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Havre de Grace moves to re-establish local housing authority, appoints resident to board
Summary
After decades without active local appointments, the city council held a public hearing on an ordinance to reinsert the Havre de Grace Housing Authority into city code and voted 6-0 to appoint Dawn Randall Nowak to the authority’s board.
The Havre de Grace City Council held a public hearing on Ordinance 11-97 to add a new municipal article creating a Havre de Grace Housing Authority and then approved a mayoral appointment to the authority.
The ordinance would amend City Code chapter 25 by adding Article 16 to establish the Havre de Grace Housing Authority; the measure was introduced under the city’s charter authority and state law. Speakers in support said reestablishing the authority corrects a lapse in codification and lets the city fulfill the limited administrative role required by state law: appointment of commissioners to staggered five-year terms.
George Kasnick, vice chair of the Havre de Grace Public Housing Authority, told the council the authority and its board “thank the mayor and the council for a quick response and fully staffing our board of directors.” Kasnick praised the council’s action to support residents of Somerset Manor.
The city attorney explained during the hearing that the city’s formal role under state law is narrow: the local executive appoints commissioners to staggered five-year terms, and over the years that role had not been codified. The attorney said HUD requested the city take the appointment steps and that the last formal appointments the city found in records occurred early in the Craig administration.
On the council consent/appointments agenda the council president nominated Dawn Randall Nowak to the Havre de Grace Housing Authority. The nomination was seconded and approved by a roll-call voice vote recorded as 6-0 in the affirmative. The mayor administered the oath of office to Nowak at the meeting’s podium.
Council and speakers emphasized that the ordinance is intended to restore the city’s formal appointment authority and does not transfer operational control of the authority to the city. The city attorney and administration said funding or operational authority beyond appointments is governed by state law and existing housing-authority rules.
The council also adopted an executive order memorializing staggered terms for the appointed commissioners: Michelle Ball (one year), George Kasnick (two years), Sharon Jacobs (three years), Carrie Parsons (four years) and Dawn Randall Nowak (five years). The council did not take other substantive policy actions affecting the authority at the meeting.
The city will publish the adopted appointment and the ordinance language for further action as required by the charter and state law.
