NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
SOUTH HUTCHINSON, Kan. — South Hutchinson City Administrator Joseph Turner has inquired repeatedly for the background information on the housing authority in that municipality, also known as Sunrise Acres, but has thus far been rebuffed.
He issued an official letter earlier this month to Housing Authority Executive Director Annette Boyer to find out what relationship, if any, the city has with the housing authority and how it is run.
Boyer asked Turner to sign a letter on the authority's behalf as part of their grant application submission to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Turner briefly brought it up as a discussion item in the city council meeting on August 1 and the council approved him signing the letter.
However, when Turner asked Boyer in October for clarification as to the city's role in oversight of the housing authority, according to his letter, she referred him to her attorney Greg Bell who told Turner that there was no authority, save that of the appointment of members of the Housing Authority's board by South Hutchinson's mayor.
Kansas Statute would appear to give a little more latitude than Bell implied, under the assumption that there is not another housing authority to which South Hutch is subordinate.
As an example, the Hutchinson Housing Authority's functions have been rolled into the Cowley County Housing Authority for a while, and so local officials there actually have the oversight responsibility.
It does not appear to be the case here, though, because if that were so, Boyer would not have needed to ask Turner for the summertime letter, but rather an administrative official of whatever the local governing entity is that South Hutch is combined with, if such a combination exists.
Hutch Post reached out to Boyer via email for comment before publishing this story and as of Saturday, had not received a response. The intent of our correspondence was to be able to properly monitor and report on any public meetings of the authority that are separate from the meetings of the city council.
In a traditional relationship between a city and its housing authority, the controlling statute would appear to be KSA 17-2345.
17-2345. Powers of governing body. Every municipality, in addition to other powers conferred by this or any other act, shall have powers:
(a) To prepare, carry out, and operate housing projects and to provide for the construction, reconstruction, improvement, extension, alteration or repair of any housing project or any part thereof but in the carrying out of the municipal law under the provisions of this act, public utilities, either publicly or privately owned, shall not be required to locate, relocate, remove or readjust utility facilities and services without fair and reasonable compensation.
(b) To undertake and carry out studies and analyses of the housing needs and of the meeting of such needs (including data with respect to population and family groups and the distribution thereof according to income groups, the amount and quality of available housing and its distribution according to rentals and sales prices, employment, wages and other factors affecting the local housing needs and the meeting thereof) and to make the results of such studies and analyses available to the public and the building, housing and supply industries; and to engage in research and disseminate information on housing and slum clearance.
(c) To arrange or contract for the furnishing by any person or agency, public or private, of services, privileges, works, or facilities for, or in connection with, a housing project or the occupants thereof; and (notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this act or in any other provision of law) to agree to any conditions attached to federal financial assistance, and to comply with any conditions which the federal government may have attached to its financial aid of the project.
(d) To lease or rent any dwellings, accommodations, lands, buildings, structures or facilities embraced in any project and (subject to the limitations contained in this act with respect to the rental of dwellings in housing projects) to establish and revise the rents or charges therefor; to own, hold, and improve real or personal property; to purchase, lease, obtain options upon, acquire by gift, grant, bequest, devise, or otherwise any real or personal property or any interest therein; to acquire by the exercise of the power of eminent domain any real property; to sell, lease, exchange, transfer, assign, pledge or dispose of any real or personal property or any interest therein as any part of the property of a housing authority established under this act; to insure or provide for the insurance, in any stock or mutual company, of any real or personal property or operations of the authority against any risks or hazards; to procure or agree to the procurement of federal or state government insurance or guarantees of the payment of any bonds or parts thereof issued by an authority, including the power to pay premiums on any such insurance.
(e) To invest any reserve or sinking funds held in connection with a housing project which are not required for immediate disbursements, in investments authorized by K.S.A. 12-1675, and amendments thereto, in the manner prescribed therein or in direct obligations of the United States government or any agency thereof; to redeem its bonds at the redemption price established therein or to purchase its bonds at less than such redemption price, all bonds so redeemed or purchases to be cancelled.
(f) To determine where slum areas exist or where there is unsafe, insanitary or overcrowded housing; to make studies and recommendations relating to the problem of clearing, replanning and reconstructing of slum areas and the problem of eliminating unsafe, insanitary or overcrowded housing and providing dwelling accommodations for persons of low income; and to cooperate with any state public body in action taken in connection with these problems.
(g) To conduct examinations and investigations and to hear testimony and take proof under oath at public or private hearings on any matter material for its information; to administer oaths, issue subpoenas requiring the attendance of witnesses or the production of books and papers and to issue commissions for the examination of witnesses who are outside of the state or unable to attend or excused from attendance; to make available to appropriate agencies (including those charged with the duty of abating or requiring the correction of nuisances or like conditions or of demolishing unsafe or insanitary structures within its area of operation) its findings and recommendations with regard to any building or property where conditions exist which are dangerous to the public health, morals, safety or welfare.
(h) To insure or provide for the insurance of any housing project of the municipality against such risks as such municipality may deem advisable.
(i) To exercise all or any part or combination of powers herein granted.
(j) To prepare plans and provide assistance of all kinds for the relocation of families displaced from a slum or blighted area by the municipal housing law, and to provide adequate recreational facilities, in the over-all plan of the municipal housing area.
History: L. 1957, ch. 132, § 9; L. 1973, ch. 96, § 5; L. 1977, ch. 54, § 23; July 1.
Cities in Kansas generally cede that authority to the Public Housing Authority board and those boards generally vest a lot of power in their executive directors.
A cursory online search finds that there are several housing authorities across Kansas that have boards that meet at regular intervals and the times of those meetings are listed on their connected city or county's website. That is not the case in South Hutchinson. With turnover in city staff, it is understandable that the administrator might want to make clear to the public who serves on this board and when it meets, at the very least.
Turner has also asked city attorney Mark Tremaine to reach out to Bell for clarification, as of November 12, Hutch Post has not learned of any conversation between the two.
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