DATE: Sunday, November 23, 1997             TAG: 9711230060

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LOUIS HANSEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   46 lines

SUFFOLK HOUSING WANTS NEW POST TO OVERSEE SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS

They need another strong manager, and they're a little bit camera-shy.

Those were two of the revelations that emerged Saturday as the Suffolk housing authority staff and five commissioners mulled over the past year's accomplishments and shortfalls at their annual retreat.

Despite two straight years of solid reviews from federal regulators, the Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority met to discuss goals for 1997 and concluded that it could still do better.

A top priority for the coming year is to create a new position for the housing operations director. The management position would oversee the work of the maintenance and housing departments, and the drug elimination specialist.

Executive Director Clarissa E. McAdoo said the maintenance and housing departments are inefficient and have failed to work well together. Weekly meetings have sometimes turned into shouting matches.

McAdoo said the agency's recent high rating from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would be in jeopardy because of problems in those departments.

``It's important that they work together,'' she said.

The new position would give those operations a supervisor who would report directly to the executive director.

As soon as the board votes on the proposal, McAdoo said, the agency will begin looking for a person to fill the position, which would pay about $34,000.

A proposal to broadcast the housing authority's public meetings was met with lights, action . . . cut. The City Council has endorsed a plan for the housing authority to hold public meetings in council chambers and broadcast them on cable television. But several commissioners didn't like the idea.

``We handle too many personal issues,'' said Commissioner Jean Copeland. ``It's just like hanging your wash out.''

Commissioner Cola Cobb said televising the meetings would set the board up for public ridicule, much like residents' derision of City Council meetings.

``I don't want to be (known) as a comedy show,'' he said.

McAdoo also updated commissioners on the status of the Orlando Neighborhood Conservation Plan, which would build as many as 12 houses in the poor downtown neighborhood.

The commissioners decided to continue work on the Orlando project before starting similar renovations in the Hall Place neighborhood.

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