New landlord in store for city’s rentals
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 9, 2002
On Monday night, the City of Albert Lea took the first step toward getting out of the housing business.
Tuesday, April 09, 2002
On Monday night, the City of Albert Lea took the first step toward getting out of the housing business.
If everything goes according to plan, the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority will cease to exist on July 22 and the city will cede management of the whole enterprise to an independent administrative board, which would be free to set its own policies and hire and supervise its employees.
Funding for all of the housing programs comes from the federal ministry for Housing and Urban Development, and no city money is involved, said Paul Sparks, city manager.
The whole process, according to council member Ron Sorenson, took nearly a year and a half to complete. The HRA board approved the plan at its meeting in March.
One issue of some concern to council members was the status of the housing authority’s seven existing employees. The expectation is that the new board will retain all of them, at least in the short term, but discussion centered on whether the council should make a guarantee of job retention part of the plan.
Sparks reported that the housing staff was &uot;nervous&uot; about the proposed changes, particularly about the status of their pensions. As employees of an independent agency, those employees would no longer be eligible for the city pension plan, although they could probably be included in the city’s health plan.
Al Brooks, council member, asked about a guarantee of jobs for the employees, at least in the short term. But consensus among the others was that if the new board were to be truly independent, it would need to have the freedom to make its own decisions about employees. &uot;It’s hard to predict what they’ll want to do. They might want fewer workers, but they may want more,&uot; said Sparks.
In the end, the matter was dropped, but the employment status of the current workers will be discussed in future meetings between the city’s HRA board and the newly appointed independent board. According to the plan, the next step is to recruit and then appoint members to the new board, which would act as a shadow board during the balance of the transition. A new housing director would then be hired, with final approval and the work of the new board beginning in July.
Council members will each come up with at least two names of people in their wards who would be willing to serve on the new board, with the mayor making the final selections. They would then have to be approved by the full council.
Currently, the city’s HRA board operates nearly 200 rental units, and provides administrative support for other federal housing programs, including the Section 8 program, which currently provides rent certificates for more than 150 low-income residents. The city took on the role of managing the housing units and programs for the federal government 20 years ago.
According to Sparks, part of the reason for the change is the age of the public housing units in the city. Most are now at least 30 years old, and maintenance issues are becoming both more costly and time consuming. These issues are especially prevalent at the Shady Oaks high rise, where increasing numbers of tenants with special needs are requiring more oversight and work by maintenance staff, he said.
There have also been problems with the Section 8 program, because average rental costs in Albert Lea exceed the federal government’s guidelines. Certificate holders are having trouble finding housing that qualifies, Sparks said.
&uot;These issues need the response of a full-time manager and a separate policy board, not part-time staff and a policy board which only meets for 30 minutes once a month,&uot; said Sparks. He sees an independent board and director as having the flexibility to deal with changes in federal housing policies and programs.
Sparks is one of three city staff who currently shares part-time responsibility for oversight of the city-managed apartments and other housing programs. The other two are Bill Schmitt, assistant city manager, and Bob Graham, the city planner, who actually bears the brunt of the responsibility for day-to-day decision-making. Their time is reimbursed to the city by the federal government.