Housing authority chair resigns amid complaints
Council was eyeing removal after alleged threats, harassment
WINDSOR — The chairman of the commission that oversees the Windsor Housing Authority resigned Monday as the town council prepared to vote to begin the process to remove him.
Randy McKenney, a former town councilor, tendered his resignation hours before the council was scheduled to take up the issue of removing him from the post. The council voted 9-0 to accept the resignation.
If the council voted to begin the process of removing McKenney, he would have been given up to 30 days to respond to the complaints against him at a public hearing.
According to an item on the town council agenda, the reasons for seeking his removal included concerns and questions about a lack of regular meetings. Only four of the commission’s 11 meetings scheduled for 2020 were held, depriving public housing tenants an ability to voice concerns, ask questions and to advocate for themselves. The council also expressed concern that McKenney did not respond in a timely manner when council members pointed out workmanship and completion issues they observed at a $3.8 million renovation project at the Millbrook Village complex near the town center.
In November, a group of more than 50 residents also signed a petition to the town council complaining of issues related to the renovation project and the general treatment they were receiving from Windsor Housing Authority Executive Director Urleen Naughton and her staff.
Complaints included allegations that tenants were being forced to pay to have their belongings removed as they moved from one unit to another to accommodate the renovations and unfair treatment of disabled residents. Other allegations included poor or no response from the maintenance department on needed repairs like lack of heat and waste from toilets rising up through plumbing in other rooms, as well as threats and harassment of residents by the management team and Naughton.
Naughton has referred inquiries about the resignation to an attorney who represents the housing authority.
McKenney did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the complaints or his decision to resign.
Claire Howard, an attorney with Madsen, Prestley and Parenteau, has said in a written statement that the housing authority operates on a limited budget to provide safe and affordable housing to its tenants.
The Windsor Housing Authority website shows that the organization is seeking to hire a resident service coordinator whose duties include providing social service assistance and advocacy for seniors and adults with disabilities who live in public housing.
Howard also reiterated the housing authority’s assertion that they have no control over the renovation project and blamed the contractor for delays and poor workmanship and denied that residents have been mistreated by staff members.
Regarding McKenney’s resignation, Howard said Monday that the town council’s actions in considering a vote to remove McKenney were entirely outside of their legal authority.
“This action was clearly motivated by politics and not out of concern for the residents of Windsor Housing Authority properties,” she said
Adam Gutcheon, a board member since November, on Jan. 7 called on “every commissioner who has been complicit in this abandonment to resign immediately. If they are unwilling to resign, the town council must exercise the single power it does have over the Housing Authority: to remove commissioners and appoint new ones.”
Mayor Donald Trinks said the council, which only has say over the makeup of the commission, will seek a new member to fill the position and thanked McKenney for his service to the town.