If you don’t believe that time flies, just look how quickly this past year has flown by. One year ago, we celebrated Ohio’s commitment to community development with the OCCD 50th Anniversary Gala.  We celebrated in the historic setting of the Ohio Statehouse.  It was a wonderful evening filled with great people including many former members and friends and great presentations.  It was truly a night to remember. 

As we wrap up OCCD’s 50th Anniversary year, I want to thank to everyone who has helped make this a memorable year including the OCCD Board of Directors, the OCCD staff, the 50th Anniversary planning committee and the many member volunteers who have given of their time and service.  I send my special thanks to Ken Lengieza, the outgoing Past-President, Rollin Seward, Lisa Patt-McDaniel, Amy Schocken and the OCCD staff, all part of our team committed to making OCCD a better and stronger organization. 

OCCD is fortunate to have had great partners over the past year.  In various ways, we have partnered with NACEED, NCDA, NeighborWorks, LISC, OHFA, OCCH, HUD, ODSA and many other organizations.  How is that for a few good acronyms?  We are very fortunate to have such strong local partnerships with HUD and the Ohio Office of Community Development staff.  Thank you, Jorgelle Lawson and Mike Hiler!

Over the past year, we continued to offer training sessions and coordinate services for other training sessions.  The future of training is changing as more HUD programming becomes available on-line and fewer resources are available for travel.  However, we will continue to search for the best ways to bring you quality training.  As always, let us know your needs and what we can do for you.

Now it’s time to look forward to the next 50 years, well, maybe the next five years. We are compiling our OCCD files, boxes, notebooks, and paraphernalia from past meetings to be archived at the Ohio Historical Society.  This will preserve our history for the next 50 years. 

We are trying something new this summer.  OCCD’s 2016 Summer Annual Conference will be held in Toledo at the Park Inn, across from Fifth Third Field, home of the Toledo Mud Hens.  This will be the first time that we’ve held a quarterly conference outside of Columbus in 10 years; in 2005, our annual conference was held in Stark County and in 2006, it was held at the Deer Creek State Park lodge.  This year, Tom Kroma and the city of Toledo have graciously offered to host our summer annual meeting.    They have a great program planned for us and there are sure to be ideas and lessons learned that you can take back to your communities.  I hope to see you there! 

As we look ahead to the 2016-2017 OCCD program year and prepare for new challenges and opportunities, we can remember and reflect on the words of Hugh Grief of LISC who spoke at the Spring Quarterly meeting.  He urged us to think of our work as transformative, not transactional.  As we work through endless regulations, acronyms, performance reports and policies and procedures, this is a way to think about the big picture and all the wonderful things that are developed in our Ohio communities as a result of the work that you do and the construction you manage, whether brick by brick, linear foot by linear foot or person by person.

I’ve enjoyed every minute of the past year and I’m grateful to everyone who has attended our OCCD meetings and trainings.  I look forward to seeing you July 27 and 28 in Toledo.

The newest link on the OCCD Home Page is our own John (Jack) Riordan's Blog entitled "The Cat Lady's Apprentice".  Check there for current information about a variety of community and economic development issues.

The Cat Lady's Apprentice

A core mission of the Ohio Development Services Agency is to help build strong communities, and the Community Services Division works with you to achieve this mission. Whether it is through home energy assistance for low-income Ohioans, a Community Development Block Grant, an energy efficiency evaluation or an Emergency Shelter Grant, we are proud to work with you to improve the quality of life in Ohio.

Recently, Karen Fabiano retired as the Assistant Chief of the Community Services Division after 32 years of public service. We can’t thank Karen enough for her years of service; but recognize that change is constant in successful organizations. It is our job to ensure continuity, accountability, transparency and quality customer service to you, our partners, during this time of transition.

Mike Hiler, Deputy Chief of the Office of Community Development, has been selected to serve as the interim Chief of the Community Services Division. Mike’s more than 35 years of experience at Development and more than eight years leading the Office of Community Development will benefit the Division during this time of transition. Mike’s extensive experience and leadership skills will ensure our programs provide the best possible customer-service to communities and individuals in need.

We also have selected Matt LaMantia, Assistant Deputy Chief of the Office of Community Development, to serve as the interim Deputy Chief of the Office of Community Development. Matt has been working closely with Mike over the past four years, and we feel this will provide consistent leadership during this time of transition. Prior to being named Assistant Deputy Chief, he served as Manager of Data Management and Evaluation in the Ohio Development Services Agency’s Office of Housing and Community Partnerships (now Office of Community Development). 

Together, we will continue to strengthen Ohio communities. If you have any questions about this transition in the Community Services Division, please feel free to call me at (614) 466-3379.

Sincerely,

David Goodman, Director

CPD Columbus staff are busy processing formula/competitive grant awards and monitoring on-site. Know that staff are working hard to get the funding out to you. A quote by Nelson Mandela best describes how they feel: “It always seems impossible until its done.”

CPD Staff Updates:

The CPD Columbus Field Office welcomes one new employee, our summer Intern: Cortney Young. Cortney comes to CPD from the Dayton area. Cortney is a student at Wright State University majoring in accounting. CPD welcomes her!! Hopefully, by the Fall Meeting, we will be able to introduce you to one additional employee who will be replacing Deborah Outlaw who retired in January 2016.

CPD COLUMBUS FIELD OFFICE / NATIONAL PROGRAM UPDATES:

    Substantial Rehabilitation & New Construction of Housing

    Incorporating broadband & resilience needs into Consolidated Plans

Please continue to check your e-mails for updates from my office. If there are any changes in e-mail addresses, please let your CPD Rep or Myrna Cokes know as soon as possible. In addition, please provide updated staffing information to our office. This would include changes resulting from elections, office reorganizations, etc.

See you at the meeting.