City moves to terminate CONSOC
Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown City Government
Forum Name: Community Revitalization
Forum Description: Middletown Community Revitalization News
URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3293
Printed Date: Nov 22 2024 at 10:32pm
Topic: City moves to terminate CONSOC
Posted By: Vivian Moon
Subject: City moves to terminate CONSOC
Date Posted: Sep 17 2010 at 7:32pm
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Pacman, I’m sorry but I thought we needed to move this discussion here so we could have more space for this important topic.
MIDDLETOWN, Ord. No. O2009-34 Ordinance No. O2009-34, an ordinance establishing a procedure for and authorizing CONSOC a contract with CONSOC Housing Consultants for the purpose of administering the Housing Choice Voucher Program was presented for second reading and action. Ms. Gilleland explained she was pleased that contract negotiations are completed. The parties came to a fair agreement. It took a lot of work to get to this point. CONSOC will receive 78% of the fee. The City will have an enhanced housing quality inspection program with enhanced criminal background checks, regular reporting, monthly meetings and regular discussions. HUD reminded her that she is the director. They will have enhanced staff management of the program. Staff is currently revising policies in the administrative plan. The contract is for a three-year term and she recommended for approval. Ms. Scott Jones stated she is going to vote no and wanted to explain. During the hearings she voted no and will be consistent. She commended CONSOC for honoring the contract negotiations. Mr. Marconi moved for the adoption of Ordinance O2009-34. Ms. Scott Jones seconded and the motion carried. Ayes: Armbruster, Becker, Ford, Marconi, Mulligan and Schiavone. Nays: Scott Jones |
Topic: Consoc on the way out?????Replies:
Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Sep 17 2010 at 8:13pm
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Gilleland and Adkins have not been here for most of those years with CONSOC. I believe the last time CONSOC's contract expired it took almost 2-3 years for Council to rehire them they just kept extending the contract.
When Adkins took over he made changes which I don't think CONSOC was happy with and that was their down fall. CONSOC got to comfortable and use to doing things their way. Just my opinion.
If you remember correctly it was Gilleland's and the Cities paid Consultant's recommendation that the program be transferred to Butler County several years ago. But you can thank Schiavone, Becker, Ford, Mulligan, Armbruster and Marconi for most of this mess.
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Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Sep 17 2010 at 8:35pm
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Vivian why is this so important? I think this is a move in the right direction that is long over due and should have taken place long ago, For far to long no one and I mean no one has been looking out for the overall well being of the city as a whole.
The city claims they ran up the Section 8 numbers to stabilize neighborhoods. Sorry I don't by that one. No city should make a decision like that and think that it is a good one. Telling CONSOC that they wanted to more than double the vouchers was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. CONSOC saw dollar signs and failed to give any warning to the city about the issues of doing such a thing and the problems of dealing with HUD if you change your mind later on.
Personally i say good bye to CONSOC and lets move ahead with getting Section 8 vouchers in the city reduced.
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Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: Sep 17 2010 at 10:32pm
And Dan Tracy - Middletown's self-professed King of Section 8. Who argued for the retention of Consco. |
Pacman wrote:Posted By: Vivian Moon
Date Posted: Sep 18 2010 at 8:11am
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Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Sep 18 2010 at 8:28am
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I think that Ms.Moon has nailed this history very well.
Also her thoughts towards future direction.
This is all about city Admin getting their hands on the $$ passing through CONSOC, in order to fund themselves.
Increased staffing for Community Revitalization and Economic Development has a steep cost.
CONSOC does ehat they have done throughout their entirety as a partner with the city.
They haven't really changed.
It is the city and their new direction that has changed.
Throwing big $$ away on prime property improvements, then giving away the property, huge demo costs already and future demo obligations, along with crazy inflated property purchases and associated costs.
These situations are leading the city into a very precarious financial situation just down the road in a year or so, when the fed funny money stops flowing.
By then, these Admin heads will be long gone(they haven't been here long and have never lived here), and once again the citizens will be left holding the empty bag, with a huge financial hole in front .
Council has no business or financial sense or experience whatsoever. Their decisions fly in the face of any true fiscal/business logic or responsibility. They simply don't have the backround to understand the severe consequences of their wasteful actions.
With Nov.coming, it is time to return to "starving the beast" into sunmission.
jmo
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Posted By: Vivian Moon
Date Posted: Sep 18 2010 at 8:53am
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Spider |
Posted By: Hermes
Date Posted: Sep 18 2010 at 10:30am
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I think Vivian has echoed what a lot of people in town think,it's about the money and nothing else.
As for The Inspection Group...I'm not exactly sure what their purpose is in all this,but if they are suppose to inspect and approve potential section 8 houses then they are failing miserably in their job. Since when does a house get approval for section 8 when the windows are broken out,no window screens and any number of other problems ? How do you justify approval ?
No this is about much more than just taking care of low income citizen's. ------------- No more democrats no more republicans,vote Constitution Party !! |
Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Sep 18 2010 at 11:20am
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As I remember it, it was TIG that was having a hard time getting tenant info from CONSOC and then the two had a problem getting reports between each other in a format they could both work with. I find it hard to believe that TIG who does inspections for programs far bigger than Middletown's was the main Problem in this mess. If you don't think CONSOC was more than happy to add vouchers for the extra hundreds of thousands of dollars you are sadly mistaken.
I think the city will hire another company for the immediate future and if Adkins plan is able to be moved forward I think eventually the city will bring the program in house, as down the road the number of vouchers administered in Middletown maybe to small to be financially viable for any company. I see no problem with this, it seems to have worked in Parma,
Vivian the Landlords stand to potentially lose money in this deal, I am sure they are against anything that will change the status quo that they have enjoyed the last 10-15 years where they made of Millions of dollars in rent and most living outside the city.
If you are going to follow the money follow the big money going to CONSOC and the landlords and if you think you can trust HUD think again. HUD has one interest and that is providing housing to the poor at any cost. They are not interested in the city as a whole. HUD complained about some of the cities stats in their letter and then HUD turned around and used their own funny math in some of their figures also.
It is time to put the city and its tax paying citizens FIRST, not the landlords, not HUD, not the City Admin., not CONSOC, TIG and not 1600 voucher recipients, but the 50,000 people that live in Middletown.
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Posted By: Hermes
Date Posted: Sep 18 2010 at 11:42am
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Pacman - Are you defending city hall and saying the section 8 fiasco is TIG & Consoc fault ? I guess I'm just to much of a pessimist,I see money involved for city hall some way some how and IMO thats the only reason for all this. Nothing else makes sense. Whether it has been kickbacks from Consoc & or TIG or what but I'll damn near guarantee money is flowing into a private account somewhere. And if it's not the money then what is it ?
Am I the only one on this board that thinks some of the biggest crooks in town are in city hall ?!!! ------------- No more democrats no more republicans,vote Constitution Party !! |
Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Sep 18 2010 at 11:52am
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I believe that the original plan was to hold on to the high # of vouchers(to control the funding associated), yet steer the users to other locations. I don't think that the plan will fly now, instead approx.1000 vouchers(and the attached funding) will be transferred elsewhere.
Will be interesting to see how the city building adapts if this in-coming cash flow is halted.
Offering voucher-users a small incentive probably won't be enough to cause them to leave thei0r comfortable situation here. I expect them to accept less and stay.
Council over-ruled their consultants and Admin to re-approve CONSOC(as the highest bidder) because they were happy with CONSOC's performance. Then Council hired the inspection team, and things began to un-ravel. Seems the inspection team(TIG?) has mucked up the process, so how can CONSOC * be remov*ed and the inspection team kept? Did these listed "deficiencies" with CONSOC just come up, or is it simply business as usual and a convenient excuse to toss them so dmin can grab the $$ associated with the vouchers?
We all know just how well our Admin runs these programs and manages $$.
Remember--THEY zre the ones respoonsible for creating and contyrolling this mess(not CONSOC).
JMO
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Posted By: Vivian Moon
Date Posted: Sep 19 2010 at 5:27am
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As I remember it, it was TIG that was having a hard time getting tenant info from CONSOC and then the two had a problem getting reports between each other in a format they could both work with. I find it hard to believe that TIG who does inspections for programs far bigger than Middletown's was the main Problem in this mess. If you don't think CONSOC was more than happy to add vouchers for the extra hundreds of thousands of dollars you are sadly mistaken....Pacman
Pacman It was clearly the obligation of Mr. Adkins to furnish the tenant data to TIG. It should never have been the obligation of CONSOC to train TIG. It was Mr. Adkins job to make sure that these venders could exchange information before he gave the contract to TIG. The transfer of information from TIG has been a nightmare for all concerned since the day they were hired. I called several council members and told them that the TIG program would not work here in Middletown because of the turn around time required for this program. |
Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Sep 19 2010 at 12:09pm
No Hermes I am not defending the City. We all know the City is at fault for the current Section 8 Fiasco, personally I would fire any city employee that was involved in running up the number of Section 8 Vouchers. What I am saying is that Gilleland and Adkins were not involved in the run up of vouchers and are the Only admin in a long time that has made any attempt or even spoke about reducing vouchers, would I like to see it happen faster yes, but we all know how Government works.
As far as the money goes as stated above follow where the largest amounts of money go and who benefits the most. From the least to the highest I think the City gets the least amount of funds probably about $100-150k, TIG Gets the second lowest amount of funds about $149k, CONSOC get the second highest amount of funds at $964k and the Landlords get the lions share of the HUD funds, up wards of $8-9+ MILLION.
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Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Sep 19 2010 at 12:30pm
Spider, personally I don't care how they reduce the vouchers. Cut the numbers by transfer or by using the Parma approach, either works for me.
What cash flow are you talking about? The $100-150k the city gets each year? I don't see that as enough money to make a big dent in City staffing. If the program is reduced to between 400-600 vouchers most likely the city will take over the administration of it and the inspection duties and probably get between $265-400k in Admin fees per year depending on the number of vouchers. The city may very well make more money if they take over the program then if it stays the way it is now, they will of course incur more costs also.
I believe TIG was hired because originally CONSOC was doing the inspections and getting to keep about $140K extra in the previous years contracts. I also believe that they were not doing a good job of the inspections and that is why they were moved to TIG. CONSOC also came under more scrutiny and rules working with Adkins, which is a good thing and they didn't care for that much, also resenting loosing the Inspection funds. Personally I think CONSOC resented TIG being brought in and wasn't going to make it easy to convert to their system. TIG has done inspections, for New York City which has over 100,000 Section 8 vouchers, hey have also done inspection for Boston and Cleveland both having far more vouchers than Middletown. I am not saying they may not have contributed to th issues, but I don't believe they were the bulk of the problem.
Spider you are exactly right Admin was responsible for controlling this program and when they attempted to tighten the reins on CONSOC I believe CONSOC pushed back and now we are seeing the results of that push back by CONSOC. CONSOC is basically a one trick pony relying on Middletown for it's survival money wise, they see that as disappearing now.
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Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Sep 19 2010 at 12:46pm
If it was clearly Adkins duty, as you state, to furnish the data to TIG and he instructed CONSOC to provide that data to TIG and they either wouldn't or dragged their feet doing it, whose fault would that be?
Why would it be Consoc's or the Cities job to teach TIG how to do their job. TIG has worked for New York, Boston, Cleveland, and many other Section 8 programs. I seriously doubt they needed to be told how to do their job.
From my experience with CONSOC, when I requested a copy of all of the landlords that owned property and rented to Section 8 Voucher holders in Middletown, I was presented with a 500 plus page report with one landlord printed per page as they were unable to develop a report back then with 25-50 landlords on one page. This tells me CONSOC had issues with providing data in a reasonable manner.
From TIG's website:
"The Inspection Group uses our own proprietary software that we call: TIG (This Is Great!). We’ve compiled the experiences from over 4,500 REAC inspections to create the best software available. It is a simple program that anyone familiar with UPCS can use on hand-held computers. TIG can export the inspection data into at least 15 different data programs and numerous operating system platforms for our client’s needs such as work orders or CNAs, among others."
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Posted By: Nelson...Himself
Date Posted: Sep 19 2010 at 2:17pm
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Miss..Vivian/SpiderJohn/Hermes:
In..9/2007..(eight..months..after..my..hiring)..I..began..receiving..monthly..spreadsheets..from..CONSOC.
This..electronic..data..listed..all..Housing..Choice..Voucher..tenants..by..name..and..place..of..residence.
In..turn..I..forwarded..this..data..to..Marty..Kohler,..Les..Landen..Major..Hoffman..Russ..Carolus..Etc.
Several..months..later..in..early..2008..I..received..other..monthly..spreadsheets..from..CONSOC.
These..included....all..Housing..Choice..Voucher..landlords..by..name..and..address..of..property.
All..electronically..formatted..data..on..tenants..and..landlors..were..also..sent..almost..monthly...to:
City..Manager's..Office..and..Water..Department..staff..as..well.
After..I..was..forced..out...of..my...job..in..1/2009..by..Miss..Judy..I..have..no..idea..how..this..was..handled.
Prior..to..my..hiring..Housing..Code..Inspectors..were..directed..NOT..TO..BE..concerned..with..Section..8.
They..were..told..that..CONSOC..had..its'..own..staff..to..ensure..compliance..with..HUD..standards.
I..changed..this..unwise..Planning...Department..policy..at..the...end...of...my...first..month..on..the..job.
Whenever..my..inspectors..identified..potential..non-compliant...Section..8..properties..I'd..call..CONSOC.
In..speaking..with..Sandra..Joseph..or..her...son..Harrison..I..always..got..immediate..corrective..action.
I..hope...that..this..helps...contradict..some..of...the..conjectural...commentary..of..detractors..on..this..blog.
Thanks..Miss..Vivian,..SpiderJohn..&..Hermes...for..presenting..facts..for..MUSA..readers..to..consider.
NRS
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Posted By: Vivian Moon
Date Posted: Sep 19 2010 at 3:26pm
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From TIG's website:
"The Inspection Group uses our own proprietary software that we call: TIG (This Is Great!). We’ve compiled the experiences from over 4,500 REAC inspections to create the best software available. It is a simple program that anyone familiar with UPCS can use on hand-held computers. TIG can export the inspection data into at least 15 different data programs and numerous operating system platforms for our client’s needs such as work orders or CNAs, among others."
…..and this is the very software that has caused the nightmare for the City, CONSOC, landlords and tenants. |
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Date Posted: Oct 18 2010 at 10:29pm
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