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Community group claims housing  official’s telecommutes unnecessary

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By Samantha Sommer, Staff Writer Updated 9:45 PM Wednesday, August 25, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — A Springfield Metropolitan Housing Authority employee telecommutes from her North Carolina home office, although the agency’s leader said it is an interim pilot program to maintain continuity during a transitional time.

A community group, though, said it’s wasted money and someone locally could be doing that job.

Angela Stephens, SMHA’s director of administrative services, has been working from her home office since April 2009 after her husband had to relocate for his job.

The housing authority had just had some staff turnover in its finance department, and was in the middle of a software conversion and a $20 million HOPE VI grant to rebuild its Lincoln Park homes, so Executive Director Barbara Stewart asked Stephens if she would telecommute.

Making more personnel changes would have made handling all those sensitive issues more difficult, Stewart said.

Stephens is a knowledgeable, hard-working employee with a master’s degree, Stewart said, and the agency also didn’t want to lose that expertise.

“This was not intended to be a long-term situation ... I’m trying to do whatever’s best for this organization and employees to make sure they have some continuity,” she said.

The travel expenses related with Stephens’ visits are wasted money, said Dicer Oxner, president of Citizens for Progressive Action. Oxner said some SMHA employees approached her with concerns about the telecommuting.

Oxner, a former SMHA board member, said her concerns aren’t personal issues. Rather she’s trying to see money saved that could be spent on residents.

“It’s too much government waste,” she said. “There’s too many jobs being done by outsiders that could be done by people right here in Springfield ... Why do they think she’s so special?”

Stewart said she is comfortable with the amount of travel expenses so far — a total of about $6,400 to $7,200 — and that Stephens works to find the least expensive airfare and hotels.

“We’ve tried to keep that to a minimum,” she said.

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