Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Grotto takes on housing post

Housing authority changes structure


By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer

Local government veteran Kathy Grotto is set to re-enter the public sector.

The Blaine County Housing Authority has named local-government veteran Kathy Grotto as its new executive administrator. She'll be the latest in a long line of leaders for the troubled housing agency, which has struggled for lack of funding and institutional support.

Grotto provided contract work for Blaine County during the late 1990s, before serving as Ketchum city planner for three years and as Hailey city planner for seven years.

In her new job, Grotto will work with the ARCH Community Housing Trust and municipalities in Blaine County to provide affordable housing.

"I will bring a good general understanding of the jurisdictional ordinances and community housing incentives to the job," Grotto said. "One of my goals is to provide an increased level of communication with the cities and the county."

For the past year, Grotto has been working for Benchmark Associates, which provides engineering, survey and planning services to developers. Grotto said her recent work in the private sector has provided her with expertise to work with developers on building community housing. She also said she looks forward to working with the ARCH Community Housing Trust in a concerted effort to provide affordable housing.

The collaboration could streamline efforts to produce affordable housing in the area, but is also the result of a financial shortfall. This summer the authority discovered that its fiscal 2009 budget, originally set at $232,000, was cut in half. As part of their collaboration, the Housing Authority will be sharing with ARCH a database of qualified, potential affordable housing buyers it has compiled since 1996.

"As a team we will work together to educate and advocate for community housing," Grotto said.

Grotto's position will not take the place of former Executive Director Jim Fackrell, who stepped down this summer from head of the Housing Authority.

Housing Authority Program Director Nancy Smith said the new executive administrator position will be under tighter oversight by the authority's board of directors than was the executive director.

"We are not looking for an executive director at this time," Smith said.

The Housing Authority's board still lacks full participation from area cities.

Housing Authority representatives were in front of the Ketchum City Council on Monday to ask for half of the $70,000 requested by Fackrell during the city's budget hearings. The city never approved that expenditure since it was waiting for the Housing Authority to present a balanced budget.

Ketchum council members commended the recent efforts of the authority and said they would look at the request in January.

Housing Authority spokesperson Linda Thorson said the funding is crucial to the organization's operating budget.

The Housing Authority still owes Ketchum approximately $38,000 for the balance of an outstanding $77,000 loan made by the city over a year ago. Thorson said it would be unlikely that the authority would be able to pay off the debt during this fiscal year, but that it hopes to get it off the books as soon as possible.




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