BESIDE THE POINT

FMHA deserves points for perseverance

Posted

There’s something that’s lingering from last week’s news cycle.

It was a busy cycle with news of the shared athletic programs being salvaged between Fort Madison High School and Holy Trinity Catholic, and Fort Madison and Central Lee.

We feel exhausted from the debate, and the pressure that debate put on the friendships that are part of the fabric of this community.

There was a collective exhale when the announcement was made that the Fort Madison school board had ultimately voted to continue the shared programs. We can’t ignore the hesitation in the original vote to extend the shared programs, any more than we can ignore the same sense of hesitation when the Fort Madison school board changed direction and approved all the shared agreements, albeit with more compensation from the sharing districts.

But we exhaled, nonetheless.

The sigh was short-lived as we then heard rumblings out of the Fort Madison Housing Authority of an alleged heavy-handed FMHA commissioner action to suspend director Mike Dear and a maintenance man he hired with a criminal background.

Commission Chairwoman, and Fort Madison City Councilwoman Rebecca Bowker, called for the action to suspend the two FMHA staffers.

A special meeting was called to vote on the action to suspend the two, but Commissioner Jamie Carle, a Fort Madison police captain, voted to table the action. Dear’s suspension was never acted on and the action against the maintenance man was tabled. Bowker then resigned immediately, the second resignation in less three days. Commission member Linda Larkin resigned at the beginning of the week.

But life goes on at the Housing authority, and with the close to 200 area residents the authority helps with housing assistance, that’s good.

But because there are so many people helped by the program, it deserves a closer look.

We’ve reached out to the Dept of Housing and Urban Development for clarifications about authority oversight. HUD officials said they don’t have a role in the day-to-day operations of the authority other than adhesion to the federal contract that controls the authority’s funding.

The oversight of the authority seems to rest with the Commission. The commission is comprised of now just three members, most of whom have less than two years on the board.

Training for commission members is optional at best. The authority itself has gone through three directors in the past three years.

HUD conducted a site audit in 2022, the first one in close to five years. Typically, those audits are done every three years, but with COVID, the visits got spaced out. When HUD caught wind that funds were being spent contrary to language in the contract, specifically on upkeep of property owned by the county, they started paying attention.

The authority staff continues to do the work of the program and for the people who get that assistance - whether it's through the federal Housing Voucher program or FMHA property.

After some initial digging, it appears that the staff has been moving at the direction of the commission and HUD, including ending the contract with the county to manage those properties.

After several visits to the authority offices, the frustration level is pretty high with the staff there over the appearance that the authority is in disarray. But despite the recent hiccups in procedure, the housing assistance program continues to function under Dear’s leadership.

What needs looked at is not the operational side of the program, but the oversight.

The authority is a governmental agency per Iowa Code, but the code, as it is in most cases, is very ambiguous.

HUD can, and occasionally does, penalize authorities for misuse of funds, but their spokespeople have been very clear about delineating HUD’s oversight with the commission’s. Commission members are appointed by Fort Madison mayor and approved by the City Council.

Yet the council has very little, to any, additional oversight of the authority.

The authorities’ bylaws are more than 50 years old and have been amended only one time to include Equal Opportunity Housing language. The authority is actually called the Fort Madison Low Rent Housing Agency, a name that has been lost to political correction.

So, absent any clear oversight, and a board of commissioners that has seen two resignations in the past seven days, Dear and company are moving ahead.

As Mayor Matt Mohrfeld works to reset the FMHA Commission in the wake of Bowker’s resignation, a couple things need highlighted.

Bowker gave 18 years to the Commission, while also serving on the City Council and running for state office. That service to community can’t, and shouldn’t, be ignored.

Neither should the efforts of Dear and his staff in holding down the “fort”, as well as his argument for grace in hiring a man with a criminal background. Dear does have authority to staff the authority as needed.

The commission doesn’t appear to have authority to sign off on the hiring according to its bylaws. With jobs going unfilled and people not yet ready to come out of the protective shell of Covid couch living, maybe a little tempered, well-intentioned, and well-thought grace is in order. But that grace is on Dear. He knows it and is comfortable with it.

So we let Mike Dear, who took this job just four months ago, continue to do what he was hired to do. The Mayor and council go to work resetting the commission so it can guide the housing authority operations in accordance with federal, state, and local regulations.

This story is one to watch because the work is too important. We’ve asked for data from HUD on FMHA scoring from audits over the past 12 years and we’ve asked for documentation from the authority to see what communication took place regarding contract infringements HUD alleges took place in Fort Madison.

Until that time, the beat goes on.

Speaking of a good beat, I stopped in at V.O’s in Burlington and tried poutine for the first time. The chef there had recently reconfigured the appetizer and included grilled shrimp on the fries, cheese curds, gravy, and seasoning. Seriously…that’s something to make a trip for, but that’s Beside the Point.

Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.v@pencitycurrent.com.

Fort Madison, editorial, Housing authority, opinion, Beside the Point, commission, Housing and Urban Development, Pen City Current, Sunday,

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