Police Chief Resigns From ARHA Board

(Monday) February 22, 2010

Police Chief Resigns From ARHA Board

By Carla Branch

alexandrianews.org

Alexandria Chief of Police Earl Cook. (Photo: Regan Kireilis)

On Friday, Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook resigned from the Alexandria Redevelopment Housing Authority Board, citing a conflict with State law, which precludes City employees from serving on Housing Authority Boards.

Cook, who once lived in public housing in Alexandria, was appointed to the ARHA Board in December.  As a result of legal research recently conducted by the City Attorney, Cook was made aware that while City Charter (§ 2.04.3 ) does not prohibit his service on the Board, Virginia Code ( § 36 – 11) provides that “… no commissioner of any [ housing] authority may be an officer or employee, of the city or county for which the authority is created.”

“I respectfully submit my immediate resignation from the ARHA Board of Commissioners. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused and the necessity for Council to appoint a new commissioner. My short tenure with the ARHA Board afforded me new and positive insights into the scope and complexity of their mission, ” Cook said in a letter to the AHRA Board.

A. Melvin Miller is the ARHA Board Chair. “Even though Earl had only served on the Board for a short time, he was already making a contribution and had gained a much better understanding of the complex issues that ARHA faces,” Miller said. “We will miss him.”

The Alexandria City Council must now appoint a replacement and one additional member due to the need to replace an incumbent who will not reapply for another term. Just last week, Council appointed a new member to the Board, which caused some controversy. ARHA Board members questioned the amount of time the notice of vacancy was posted.

“With these additional vacancies, we have time to look for people with specific expertise in public housing,” said Councilman Rob Krupicka.

In the meantime, Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement raised more concerns about ARHA’s handling of the relocations of public residents because of the redevelopment of James Bland. “We are very concerned that these families are not being given sufficient notice before they are required to move and that they are not being paid relocation allowances,” said Duane Kay, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church and a member of VOICE.

Hattie Thompson, a James Bland resident, was relocated. Although she did not complain that she was not given proper notice or paid her relocation allowance, she said that she knew of residents who were not treated fairly. Thompson moved from a three bedroom home at James Bland to a three bedroom in the nearby Andrew Atkins complex on Dec. 7, 2009, according to ARHA documents, and was paid a relocation allowance. She chose to arrange her own move.

ARHA Executive Director Roy Priest discussed Bland relocations in a memorandum to Council, which was written just before Saturday’s public hearing where the concerns were raised.

According to the memo:

“The redevelopment of the first phase of the James Bland/ James Bland Addition sites required the displacement of 32 households. All households were issued four “Notices to Vacate” their units – at 120, 90 days, 60 and 30 days. The initial 120-Day Notice was issued on September 1, 2009. 87% percent of the households completed their relocation prior to the week of Christmas and the final households left their property on January 4, 2010 with ARHA assistance. ARHA spent $33,192 to relocate all of the households to their respective new locations.

TOTAL # OF RESIDENT HOUSEHOLDS 32

TOTAL # OF CHILDREN 38

TOTAL # OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN 26

The households were relocated to four different sites or areas of the City.   Seventy-five percent (75%) of the households (24) were relocated within the later phases of the James Bland redevelopment site or Chatham Square in order to minimize the movement of children from their current schools.  Only five households (16%) elected to move to the west side and 50% of the children in those households attend TC Williams.

BLAND

TOTAL # RELOCATED WITHIN BLAND 19

TOTAL # OF CHILDREN 22

TOTAL # OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN 13

OLD DOMINION

TOTAL # RELOCATED TO OLD DOMINION   2

TOTAL # OF CHILDREN   0

CHATHAM SQUARE

TOTAL # RELOCATED TO CHATHAM SQUARE   5

TOTAL # OF CHILDREN   5

TOTAL # OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN   3

West End

TOTAL NUMBER RELOCATED TO WEST END   5

TOTAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN   9

TOTAL # OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN   8

Relocation Benefits

All of the relocated households were entitled to payments for moving and utilities calculated on the number of rooms. The households could select to self-move or have a company move them. Ninety five percent of the households received funds to move themselves. All of the households have received full payment of their relocation benefits.

Transfers

In order to accommodate the maximum number of households in the first phase to stay within the immediate James Bland area it was necessary to transfer two households from other phases of the development area.  The transfers were also necessary to place persons in the correct size unit based upon their household composition.  Only single individuals were impacted by the transfer.  Both went to newly rehabbed units at the Old Dominion property.

The transfer policy approved by HUD, approved by the ARHA Board and incorporated as a provision of the executed lease does not require the payment of any financial payments to complete a transfer.  Therefore, the two households transferred to Old Dominion were not entitled to any form of monetary payment.  It should be noted, as outlined above, that two of the Phase One households were relocated to Old Dominion and received their entitled relocation benefit payment.

Outcome

The successful completion of the Bland Phase I relocation is the vital step to starting the construction of the First Phase of the project that will provide 18 ARHA units and 37 market rate sale units. The snowfall prevented the utility companies from completing the process of shutting off the utilities. The asbestos and rodent abatement steps have been completed so as soon as the utilities are shutoff, EYA will be able to apply for the demolition permit. After which, the groundbreaking (re-scheduled from March 9) will take place and the project will commence,” the memo said.

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