The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors and Supervisor Tom Underwood have resolved a complaint made to the Virginia Fair Housing Office that involved a controversial group home proposed in an upper-middle-class neighborhood.
In a conciliation agreement, neither the board nor Underwood admitted any wrongdoing, but both agreed to mild penalties.
In April, supervisors unanimously passed a resolution declaring that month as Fair Housing Month.
On Wednesday of this week, Underwood participated in a fair housing seminar in Richmond, one that he said was not directly relevant to the complaint filed almost exactly a year ago.
That complaint filed by the Rappahannock-Rapidan Community Services Board resulted from public discussions that occurred at a Board of Supervisors meeting on Sept. 1 of last year.
The RRCSB had put a contract on a foreclosed two-story house in the Village at Griffinsburg subdivision that it planned to use as a group home.
When word of the proposed sale spread, residents--some concerned that recently released convicts would be placed there--complained to Underwood, their supervisor. Further, a number of the homeowners demanded that the issue be brought up at the supervisors' next meeting.
There they vented their frustrations and reservations, most complaining that the RRCSB had left them in the dark about its plans. At the meeting, RRCSB Executive Director Brian Duncan said four mentally challenged adults would live in the home under 24-hour supervision.
Attorney Ed Gentry, who lives in the neighborhood and spoke out at the meeting as a resident, said a group home was against neighborhood covenants, which strictly forbid unrelated families from living in the same house.
Supervisors took no action, but a week later learned that the RRCSB had filed a complaint with the Virginia Fair Housing Office against the board, Underwood, Gentry and the Village at Griffinsburg homeowners association.
At about the same time, the RRCSB dropped its contract on the house. It later bought a house in another neighborhood.
The RRCSB complaint alleged that those it named had violated the Fair Housing Act and acted to prevent the RRCSB from acquiring the Village at Griffinsburg property.
While others spoke at the meeting, Underwood said he was told that he and Gentry were singled out because they hold state licenses--Underwood in real estate and Gentry in law.
County attorney Roy Thorpe said he complained to the Virginia Attorney General's Office that Underwood, as the elected representative of the Salem District, had a right to make public the concerns of his constituents. He also noted that the Board of Supervisors made no effort to take any action on the matter.
Underwood said he was initially determined to challenge the complaint, but elected to take the two-hour course to get it resolved. The course, he said, also applies to his real estate license re-certification.
Both he and Thorpe were adamant that the conciliatory agreement contain language that explicitly states there was no wrongdoing by either Underwood or the Board of Supervisors. A June 17 letter from the Fair Housing Office makes this clear.
While Underwood and the board have resolved the complaint against them, Gentry and the homeowners association have not. Gentry said yesterday that he was confident that an agreement "similar in nature" would be reached on the complaint against him. He was unsure of the status of the complaint filed against the homeowners association.
Donnie Johnston:
Email: djohnston@freelancestar.com