Blueprint 15 Executive Director Raquan Pride-Green and Syracuse Housing Authority Executive Director Bill Simmons Esq. sit next to each other at the panelists table during Central Current's public housing forum.
William Simmons, right, the executive director of Syracuse Housing Authority. Credit: Ike Wood | Central Current

The Syracuse Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners on Thursday convened to discuss “personnel matters” but refused to explain what prompted the previously unscheduled meeting. 

Immediately after beginning the noon meeting, the board launched into an executive session which lasted over an hour. The executive session was not open to the public.

Executive Director Bill Simmons was present for the beginning portion of the meeting, but left before the closed-door meeting. Following the meeting, commissioners declined to comment on the executive session, and deferred questions to Board President Calvin Corriders Sr.

Corriders declined to comment on whether the personnel matters discussed were related to Simmons. 

“So your question would assume that he was the conversation discussion. That may or may not have been the case,” Corriders said when a Central Current reporter questioned if Simmons would be briefed on what was discussed in his absence.

The executive session follows Mayor Ben Walsh calling for a review of Simmons’ leadership in February, stopping short of calling for his resignation. A disagreement over who’s to blame for the lack of redevelopment of East Adams public housing and the pause of the Children’s Rising Center has brought scrutiny of Simmons, city officials and the other stakeholders involved in the massive $1 billion redevelopment project. 

City officials and leaders from the non-profit organizations tasked with fundraising and community outreach for the redevelopment project have excoriated Simmons since the project stalled out, accusing Syracuse Housing Authority of having transparency and capacity issues.

Allyn Family Foundation Executive Director Meg O’Connell and Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens have lambasted Simmons’ leadership and called for his ouster from the helm of the housing authority. Owens, who also serves as president of the board of directors at Blueprint 15, has continued to publicly advocate for Simmons to step down or be pushed out by housing authority commissioners.

During Central Current’s Democratic mayoral forum, Owens said her greatest failure in office was not pushing sooner for change at the housing authority’s helm.

“I should have screamed louder, jumped higher and pound my fist to make the changes happening now more urgent two years ago,” Owens said. 

Walsh has said that the status quo will hinder progress of the project and cause further friction among stakeholders. 

The mayor appoints five of the seven housing authority commissioners. Many perceive Walsh’s appointment powers as oversight of Simmons, and have called on the mayor to compel his appointees to remove Simmons. Owens said during the mayoral forum that she saw “dysfunctionality” at the housing authority two years ago, and would have taken more action against Simmons than Walsh has thus far.

Simmons has remained unfazed by the accusations in the past. 

“No, it doesn’t bother me,” Simmons said amid calls for his departure. “Why should it bother me?”

Six months later, transparency issues continue to plague the housing authority. 

While the board of commissioners, like other such entities, can use an executive session to talk in private, open government experts say closed-door meetings feed public skepticism.

“Vague executive session reasons makes people suspicious and adds to the lack of trust that the public already has regarding government officials,” Paul Wolf, a lawyer and President Emeritus of the New York Coalition For Open Government, explained. 

The state’s open meetings law does include carve-outs for executive sessions that cover “the medical, financial, credit or employment history of any person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation.”

However, the term “personnel” is often “overused” or used to mislead or cause “unnecessary confusion,” wrote a former Committee on Open Government executive director in a 2006 letter.

The executive director of COOG at the time, Robert Freeman, disagreed with those who argue that personnel matters may be considered in executive sessions. The Committee stands against using this provision to shield policy matters “under the guise of privacy,” he said. 

Wolf concurred, saying the public deserves specific details on the nature of the personnel matters being discussed.

“Is the purpose of this meeting to discuss hiring an employee? Is it to discuss disciplining an employee?” Wolf said. ”The public should be provided more information as to the purpose of a meeting for which they are being excluded from attending.”

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Debadrita Sur is a multimedia journalist and Report for America corps member who reports on the I-81 project and public housing for Central Current. In 2023, Sur graduated with a master’s degree in journalism...

Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...