Housing authority board to remain independent

Despite regional housing authorities’ apparent intent to take control of managing federally funded housing in Tucumcari by June 30, the board of the Tucumcari Housing Authority decided Thursday to remain independent rather than voluntarily relinquish management.

New Mexico Housing Authority director Floyd Duran told the THA board in a letter received Dec. 12 the state authority will draw up an action plan that will transfer control of Tucumcari’s U.S. Housing and Urban Development-funded housing operations to a regional housing authority based in Roswell, which state housing authorities had recommended in August.

The issue is control of nearly $800,000 per year in federal subsidies for residents of THA housing, regional officials said.

The THA board, which includes all city commissioners and public housing resident Timothy Durkin, voted unanimously to retain control of housing operations anyway. Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield did not attend Thursday’s meeting.

In November, the board delayed a decision, agreeing board members needed more time to take into account new information that had come to light only one day before the meeting in a letter from HUD officials and a telephone conversation between a federal regional housing official and Litchfield, city manager Britt Lusk and THA director Vicki Riddle.

In October, the state housing authority advised the board THA had failed for a fourth consecutive year to attain adequate performance scores in occupancy and collections of voucher payments.

Duran’s Dec. 12 letter indicated since the THA had failed to submit and action plan, the state office would submit its own for THA that includes transferring management of HUD housing systems to regional authority “before the end of the fiscal year,” which ends June 30.

The Dec. 12 letter repeated the state authority had suggested in August that THA surrender HUD housing operations to the regional authority.

On Thursday, District 1 City Commissioner Ralph Moya moved to retain independence, citing his unfavorable experiences in dealing with regional authorities in his work as a counselor.

District 2 Commissioner Amy Gutierrez said, “We are being set up for failure. We can’t beat it.”

Mayor Pro Tem Todd Duplantis, who led the meeting in Litchfield’s absence, said while he agreed THA was being set up to fail, he feared regional authorities would not be as responsive to local public housing resident needs as local authorities.

THA director Vicki Riddle, who said last month she would prefer to retain local control, said Thursday she could live with either choice.

“As long as I am employed,” she said, “I will give it my all.”

Durkin observed that at the state level, it seemed “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.”

The key issue in the THA’s low scores was apparently a failure to retain a 98 percent occupancy rate in public housing.

Lusk said then with only 90 units, that meant having two units unoccupied at any time would violate that 98 percent standard.

The Dec. 12 letter also faulted THA for its management of housing vouchers, saying the THA was slow in collecting debts.

In other areas, however, THA had scored well. It scored 37 of 40 in physical plant performance, 7 of 10 in capital fund performance and a perfect score of 25 in financial performance, according to a letter from Duran received in August.