Kyle Housing Authority board schedules three more meetings this year

The newly constituted board for the Kyle Housing Authority met for the first time last night and took immediate action to hold three more meetings before the end of the year. Other than that ...?

The upcoming meetings have been scheduled for 5:45 p.m. on Dec 8, Dec. 15, and Dec. 22 in the City Council Chambers at City Hall.

The four board members who met (criminal defense attorney Veronica Sanders did not attend this initial meeting) also voted to name Daniel Harper, deputy vice chancellor for finance at Texas State, as its char, and former Kyle City Council member Michelle Lopez as its vice chair.

Mayor Todd Webster appointed the members to the board (the two others are Lisa Adams, community relations coordinator for the Central Texas Medical Center, and longtime Kyle resident Clara Rodriguez) after receiving a copy of a letter from a HUD regional director in San Antonio addressed to the executive director of the Kyle Housing Authority describing the findings of an inspection that revealed, among other things, some residents were living in apartments in one of the two housing units managed by the authority that didn’t contain operable stoves or refrigerators.

"For me, one of the things you can’t lose sight of is that it’s not the executive director, it’s not the board, it’s there are people that live in these two units that have needs that have to be addressed," Harper said after last night’s meeting adjourned. "That’s where I really think we need to go — worry about the present day, then the future and then we can talk about the past."

I asked whether the daily living conditions of residents should be the concern of the board or the authority’s executive director and how much emphasis the board was going to place on the hiring of a new director in lieu of the resignation, effective at the end of the year, submitted by the authority’s current director and accepted at last night’s meeting.

"The authority will rest with the Housing Authority board," Lopez said. "I think we have to determine quickly what the authority of the new director will be so we won’t have a break in that service."

When I asked specifically if they felt a sense of urgency about hiring a new executive director, Lopez said "I think we’re all concerned that we don’t have a break in what’s available so we’re working to figure out what to do so we can put some plans in place before the holidays coming up."

Both Lopez and Harper said they have had no communications with the authority’s current executive director, Vickie Simpson. But Lopez also said they weren’t officially sworn in as board members until last night’s meeting so that they had no authority to meet with Simpson.

"We are really starting today from ground zero at this moment in our roles," Lopez said.