Summer Annual Meeting - 2021

The Summer Annual Meeting is upon us and this Summer will hopefully be a lot more enjoyable than last year. Don’t worry, I knocked on wood when I wrote this and every time I re-read it. While the pandemic seems to be subsiding as more and more people are vaccinated, we at OCCD are choosing to remain cautious out of an abundant concern for our members and their loved ones. We are planning for in-person conferences starting in April of 2022 and we are exploring whether we have the capability to continue the newly found accessibility of virtual attendance. We will definitely keep all of you posted.

In the meantime, we are continuing our pandemic necessitated virtual conference in July. This will be my last conference as Vice President and I am truly honored to have been able to serve you all this past year. I hope you have found the sessions as interesting as I have. 

Our Summer Annual Meeting will follow the same format as our previous online conferences, two half-days of sessions followed by ODSA and HUD Field Office breakouts. 

Starting off July 28th will be a session with Dr. Jerry Farley, Executive Director of YouthBuild Dayton. In some respects, this session is a follow up to our session in April concerning Section 3. YouthBuild qualifies as a Section 3 contractor and Dr. Farley will be with us to explain the importance and impact that YouthBuild has, particularly in Montgomery County. 

Our second session will feature Ted Howard. Ted Howard is an author and serial social entrepreneur. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Democracy Collaborative and the architect of the Evergreen Cooperatives, a network of related worker-owned cooperatives in Cleveland. Ted will share with us how empowering employees through ownership democratizes our economy and builds wealth in communities where very little has “trickled down”. 

The third session of the conference will feature Arthur Jemison. Arthur has previously served at the State and Local level in Michigan and is now the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for CPD at HUD. Arthur will be sharing with us HUD’s vision for CPD programs under the Biden Administration. Prior to his work at HUD, Arthur worked for the City of Detroit. Along with Cleveland’s own Marcia Fudge, the Industrial Midwest is well represented at such a vital Federal Department. 

Our first session of July 29th will feature a familiar face in Past President Doug Harsany. Doug will be updating us on CDBG-CV and moderating a panel of CD professionals implementing CDBG-CV. Doug is on the national team that is managing the Ask-A-Question site for HUD and between him and our panelists it should be a very interesting discussion on the CDBG-CV program. 

Following the CDBG-CV panel will be the State Legislative Update from Tony Core of Squire Patton Boggs. We will round out the conference with our Quarterly Business Meeting, OCCD Annual Awards and the OCCD Foundation Scholarship Awards. As usual, we will have the virtual breakout sessions with ODSA and the HUD Columbus Field Office following the conference.

I look forward to seeing and hearing from you all at our Summer Conference. If you are able, don’t forget to donate to the Foundation’s Gold Star Campaign by visiting our website at www.occd.org/foundation.

Thank you for all that you do,

Brian T. Iorio, OCCD Vice President