More dirty politics?
Fayette County Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink is stepping down from the Fayette County Housing Authority, saying she thinks some people will go to great lengths to bring negative attention to her if she stays on that board, and that she prefers to avoid such distraction. If her assessment is true, it’s further testament to politics being a very dirty game. Zimmerlink put in a solid 10 years on the FCHA board, rising from a one-vote minority to board chairwoman. Along the way she became an obvious target of those either seeking reprisal for positions she’d taken or interested in damaging her reputation. Before she became chairwoman, the FCHA spent thousands of dollars having a Pittsburgh law firm research whether she had breached her fiduciary responsibility as a board member by, of all things, performing her oversight role by bringing an operational concern to the attention of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
And even though she publicly revealed that her father was a Section 8 Program landlord as soon as she found out about it, and was told by the FCHA solicitor at a public meeting that it shouldn’t be a problem, Zimmerlink was later the target of a State Ethics Commission probe. Given all the ethics and operational problems the FCHA has endured through the years, it is a curiosity how otherwise sleeping lions began to roar concerning Zimmerlink.
“Despite these obstacles and others placed before me by those determined to undermine progress and determined to cast negative and false accusations, as a board member I performed my duties in the applicable fiduciary role and without conflicts as a county commissioner,” wrote Zimmerink in a statement regarding her decision to decline a one-year extension on the FCHA board.
Zimmerlink said that absent full commissioner support for her retention – Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites opposed it, on grounds that commissioners should not serve on boards they appoint – she would not serve on the FCHA.
Maybe Zimmerlink knows or suspects something we do not. But it sounds like she strongly believed forces lined up against her would mount yet another assault, one that would take the focus away from the mission at hand and would not be a service to the tenants and staff of the FCHA, or the taxpaying public.
” … Knowing that this year certain individuals will either directly or through the shadows go to great lengths to deflect attention, waste time, resources and public dollars concentrating on their political and personal vendettas and unfounded claims toward me, as a board member and county commissioner, rather than doing their job at the offices of the FCHA, in the commissioners’ office, in the courthouse and wherever else these individuals are employed or linger, I believe it is best and do withdraw my offer of service …,” wrote Zimmerlink.
Is the FCHA better off without Zimmerlink? Given her performance as a watchdog and public servant over the years, we don’t think so.