Here in the patch, we're having a field day over the "discovery" of a "packet" by a "restaurant employee" that led to the Fayette County Housing Authority's "censure" of board member Beverly Beal and a "state police investigation," as well as the authority's hiring of a "private investigator" and its appointment of a two-man "committee" to check things out.
It's all being made out to be pretty serious stuff, except for one problem: It isn't.
Not unless Beal having lunch with Sonya Over, the housing authority's former controller/finance director, and Angela Zimmerlink, a former housing authority board member and current county commissioner, is a crime.
Besides liking to meet for lunch once in a while, there is one thing in the public record that Beal, Over and Zimmerlink have in common: They are not huge fans of Tom Harkless, the housing authority's executive director.
Beal is in her second stint on the board. During the first, she made a constant theme of trying to reign in high administrative salaries while boosting the salaries of lower-paid workers, and of getting rid of Harkless' $650-a-month vehicle allowance. As board treasurer, she also went over expenditures with a fine-tooth comb.
Little wonder that after last spring's election, where Democrat Al Amrosini defeated incumbent Vince Vicites and Beal's return looked very likely, that the same housing authority board now censuring Beal attempted to change its rules concerning board membership -- a change that reportedly could have been invoked to keep Beal from getting back on the five-person board of directors.
That didn't work out, because the rules of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development trump those concocted by local housing authorities.
Before anyone goes all ga-ga over the motion to censure Beal, which states "her conduct has been improper and unprofessional and her actions are detrimental to the authority and the residents it serves," they should ask themselves if the attempt to change board membership rules was not also improper and unprofessional, and detrimental to the authority and the residents it serves.
The same could be asked about what transpired with Over, who as a key housing authority department head was suspended for one day (a punishment later rescinded by the State Civil Service Commission) and then for 30 days (which resulted in Over filing and prevailing in a civil lawsuit against the authority in which she was awarded monetary damages).
It may have escaped us, but we don't recall any board members being hot to trot to have Cohen & Grigsby, a Pittsburgh law firm contracted by the authority, help find an investigator to put on either of those cases.
In our view, Zimmerlink is ensnared in this, well, for just being Zimmerlink. She's a big political target, and those who aren't happy with the 18-vote margin of victory that kept her in office last November aren't going to go away any time soon. So if they can play a little "guilt by association," they will. And even if there is no guilt on her part, they will go with association.
If you want to read a comprehensive view of this story, you can do so here:
"Fayette housing authority board OKs censure, "Tribune-Review, June 14. http://triblive.com/news/fayette/2001695-74/authority-beal-board-harkless-joseph-packet-housing-motion-censure-director
We'll ask our questions, one at a time, in chronological order as presented in that news story:
1. What legal statute gives four members of the Fayette County Housing Authority the power to censure the board's fifth member? We really wish someone would have asked that question of the authority solicitor at the meeting -- or would ask it of HUD now.
2. If there's an ongoing federal investigation of the Fayette County Housing Authority, why doesn't the weak-kneed local media know and report more about it? Why haven't any of them followed up on this important revelation?
3. If there's an ongoing federal investigation of the Fayette County Housing Authority, why are Harkless and the board apparently more focused on and worried about a packet allegedly left behind in a restaurant?
4. Of all the things allegedly in this packet, the thing that most disturbs housing authority board president Harry Fike is an old photograph of Harkless, taken when he was 18 years old and working at the Altoona K-Mart? Really?
5. What legal statute gives Fike the power to appoint fellow board members Harry Joseph and Robert Onekso to sit on a committee that "will deal exclusively with the authority's legal matters"? Is that even permitted by state law and HUD?
6. And how will the local media, HUD and the public react to the explanation in Joseph's motion that this two-man team is necessary "to eliminate the leaking of legal information" to outside sources? Doesn't a move like this deprive three of the five board members of any input or knowledge concerning matters that are very important to them performing their job of authority oversight? Could that not be considered "censorship"?
7. If the packet was left and found in a restaurant, how many people there (patrons or employees) had the opportunity to put stuff in, or take stuff out? If it was then forwarded to the housing authority offices, how many people there had the chance to put stuff in, or take stuff out? These are chain-of-evidence questions that any good investigator or attorney would have to ask.
We understand why the other four members of the board would want to censure Beal. She is a one-person minority, and she just might be someone they suspect of "leaking information" to outside sources. Perhaps, just perhaps, one of those outside sources might be HUD. Perhaps one of them might be the media.
At least in doing its story, the Trib attempted to contact Over and Zimmerlink for comment. Not so in HeraldStandard.com's coverage. We scoured their story, "FCHA censures board member over documents," June 14, and saw nothing to indicate that their reporter even tried to get a rebuttal comment from Over or Zimmerlink.
They did print, however, this allegation that mentioned their names:
Board chairman Harry Fike said restaurant employees found the folder at a table where Beal, Fayette County Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink and former housing authority finance director Sonya Over had been sitting.
Lest you think that HeraldStandard.com did not have time to make any phone calls, they did manage to place one to Fayette County District Attorney Jack Heneks Jr., and they printed his comment that state police are still investigating.
We challenge HeraldStandard.com editor Mark O'Keefe to explain this latest but noteworthy example of shoddy reporting. There is no excuse for it, really.
As for us, we suspect that the real reason for censuring Beal -- a move we hope she appeals to HUD, by the way -- lies in this line from the censure motion: "She has violated our trust and violated her fiduciary responsibility by improperly discussing ongoing litigation on behalf of a litigant opposing the authority, as well as discussing an ongoing federal case."
Someone must think the best way to keep Beal in the dark is to keep her out of the loop.
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