Housing authority board must OK seminar and training requests
The Fayette County Housing Authority Thursday voted to make future seminar and training requests for FCHA employees subject to board approval, an action that prompted the executive director to tell the board it was getting close to “micro-managing.” The suggestion came from board member Beverly Beal, who said she was not picking on anyone and just wants trips approved by the board.
Executive Director Thomas Harkless said he was a “little confused” by the suggestion, asking Beal if she thinks employees have been excessively taking trips. Harkless said he just wanted to make sure the board is not tying his hands. “I think you are getting close to micro-managing,” Harkless said.
Beal said it is taxpayers’ money and if administrators, staff or board members go to places such as Las Vegas, the board should approve it. Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink disputed the assertion it was micro-managing, saying Beal just wants formal approval as an internal control, “to be better informed.”
Zimmerlink said seminars or training are different than meetings, which Harkless said he may be asked to attend from time to time.
She said notification of seminars and training sessions normally occurs 30 to 60 days before they occur.
The motion was approved with a 2-1 vote, with Beal and Zimmerlink voting in favor of it and William “Trip” Radcliffe voting against it.
Board members James V. Bitonti and Nancy Sutton were absent.
In response to a question from Zimmerlink about reported elevator issues at Marshall Manor, Harkless said there were 13 work orders last year outside of preventive maintenance, including two reports of people stuck in the elevators, and only one time was a person found stuck in an elevator.
Andre Walters, director of technical services, said new controllers were installed at the elevators a year and a half ago. He described the work as “routine.”
Also regarding Marshall Manor, Zimmerlink said a petition signed by individuals complaining about the parking situation at the elderly apartment building in Uniontown was also signed by Fayette County Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites.
Zimmerlink said Charmaine Sampson, administrative assistant to Commissioner Joseph A. Hardy III, sent a letter suggesting a solution to the parking problem. In the letter, with commissioners’ letterhead, Sampson suggested setting aside spaces in the front of the library for Marshall Manor residents. “Keep that area strictly for handicapped parkers and force the other to park across the street,” Sampson wrote.
The letter, written to Harkless and Dan Webster, solicitor for the city of Uniontown, suggested that a fee arrangement could be worked out between the FCHA and the city.
Zimmerlink suggested Vicites and Hardy could do something about the problem.
Walters said Marshall Manor isn’t the only site with parking problems, adding that at White Swan apartments in Uniontown, they have the same issue, and it may be worse.
Solicitor Jack Purcell said the authority would look at parking solutions.
The board voted to change the employer contribution amount for non-union employees to 13 percent, effective July 1. The FCHA previously dropped the employer contribution amount to 13 percent for members of the maintenance employees union last year. A group of employees who formerly were in the project managers’ union is no longer union employees.
Zimmerlink explained all other employees in the FCHA now fall under this new resolution.
Changing the date to July 1 will correspond with a pay period and the beginning of a fiscal year. Harkless said the plan only requires a 30-day notification.