This letter to the editor is in response to our article "Housing Authority clarifies events at Village Court"

Dear Editor,

I appreciate your attempt to clarify events at Village Court. However, I believe Mr. Chuck McCullough obfuscated events, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to cover up what appears to be wrongdoing by the Mattapoisett Housing Authority. He mischaracterized me and created a ‘he said, she said’ scenario to distract from the misconduct and dangerous policies initiated by the Mattapoisett Housing Authority.

As a life member in good standing with the Massachusetts Senior Action Council’s Bristol County Chapter, I have been an advocate for senior citizens for years. On Thursday, August 25^th, I told the membership about events at Village Court and how I was speaking out to make the complex safer for residents. The membership applauded my efforts. To confront a state authority and to fight for the greater good and for what is right and fair takes courage, tenacity and an unswerving moral compass. For these reasons, I challenge the misleading statements made by McCullough, and I want a chance to respond.

1. “…Chuck McCullough, the Chairman of the Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners responsible for the senior housing complex.”

On the Mattapoisett Town website, Margaret DeMello is listed as Chairwoman of the Board of Commissioners. She has been chairwoman for years, and functioned as chairwoman at the August meeting. McCullough is state appointed, at the August 11, 2011 meeting he announced that his term expired in July 2011 and that he remains on the board as an advisor and not as a voting member. McCullough is listed as board treasurer on the Town’s website. To misrepresent oneself and issues is typical board behavior, and it is infuriating.

2. “McCullough's explanation of the situation follows months of controversy after residents

Found their sliders bolted shut from the outside by maintenance personnel. Residents, led by Eileen Marum, a former Village Court resident, have focused their ire on Executive Director Louise Sousa…”

I am proud of the advocacy role I have taken; it would help if more adult children and politicians paid attention to the dispute over bolting doors shut from the outside and joined in the effort to restore the sliding glass doors to the manufacturer’s intended purpose: ventilation and egress.

The reason “Residents, led by Eileen Marum… have focused their ire on Executive Director Louise Sousa…” is simple Sousa exhibited bad behavior.

Louise Sousa blamed the “state” and “Boston” for ordering the sliding glass doors bolted shut from the outside. When we questioned Sousa at the June 9, 2011 meeting as to who in “Boston,” she misled us with, “I don’t remember; I don’t know. I can check in the office. It was done as an experiment.”  We considered this response arrogant and thoughtless.

Yet, in a surprise move two months later (Aug. 11th meeting); McCullough, a state appointee whose term has expired, revealed the maintenance man “took it upon himself to bolt the sliding glass doors shut.” So, why did the executive director blame “Boston” and the “state” at the June 9, 2011 meeting? Why didn’t Ms. Sousa give tenants a candid answer? Is this an executive director that can be trusted and depended on to do the right thing, make the right decisions and give truthful straightforward answers? We don’t think so. That is why we have focused our “ire on Executive Director Louise Sousa.” Also, historically, the maintenance man takes nothing upon himself, nor initiates anything without a great deal of cajoling and prodding.

3. “Mattapoisett Housing Authority Board instituted a new policy stating that residents could not open their sliders under possible threat of eviction. McCullough said this was necessary because the previous policy had no means of enforcement.”

I do not know to what previous policy McCullough refers, since, no one had a tenant policy/rule book until booklets were disseminated at the June 9, 2011 meeting. Tenants were promised policy/rule books six years ago. Also, there was no sliding glass door policy in that booklet. Tenants received policies Sunday, July 24, 2011. That’s right Sunday, July 24, 2011.

4. “The policy to keep the doors closed, that came from the board I sit on, said McCullough, asserting that Executive Director Louise Sousa did not create the policy as many residents have suggested.”

Really! Is the board working into the wee hours of Sunday mornings, Mr. McCullough? Please explain why on Sunday, July 24, 2011, at 7:15 a.m., Louise Sousa arrived at the complex with a Sliding Glass Door policy that was hastily cobbled together; its adoption is questionable. No one passed a sliding glass door policy at June 9, 2011 meeting. Yes, the “policy” bans tenants from opening glass sliders and conveys a threat of eviction for violators. I think Sousa’s early morning arrival is directly related to Dale Barrows, the Mattapoisett Health Department agent, who walked through the complex on Saturday, July 23, 2011 examining sliding doors for their ease of operation, missing screens and screens in disrepair. After receiving reports of tenants feeling sick and scorching hot hallway temperatures, he took temperature readings throughout the hallways.

In a letter taped to apartment doors that infamous Sunday morning Sousa said, “My efforts in trying to get ‘caught up’ have not paid off yet.” Can you imagine disturbing tenants on a Sunday morning and having them go to the housing authority office to sign for a sliding glass door policy because the MHA’s executive director admits to having sloppy work habits? More bad behavior from the executive director which raises tenants “ire.”

5.  “Resident Roberta Tripp has often teamed up with Marum to demand an investigation into the Housing Authority and Sousa because of these policies, saying they are detrimental to the aging population of the facility.”

We are demanding an investigation, not as Mr. McCullough suggests “because of these policies,” but because the imprudent board of commissioners’ will not hold anyone accountable and responsible for bolting doors shut from the outside. This dearth of accountability hands the executive director and maintenance man the go-ahead to do whatever they want while those shameful and undistinguished housing authority board members sit on their hands waiting to sweep more misdeeds under the rug.

Some state investigatory agency/district attorney or board must step up to the plate and hold people responsible for shameful acts, misconduct and wrongdoing that threaten the health, safety and welfare of senior citizens. Where is Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz?

In addition, Roberta Tripp is a courageous, gutsy, spirited and ethical woman, who possesses qualities that are sorely lacking among many in the greater Village Court community. They would do well to follow Roberta Tripp’s code of conduct and philosophy.

6.  “The chief complaints regarding the sliders are that they will impede exiting the building during an emergency and that they raise the temperature in the hallways. McCullough said both of those assertions are false.”

Sunday, July 24^th, we had an emergency; a tenant walked out of her apartment to visit a neighbor while food was cooking on the stove. The tenant was delayed; the food burned. Thick dark smoke filled the hallway in seconds; it spread rapidly to the building’s mid-section. The smoke was so dense that one could see no more than 2 to 3 feet. It was scary.  Tenants with limited mobility who depend on walkers and canes will succumb to smoke inhalation before they reach exits at the end of long hallways. And, to expect tenants with synthetic hips, knees or other surgical interventions to crawl through smoke and fire is unreasonable and not well thought out. It is crucial that tenants be able to open sliders for venting excessive heat and as an emergency escape route.

7. “As for emergency exit, only the sliders in front of residents’ living rooms were bolted shut, less than a third of the total, and the exits and entrances were never touched, only the sliders.”

I believe Mr. McCullough is playing fast and loose—a little trickery. All the sliding glass doors in the east section, Roberta Tripp’s section, were bolted shut in 30 minutes and it took two weeks to unbolt them. This probably accounts for the one-third of doors “in front of residents’ living rooms.”

8. “McCullough defended Sousa, saying that she cares deeply about the residents of Village Court…”  “He added that charges that the Board of Commissioners or the Executive Director don’t care about the residents are far-fetched.”

Sousa was in the office Friday July 22nd when temperatures reached 99 degrees. If Sousa is as concerned about tenant’s health, safety and welfare as she and Mr. McCullough claim, and considering the torrid temperatures, one would have thought that she might have called around to check on tenant’s welfare. She never did a safety check or inquired as to the health and welfare of any tenant. Neither did any board member. I think Sousa’s and the board’s actions and inactions speak volumes about their quality of work, their ethics and their character. “We have compassion for these people,” said McCullough.

I rest my case why “Residents, led by Eileen Marum… have focused their ire on Executive Director Louise Sousa…” and why I continue to speak out.

Sincerely,

Eileen J. Marum

Marion