First Priority: Are Residents Being Served?

Are the residents of the Brooksville Housing Authority (BHA) being served? If they are being served, are they getting the best value for the dollars spent?

My name is Yvette Taylor, and I am a resident of Hillside Estates located in the Brooksville Housing Authority. I was recently appointed as a board member of the BHA. Having just recently read the 59-page HUD report on the BHA and the last several months of news accounts, I have observed at no time that the Brooksville City Council or the print media ever asked or answered these two questions. These questions and their answers should be the focus and responsibility of Mayor Pugh and the city council, the BHA Board and the BHA executive director.

Instead, what has happened? The city council has, for decades, ignored the corruption and neglect of the BHA. They would like citizens of Brooksville to think they were blindsided by the current situation. However, the facts are that for years Councilman Bernardini has been warning the council that widespread corruption existed at the BHA, but he and his warnings were dismissed by fellow council members. Currently, the mayor is obsessed with deflecting this question being asked of them: Why have Councilman Bernardini and his warnings about the BHA internal problems been dismissed?

It is clear that these two city officials are trying to shift the focus and blame to the newly formed BHA board. The mayor refused to fill a vacant BHA board position because of some unfounded death threats. This created an imbalance with the board that resulted in one or two split votes. The next news item is that the board is deadlocked and can't function. It was the mayor who created the BHA board's deadlocking and split vote problems by not appointing the seventh board member. In the eyes of the mayor, however, it is the fault of the BHA board that they are deadlocked.

The next tactic of the mayor was even more drastic and illogical: He wants to remove four of the six remaining board members and replace them with bankers, engineers and lawyers so they can oversee the day-to-day operation of the board. This sounds not only like micromanaging, but also that the mayor has created his own board in the back room.

The BHA is an organization serving a group of people who have fallen on hard times. They want a better life, but they need some help to get to the next step in their lives. It is ill-planned and ill-advised thinking to believe that this selected and elite group of professionals would have the slightest understanding about the frustration and needs of the BHA residents.

I challenge the mayor to answer the two questions I stated at the beginning of this letter. I already know the answers. When I was appointed to the BHA board, the authority was several hundred thousands of dollars in debt; 16 units weren't occupied, some as long as 10 years; and residents had been intimidated to the point that they would not complain when there was a problem in their homes. Now, though, the authority is financially solvent; 13 of the 16 vacant units are now occupied; and the other three will be ready for occupancy by January 2008. Residents are now freely reporting problems with their homes. We are gaining a sense of community. And, amazingly, all of this was done in six months. The BHA board and its management have accomplished more in less than six months than the previous boards and management did in the past 20 years. How could anyone think that these goals could have been reached by a dysfunctional board and management?

My advice to the mayor is to stop with the politics and focus on getting answers to these two critical questions: Are the residents of BHA being served? Are they getting the best value for the dollars spent?

Yvette Taylor

Brooksville