Housing Authority calls special meeting for vote on executive director

Yahoo

17-04-2025

Eight days after the executive director of the Meadville Housing Authority pointed to the resignation of a board member as an 'easy resolution' to a conflict of interest that could result in sanctions for the authority, board members appear poised to move in a different direction.
After months of simmering tensions, board members will vote on whether to place Vanessa Rockovich on a temporary paid leave of absence effective immediately, according to an agenda for the meeting that was posted to the authority's website. The vote is part of a special meeting that takes place at 4:30 p.m. today in the Holland Towers community room. The meeting was announced in a legal advertisement in Wednesday's edition of The Meadville Tribune.
If the leave of absence is approved, the board also will vote to appoint an interim director and to amend the list of people authorized to sign for the authority in its banking transactions.
The special meeting comes after board members met in executive session Sunday afternoon to discuss 'a personnel matter,' according to the agenda. Executive sessions take place when a government agency meets behind closed doors to discuss topics that the state's open meetings law allows to be kept secret from the public.
The special meeting also comes after conflict between members has become increasingly evident at the authority's monthly meetings, with the three newest board members on one side, pushing for a variety of changes, and two more senior board members and Rockovich on the other, counseling patience in some cases and arguing that proposed changes are unneeded in others.
Board member Joe Tompkins, who was elected chair at the board's monthly meeting last week, has led the charge in the push to make changes and has repeatedly clashed with Rockovich since joining the board in November. A conflict of interest affecting Tompkins has also been a focus of attention for the board and a source of apparent frustration for both Rockovich and Tompkins.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) determined last fall that a conflict existed because the authority had a contract with Meadville nonprofit Common Roots for three housing choice vouchers, also known as Section 8 vouchers. Tompkins' wife, Julie Wilson, is the executive director of Common Roots. The number of vouchers is expected to soon be down to two, according to Rockovich.
HUD directed the Housing Authority to propose a course of action to resolve the conflict.
'The next step is to put together a proposed resolution of the conflict to submit to HUD for review and hopefully approval,' attorney Christopher Ferry said after Tompkins joined the board in November.
Last week, with Tompkins recusing himself, board members split 2-2 on two proposed resolutions to the conflict: either canceling the Common Roots contracts or seeking a waiver from HUD for Tompkins' conflict of interest.
With both motions failing due the tie votes, the future was left up in the air for both the affected tenants and the authority's relationship with HUD, which funds the authority.
'We'll find out,' Ferry said regarding the question of how HUD will respond to the board's inaction with regard to Tompkins' conflict of interest.
'I need to talk to HUD office to see what I'm allowed to do,' Rockovich added moments later.
There's no guarantee a waiver would be granted, but without one, the authority could face repercussions from HUD. Ferry estimated the likelihood of the waiver being granted at about 50 percent.
Marcia Yohe and Richard Zinn, the senior board members who have been in the minority for multiple votes over the past few months, proved unwilling to even ask for a waiver.
Yohe argued that votes on matters related to the authority's Section 8 program had led to multiple conflicts since Tompkins joined the board.
'Just because you're saying it's a conflict does not mean that HUD thinks it's a conflict. The choice before you was clear,' Tompkins responded.
'HUD will sanction us, so we want to know what the sanctions are,' Yohe said. 'That's what we've asked.'
In seeming disbelief, Tompkins replied, 'You're willing to risk the sanctions rather than simply request a waiver?'
Immediately after the meeting, Rockovich made her preferences clear regarding Tompkins' conflict of interest.
'As long as Joe remains on the board, then we're stuck,' she said. 'Easy resolution is, he could resign. HUD offices have been asking him to, so I don't understand the reason why we're going through this.'
After Rockovich's comments appeared in Friday's edition of the Tribune, however, Tompkins said in an email that her statement was untrue.
'HUD never asked me to resign,' he wrote in part.
Rockovich, in turn, reiterated her position but also revised her claim: She had emails in which HUD officials told her 'they have suggested it to him,' she said on Friday.
Asked to share the emails in question, Rockovich said she would seek permission from HUD to do so.
In a follow-up phone call Monday, Rockovich said she would need an additional day to consult with HUD officials or find another document that would back up her statement.
On Tuesday, she referred the matter to Ferry, the authority's attorney.
In an email Wednesday morning, Ferry said he would check 'to see what I have.'
By Wednesday evening, neither Rockovich nor Ferry had provided evidence to support Rockovich's assertion that HUD officials had asked Tompkins to resign.
The Meadville City Council members who appointed Tompkins to the Housing Authority in September have repeatedly expressed their support for his continuing on the board both in communications and in person during the public comment portions of authority meetings. In November, council members sent a letter of support for Tompkins and in March Councilwoman Autumn Vogel read from that letter to stress council's continuing support.
Councilwoman Gretchen Myers was in the audience last week when the board voted against seeking a waiver for Tompkins' conflict of interest.
As she stood to leave the meeting after the vote, she summed up her reaction in a single word: 'Disgusting.'