Surveillance cameras irk Golden Court residents

By Dan Crowley
Staff Writer

Published on September 05, 2008

HADLEY - Newly installed surveillance cameras in the main building and community room of the Golden Court public housing complex are troubling some elderly and disabled tenants who say they are unnecessary and create an atmosphere of suspicion.

The cameras also have prompted questions about whether the high-tech equipment is an appropriate use of Community Preservation Act funds.

'Not small potatoes'

"This may be small potatoes to Boston, but it's not small potatoes to us," said tenant Maureen C. McGrath, who said she no longer feels entirely comfortable using the community room at 42 Golden Court. "This is our home."

For their part, town and Hadley Housing Authority officials say the money tapped for the cameras is a legitimate use of CPA funds. But some tenants are bothered by the small, black-domed camera in the community room bought with local taxpayers' dollars. CPA funds are generated with a surcharge on property taxes.

"It was not put there to spy on anybody," said Joseph L. Fitzgibbon, longtime chairman of the Housing Authority's board of commissioners and also chairman of the Community Preservation Committee. "It was put in there to protect the Housing Authority, tenants and state property."

Fitzgibbon said he consulted with the nonprofit Community Preservation Coalition in Boston, which tracks CPA spending, before requesting CPA funds for the cameras and also for new handicapped-accessible doors.

"They said this was an appropriate use of funds," he said.

Katherine Roth, executive director of the coalition, said she is not aware of CPA funds being used to purchase and install surveillance cameras at affordable-housing complexes elsewhere in the state. She said the matter in Hadley is a local issue and described the CPA as "a work in progress."

Former state Sen. Robert Durand authored the Community Preservation Act and said the use of CPA funds for surveillance equipment at a state public housing complex "is a stretch."

"Certainly not consistent with the intent (of the law)," said Durand, who served as secretary of the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs until 2002. "The intent of the CPA was to provide affordable housing, particularly for people who couldn't afford it, and to preserve that housing once it's created."

Town approved

Earlier this year, Hadley Town Meeting members approved spending $12,000 in CPA funds "to support community housing operated by the housing authority," according to a May 1 town warrant article. An earlier and more detailed funding request from Darlene Cohen, executive director of the Housing Authority, notes that the CPA money was needed to install security cameras in the main building - and to make the building's front doors handicapped accessible.

To date, the cameras and, reportedly, a closed-circuit video monitor, were bought and installed in the building this summer. No work has yet been done on the building's main doors, however.

In fact, the heavy, wooden doors are a problem for disabled tenants like Dawna L. Davis, 52, who relies on a walker and wheelchair to get around the 40-unit, state-subsidized complex. Some tenants say putting cameras ahead of changing out the doors indicates misplaced priorities at the Housing Authority.

"To pick surveillance cameras and actually have the town of Hadley give $12,000 for these is really sad," said resident Sue C. Oppenheimer, 53. "It's a form of intimidation."

Oppenheimer, among others, has issued a statement to the town and Housing Authority commissioners opposing the surveillance equipment. The document, signed by nearly two dozen tenants, states that the cameras constitute an invasion of privacy and "unnecessary burden on taxpayers."

Other public housing authority complexes are known to have installed security cameras in various locations, including the Walter Salvo House, run by the Northampton Housing Authority.

Fitzgibbon said commissioners are still reviewing options for the doors, which is why no work has been done on them. He was not able to provide figures on how much of the $12,000 in CPA money had been spent on the surveillance equipment because he was not in possession of bills or receipts for the project, he said. Cohen, the housing authority's executive director, could not be reached for comment.

Questions of crime

In her CPA project proposal, Cohen wrote that security cameras were needed to safeguard tenants using the laundry and community rooms at 42 Golden Court, as well as to provide "extra security" for the Housing Authority's office equipment.

"With increasing crime, it is my greatest utmost concern to keep our tenants and buildings a safe place for all," states a proposal to the town bearing her name. "It has been suggested by the Hadley Police Department that to ensure safety for all, we should install some kind of security in the main building."

A Bulletin review of police reports for crime-related responses to Golden Court during the past three years shows that police responded to the housing complex only once this calendar year. That was Aug. 25, when someone from the Housing Authority contacted police about a malfunctioning security camera in the main building.

Apart from medical calls and routine patrols, police responded to the housing complex about a dozen times in 2006 and 2007 combined, according to records provided by the Hadley Police Department. On two of those occasions, police were called in to keep the peace at meetings held at Golden Court.

Three calls were to serve court paperwork to tenants, while another response involved a cab driver who was not paid a fare by a tenant. Other calls during those years involved a complaint of somebody using a power saw, a well-being check, and a report of a sick fox by a maintenance worker.

"We don't have any crime in Golden Court," Oppenheimer said. "This is quiet Hadley housing in a small farming community in western Mass."

In a phone interview last week, Fitzgibbon said local police recommended to the Housing Authority that security measures be taken at Golden Court, though Hadley Police Chief Dennis J. Hukowicz told the Bulletin that the recommendation "didn't come from me."

"It's an interesting statement," said Hukowicz, of Housing Authority officials citing a rise in crime at Golden Court. "I don't feel there really is."

"The responses are usually to the individual apartments," the chief added. "It's isolated calls for service over there for various reasons."

Fitzgibbon said the Housing Authority has experienced trespassers in the main building, which is rarely locked, attempted break-ins and theft of property on the grounds, all of which may not be reported to police. He noted the Community Preservation Committee and town officials have held public meetings to discuss the $12,000 CPA appropriation for the cameras and handicapped-access project, though no Golden Court tenants attended those meetings to air their concerns.

Tenants move underground

The installation of surveillance equipment in the community room has fanned the flames of animosity that already exist between some Golden Court tenants and the Housing Authority administration, according to those familiar with the complex. Long before the arrival of the cameras, the doors to the main building and community room had spawned at least two court cases and led to mediation sessions and probation for tenants.

Among them was the 73-year-old McGrath, who was summoned to court on two occasions on charges of willful, wanton or malicious destruction of property and intimidating a witness. Two years ago it was alleged that McGrath and another tenant, Judy Roncalli, had damaged the doors leading to the community room, an allegation they say was unfounded.

"The whole thing ... was just so petty, and a perfect example of how petty things can turn into big things," said David Mintz, the Hadley attorney who represented the women in court. "If I could use one word to describe what's going on at Golden Court, it's dysfunctional.'"

"There were a lot of weird alliances that ended up getting serious when people are getting charged with crimes," he added.

Two years ago, a group of tenants organized a new tenants association, which received official recognition from the Housing Authority and state Department of Housing and Community Development. Nine months later, however, the Housing Authority's commissioners unanimously voted to revoke its recognition of the group and urged the state agency to the do same.

"Immediately it went downhill," said Fitzgibbon, noting that commissioners helped tenants set up the association. "They were not equipped, in my opinion, to operate."

On Oct. 18, 2006, Fitzgibbon had sent a lengthy memo to the state agency alleging a bevy of procedural violations by the tenants association and its failure to abide by state regulations.

The tenants association "is not representing all the tenants and are only conducting the association for their own personal agenda," he stated. He noted in the memo that the matter was "of grave concern to the board."

"Our board has bent over backwards to accommodate them, until it got to be a never-ending situation," Fitzgibbon said of the group's incessant demands on the Housing Authority, last week.

Today, some of those tenants say they are meeting "underground" but wish to organize again someday so they can have grievances properly heard, help shape policy, and provide an avenue for tenants to air more general concerns about maintenance and snow-removal issues, for example.

The state Department of Housing and Community Development had set up a hearing with the housing commissioners and tenants association president last year to address the association's status, but that session was postponed and never rescheduled. Meantime, the governor's appointment to the Housing Authority's board has remained unfilled for nearly two years, exasperating both commissioners and tenants.

"It's clear over a period of time that there are some disagreements between the Housing Authority and tenants, and it's my hope these disagreements can be worked through," said state Rep. John W. Scibak, D-South Hadley, who is familiar with some of the festering issues at Golden Court. "It appears that the relationship has deteriorated. There's probably a need for some technical assistance, some advice, and maybe some mediation."

Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.