According to Skip Batten, a long-time employee of the Community Revitalization Department, approximately $300,000+ in non-performing loans were written off by him and a member of the Finance Department in the fall of 2006.  Additionally, according to him, upwards of $500,000+ in previous non-performing loans were written off by the former Finance Director and the Planning Director in the early part of this decade.

 

When this information became known in April of 2008 the former Community Development Administrator ("RESIGNED") and members of the now-defunct HUD Consolidated Planning Committee (Chris Amburgey, Paul Renwick, Bert Grimes, Robyn M. French, Walter Leap, Cheryl Burns and Rosa Lean Lindsey) began meeting on an almost weekly basis.

 

They developed loan servicing procedures that had not been in place for a number of years in an effort to prevent newer loans in the shrinking portfolio from becoming non-performing as well.

 

Since no Guidelines and Procedures for the Housing Rehabilitation Program were in place since Mr. Batten's hiring in the early part of this decade, the CD Administrator and Consolidated Committee members prepared a "final draft" that was presented to senior city staff and the City Council Housing Sub-Committee at the July 2008 meeting.  Please note that the Planning Director disagreed with Mr. Batten's recollection and provided the CD Administrator a copy of guidelines and procedures that he used for this program activity in the 1990's before accepeting a position at that time in Lebanon.

 

Mr. Batten provided detailed documentation to the CD Administrator and the Consolidated Committee on the loan portfolio.  He along with the CD Administrator and a new employee hired in June 2008 met with three City Council members at the Barbecue Junction restaurant at which time he went into considerable detail explaining these problems as well as others such as FHA Dollar Homes, etc.

 

Sad to say, despite a number of people knowing of these serious problems including the local print media, nothing has been publicly mentioned.  These events and others played a role in certain aspects of the City's departmental reorganization last summer, and the "RESIGNATION" of the CD Administrator, the "SUDDEN RETIREMENT" of the new Community Revitalization Director and the "TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENT" of the Prosecutor since January of this year!

 

I can only speak for myself and I have paid dearly for trying to fix a broken, wasteful and mismanaged HUD program.  I will not remain silent on this matter!

 

Nelson Self

CD Administrator (Resigned)