Aurora council considers changes to Aurora Housing Authority

The Aurora City Council is moving forward with a proposal to change the makeup of Aurora Housing Authority, adding term limits and new qualifications for members.

Meanwhile, the city's mayor wants the board's director to resign, saying he made false claims to try to stop the proposal.

At Monday night's study session, mayor pro tem Dustin Zvonek brought forward the proposal to change the makeup of the Aurora Housing Authority, which owns and manages more than 950 rental housing units.

Aurora Housing Authority currently administers 1,266 HUD Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers and about 700 portable vouchers with an annual value to the community of over $22.6 million, according to its website.

Currently, the mayor appoints the members of the board to five-year terms without term limits.

The proposal, if it passes in an upcoming regular council meeting, would reduce the terms to three years and add a two-term limit.

Zvonek added in the proposal that the members of the authority should meet certain qualifications — including one member with experience in affordable housing, another with experience in finance, one with experience in development, another who has lived in an affordable housing unit or had been homeless, and three with general backgrounds.

The idea, he said, is to treat the housing commissioners much like the planning commissioners, who have to apply for the positions and get approval from the council.

"We have lots of different boards and commissions that we place citizens and residents to serve on, but there are a handful of them that really have some significant decision-making responsibility," Zvonek said, adding that the Aurora Housing Authority is one such board.

Councilmember Alison Coombs recommended adding an ex officio position to the authority, as well, meaning either the mayor or a councilmember would be on the board to ensure good communication between Aurora's policymaking body and the board.

She and Zvonek also clarified that the proposal would include a phased-in approach to changing the makeup of the board, meaning that the members already in the roles can finish their terms and apply for the updated positions.

The proposal passed without objections in the study session. Its next stop is the council for an official vote.

According to Coffman and a chain of emails he forwarded to the Denver Gazette last week, Craig Maraschky, the executive director of Aurora Housing Authority, claimed that several housing projects approved by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHAFA) were ended due to the "risk and uncertainty" of changing the board's makeup.

Coffman said Maraschky's email was "highly suspect" since the proposal hadn't been heard officially by the council at the time he sent it, nor had it received any kind of vote.

Coffman talked to the CHAFA executive director, Cris White, and discovered that this was not true, he said in his email to the Denver Gazette and in an email response to Maraschky.

"In other words, to get the council to back off from the Mayor Pro Tem's proposal he put out a completely false statement via email," Coffman said.

White told Coffman that Maraschky admitted to what he did and knew the information he put out was not true, Coffman said in his email.

"Without question, in my view, this rises to a level where Craig needs to resign," Coffman wrote in the email.

In Maraschky's email that was forwarded to the Denver Gazette by Coffman, Maraschky said three projects would be "terminated" due to "the provision in the ordinance that was introduced Monday at the study session that would remove the current AHA board."

Maraschky sent the email on Friday, May 10, according to email time stamps in the chain forwarded by the mayor, and the study session in which the proposal was heard was Monday, May 20.

The first of the three projects mentioned was Willow Park, 14061 E. Colorado Drive, which was awarded low-income housing tax credits, a loan from the CHAFA and an investment from JP Morgan Chase, according to Maraschky's email. It is an 86-unit redevelopment project with an $34.6 million investment and over $1 million in general funds from the City of Aurora.

The second project, Sanctuary on Potomac, is in its second round of low-income housing tax credit applications consideration and includes 43 units for homeless people with case management and is a $22.3 million investment, the email stated.

The third was $1.45 million in proposition 123 land banking funds to purchase a parcel in Gateway Park for 75 low and moderate-income housing, according to the email.

"Investors and lenders with a financial stake in affordable housing developments cannot risk their funds by working with organizations that do not have a proven leadership structure," Maraschky wrote in the email to the council. "The threat of the removal of entire Board of Commissioners without cause introduces a level of uncertainty that funders do not tolerate."

Maraschky declined to comment on the matter in an email from the Denver Gazette Friday.

CHAFA spokesperson Matt Lynn told the Denver Gazette Friday afternoon that the agency has not terminated its involvement with any of the projects listed in Maraschky's email.