully the mayor will quickly find the strength to make the necessary changes to bring the Commission back from the brink. One thing is clear, if the mayor does not act quickly, he will own any failure that ensues. City Council has made its wishes clear, asked him to deal with this, and he has now openly defied their request.
RUKiddingMe
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 4:24 p.m.
It seems to me like Closed sessions has probably maxed out its usefulness with this bunch; I think we're at the point at which all this stuff needs to be above board and public.
Ron Granger
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 12:50 p.m.
And people wonder why I say Ypsi government is very much like Detroit.
Ron Granger
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 9:06 p.m.
It looks more like Detroit with each news story.
PattyinYpsi
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:04 p.m.
Really? Do "people" wonder that--or just you?
Ryan
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 12:50 p.m.
Schreiber said council's resolution was a "half-baked" way to get around state law. "Once people are in public office, you can't undo that," he said. "I think council needs to get a grip and we need to support our commissioners that we have at this time." Of course he is right. After all, just because Ypsi hired felons who lied about their qualifications and possibly stole money from HUD causing this "shortfall" in the first place doesn't mean we should remove them and hold them accountable, No No No! We should support them and let's even give them a raise! Heck, we should elect Walter Norris and his crew to Congress so they can continue their (alleged) behavior in a place where people won't ask pesky questions like "Where did all the money go?" or "Why didn't you tell us you were a felon?" Oh wait, we can't elect Walter Norris because he RETIRED the second this HUD report came out saying all this money was missing. Darn! Well, maybe we can elect his right hand man Eric Tempe who... wait I don't know if we can elect a convicted felon to office either... well, don't worry about them folks, I'm sure they both made sure that they both have PLENTY of retirement money. Perhaps even as much as $228,407; if not I bet Bob Ficano over in Wayne County will hire them. I hear he is facing a shortfall of goons, I mean political appointees.
SEC Fan
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 12:48 p.m.
I hope AA.com does some investigation on this matter. I smell a Pulitzer here. HUD audited the program in April 2011 and issued its report in September 2011. This report gave the city 6 months to correct the issues and outlined, specifically, what actions needed to be taken. Now, the city council was supposed to review the report and approve the plan to fix the issues in Sep 2011, but refused to because they were "upset" they weren't given the report earlier. (I guess they got it right before the meeting). OK...so take some time, read it, and move forward! Supposedly, the city council then postponed the vote to Nov 2011. Again, it didn't happen and the mayor and city council chose to ignore the HUD report and action plan. HUD then notified the mayor on July 23rd that it needed to transfer the voucher program (I assume because none of the findings in the report have yet been addressed). Again, the mayor stated that he and the council were to hold a "special" meeting on Aug 14th (last week) and "might" consider HUD's action plan. Apparently that never happened. So this all begs the question, What is the problem here? It's been a YEAR! Perhaps the mayor could answer some simple questions: 1. What is the mayor and city council doing about this? (that is, what is the plan moving forward?) 2. What has been done over the past 12 months? 3. Why is dismissing the leadership of the YHC not feasible? We've had 12 months to identify replacements. 4. What happened to the "missing" $20,000? Was there an investigation? If so, what was found? If not, why not? 5. How has the city addressed the HUD finding of "Excessive administrative salaries compared to other agencies."? Especially with all the tax increases being put on ballots because of no money to pay policemen/firemen! 6. and most importantly, Why have you and council not addressed the HUD report? (why the inaction).
Katrease Stafford
Thu, Aug 23, 2012 : 2:14 p.m.
Hi, Here's a link to the initial story I did a few weeks ago about the Housing Commission. http://www.annarbor.com/news/ypsilanti/ypsilanti-housing-commission-director-walter/#.UDY51qOw9uI It might provide a bit more context for readers. SEC Fan pointed out that the links in this article also provide a bit of timeline as to what's happened since HUD's initial findings. I hope this helps clear up any confusion. Thanks!
SEC Fan
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 10:53 p.m.
follow the links in the article. They outline the timeline and (in)actions...
RUKiddingMe
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 4:13 p.m.
If what SEC fan is true, then 1) Thanks, SEC, for doing rthwe egwork and enlightening us here, and 2) A2.com, it's very true that these questions should be answered, or at least asked; this is info I would think a news reporting organization would really want to go after.
slave2work
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:30 p.m.
Excellent sec fan!!. After 1 year why the lack of any movement?.
PattyinYpsi
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:02 p.m.
Very smart comment, SEC. I doubt that you'll get any answers, but those questions need to be answered.
Ron Granger
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 12:47 p.m.
They should fire the housing commission immediately. Some of us wonder if the financial issues were criminal. Why perpetuate a broken commission any longer? HUD has taken over. It's done. Clean house. Start fresh. Fire them all. The mayor's desire to delay on this is inappropriate. By not allowing their firing, he has failed again. They need to have additional meetings now, and not wait until their next regular meeting in mid september. Mr. Mayor, it is not business as usual. Get to work.
SEC Fan
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 12:47 p.m.
have comments been turned off?
antikvetch
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:13 p.m.
This may be the most zen-like comment I've ever seen posted
SEC Fan
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 12:49 p.m.
guess too many characters...
Thomas Jones
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 12:10 p.m.
having "growed" up in Ypsa-tucky and live dur currently.... I must say that I agree with the first comment.... "If I stormed out of a meeting at work, I'd be fired" sooooo true! Second, this reminds me of the many times in which children or peers in ypsilanti school would be talked to about bad behavior and reply with "you ain't my mama" to which I would reply in my head.... you don't listen to yo mama anyway Grow up!
walker101
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 11:35 a.m.
Sounds like Wayne County another corrupt system of elected officials, bottom line politicos taking for themselves and leaving those in need with no support. Why am I not surprised?
nekm1
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 7:26 p.m.
Hey Clownfish, explain the sound judgment of Mr. Ficano, or Kwame would you please?
clownfish
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 12:37 p.m.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/hoyer-denied-chance-to-push-payroll-tax-cut-while-gop-holds-photo-op-videoo.php "Republicans just ignored Hoyer and refused to hear his unanimous consent request. The fill-in Speaker simply walked away."
RUKiddingMe
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 11:26 a.m.
Seems like it' s alittle late to be displaying all this bluster and righteous indignation. There was corruption and incompetence, you FINALLY got caught. All this surprise and being taken aback by officials strikes me as either dishonesty or just continued verification of their incompetence.
stevek
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 11:21 a.m.
Boy, I wonder where kids get their mentality and attitudes these days.
cinnabar7071
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 11:08 a.m.
If I stormed out of a meeting at work, I'd be fired. These people need to join the real world. Stop acting like children. We pay you to do a adult job, act like it.
djacks24
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 8:03 p.m.
"Walking out is basically saying that not only do we rescind our support and approval of those on the board, but today we're saying we're removing our support from Mayor Schreiber not recommending them to be removed." I think it shows you're immature and and have temper tantrums if you don't get your way. This isn't your parents trying to make you eat your veggies or turning off the TV because it's bedtime. This is reality where you are making a fool of yourself.
ypsituckian
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 1:44 p.m.
"It sounds like you are not empowered at work." Really, Ron? Maybe your work environment encourages emotional expression - and that's great. But, I think in most work environments, walking out of a meeting is probably frowned upon. Where I work, if someone were to storm out, people would just continue the meeting without that person. It kind of sounds like the opposite of "empowered". I have to agree with Cinnabar.
Ron Granger
Wed, Aug 22, 2012 : 12:44 p.m.
It sounds like you are not empowered at work. Some people will refuse to participate in a sham. Some of us wonder if there should be criminal charges as a result of what has been reported. Would you want to continue to be a part of that? I would not. The housing commission needs to be fired. I see no point in retaining them any longer. Start fresh.