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Friday, November 22, 2024 |
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Q & A With Council Member Anita Scott Jones |
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randy 
MUSA Official 
Joined: Jan 13 2009 Location: Middletown Status: Offline Points: 1586 |
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 Topic: Q & A With Council Member Anita Scott JonesPosted: Aug 25 2009 at 8:29am |
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Tell our readers about yourself, your education and overall background?
I was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama. To some, it is known as the Cradle of the Confederacy. To others, it is known as the Cradle of the Civil Rights Movement. To me, it was a great place to live, grow and learn about the differences and similarities of people. I have two sisters and one brother. My father is retired after spending 30 years in the United States Army and my mother is a retired educator and business owner. I graduated from Robert E. Lee High School and 16 years after graduating, I was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame for work in the community. I received a Bachelor of Science degree from Auburn University (Montgomery campus). I attended three years of law school. I have been working and going to school at the same time since I was 16 years old. My parents instilled in us a work ethic and accountability. To read the full interview click here Q & A With Anita Scott Jones |
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Call me for a www.CameraSecurityNow.com quote 513-422-1907 x357
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alldaywatching
MUSA Immigrant 
Joined: Aug 03 2009 Status: Offline Points: 34 |
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Posted: Aug 25 2009 at 9:48am |
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Everybody deserves to live in decent housing. However, Middletown has a
disproportionate amount of Section 8 housing. Starting in September
2009, the City Council will conduct the Section 8 Administration
meetings at our council meetings. I am a strong proponent of this so
that the citizens can determine if we are truly trying to reduce the
numbers and monitor the program.
any thoughts people ? Pac, Vet, Mike, Nelson were are you guys ? |
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VietVet
MUSA Council 
Joined: May 15 2008 Status: Offline Points: 7008 |
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Posted: Aug 25 2009 at 11:55am |
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If by "conducting Section 8 meetings at council meetings" you mean to say that the meeting will be during the 5:30PM council meetings on Tuesday's,and not behind closed doors, I'm all for it! I had asked Doug Adkins in an earlier post why the meeting was conducted at 8AM during the week, when most people work during that time, limiting citizen participation as to what is going on with this excessive housing. It, like ALL city business needs to be out in the open with nothing to hide from the public. This is a step in the right direction if it will now be "out in the open". It's also not enough to allow citizens to observe- time needs to be given people to ask questions during this meeting. No more of this "we're not prepared, at this time, to address any questions" crap. If it's going to be that way, to he-- with them.
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Anita Scott Jones
MUSA Immigrant
Joined: Aug 25 2009 Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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Posted: Aug 25 2009 at 12:41pm |
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VietVet,
I only have a few minutes today, but I wanted to respond to your post. The meeting times were set at 8am because 2 of us work in Cincinnati and trying to meet in the evenings always poses traffic complications. The other days of the week did not work for everyone. As you know, trying to coordinate schedules with people who have other obligations can become complicated. As to the second part of your post, we decided last week to have the Section 8 meetings during the city council meetings on Tuesdays. We will set aside time before the legislative part (not sure where on the schedule-I think it will be fairly early on the agenda). I am also not sure of the format as we will discuss that at the first meeting. I believe this is a step in the right direction and as I stated in the interview, I cannot speak for my colleagues but I can do what is right. I cannot respond to posts very often during the day but I will try to look at them each night to see if there are any questions I can answer or get the answer. Anita Scott Jones
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Pacman
Prominent MUSA Citizen 
Joined: Jun 02 2007 Status: Offline Points: 2612 |
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Posted: Aug 25 2009 at 12:45pm |
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Hello Anita Scott Jones glad to see a Council Person come over and talk with us. It is a pleasure to have you and hopefully you can join in the discussion and we can all learn a few things.
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Pacman
Prominent MUSA Citizen
Joined: Jun 02 2007 Status: Offline Points: 2612 |
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Posted: Aug 25 2009 at 12:48pm |
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Vet I think we are talking about two different meetings. 1) I believe is the Housing Committee which meets in the morning. 2) Is the Middletown Housing Authority AKA City Council which I believe is the meeting which is to be scheduled to take place in conjunction with a Council meeting each month. I know lots of Committees and meetings sometimes it is hard to keep track of what is what.
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Anita Scott Jones
MUSA Immigrant
Joined: Aug 25 2009 Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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Posted: Aug 25 2009 at 1:02pm |
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Pacman,
Thank you. I am going to have to sign off until tonight but I will be checking to see if I can answer some questions for the forum group. Have a great day. Anita
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VietVet
MUSA Council
Joined: May 15 2008 Status: Offline Points: 7008 |
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Posted: Aug 25 2009 at 2:27pm |
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Thank you Ms. Scott-Jones for your reply. When establishing a format for these housing meetings, I hope someone suggests allowing an opportunity for the audience to ask questions AND have them addressed as is NOT the format of the Citizens Comments agenda at the regular council meetings on Tuesday. Like to see Council change their approach to the citizens on the subject of answering citizens comments or, at least, if time will not allow, following up with that citizen to provide an answer.
Pacman- you may be right on the meeting confusion. I thought the 8AM Council meeting was set up to allow Council to address items with CONSOC because of the lack of attention to this matter for years and since the city decided to run their own program rather than Butler County. Addressing issues like- no one can find out why the voucher program got so out of hand and why we ended up with 1662 of them. My understanding was that this 8AM meeting was set up for that purpose.  Sooo... how many Council meetings are there for Section 8/HUD/ low income housing, etc.??? How many other committees are set up besides these council meetings to address these issues??? Where does Doug Adkins fit into all this? Is he running the meetings or is Council?
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Mike_Presta
MUSA Council
Joined: Apr 20 2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3483 |
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Posted: Aug 25 2009 at 9:13pm |
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Are all of THE SAME PEOPLE at the different MEETINGS??? Isn't the 8 A.M. Friday meeting also composed of the seven CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, as is the Middletown Housing Authority? Don't BOTH of these groups REPORT to city council??
Call me stupid, but I fail to see the wisdom or the LOGIC of having the same group report to ITSELF!!!
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“Mulligan said he ... doesn’t believe they necessarily make the return on investment necessary to keep funding them.” …The Middletown Journal, January 30, 2012
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Anita Scott Jones
MUSA Immigrant
Joined: Aug 25 2009 Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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Posted: Aug 25 2009 at 10:46pm |
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VietVet,
The Housing Sub-Committee addresses Section 8, HUD and other housing issues. We will be determining in September which council meetings the Administrative part of Section 8 will be heard. Doug Atkins is Dricetor of Community Revitalization and gives updates at the Housing Sub-Committee. The chair of that committee is David Schiavone.
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Anita Scott Jones
MUSA Immigrant
Joined: Aug 25 2009 Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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Posted: Aug 25 2009 at 10:49pm |
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Mr. Presta,
The Housing Sub-committee is comprised of three council members (David Schiavone, Tony Marconi, and me). The Mayor and other council members can attend. The Middletown Housing Authority is the entire council.
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Mike_Presta
MUSA Council
Joined: Apr 20 2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3483 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 1:03am |
And the Finance Sub-committee is comprised of only three members also, but all council members try to attend and they act as if they were members. That sub-committee has even discussed, during one of their meetings, holding future meetings via teleconference so that COUNCIL members who could not attend could still participate. They also DELAY the start of the SUB-committee meetings to give council members extra time to show up.
Ms. Scott-Jones, I do appreciate your coming to this forum to answer questions. I truly do. But the ENTIRE council needs to stop playing WORD GAMES and start facing facts!
The FACTS are that WHENEVER four or more council members(a QUORUM) attend a "pre-arranged gathering to discuss CITY BUSINESS", that IS a CITY COUNCIL MEETING!!!
Now Ms. Scott-Jones, you seem to place great stock in your knowledge of the law. You should be able to understand this. If you cannot, I would be pleased to post appropriate back-up right here. I am sure that most of the followers of this forum are more than capable of understanding these clearly written opinions.
Also, exactly WHEN do these supposed "sub-committees" report back to the full council? I watch every council meeting, and other than an occassional reference such as "when WE discussed it at the meeting last Thursday", there is seldom any reference at all to ANY of the subcommittees!!!
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“Mulligan said he ... doesn’t believe they necessarily make the return on investment necessary to keep funding them.” …The Middletown Journal, January 30, 2012
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Anita Scott Jones
MUSA Immigrant
Joined: Aug 25 2009 Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 4:37am |
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Mr. Presta,
The Ohio Ethics Commission has ruled on this issue. Any council member can appear at these meetings. However, the three members comprise the committee. The Commission has said the the media must be notified. It is my understanding that the media is notified of each meeting. The committee reports are given in the consent agenda or during the City Manager's report. My knowledge of the law has nothing to do with this. It is what the Ohio Ethics Commission says that truly matters. I do understand your viewpoint. However, the reason I came on this forum was not to insult anyone but to communicate with the public. In doing so, different stances will be taken.
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Vivian Moon
MUSA Council
Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 6:57am |
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Welcome Anita Scott Jones glad to see a Council Person has joined our group. I hope to learn more about the workings of City Council.
Thank you for speaking with us about the issues that face our City.
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Anita Scott Jones
MUSA Immigrant
Joined: Aug 25 2009 Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 7:15am |
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Ms. Moon,
I welcome the dialogue. Thank you for the welcome.
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Impala SS
MUSA Resident 
Joined: Jan 12 2009 Location: middletown Status: Offline Points: 136 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 7:38am |
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Welcome Anita I think it is great you are willing to answer questions of the public. That is more than the others have been willing to do thank you so much.
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Anita Scott Jones
MUSA Immigrant
Joined: Aug 25 2009 Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 8:29am |
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Impala,
Thank you for the welcome.
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Mike_Presta
MUSA Council
Joined: Apr 20 2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3483 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 10:31am |
However, to say that "the three members comprise the committee" and expect anyone who has ever attended a Finance Subcommittee to actually BELIEVE it, IS an insult. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, and act like a duck..IT'S A DUCK!!! The other council members do much, much more than "appear"!
I won't debate this with you any further here, as I truly do appreciate your efforts to communicate with the forum. (But I will be posting some excerpts from the Middletown codified ordinances, the City Charter, and the Ohio Revised Code, and let the good people of this forum decide for themselves.)
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“Mulligan said he ... doesn’t believe they necessarily make the return on investment necessary to keep funding them.” …The Middletown Journal, January 30, 2012
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Anita Scott Jones
MUSA Immigrant
Joined: Aug 25 2009 Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 10:43am |
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Mr. Presta,
This will be my last post until tonight but I do understand your concerns. There have been several meetings where there have been only three of us; there have been meetings where six members were present and there have been meetings that had to be rescheduled because of lack of a quoram. Those in attendance were informed that they could attend and participate as well as anyone else. However, they do not make up the committee. I don't want to get into a debate either. I appreciate your participation at these meetings and truly hope you will continue to come and inform the public. Have a great day. Anita
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pattyinohio
Outsider 
Joined: Jul 10 2009 Location: middletown Status: Offline Points: 7 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 2:44pm |
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Hello Anita Scott Jones
I have a comment and question for you concerning section 8. I have a autistic grandson who has been on the waiting list for a voucher for over a year, he desperately needs affordable housing. His SSI (745) a month is what he lives on and pays his rent with. I believe the city has let section 8 get out of control and those who need it are now not able to get a voucher. There are people on section 8 that abuse it and do not deserve to keep it. What if anything can be done to get this fixed? Its a shame that this young man cannot get the help he needs. I will be at the next city council meeting and hope to speak about this issue.
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wasteful
MUSA Citizen 
Joined: Jul 27 2009 Status: Offline Points: 793 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 3:09pm |
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Ms. Scott Jones, thank you coming on to this site. I also have a question about Section 8. Ms Gilleland stated that the City would begin cutting section 8 vouchers to about 800 vouchers by way of attrition. It has been about 6 months since this was first brought to the Publics attention and as of yet no action has been taken on the reduction of vouchers. Can you tell us when this reduction will begin and why it cannot be done quicker than 10% mentioned per year.
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Anita Scott Jones
MUSA Immigrant
Joined: Aug 25 2009 Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 6:54pm |
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Hi Pattyinohio,
I have an autistic niece so I understand your need. We are beginning the process of determining the administration plan for Section 8 in September at our council meetings. The first meeting will be to discuss the plan. It will probably take a few meetings before everything is implemented. One of the plans is to have the contractors of Section 8 to come before council but again that has to be worked out. I understand your frustration but we have got to get a handle on the entire program. Take care. Anita
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Anita Scott Jones
MUSA Immigrant
Joined: Aug 25 2009 Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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Posted: Aug 26 2009 at 6:57pm |
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Hi Wasteful,
Please understand that we first had to determine who would be administering the program and went through the interview process. Once that was completed, a contract had to be constructed, given to the contractor for their review, returned to the city for any negotiating points and unfortunately, that process took some time. We will begin in September to now look at the administration plan. Please stay tuned. Take care. Anita
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