January 10 – The Franklin County Commissioners will meet tomorrow at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in their first session in 2023.
The list of boards and committees the commissioners sit on was reorganized between the three commissioners.
Franklin County Commissioner John Flannery said, “I now sit on 17 different boards or organizations.”
The two new ones are the Franklin County Housing Authority Board and United Way of Franklin County.
The Franklin County Housing Authority Board is unaffiliated with county operations.
Flannery said, “However I feel I think as some of you do as well, it should be known what happens there. It should be transparent and it should be discussed in the public. I’m hoping to get extremely involved in that and be able to bring transparency to the Housing Authority to the county.”
Flannery will meet privately with the executive director of the United Way on Thursday.
He said, “They’ve had some mixed reviews here in the county, but I know they do try and do some good things. So I’m interested to get involved in that board as well. It’s going to be a busy week in addition to our normal meetings.”
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM said, “It’s sad if ideology is blocking us from all joining together to work on things. I hope that’s not the case, but I’m a little worried. It feels like ideology has taken over a lot of things that they do.”
Flannery said, “That’s something I can get involved in and find out.”
Jansen said, “And as far as these kind of organizations, they’re here to help the whole community. It shouldn’t be based on ideology or political affiliation. I think they need to get a little bit past that. It would be nice to see.”
There were some issues in the Housing Authority recently.
Jansen said, “We know things were brought to light that things were not being run very well there. Questions about the way money was even being spent, so I know we have some things to work on. Transparency would be huge there.”
Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM added, “Not only now, but also a look back. I’d like you to be able to go back in time and go who were the players? Where’s the money? Who got rewarded? Where are the bonuses? Because there’s a lot of questions that I still have about that.”
Jansen said, “The problem with the Housing Authority it’s not really under anybody’s jurisdiction. It floats between the federal and the state and the municipal governments. I think that’s a huge problem that should be fixed on probably starting at the level of the federal government to put this really under more active control that can be held accountable.”
“I agree,” Flannery said. “I don’t know what that would take, but I imagine our legislature would have to get involved in that.”
