Title
Vote to request two conflict of interest waivers from US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD)
Staff Summary
· Three applications for 2015 Housing & Community Development funds contain situations that could be perceived as conflicts of interest, so require two different waivers from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) in order to be considered for funding by the Housing & Community Development Commission (HCDC).
· Neither of these waiver requests represent an approval for funding of the respective funding applications.
· One potential conflict of interest concerns two applications for Goal #6 funding to "Revitalize Business Districts" in an area where one of the HCDC members owns a small commercial building used as an office.
· A second potential conflict of interest concerns an application for funds from an organization that has current tenants on its board of directors. (This is standard for a community land trust, an affordable housing model embraced by HUD.) HUD requires a conflict of interest waiver to provide HUD funding to organizations where board members could directly benefit from HUD's grants.
· Both waiver requests contain written opinions by the States Attorney's Office that no local laws would be broken.