Board aims to name new Interim public housing head next week

Kyle Housing Authority Board Chairman Daniel Harper said tonight it is the desire of the board to emerge from its executive session at next Thursday’s meeting and announce the hiring of an interim director for the authority.

The authority’s embattled current executive director, Vickie Simpson, has submitted her resignation effective Dec. 31.

Depending on the number of candidates the board chooses to interview, that could make for an exhaustively long executive session next week. You would have to estimate a complete and thorough process would take at least one hour for each candidate interviewed.

Last week the board said it was considering a number of different options involving executive leadership at the authority, but tonight Board member Clara Rodriguez said the board has decided to go with the option of hiring an interim director and that she expected the city to post the position on its web site.

"Our No. 1 objective right now is to get an interim executive director," Harper said. "My hope is that at the next meeting we will have made the progress we need to make, do the interviewing we need to do with the candidates and be in a position to make a decision as soon as possible."

After the meeting was over, Harper elaborated even further.

"My hope is that my fellow commissioners will do the groundwork they need to do to have the most viable candidates in for executive session next Thursday and approve one next Thursday after executive session," he said.

Next Thursday’s meeting will be the third consecutive Thursday meeting held by the board and its final one for 2016, Harper said. Beginning next year, he wants the board to meet biweekly and then quickly move to monthly and soon after that quarterly meetings. No meetings beyond next week’s, however, have been scheduled. Harper said he would ask the board’s vice chair, Michelle Lopez, to survey board members to determine convenient days and times for them o meet and then to coordinate those schedules with the city secretary.

The board also approved a one-year contract with a San Antonio accounting firm to conduct its audit for the fiscal year that ended this past June 30, but delayed for a week a decision on whether to approve a contract with the same attorneys that currently provide legal services to the city. Currently the board is receiving no outside legal advice or guidance.