New London Housing Authority to vote on hiring outside management

Private firm would have oversight and director

New London — The city’s housing authority is poised for another major change as its Board of Commissioners today is scheduled to vote on whether to hire an outside firm to take over management of its shrinking portfolio of properties.

The commission will consider a proposal by housing and service management company Imagineers LLC to provide not only oversight but an executive director.

It’s a move that interim Housing Authority Executive Director Lee Erdmann said would help improve services for residents and provide much-needed stability to an organization plagued by years of persistent problems.

Erdmann is one of several interim directors hired since the housing authority board of commissioners cut ties with former housing authority director Sue Shontell in 2016. Her departure came during a time of turmoil that included an overhaul of the board, a “substandard,” label from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and continued call for action to address ongoing complaints about the state of the federally subsidized Thames River Apartment complex.

The authority is currently in the process of moving families out of the Thames River Apartments, which have been deemed outdated and perhaps, Erdmann said, the last high-rise complex in the state where families are housed. The housing authority now maintains five properties with 433 units, a number that will fall to 309 once the move from Thames River is completed.

Imagineers earlier this year performed an assessment of the housing authority’s five properties and determined it could provide oversight and some of its own manpower to improve areas that include finance, human resources, information technology and maintenance. The assessment also determined housing authority maintenance employees are inadequately trained for their jobs.

The housing authority’s 18 employees fear the move to hire Imagineers would lead to unemployment while some residents remain concerned about future rent hikes. The new executive would report to the Board of Commissioners.

While a downsizing of authority holdings may ultimately lead to a smaller workforce, Erdmann said there are no immediate plans for layoffs. Imagineers, in its report, said the emptying of the Crystal Avenue high rises was a “good opportunity to determine appropriate staff size and skill level going forward.”

Erdmann said Imagineers could better position the authority to capture state and federal funds available to help upgrade and rehabilitate existing properties and build new properties to meet the need for affordable housing.

Imagineers, which has its own management division, currently manages the housing authorities in the towns of Canton and Darien and administers Section 8 vouchers for nine other housing authorities in the state. Erdmann said Imagineers would work to regain the 114 vouchers the housing authority gave up to the state several years back.

Erdmann declined to release the cost of a contract proposal by Imagineers since it is still being hashed out by attorneys from each side. In its assessment, Imagineers anticipates a salary for its executive director commensurate with those of past housing authority directors and a $7,500 per month management fee to cover ongoing services.

Commissioner Kathleen Mitchell, whom fellow commissioners in November recommended for removal from the commission, said she was not opposed to exploring the idea of outside management but planned to vote against the plan. Mayor Michael Passero has not acted on the recommendation to remove Mitchell.

Her reasons, she said, surround the commission’s refusal to follow policies and procedures or fully divulge information to the entire commission. For instance, she said, the entire process leading up to the choice of Imagineers was never discussed in public or with the entire commission.

The selection committee, which also considered the New Haven and Wallingford housing authorities for the job, was composed of Chairwoman Betsy Gibson, Vice Chairman Shannon Heap and Erdmann.

“They’ve been lying and doing business behind closed doors,” Mitchell said. “This is not the right way to do things.

Mitchell said the commission should have had time to review Imagineers’ assessment and Imagineers itself as a company. Along with what Mitchell called other “troubling information,” Imagineers reached a settlement with the federal government in 2015 to pay $30,000 in connection with a civil complaint in 2012 against Imagineers and two other entities connected to the charging of higher-than-average rents for tenants in the Section 8 program.

Mitchell said she has invited Susette Kelo to Tuesday’s meeting. Kelo, her pink house and her neighbors were at the epicenter of the city’s eminent domain fight at Fort Trumbull, which eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court and led to a controversial ruling allowing the city to take the land for economic development purposes.

Mitchell said Kelo is interested in representing housing authority residents and staff, the “people who don’t have a voice.”

Tuesday’s meeting starts at 6 p.m. at 127 Hempstead St.