{"id":2450821,"date":"2019-11-06T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T05:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/apcha-head-caught-up-in-differing-goals\/"},"modified":"2019-11-07T08:10:10","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T15:10:10","slug":"apcha-head-caught-up-in-differing-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/apcha-head-caught-up-in-differing-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"APCHA head caught up in differing goals"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The executive director of the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority said he wants a different boss so he is no longer caught between conflicting directives from the agency\u2019s board and the city manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes this job untenable,\u201d Mike Kosdrosky, executive director of APCHA, told the board Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s getting to the point where I could never recommend this job to anybody because of the governance structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

APCHA is recognized as a department of the city of Aspen, and as such, Kosdrosky reports to the city manager, a position currently held by Sara Ott.<\/p>\n

She, along with County Manager Jon Peacock, made the case to the APCHA board that the current governance structure should remain intact.<\/p>\n

City Council and county commissioners approved it earlier this year through a revision of the two governments\u2019 intergovernmental agreement<\/a> (IGA) that oversees the agency.<\/p>\n

Peacock said with other significant changes to the IGA, he anticipates no future conflicts because the agency will be more aligned with both governmental bodies.<\/p>\n

Ott has said outside of Wednesday\u2019s meeting that she and Peacock are trying to work collaboratively with APCHA and the two governments for the good of the overall community, and to protect the public\u2019s multi-million dollar investment in more than 3,000 deed-restricted units within the inventory.<\/p>\n

The IGA approved by the city and county this past spring also holds APCHA more accountable in that the board and the executive director have to devise a five-year strategic plan that must be ratified by both governments.<\/p>\n

The executive director also must prepare an annual work plan and budget that specifies the agency\u2019s goals, which will be under the supervision of Ott.<\/p>\n

None of that has been done, partly because the board\u2019s makeup was changed this year so that it includes elected officials from both governments instead of an all-volunteer citizen board limited to just making recommendations.<\/p>\n

Peacock and Ott said it\u2019s in the community\u2019s best interest to allow a year to pass to see if the changes have a positive effect on governance of the program.<\/p>\n

Kosdrosky said he doesn\u2019t see that as an acceptable solution and urged the board to make a recommendation to elected officials to change the governance structure so he reports to the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWaiting around a year, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m willing to do that,\u201d he said, adding that he was recently disciplined by Ott for sending out a press release last month announcing the eviction of a tenant<\/a> who had been embroiled in a protract legal battle with APCHA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was directed by the board to get out in front of it and the city manager contradicts the will of the board,\u201d Kosdrosky said. \u201cI\u2019m caught in the middle here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ott said last month in an interview that the press release \u2014 which she, along with Peacock and the elected officials who serve on the APCHA board have said was inappropriate \u2014 isn\u2019t a governance issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure what is untenable, I haven\u2019t gotten that answer,\u201d she said after the Oct. 2 APCHA board meeting that got heated when Kosdrosky was criticized <\/a>for the press release. \u201cWe need someone who is collaborating with the community. \u2026 This program needs to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Wednesday\u2019s meeting, Ott said \u201cit\u2019s not as general as a press release\u201d for the disciplinary action taken against Kosdrosky.<\/p>\n

APCHA board member Carson Schmitz noted in an Oct. 16 APCHA meeting that the majority of the board supported Kosdrosky in his writing of the press release, noting that the individual committed fraud and the agency has spent $40,000 in legal fees in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was intended to combat the negative public perception, which is a result of a minority of vocal citizens,\u201d Schmitz said at the Oct. 16 meeting. \u201cI find it disappointing to direct the executive director and then have him criticized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kosdrosky found himself in the crosshairs again in December when he was acting on the direction from the board but told by his then-boss Assistant City Manager Barry Crook<\/a> to do something else.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving gone through that experience, there\u2019s an inherent conflict of interest,\u201d Kosdrosky told the board Wednesday. \u201cIt makes my job very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peacock said he and Ott are focused on finding a new alignment because of previous leadership in the city manager\u2019s office, which was concerning to the county.<\/p>\n

Both Crook and former City Manager Steve Barwick were asked to resign after the APCHA board dust up in December.<\/p>\n

Some board members have expressed concern that the changes<\/a> in the IGA failed to acknowledge or eliminate inevitable conflicts of interest, especially when the will of the APCHA board is at odds with the will of the city or the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve given direction that has created issues in the past,\u201d said board chair John Ward, who suggested that he and others who hold his seat in the future be more involved in the management of the executive director.<\/p>\n

Schmitz said Wednesday that based on his experience serving on the board for the past year<\/a>, he believes that the executive director should report to the board, not the city manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggle where we have situations where the city manager disagrees with the best interests of this board,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the board on Wednesday unanimously agreed to recommend to county commissioners and council members that they amend the IGA so the chairperson of the APCHA board is included in personnel matters regarding the agency\u2019s executive director, in collaboration with the city manager and county manager.<\/p>\n

Council members and commissioners are scheduled to discuss the matter, among other issues, on Thursday in a joint meeting.<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The executive director of the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority said he wants a different boss so he is no longer caught between conflicting directives from the agency\u2019s board and the city manager. \u201cIt makes this job untenable,\u201d Mike Kosdrosky, executive director of APCHA, told the board Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s getting to the point where I could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 08:13:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450831,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450821\/revisions\/2450831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}