New board chair at Syracuse Housing Authority ‘comfortable’ keeping Bill Simmons in charge

Syracuse, N.Y. — The newly appointed president of the Syracuse Housing Authority board says he’s “comfortable” keeping the organization’s embattled executive director.

That means Bill Simmons’ job appears safe for the time being, despite Mayor-Elect Sharon Owens’ campaign claims that she would work to remove him.

After Thursday’s SHA meeting, the first with with two newly appointed commissioners, the new board chair shut down talk of any quick removal of Simmons as executive director.

“The board is comfortable with where we are today,” said Ryan Benz, who was chosen by his peers at the meeting to lead the board for the next year following the resignation earlier this fall of former Chair Calvin Corriders Sr.

Benz cited tangible progress on several new building and renovation projects.

Benz is one of three new SHA board members appointed by Mayor Ben Walsh in the past nine months, all installed after the mayor criticized Simmons’ handling of the $1 billion East Adams redevelopment project, an ambitious plan to tear down public housing neighborhoods in the vicinity of the Interstate 81 viaduct that’s coming down over the next few years.

A major component of the project, an early childhood learning center and YMCA called the Children Rising Center, stalled earlier this year because SHA had not finished relocating tenants from the site where the center would go.

But over the past six months, Benz said, the East Adams project has made considerable progress.

Financing for the project’s first phase at McKinney Manor was finalized in late October, demolition of existing structures there will be done by the end of November, and a construction groundbreaking will take place Dec. 3. A four-story, 133-unit apartment building will go up at the site and should be open by 2027.

For the project’s second construction phase, apartments on vacant land at State and Burt streets, financing will close next month. Pre-development work is well underway for the third and fourth phases, as well.

In total, the project is tearing down 672 units of public housing and building 1,400 new apartments for both SHA residents and market-rate tenants.

“We have had a lot of wonderful momentum,” Benz said. “We have an extremely capable board that’s able to assist and continue to move the organization and everybody forward.”

Benz, a prominent real estate developer, joined the board in March after former commissioner Luke Esposito resigned. At Thursday’s meeting, two more new members participated in their first meeting: Stephanie Pasquale and Rickey Brown. They are replacing Corriders, who still had a year left on his board term before stepping down, and Walt Dixie, whose term expired last month.

The board turnover comes as Owens, Walsh’s deputy mayor for the past eight years, prepares to launch her mayoral administration in January after an overwhelming election victory. Throughout the spring primary and fall general election campaigns, Owens has consistently advocated for new leadership at SHA, vowing to appoint board members with the same vision.

But after her victory speech on election night, she also acknowledged that it could take time before a change occurs. The seven SHA board members serve staggered five-year terms; the next board member’s term to expire will be Vice Chair Christopher Montgomery’s in October 2027. The mayor appoints five board members while SHA residents elect two tenant representatives.

One of the new board members, Brown, was also one of Owens’ most active campaign supporters.

The local business consultant and secretary of the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency board said it wouldn’t be prudent for new board members to push for “rash decisions” regarding leadership of an organization as large and complex as SHA.

“There’s so many layers of what goes into development projects, management of housing sites and tenants,” he said. “There’s a lot for us to digest.”

Simmons, who’s starting his 19th year at the helm, said he has not had discussions with the board about his future and he’s not concerned about his job security.

“It’s been the same thing all along — I just continue to do what I do," he said. “I’m thinking about all the things we got in front of us that we’ve got to get done.”