Zimmerlink, newspaper derided for housing authority criticism
Fellow board members derided Angela M. Zimmerlink at Wednesday’s Fayette County Housing Authority meeting, saying she is against public housing and the poor, and that she recently made inflammatory statements about her peers and authority operations. Board Chairman Kenneth L. Johnson and board treasurer Beverly Beal led the anti-Zimmerlink charge, with Johnson calling her “one crusader” who claims to be trying to save the authority money.
An admittedly angry Beal fumed, “You’re against housing, period. You should not even be sitting in that chair.”
Zimmerlink in her own defense said, “I’m not against public housing. I’m against what public housing has become.”
Board members also took some swipes at the Herald-Standard for running editorial cartoons that lampooned a planned $900,000 renovation of Coolspring Street housing units and the hot water the authority is in for business dealings involving relatives of Executive Director Thomas L. Harkless.
“They did the same thing in World War II, with the Jews in Germany. It’s called propaganda,” said Johnson, holding up the Coolspring Street cartoon. “They can make fun of the housing, but they’re making fun of the poor, the disadvantaged, the veterans. It’s more or less a propaganda against housing.”
Board member Nancy Sutton said she resented the editorial cartoon that depicted a limousine parked in front of the Coolspring Street units. Beal added, “I think that was a slap in the face of the tenants.”
Zimmerlink, who asked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate the business dealings involving Harkless’ relatives, held firm in her belief that the public needed to know about improprieties she believes the board was trying to bury.
“Did I create these (HUD) findings?” asked Zimmerlink, referring to the document whereby HUD noted violations of the authority’s own procurement policy and of federal regulations in the way business was conducted.
Zimmerlink added that the day after the board’s March 27 executive session where the business dealings were discussed, she authored a memorandum asking the board to meet again to follow up on the issue. After that memo and its request for a solicitor’s opinion was ignored for six weeks, Zimmerlink said she turned to HUD for help.
“It’s not a personnel matter; it’s a procurement (policy) matter,” said Zimmerlink. “I (still) haven’t heard from Jack (solicitor John M. Purcell) on this topic.”
Beal was adamant that she and other board members weren’t taking the matter as lightly as Zimmerlink and others have portrayed. Beal said it was she who discovered Harkless’ family connections and that she promptly brought them to Johnson’s attention. She said that Johnson mentioned alleged nepotism as one topic of executive session discussion at the March 27 meeting.
“It was no secret. It was out. This board did not try to hide (what happened),” said Beal, who added that it was appropriate to discuss the concerns in executive session rather than in public. “When it’s a personnel matter, I’m certainly not going to get sued.”
Board member the Rev. Howard E. Dantzler Sr. said he’s concerned about the image of the housing authority that’s being presented to the public, an image he thinks is deeply rooted in past perceptions. Without mentioning the era of jailed former Executive Director John Marra, Dantzler referred to an “atmosphere of anti-housing that has carried over” into the current era.
“We’re nurturing some of those old antagonisms that are out of place here (now),” said Dantzler. He also said some people have a “naivete of economics” and thus do not fully appreciate the authority’s role as a distributor of federal funds in the local economy.
Dantzler said “everybody in Fayette County benefits” from the work the authority does. Johnson added that in the past two years, the authority has spent $11 million in federal funds just on the construction/renovation side.
Johnson also said that of the $900,000 earmarked for the Coolspring Street renovation project, only $300,00 is for materials while the remaining $600,000 is for labor costs that must be paid at federally mandated rates.
“Why (are you against it)?” asked Johnson. “Because they’re in a black neighborhood or it’s for the poor?
Zimmerlink said she is not against improving the 11 Coolspring Street units but does not think a complete interior and exterior renovation is needed. She said she favors doing the upgrade in a “more efficient way” that would improve the units at a cost less than $82,319 per unit.