Richard Griffin, former commissioner of the Yazoo City Housing Authority, said he still doesn’t understand why he and two other commissioners were removed from the Housing Board.
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen removed Griffin, John Meeks and Dawn Gainwell-Dodd from the Housing Authority Board, stating they were concerned about credit card discrepancies and minutes from the Housing Board meetings. However, the city council did not remove commissioners Danny Neely and Mamie Williams.
Following an explanation from former director Betty Reed about several questionable charges made to the Housing Authority credit card, Griffin said he doesn’t see where there were any discrepancies on the American Express card.
“There were no credit card discrepancies,” Griffin said. “If they didn’t find anything, why were we removed? It’s just lies.”
During last week’s Housing Authority Board’s open meeting, Griffin asked new chairman Neely about the city council’s actions regarding the Housing Authority credit card.
“You would have to direct that question to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen because they were the ones who removed you,” replied Neely.
“But you took the credit card (statements) to the mayor,” Griffin said.
“I’m not going to comment,” Neely added.
In regard to the Housing Authority Board minutes, Griffin added that the commissioners do not prepare those minutes. He said the commissioners merely approve the minutes.
The city council had concerns over two sets of minutes that were documented for a December 2018 Housing Authority board meeting. The minutes provided to the commissioners on their iPads do not match the set of minutes held within the docket book at the Housing Authority office.
Former board chairman Meeks said Mayor Diane Delaware did not follow the proper procedure in her request for the Housing Authority board minutes.
“The proper way would be to send a letter to the chairman,” Meeks said, who served in that post at the time. “The mayor contacted the Housing director, not the board. How can you punish the commissioners for that? She (Delaware) lied to her board.”
During the Housing Authority meeting, Griffin provided the new Housing Authority Board of what he said were cell phone screen shots of texts between Neely and Gainwell-Dodd that show Neely said he “made an honest mistake” about the questionable minutes.
“You sent out that you made an honest mistake about the minutes, the minutes you said were wrong,” Griffin said.
Neely did not respond to the information that was distributed by Griffin during last week’s meeting.
Griffin also appeared before the Board of Mayor and Aldermen during its open meeting Monday afternoon. He questioned the city council about their decision to remove three members of the Housing Authority Board.
Griffin also provided an opinion from the state attorney general surrounding the authority a city council has in regard to dissolving the Yazoo City Housing Authority Board, in reference to a similar action in the city of Laurel. The opinion states that the city council does not have the authority to do so.
City leaders did not respond to Griffin’s questions, stating that his presentation was made during the public comment section of the meeting, which also has a three-minute time limit.
