COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Columbia City Council has picked four new members for the Columbia Housing Authority's Board of Commissions.
The news comes as the authority is dealing with ongoing turmoil in the wake of two deaths and the evacuations of hundreds of others at the Allen Benedict Court Apartments.
The new members picked are the following:
James Chatfield - Chatfield is the Chief Lending Officers of the SC Community Loan Fund
Georgia Mjartan - Executive Director of South Carolina First Steps
Kara Simmons - Adjunt professor at Columbia College, current Executive Director of Columbia Bethlehem Community Center and Board Chair of the Talented Tenth, a non-profit organization founded by City of Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin.
Anne Sinclair - Former Columbia City Council member, and current partner with Resource Associates Inc.
Tuesday morning, the City of Columbia Council met in an executive session that lasted around two hours to discuss who they would appoint to fill the four vacancies .
Those openings came after two men, Calvin Witherspoon Jr. and Derrick Roper died in their homes at Allen Benedict Court from carbon monoxide poisoning. Two of the commissioners resigned and another commissioners term expired.
The positions were open to the public and 39 applications were turned in to the city. Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin said this will be a difficult decision.
“It’s a very difficult decision as you think about obviously where we are coming from and wanting to make sure that the conditions that our citizens are living in are not only affordable, but safe ," Mayor Benjamin said. "That they are some place anyone of us would be comfortable living in or having other people we love living in. This is a significant responsibility whose visibility has been raised to a new level, so making sure that we get good people, that there is no room for error is something that this council is taking very seriously.”
Mayor Benjamin also said he wanted to make sure the new appointed commissioners are not only professional qualified, but have human character qualities.
"We want people who are passionate, who can practice empathy and understand that so many of these residents of Allen Benedict Court are going through the most difficult times in their lives," Mayor Benjamin said. "So we need thoughtful, smart, talented, qualified individuals who are thinking about the future of all these families as well as the future or public housing and affordable housing in the region."
These four new appointments will make the board fully constituted. The voting will take place tonight at 6 p.m. at the city council meeting.
OUR PROBE:
In our investigation, we've uncovered previous maintenance problems in the units at Allen Benedict Court, that showed there were concerns about the units well before January 17th. We have a mountain of documents related to the case, as well as interviews with residents, and we continue to present new information each day.
You can see more into our probe below:
RELATED: DEEP DIVE: Work orders highlight potentially life-threatening problems at Allen Benedict Court
RELATED: 'Maybe they care, maybe they don't' Columbia Housing resident speaks out about maintenance issues
RELATED: EMS radio recordings describe moments after man was found in his apartment at Allen Benedict Court
RELATED: Allen Benedict Court work orders show history of maintenance issues at deceased resident's apartment
LAWSUITS:
There have also been multiple lawsuits filed in connection to the case. You can see our coverage of those below.