Housing Director Offers Resignation Again

Ann Arbor Housing' Director Mrs. Joseph D. Mhoon, has submitted her resignation again in an angry letter to Housing Commission members, ottrer city officials and federal housing officials in Chicago. "I fully expect that it will be accepted," Commission Chairman Robert P. Weeks declared after receiving the yesterday. Formal action is scü.eduled I tomorrow. 'I'm sure they will accept it. They prompted it," the frequently fiery director replied. She has held the positioiöi since Dec. 1, 1966. ResignatioBs she submitted Sept. 26, 1967, when the commission was headttd by Henry V. Aquinto, and last Jan. 9, when the chairman was Lyndon were rejecteiil, as was a resignation she oÜfered last year in a private dibcussion with some commisskmers. The immediate cause of this resignation is a dispute ithat aróse at a special commtèsion meeting last Monday conderning the roles of Mrs. MEoon and commissioners in selecfting new staff members and setting salaries with $26,000 proviiled by City Council to supplement a federally approved admiliistrative budget. Philosophical and personal differences l'oetween the director and some residents long interested in local housing problems have baen periodically evident since stoe was hired. Her letter, dated Fridajy, says: "I hereby tender my resignlation effective Aug. 18, 1969, or sooner if a replacement can lie hired. l "This resignation is prompied by infringements on the ■ r rogatives of a director in hiring and assignment of duties to personnel under her direction." Weeks issued a written reply yesterday stating: "Mrs. Mhoon's resignation is, of course not wholly a surprise. The reason she has given for submitting her resignation is, however, surprising. Her charge that the commission has infringed her prerogatives in hiring personnel under her direction is unfounded. "We have been allpcated the council funds with which to ploy additional personnel. Various members of the commission have publicly indicated our intention to abide by the commission's bylaws which specify that the commission - not the director - will select its personnel. "The commission will act on Mrs. Mhoon's resignation at its meeting Monday. I fully expect that it will be accepted. Mrs. Mhoon has worked extremely hard for the commission in launching our Section 23 leasing program (currently involving 34 dwellings with 40 authorized), our rehabilitation program (53 apartments), and our new construction program (127 units on eight sites). "This has entailed working long hours and weekends. We on the commission know she has held down an extremely difficult job during turbulent times and will wish her well." Asked if commissioners have applicants in mind for Mrs. Mhoon's job or for the other three authorized by City Council - a tenant relations specialist at $12,000, a second maintenance man at $8,000, a third secretary at $6,000 - Weeks said at least one applicant has been under serious consideration for the $12,000 job. Applications were obtained through housing trade journal ads. Mrs. Mhoon said yesterday she has received three calis from public housing tenants in the past two weeks stating they had been told by members of a special advisory committee on tenant relations, recently appointed by Weeks, that a new director would soon be hired. Former Chairman Welch I tacted The News following last Monday's Housing Commission meeting to declare that "when Mrs. Mhoon was hired she was assured the time-honored and administratively essential ilege of selecting her own staff , resign would be to withdraw this privilege." Tomorrow's commission meeting, at 7:30 p.m. in the fifth floor conference room of City Hall, was scheduled prior to Mrs. Mhoon's resignation notice, for a general discussion of staff matters. Also scheduled for discussion is the relationship between commissioners and a particular public housing tenant.