Autopsy of a disastrous Staunton Redevelopment and Housing Authority meeting

STAUNTON – A crowd gathered outside of the Staunton Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s (SRHA) maintenance building.

The authority’s Board of Commissioners called a special meeting Tuesday. Both residents and employees came to address the commission.

The meeting began at noon. Within the first five minutes, the public comment devolved into multiple heated conversations between speakers and commissioners.

Within 20 minutes, former executive director Wanda Stevens had stormed out of the room.

What happened?

The former executive director speaks out

At the start of the meeting, Chair Nicholas Hurston asked the crowd if they were there to speak on the same issue. He asked if there was a leader that would speak on the group's behalf or if they would be speaking individually.

In public meetings, speakers typically go one at a time, introducing themselves and stating their address for the record. This was not the case on Tuesday, the room often devolving into multiple conversations spread among several commissioners at once. Keeping up with each set of conversations was a difficult task, and commissioners listening to the conversations were sure to miss at least one set of concerns.

The room went silent when former SRHA executive director Wanda Stevens spoke up. Stevens left the position last year and, not long after, Nehemias Velez took over as executive director in May 2023 .

“I tried, with Nehemias, had a conversation with you and you do not listen to them because they are residents,” Stevens alleged. “They have a right to make a public issue about the mistreatment and the disrespect and the words that he gives to your residents and to your staff.”

She called for the commission to hear the public’s comments about a recently fired employee and the concerns of current employees.

“This is what your executive director says to their staff," Stevens said. "‘I don’t give a f*** what anybody has to say. Do you f****** job’ and ‘I can clear this f****** place out and get anybody and everybody here from Harrisonburg,’” Stevens alleged. “That’s pressure. Not ‘this is what Wanda does’ and ‘this is what Wanda used to do.’”

A recent firing raised the temperature

Many of the speakers came to push back against the recent firing of an employee within the authority.

One employee referred to the former employee as the "one that got fired for wanting to meet with you guys.” Hurston disagreed, saying “No, that’s not why she was fired.”

Public bodies do not typically discuss personnel issues in public meetings. Employee matters are one of the few explicit exceptions to open meetings, meaning personnel discussions are held in closed session . This was not the case on Tuesday, with several speakers asking for specific answers about the firing.

According to Hurston, the commission does not directly handle employee matters. Instead, the commission manages the executive director, then defers to the executive director’s decisions.

“I did address it and talked with our executive director,” said Hurston. “What I heard, what I understand about, and seen from the emails, I felt he was handling the situation appropriately. I understand there are disagreements about that.”

He also spoke with legal counsel about the firing.

“From everything I’ve seen presented, including her words, I felt that the actions taken were correct," said Hurston. "Now that being said, we have discussed this with counsel. Nehemias has. I am confident in these decisions, personnel wise.”

Board chair asks employees with concerns to reach out to him

One speaker asked the commission who employees should reach out to “if we have concerns about our executive director?”

Hurtson said he would personally hear “complaints about our executive director.”

The speaker then asked, “The staff that’s coming here now, what’s to say we’re not going to get fired for coming in here to speak?”

“That would be a whistleblower thing, I personally would not endorse that action,” Hurston replied. “I would only endorse someone’s termination if they were unwilling or unable to do their job."

'You pissed me off'

Stevens was also frustrated by alleged accusations she “screwed up the budget.” When The News Leader asked Velez for more information about this allegation, he said he was not sure what she was referring to.

“I was here for 33 years and I know I did a decent job. I do not like my name maligned by Nehemias.” She later added. “I wasn’t going to say anything at all, but you know what? I’m done. You cut me down again, Nehemias, you’re not going to like the results. You guys have a good day. You pissed me off.”

The crowd erupted into applause after Stevens finished speaking and left about 20 minutes into the meeting. She went outside and got in her car.

Resident frustrations boil over

Several residents were there to speak on issues they had with the complex. One was frustrated she had been denied a payment plan for late rent payments. Another said she was the reason for a letter that went out about marijuana smoke and wanted to know where she should smoke.

Resident Roxanne Williams raised several specific issues. First, she called for a section of broken sidewalk in the complex to be fixed. In April, her son tripped on it on the way to school. The fall gave him a concussion and cuts on his face.

“I have requested that the sidewalk be repaired,” Williams said. “I was assured that it would be, and it hasn’t.”

Second, she was concerned for the safety of the water. As she explained, when the Staunton Fire & Rescue hooks up to hydrants nearby, the water in her apartment turns orange. She has to run the faucet for “like an hour or two” for it to clear. Recently, the water also had “debris” in it. Velez later told The News Leader the pipes are made of copper, the water is regularly tested by the city, and recommended residents run the water until its clear again after the fire department uses the hydrants.

Third, she alleged there are bugs in her apartment and her refrigerator isn’t working. Because of these two issues, she said she’s thrown out “$700 worth of food” over the past several months. She also said Velez was rude to her as she repeatedly reported the bug problem and potential crimes in the complex.

“I kept going and reporting it and reporting it,” Williams said. “He threatened to evict me for harassing staff.”

She worried her and her son’s long-term health issues are linked to the apartment, whether through the water or something else.

Former executive director Wanda Stevens returns

About half an hour after leaving, Stevens returned to address the commission a second time. She called on the commissioners to verify the information it gathers about the firing and the audit.

“After 33 years, you malign who I am and what I did for this agency?” asked Stevens.

“I have not maligned-“ said Hurston.

“And what I did for this agency?” Stevens said.

“I’ve done nothing-“ said Hurston.

“You have no experience, and you don’t know what you’re doing, and you have the right to stand before my staff and say those things?" Stevens asked. "Wait, no, not my staff, my ex-staff, I do apologize. You don’t belong to me.”

“Nehemias' staff,” said Hurston.

“No, it’s SRHA staff,” Stevens replied.

“No, it's SRHA staff, but we do give him the authority,” Hurston said.

Velez and Stevens directly interacted once during the meeting, minutes before she left a second time.

“You, I don’t trust ever again. You lie, pathologically,” Stevens said to Velez.

“I feel the same way about you,” Velez replied.

“This is becoming a bit unprofessional,” said Hurston.

Stevens said she did not need to be professional anymore.

“Then you will at least be respectful or you will leave immediately,” said Hurston.

“I’m leaving immediately,” Stevens said.

“Okay, please do,” Hurston said. Stevens then left for the final time.

Velez responds during the executive director report

The crowd left the room at 12:51 p.m. and the commission sat in silence for a moment. Then they moved onto the executive director report.

“It’s unfortunate, what occurred. I had a feeling at some point it was going to occur, for reasons that should be obvious to everyone,” said Velez.

Beyond the one interaction with Stevens, Velez did not respond or speak during the first hour of the meeting.

“It’s not that I didn’t care, I just didn’t have much to add to what was being said,” said Velez. “I can’t talk about personnel matters. I would say that if the board was concerned, it should reach out to counsel. Counsel has all the information with regards to the correspondence.”

Earlier in the meeting, Hurston said he spoke with counsel and felt Velez handled the situation appropriately.

“I believe I’ve met with and told you guys that I was concerned way back last year with regards to these issues that are popping up now," Velez said. "I foresaw it being an issue."

Velez said he does not send out notices about late rent payments or marijuana smoking. These notices are handled by other staff.

“Some of the things attributed to me are incorrect,” Velez said.

After the meeting, Velez told The News Leader he worried the divisive meeting would take away from several successes the commission planned to discuss on Tuesday.

"We're trying to put HVAC units in our buildings. We applied for some funds for that, and it appears we got some funds for that, from the city," Velez said, referencing a $60,000 grant from Staunton discussed after the crowd left. "We also were introducing our new legal counsel for development, as we tried to develop and bring in more affordable housing. You know, I certainly wasn't expecting this, and it's sad."

Other commissioners respond

“I, up until today, was not aware of all of the other concerns that people are having. I did not, nor did anyone else on this board, shut them out,” Hurston told the crowd of employees and residents. He later added, “Legally, as an attorney, having worked in employment law and understanding what the standards are federally and with the state, it is my opinion that Nehemias handled it appropriately. Now there are differences of opinion. I get that.”

Commissioner Jonathan Mason told one speaker, “This is very fresh." To another, he said, “I don’t know what to tell you right now.”

About 30 minutes into the meeting, Hurston broke through the noise to get everyone’s attention.

“If I could, just real quick, introduce everyone to Susie Armstrong. This is her first day on the board here.”

The murmur died down to near silence as Huston said, “Everybody say hi, Susie.”

“Hi, Susie,” the room said all at once.

During executive director comments, several commissioners gave their thoughts on the chaos that just passed. After Velez introduced Armstrong to the rest of the commission, she described what brought her to the authority, then spoke to one of the crowd's concerns.

“So many of their complaints, they should call the police,” said Armstrong. “I don’t understand thinking a staff member should be sitting in a stairwell looking for drug addicts or drug dealers. That’s the police’s job, or a private security concern. That is not housing authority’s staff’s job, in my opinion.”

“I’ve heard complaints when Wanda was here,” said Commissioner Tracy Toye. “It’s not like it just started. It’s more feelings than anything. When I received all this notice that Wanda was doing something with residents, it falls under the category of you’re doing what is necessary that you’re going to have complaints from residents who don’t respect those policies, who want to get their way.”

‘It was getting a bit threatening’

Delphine Carnes is an attorney hired by the authority to work on development projects. The Tuesday meeting was her first with Staunton, and she was present virtually. After the authority finished initially discussing the preceding hour, Velez introduced her. She said she was excited to work with Staunton.

“I’m sorry that today is the day I’m getting to greet your board," said Carnes. "I was going to ask one question, who is your general counsel, and is he or she in the room today? And where was he the last 35 minutes?”

Several commissioners briefly laughed. Carnes said she didn’t want to “overstep my bounds,” as she is the not the general counsel, but she was critical of the way the meeting was run.

“I understand that people are disgruntled and can have some fairly highly emotional feelings about personnel matters, but the way this took place for the past hour or so is completely not the right protocol," Carnes said. "I would list all the things that are wrong that happened, but we don’t have that much time today.”

Public comment is typically taken one at a time, the person required to introduce themselves and give their address before speaking.

“Certainly no profanity, no threats, no approaching the table, no pointing fingers, all the gestures, all the stuff that happened today is ridiculous," Carnes said. "This, it cannot happen again. You have to have a better protocol to handle public comments. As tempting that it can be for board members to respond on the spot, please don’t do it. You’re exposing yourself and the agency to liability by entertaining those criticisms.”

Carnes served as general counsel for other housing authorities. In that role, she said she’s seen similar situations escalate in the past.

“I heard the chair tried to extract himself and the rest of the board from those, and people kept insisting," Carnes said. "If that means you need to have security at the board meetings to escort people out, then so be it. It was getting a bit threatening. There were times when people were leaning over your board table. That’s inappropriate.”

Staunton Redevelopment and Housing Authority Chair Nick Hurston calls for more information

On Wednesday, the speakers received the following email from Hurston:

*I sent this email last evening only to find it had been blocked this morning, so I am resending*

As chair of the SRHA Board of Commissioners, I appreciate your willingness to share concerns about housing conditions during the 7/30/24 board meeting. Given the urgency you expressed at the meeting, I invite you to further describe those housing concerns to me via email.

Please understand that the SRHA Board is not directly involved with day-to-day operations of the SRHA. We depend on SRHA staff both for guidance in how to resolve resident concerns as well as taking direct action on the properties. It is my goal that each of your concerns be given due consideration and action.

Several residents at the meeting provided only a phone number, so please give them this email address or forward this email to them.

Thank you for your thoughts, Nick Hurston, SRHA Chair

Lyra Bordelon (she/her) is the public transparency and justice reporter at The News Leader. Do you have a story tip or feedback? It’s welcome through email to lbordelon@gannett.com . Subscribe to us at newsleader.com .

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Autopsy of a disastrous Staunton Redevelopment and Housing Authority meeting