Yazoo City’s Housing Authority is entrusted with taxpayer money – your money, in other words – so the organization shouldn’t mind giving a straightforward accounting of its business.
That’s why we believe Yazoo City’s Housing Authority should do a better job of explaining why it transferred over half a million dollars to the nonprofit Gateway Community Development Corporation.
Perhaps, there’s a very logical reason that would be simple to understand, but some Housing Authority officials have deliberately made it difficult.
Consider these three facts:
1. Two members of the Housing Authority Board say that they were unaware of the transfer of $551,125. We also learned this week that some of the members of the Gateway Development Corporation board of directors were also unaware that the money had been transferred.
2. The attorney for the Housing Authority Board was unaware of the transfer, which happened all the way back in December of 2017, until the issue was raised in the board meeting last week after two board members protested that they never voted on the issue of transferring the funds.
3. A member of the Housing Authority Board says that he believes the minutes of the board minutes were altered to make it appear that he voted in favor of a motion that was never made in a meeting. This newspaper examined the minutes after filing a Freedom of Information request, and we believe there is evidence that the minutes in the official book are different from what was sent to board members to review electronically.
These things are enough to make any casual observer wonder what’s really going on. It could be nothing more than just some disorganized management, but the people capable of clearing up these issues have so far been unwilling to do so.
It’s time for a closer inspection. Officials with the state auditor’s office have confirmed that they are aware of this situation, and any federal agency charged with making sure federal dollars go where they are supposed to go would have to be asleep at the wheel to not have some questions about all of this.
