FCHA planning renovations at Dawson Homes
The Forrest City Housing Authority Board on Thursday discussed an upcoming renovation project at the Dawson Homes Apartments complex.
During the group’s regular meeting, members also approved the hiring of Juanita Bean as the maintenance inventory administrator, in an effort to reduce theft within the department. Bean is the wife of Anthony (Tony) Bean, the agency’s current maintenance supervisor.
The board also discussed how raises were handled under former director Denise Grady.
Interim FCHA Director Donna Matthews said a ceiling replacement project will soon begin at the Dawson Homes complex.
"On the contract for the ceiling replacement, I have all the bids that were given from four different contractors, and if you look at the bids, you can see how high they are," said Matthews. "We went with Charles Watkins for $590,000. Tony came here tonight to talk about what they will be doing inside of the units."
"What they are going to do inside the units is go into every room and strip it out with one-byfours and put sheetrock, new lights, beds and crown molding in every room," said Tony Bean. "They were going to do the closets, but we took that out. It will just be the bedrooms. I have the plans here, as well, as what the charge will be per unit for this plan. They will screw one-by-fours to the ceiling and then attach half-inch sheetrock to that."
Matthews told the board that the agency is having a problem with inventory that regularly comes up missing from the maintenance shop on Dawson Road.
"When I worked here a few years back, I was up at Grobmyer and Charlotte Wooten was here," said Matthews. "This building was not here and our office was over across the street with the maintenance shop. When this office was built, the wall over there that was up between the two offices was torn down where maintenance could just go in and grab whatever they needed whenever they needed it. The
(Continued from Page 1) reason I am bringing this up is because every year on our audit, the inventory is what is coming up bad for us because we are not able to keep our inventory equaled out. Our inventory on certain items is coming up in the negative, and we are not supposed to have a negative."
Matthews recommended hiring a maintenance inventory supervisor.
"Tony and I have built that wall back," said Matthews. "What we are going to do is when a work order comes through the office, it will be sent over to the maintenance shop, and I want to hire someone to be our maintenance inventory sdministrator."
According to Matthews, this position would allow for items to be counted regularly and only the items needed for a work order to be taken out of inventory.
"This person would take inventory of every single item over here and at the Grobmyer maintenance shop so that we have a number to start off with," said Matthews. "Every time a work order comes in, it will go to the maintenance shop and they will pull the items needed for the work order. When the maintenance person comes over, they will have to sign the items out. They will take responsibility of taking inventory out of this office. Tony is the only person who can go purchase anything that is needed so that we have an invoice. I am looking for someone we can trust."
Matthews noted that stealing from the agency has to be stopped in some way.
"I recommend we hire Juanita Bean," said Matthews. "I have worked with her a lot. I know she knows inventory because she has worked with it a lot, and I believe she is an honest person. I think with this wall and hiring someone to put over there, it will make our numbers and our audits a lot better. We have blinds coming up missing. A work order asks for two and four are taken out. A lot of them are going to get mad about this because they have to take responsibility, but this is a company. If you are going to steal from the company, you don't need to be here. You already get paid a paycheck, so why make another living selling Forrest City Housing Authority inventory? It's not right."
The board unanimously approved hiring Juanita Bean, with board member Emily Holley absent from the meeting.
Board chair Earnestine
Weaver asked Matthews about raises that had been given under Grady's administration.
"When we brought Mr. Bean back, we brought him back with full restitution," said Weaver. "He has not said anything to me but it has been told to me that people got raises while he was off and he was not given those raises when he came back. Check and see about that and bring him up to par."
"I was looking through some files today to find medical pages and I noticed where she had given raises to everyone except him," said Matthews.
"Are you saying that Mrs. Grady just arbitrarily gave people raises?” asked board member John Pope. "In the past we have always done that in our December meeting and then discussed the Christmas bonus."
Matthews explained that people were given raises just prior to Grady's departure from the agency late last year.
"She gave everyone a raise on September 30 just before she put in for the new budget but he did not get one done," said Matthews. "I noticed one of them got a tremendous amount of a raise. It bumped that person up to what Tony was making as supervisor and that person is still here."
"The supervisor should be paid more than the people they are supervising," said Weaver. "I do not suggest that we go and take that raise back because that would just be unfair, but Tony should be paid more than that. Figure that out and give me a call."