Housing Panel Votes to Boost Pay for Attending Meetings

Despite protests from housing advocates, commissioners for the Ventura County Area Housing Authority on Wednesday voted to double the maximum pay they can collect each month for showing up to meetings.

On a 7-5 vote, board members agreed to raise their maximum monthly stipend from $100 to $200, the highest amount allowed by state law. Three commissioners abstained.

Board member pay would increase from $25 to $50 for committee meetings, while pay for general board meetings would remain at $50. The pay raise will be retroactive to September.

“We’re only talking $25, and I didn’t think it was that much money,” said Commissioner Anthony Bellasalma, who represents Moorpark on the 15-member panel, the largest and most active housing agency in Ventura County.

But other board members balked at the pay hike, saying they don’t serve on the board to collect money.

“When I first came on this board, I didn’t even know I was going to get paid,” said Ojai resident Kale Starbird, who voted against the increase. “I didn’t come here to make money. I came here to provide housing for low-income families.”

For most board members, who attend two committee meetings each month along with the regular board meeting, the practical effect will be a boost in pay from $100 to $150 a month.

But even that amount was too much to swallow for some commissioners.

“I will continue to vote against this because it does represent an increase,” Thousand Oaks-area Commissioner Otto Stoll told his colleagues at Wednesday’s board meeting, which despite the controversy was attended by only a few members of the public. “And if there is any increase in the amount of money I receive as a result of this resolution, I will return it.”

Housing Authority commissioners have come under fire in recent months for their spending practices. Housing advocates have accused them of not focusing enough on sheltering the poor.

In addition to the pay raise, board members over the past year have started buying dinner for themselves at monthly board meetings, including a $210 lasagna dinner at the panel’s October meeting.

Moreover, board member Sharon Pfeifer, appointed in April to represent Camarillo, was reimbursed $290 she paid a baby-sitter to watch her children while she attended board meetings.

Pfeifer had billed the agency $10 an hour for baby-sitting services provided by the brokerage company she and her husband operate.

But after stirring a storm of protests, Pfeifer agreed earlier this month to return the money, saying it was premature to bill the agency without having a policy in place approving such expenditures.

While the board has yet to address that issue specifically, commissioners have agreed to send all extraordinary expenses--above monthly stipends and mileage reimbursement--for review by the group’s finance committee.

In addition, commissioners agreed Wednesday night to adopt a new policy that will only pay board members for attending meetings of the committees they belong to. Until now, board members were being paid for attending committee meetings even if they were not members.

All together, the Housing Authority owns and manages 350 units of public housing countywide, while administering a federal rent subsidy program that encompasses 2,800 units in seven jurisdictions, including Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Camarillo.

The agency also has more than 3,000 people on a waiting list to receive rental assistance, while another 2,000 are in line for agency-owned housing.