FMHA dispenses with staff investigations

Staff support

"We’re gonna dance with who we brought to the dance. We don’t need people looking over their shoulder worrying about their jobs."”

Chris Greenwald, FMHA Commission member

FORT MADISON – Actions that were originally intended to provoke an investigation into the work performances of two Fort Madison Housing Authority staffers have been dismissed.
At Thursday’s regular meeting of the FMHA, the Board of Commissioners dealt with two agenda items from a special meeting in May that was called to initiate the investigations in Executive Director Michael Dear and a maintenance staffer.
The meeting in May was attended by almost 40 people supporting Dear and his performance as the authority’s director.
At that meeting a motion to table the investigation into Dear’s work failed, but the item was left dangling at the meeting and wasn’t addressed. A motion to table the staffer was approved, but the staffer has since been terminated by Dear at the direction of the board.
According to interim board chair Jenny Devine, who was officially installed as the interim board chairwoman Thursday night, the staffer was terminated not for cause but because new policy guidelines wouldn’t have allowed him to be hired due to past criminal activity.
At Thursday’s meeting, the agenda items were brought back up but both died for a lack of a motion.
The board also installed new board members Chris Greenwald, Monte Butler, and Richard Thele.
All three were appointed by Mayor Matt Mohrfeld. Greenwald is a past Fort Madison City Councilman and Butler has more than three decades working for the Housing Authority.
The Housing Authority is regrouping in a sense that past chairman Linda Larkin and Rebecca Bowker both resigned in May. Bowker resigned after the intent to investigate both Dear and the maintenance worker were tabled at the last meeting.
Greenwald said it’s time for the commission and the staff to come together as a team and support each other.
“I came into this thinking we had some major problems, but really it’s just a wheel off the track,” he told the commission.
“We’re gonna dance with who we brought to the dance. We don’t need people looking over their shoulder worrying about their jobs.”
Devine initially nominated Greenwald to be the commission chair, but Greenwald deferred saying he hasn’t learned enough about the commission to lead it. He then asked Devine to stay on at least for two months until he can get a better feel for The Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the authority locally.
HUD provides funding to the authority through federal voucher programs and Greenwald, along with Butler and Thele, said they would like to have some time to familiarize themselves with the budgeting process.
Devine said her personal career is becoming more demanding and said she likely will be leaving the area in the next six months. Greenwald said at the point when she has to leave, he may be up to speed and would reconsider the chairmanship.
The authority recently canceled their contract with Lee County after HUD officials uncovered some improper use of federal funding to offset costs associated with the county properties.
Those issues have since been cleared up, but the county now has possession of the properties and is looking to divest themselves of properties including the housing properties, among other facilities to reset its budget.