THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609270525
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By KATRICE FRANKLIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 54 lines
This weekend, commissioners of the Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority will try to move closer toward solutions and common goals.
For the first time in the agency's history, the commissioners will meet in an all-day retreat, Saturday at the Planters Club. They will work with a consultant on team-building skills and establishing a vision and goals.
``We need this retreat,'' Chairman John H. Kindred said in a recent meeting. ``We need to get off to ourselves and understand each other and talk about our needs.''
During the past three years, the authority's image has been tarnished by mismanagement problems that some city officials and residents say resulted from a lack of communication and absence of a strategy to improve the city's housing stock. With an annual budget of more than $3 million, the SRHA owns and operates 466 public housing units in five communities and manages more than 1,200 subsidized-rent units.
The authority also has had trouble working with the City Council, which appoints the board members. City officials have been pushing the authority to focus on redevelopment, but Suffolk also has an abundance of dilapidated housing that lacks sewer and water hook-ups.
Members of the board hope to use the retreat to work on solving those problems.
``We each have a difference of opinion,'' said Commissioner Mary Richardson. ``If we can work together in a retreat and talk about those differences, when we come back, we can all be of one accord.''
But accomplishing that might be difficult because not all the commissioners even agree with the retreat's agenda. Several commissioners on the seven-member board object to spending time on team-building skills. The agency has hired Creative Solutions, a Portsmouth-based firm, to help them better communicate. The consultants are charging about $2,500.
``I think we need to plan where we want the housing authority to go,'' John B. Faircloth said in a recent meeting. ``I don't think we need someone to tell us how to get along.''
Clarissa E. McAdoo, the board's new executive director, said the retreat will give the board the start it needs to prepare for a positive future.
Three years ago, the agency was accused of mismanaging a $1 million rental-rehabilitation program designed to upgrade some of the city's worst dwellings. The authority recently began paying the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development installments on what it owes.
In those three years, the agency has had three directors and has had almost all new commissioners. McAdoo has been in position six weeks, and Kindred has been in his post for two months.
``It's imperative that everybody's goals are clearly defined,'' McAdoo said. ``They are supposed to govern. I'm supposed to manage.
``And once the board comes up with goals and a mission, we can all start working together. The most successful boards hold retreats annually.''
The retreat will be from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The first half will focus on team-building skills. After lunch, the board will move on to forming a vision. by CNB