MANSFIELD — Kathy Shambre said she was grateful for the full agenda at Tuesday’s Mansfield Metropolitan Housing Authority meeting.
Shambre said MMHA board members completed a number of objectives Tuesday after a court order removed two former board members, including approving the minutes from 10 meetings since Aug. 23.
“We just hope that things go smoothly and we get the projects done,” Shambre said.
At the first board meeting since the removal of two former board members Debra Chase and Isoleen Dunn, the MMHA voted to accept the termination of former acting executive director Stephanie Hartzler.
Steve Andrews, MMHA executive director, updated board members on the Turtle Creek project, which secured bond gap financing from the Ohio Housing Finance Agenc in October.
“They saw this as a very worthwhile project and gave us more funding than they had given anybody else throughout the calendar year,” Andrews said. “We’re probably looking at early spring of next year for them having that closed out and approved, and that’s when we’ll start construction.
“That’s a big deal — 120 brand-new units, which are two- and three-bedroom units, as most of Turtle Creek is one bedroom.”
Rents in Turtle Creek’s current units are $625, which include utilities and cable. Andrews said that rent brings in more than $200,000 annually. The MMHA plans to put that rent revenue toward updating entryways, lighting and flooring in the 46-year-old property.
“For our tenants out there, knowing that we were raising their rent, we wanted to make sure to take care of them,” Andrews said.
The MMHA board also approved a resolution Tuesday to raise the minimum rent for its tenants back to $50.
“We changed it to $0 six or eight months ago because we wanted to use as much (Housing and Urban Development) money during the calendar year as we could,” Andrews said. “But we’re allowed to adjust that number, and this will help keep us from overspending.”
The MMHA board also discussed contract updates to protect employees from legal liability. The board’s new legal counsel, Matt Dooley, suggested eliminating employment action ratification requirements in board meetings after an executive director’s hiring decisions.
As the bylaws stood before this decision, MMHA board members had to ratify personnel decisions made by the executive director, including hiring, firing, demoting or suspending employees.
“If the board starts getting involved in deciding to ratify or not ratify a decision, you might have an unhappy employee who takes it to legal lengths and not only sues the authority, but can sue individual board members, which creates liability for them,” Andrews said.
“Board members could decide to try to control or make personnel decisions and make sure they take care of their friends,” he continued. “If somebody did get terminated and three or four weeks passed before our next board meeting, a board member could say, ‘We don’t want to ratify that.’”
The elimination of employment action ratification requirements is retroactive to Jan. 24, 2022 for all current employment contracts.
To close Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved adding an addendum to an employee contract who works for the MMHA and the Ohio Housing Authorities Conference.
The employee will work under the same contract that has existed between the two organizations, with the condition they can’t be terminated by the MMHA without approval from the OHAC governing board.
The board also voted to add Shambre and Ron Biddle as active signers to the MMHA bank accounts at Park National Bank. Dunn and Chase were active signers on the accounts before they were removed from the board.
Andrews was already an active signer and remains one. Once Park National Bank receives the signed resolution, it will add Shambre and Biddle and remove Dunn and Chase from the accounts.
“I’m confident that meetings will go smoothly and I feel really good about moving forward,” Andrews said. “I know there’s a lot of good that we can be doing and the current members of this board have been behind that from the beginning.”
Kathy Shambre, board chair
Sarah Hairston, vice chair
Ron Biddle
Barbara Fulton, new appointee
Fran Jenkins, new appointee
Executive Director Steve Andrews attends MMHA board members and reads agenda items, but is not a voting member of the MMHA board.
Former acting executive director Stephanie Hartzler was voted out of her position and terminated from the MMHA.
