PELASS supports URCA Housing Board after ex-manager calls for mass resignation

Jeff Green | Dec 20, 2023

Scott Robertson, Manager of Social Services for Prince Edward, Lennox and Addington Social Services (PELASS) attended the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of URCA Housing in Flinton last Thursday, at the behest of the Property Managers for the housing corporation, Les and Jane Oke.
An hour before the AGM was scheduled to get underway, the Okes delivered a letter to the URCA Board.
The letter, which was provided to the Frontenac News on Monday, December 18, called on the members of the Board to resign in the face of allegations of "illegal activities discovered in a private investigation "that had been undertaken by the Okes, who were hired as property managers for the corporation in early October of this year.”

According to Les Oke, soon after he and his wife were hired to fill the part-time position at URCA, which operates 16 geared to income housing units in Flinton, they began hearing public complaints about URCA Board practices.
Okes also told the News that he "was asked by the board to clean things up when I was hired, so I took that to mean I should report on what I uncovered".
In a letter delivered to the board on December 14th, Les Oke referred to three incidents as the basis for his request that the board step down en masse.
The first was that a request for proposal for a snow clearing contract, that was advertised with a closing date of October 6 of this year, had been circumvented and a sole source contract was granted on September 27 instead.
The second issue was an allegation that the URCA Board has not been following the wait list process set out by PELASS, which funding for the each of the 16 URCA housing units when selecting new tenants

The letter said that the URCA Board has moved local people into available housing units ahead of others who had been on the approved county-wide wait list.

The third assertion is that, in 2021, a vacant lot formerly owned by URCA was sold for $1 for a housing start-up. The person who purchased the land, Jillian Freeburn, has subsequently joined the URCA Board and is now the chair.
After delivering the letter at 5pm, the board held an in-camera meeting. At 6pm, the time when the AGM had been scheduled, the Okes and a number of other people who were with them, as well as Scott Robertson, entered the alcove of Through the Roof Ministry, where the meeting was taking place.
"Jillian saw me enter, and asked me for my keys and laptop, and then told us to leave the meeting," is how Les Okes described what happened. "She asked Scott Robertson to stay."

Okes said he does not know if the meeting ever was opened up to the public because he left at that point.
When contacted on Monday, December 18, Scott Robertson said that when the group entered the meeting, Mr. Okes was asked for his keys and the corporate credit card, and "the public were told that the in-camera meeting was still underway and the AGM would start a bit later. I was asked to stay.”
Robertson added that when the in-camera meeting ended, Freeburn opened the door and went out to the parking lot to invite whoever was waiting to come in, and there were some people waiting.

"I was impressed, because in other AGMs I have attended of corporations that we support at PELASS, there is usually no one from the public at the meeting. And two of the people who attended, joined the board, which is good for URCA."
When contacted, Jillian Freeburn said that when she went to the parking lot to invite people, Jane Oke was there, in a vehicle.

"I invited her in, but she called me just about every name you can imagine, but did not come into the meeting," said Freeburn.
Scott Robertson said he has met with Les and Jane Oke a number of times since they were hired in October, in order to provide training in how to calculate rent subsidies, and other matters related to the property manager position.
This is not a service that PELASS normally provides, but since URCA is so small, "it is hard for them to hire and keep property managers because it is a part-time position, and they are the only employees of the agency," he said.
He also said that he received the information from Les Oke containing allegations about how URCA was selecting tenants, and PELASS investigated the matter.

"We have confidence in how the URCA operates, and in the way they follow our policies regarding the wait list," he said.
He said that the matter of the sale of "surplus land" by URCA took place well before he started at PELASS a year ago, but he knows about the provincial housing program behind the sale.

"In the public housing business, there are granting programs that crop up from the province from time to time. This was one where a builder received a subsidy to put up a building, but they needed to rent it out at 80% of the market rate for 20 years. After that the builder does own the building, but 20 years is a long time," he said.

He said PELASS is not conducting an investigation into PELASS over the sale of the lot.

He added that the allegation regarding the snow removal contract was new to him, and did not indicate whether an investigation will take place or not.
Jillian Freeburn said that when the board met in late September, the property manager who had been hired earlier this year, had just left his position.
"We were concerned because it has been very difficult to get snow clearing done in recent years, so we looked at the proposals that had come in by that point, and decided to hire the same contractor who had done the job last year. We knew the date for closing was a week later, but without a property manager in place to deal with it, we felt we had to make sure we had someone and signed the contract early. No one submitted a bid between the hiring and the closing on October 6, so the same thing would have happened if we had waited.

She said that the board has been stressed in recent years because of a lack of continuity in the property manager position, and that is something that she feels personally as board chair.

"We are a volunteer board. When we have to deal with client issues, property damage, rent collection, ourselves, it is difficult because that is not our role. We are not paid employees of the corporation."