This is the kind of stuff that annoys me. First of all, I’d like to say the people working for Mountain Housing Opportunities are all very nice. I just don’t like how the organization operates. Lots of us would like to do a lot of good things if we had a lot of money. MHO manages to do so by writing grants. If the grants fail, MHO can take advantage of loopholes made by lobbyists who want privileges. By privileges, I mean the ability to dodge regulations that, if not necessary for some, are not necessary for all. That leaves the little guys without pull jumping through loops and paying more taxes and fees to make up the difference for the exempted ones. And, although our elected leaders are very intelligent, they pretend not to yet grasp the concept of (1-x) + x = 1.

On Asheville City Council’s consent agenda are requests from MHO to (1) change the drawdown schedule for a HUD loan they received, against the advice of HUD; and (2) waive their project management RFQ process. The option to waive the RFQ was made possible by legislative amendment this year.