Housing Commissioners Express Frustration At Poplar Meeting
Two members of the Fort Peck Housing Authority’s board of commissioners expressed their views during a lengthy presentation at the Poplar Community Organization’s meeting on Tuesday, May 20.
Robyn Baker, Poplar housing committee member, and Chuck Knowlton, vice chair of the housing commission, presented the information. Baker said some of the problems started when the former executive director refused to sign her evaluation. Baker said the signature only was that the executive director received the evaluation, not that executive director agreed with everything in the evaluation. Baker said the commission only wanted to see basic improvements and that was stated in the evaluation.
Baker said the board has authority over only one employee, which is the executive director. The board of commissioners hired Michelle Trottier as the acting FPHA director, but recently the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board voted not to recognize Trottier. Baker feels TEB is stepping beyond its bounds, according to the law. She says TEB isn’t following Article 3A, which gives the commissioners authority over the executive director.
“That’s their law. They have to abide by it,” Baker said.
Baker and Knowlton said TEB requested three names to be considered as the executive director. The commissioners gave them three choices, and TEB rejected all of them. Mike Olson, board chair, is now covering some of the executive director’s duties.
“We see areas that need to be fixed, and we’re trying to do it,” Baker said.
Knowlton said that of the housing authority’s 42 employees, between 11-17 of them call in to be absent each day. “We want people to come to work and do the job they are hired to do,” he said.
They said that TEB needs to change Article 3A if they want to suspend or remove commission members. They say that by law, it can now only happen if there is cause. “I have a voice and I’m going to keep using my voice,” Baker said at the meeting.
