NORTHAMPTON — Seeking new leadership after the suspension and resignation of former Executive Director Cara Leiper last year, the Northampton Housing Authority Board interviewed four candidates for the agency’s top job this week.
The candidates — Kathleen Povar, Andrew Skoog, Maryrose Menash and interim executive director Sharon Kimble — came before the board on Zoom Monday evening for a series of 30-minute interviews with NHA commissioners.
The board is expected to deliberate on the candidates and vote to appoint the agency’s new permanent leader at a virtual meeting scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
Andrew Skoog
With 14 years of experience in public housing, Skoog, deputy director at the Fitchburg Housing Authority (FHA), was asked by Commissioner Hank Abrashkin to describe a time when he was faced with a challenge similar to the challenges facing the NHA.
Skoog said he was familiar with filling open units, noting that the FHA had roughly 90 vacancies at one point during his tenure. To address the issue, he developed a tracking system aligned with the state’s Housing Authority Financial Information System, or HAFIS, allowing staff to monitor and fill openings more efficiently.
“It’s designed in such a way that it allows any user, basically, to look at the lists, see all the active vacancies, figure out even if there are waivers that need to be requested, whether or not they’ve been reported in the system, how long they’ve been vacant for, where’s the work order that’s tied to it,” Skoog said. “[Fitchburg’s Housing Authority] didn’t have anything like that in place, and in reading some of the issues that have come up at Northampton Housing I think that implementing this system would be very beneficial.”
When NHA Commissioner Brad Gordon asked Skoog to present his one- and five-year vision for the agency, Skoog responded that the NHA’s reserve ratio was “significantly higher than what’s needed,” and would create an opportunity to develop grant programs and leverage state funding.
Skoog also pointed to the NHA’s Capital Improvement Plan, which is focused largely on the Hampshire Heights family housing development. He said he hopes to leverage that capital investment to bring additional funding into the authority for other needs, including paving, roof replacements and elevator maintenance.
“Within my first month being there, I would like to see all the properties, assess what I believe the needs are and compare it to the current Capital Improvement Plan,” he said. “I see there’s more than $2 million that’s spent on paving and water mitigation. I would try to look and see what other kinds of programs we could use in leveraging the capital that we have to bring even more funding in… make more improvements and provide better services for the tenants.”
Doug Kierdorf, a resident who heads the NHA’s Local Tenant Organization (LTO), asked Skoog how he planned to bolster relationships and communication between tenants and the agency that runs them.
Skoog explained that transparency and security were among his top priorities, addressing residents’ requests for more security cameras. He said in Fitchburg, he responded to safety concerns by installing security cameras that could be monitored remotely by himself or his tenants.
“Tenant involvement is key — it’s the reason why the housing authorities exist. If it wasn’t for input from the tenants then we wouldn’t have jobs there at the office to do,” he responded. “In terms of increasing transparency, I would want to have more meetings with the tenants regularly. I understand there are several organizations; I would want to know all of them, I’d want to know who are the key players, I’d want to be able to talk to them and hear what their major concerns are.”
Kathleen Povar
Povar, who spent the last 12 years as Fall River Housing Authority’s director of field operations, was asked by NHA Commissioner Jo Ella “Jada” Tarbutton-Springfield why she decided to change jobs from a city with a much larger housing inventory — Fall River has 2,300 units and 4,400 residents. Pover responded that Northampton’s housing stock of 567 units feels like the right size for her to oversee.
Referencing the Cara Leiper investigation, suspension and resignation for misconduct, Povar added that she resonated with the situation, which she described as something that was “heartbreaking to see” as a professional.
“This isn’t the first smaller housing authority that I’ve applied to. Several years ago I applied to another housing authority and thought ‘I’m going to withdraw my application.’ I thought ‘I’m going to be bored.’ It was too small,” Povar said. “There’s too big, there’s too small and there’s just right. There’s something about Northampton … I don’t think that the problems we have at a larger housing authority are all that different from what you will have at your agency.”
Povar went on to say that she was “ready to lead,” noting that she was tired of “face-planting against a glass ceiling,” arguing that sexism has held her back from progressing in her career.
When NHA Commissioner Ben Wood asked Povar how she would build a “positive” and “inclusive” working culture at NHA, Povar said she would invest in the workforce by providing additional training, technology or accommodations that would help improve the workplace environment. She also spoke about the importance of considering her employees and staff morale when making decisions at the executive level.
“When you have people at the executive level making decisions without any kind of consideration for what the trickle-down effect is, that’s something that I would take very seriously,” she said. “My vision in terms of making sure that staff has the tools and training and support that they need to deliver excellent service, and where decisions are guided by transparency and regulatory compliance and long-term sustainability.”
Abrashkinn asked Povar, too, to describe a challenge she has overcome. Povar recalled that when she worked for the Providence Housing Authority, her executive director was removed following a complaint, investigation and resignation.
“What was most important was to remain steady as a leader and to not get mired down by something that, at the end of the day, was not my battle to fight,” Povar said. “At the gate, I would communicate to all the stakeholders — employees of the agency as well as the residents — as well as community partners, to establish a solid foundation of ethics and compliance.”
Maryrose Menash
Carrying more than two decades of social services and nonprofit leadership throughout Northampton, Menash has served as the deputy chief operating officer of the Community Care Alliance in Woonsocket, Rhode Island since 2023.
Answering Abrashkin’s request that she describe her experience overcoming hurdles similar to those faced by NHA, Menash responded that when she served as Pawtucket Housing Authority’s director of resident services, she had to bridge gaps between tenants and PHA staff by establishing tenant associates.
Menash went on to explain that Northampton tenants’ concerns with the rodenticide chemicals used by the authority remains a “common thread” with concerns raised by Pawtucket Housing Authority tenants.
“The way I looked at it and tried to problem-solve and map out was to ask myself ‘Who are the vendors in the local area who can provide us quotes with products that will … not cause any damage to our residents’ beloved animals?'” she said. “My plan of action would be to do research on local vendors, get quotes, and compare the products that they are using to the product that seems to have some concerns, and then we would make a decision from there.”
Commissioner Jim Nash asked how Mensah would handle interactions with the press and represent the NHA to the general public.
In response, Menash spoke to her experience as the director of homelessness for the state of Rhode Island, explaining that while she did not have much experience speaking to press directly, her position was public and involved constant communication either in public meetings or directly with the public.
“I had to be very multifaceted with the people I interacted with — I had to deal, not directly with the press, but I’ve dealt with them with ribbon-cuttings or program openings,” she said. “I’m very comfortable with public speaking … I’ve had plenty of years of experience with residents who are upset because the plowing hasn’t been done enough, or even residents who are lonely and want to talk to someone.”
When NHA Commission Chair Patricia Healey asked Menash how she planned to work on-the-ground with residents and respond directly to emergencies, Menash responded that she was comfortable working directly with the public and would attend community events and address tenants directly whenever she could
Menash, in response to a question posed by Commissioner Tarbutton-Springfield, went on to discuss Woonsocket’s current struggles with elevator maintenance, which mirrored those of the NHA’s Salvo House.
“Our elevator is still currently down, it went down in January. We do have a plan in place, but it is, in fact, due to the fact that parts have been unavailable and are on back order,” Menash said. “What we did was ensure that our elevator that was working was used at a minimum for those who have mobility issues or have to carry large loads.”
Sharon Kimble
Kimble has served as NHA’s acting executive director since September. Abrashkin, modifying the question that he had asked the other three candidates, asked Kimble to discuss a time when she identified a significant organizational challenge and steered the agency toward a solution.
The acting director responded that she ran into her first hurdle at the helm of the NHA when she first took the position. She noted that NHA staff was “talking a lot,” and by hiring a maintenance director and communicating with staff, she was able to jump over hurdles as they came along. She also spoke to the same-day repair of the Salvo House elevator after it broke two weeks ago.
“I had to, right away, stabilize the staff. There was a lot of talking going around, nobody was really connecting, there was a lot of division and I really wanted to try to bring everybody together. I could only do that by communication and building trust and that’s what I did,” she said. “I continued to evaluate where we were at NHA… I brought in a director of maintenance and we’re doing great. I think tenants will agree, work orders are being done quicker and I’ve only gotten positive feedback from that decision.”
Gordon asked Kimble if she could present her priorities and plan for her first year as the permanent director, as well as her five-year plan for the agency, to which she responded that she hoped to first hire a finance director and make a variety of organizational changes to staffing.
Those organizational changes, she said, would free time for her to work more frequently with tenants.
“I plan on doing a reorganizational chart. I’ve already started it by hiring a director of maintenance, I’d like to have a director of public housing … I really would like to hire, if possible, a grant writer,” Kimble said. “For the first 12 months, my vision, I would say, is to get it organized staff-wise, then I have a vision for tenants … I would like to meet more with them, but having more than one hat makes it very difficult to get out there.”
Kierdorf asked Kimble, who has spent the last 14 years working for the NHA, how she planned to balance innovation and change with managing and maintaining the agency’s current operations. Kimble explained that she had been working to change NHA’s culture since she took her current position in September and will continue to work toward improved inter-agency communication and transparency as well as an improved relationship between the NHA and its tenants.
“For the last 10 [years I have worked for the NHA] I have wanted to change the culture, but I didn’t have the authority to do that. I will if I’m put in that position,” she said. “My staff are very positive and working toward some good goals; I think they understand where we want to go and how we want NHA to be. More than half of the tenants I speak to are supportive of the changes I make and the communication I have with them. I’m not the prior administration, I’m my own person who has a passion for NHA.”
