HUD, Section 8 and Middletown

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development plans to respond to the city’s proposal and subsequent letters saying it will proceed with the reduction of 1,008 vouchers, according to HUD spokeswoman Donna White.

“HUD has not approved its plan at this point,” she said. “We are working on a response and we expect to respond to the housing authority shortly.”

But how soon “shortly” is, White could not define.

The Middletown Public Housing Authority, which consists of the seven-member city council and City Manager Judy Gilleland and Community Revitalization Director Doug Adkins, submitted its plan to reduce vouchers in October 2012.

The city is required to have its 1,662 housing choice vouchers 95 percent filled. The city has less than 80 percent of those vouchers assigned to a person or family.

HUD objected to the plan in December, but provided no statutory or regulatory violations. The housing authority elected to proceed as it initially voted to do in October.

Petition activity

As Middletown City Council downsizes from a seven-member board to five members, two sitting council members have already pulled and filed petitions for re-election.

Vice Mayor Dan Picard and Councilwoman Ann Mort have had their petitions certified by the Butler County Board of Elections.

The terms for council members A.J. Smith and and Josh Laubach expire this year and neither has announced if they will seek re-election.

The board will shrink by two members because voters in 2009 elected to downsize council based on a ballot initiative recommended by the Charter Review Commission.

No one else has pulled or filed a petition for Middletown City Council.

In Monroe, Mayor Robert Routson and Councilman Todd Hickman both have pulled, but no one has filed a petition to be on the November ballot.

Any candidate for office in the Nov. 5 election must return completed petitions by 4 p.m. Aug. 7 to the Butler County Board of Elections.