Nov. 14--A complaint alleging discrimination by an Oak Park housing agency, whose president served on a village committee formed to examine claims of discrimination in the housing market, has been withdrawn due to a "technical issue," officials said this week.
In July, the HOPE Fair Housing Center filed complaints with the Department of Housing and Urban Development against six agencies tested in a study last year that found significant prejudice against African-American and disabled renters in Oak Park.
The 2013 study prompted the Village Board to create a 12-member task force in April to develop recommendations on improving fair housing.
Anne Houghtaling, executive director of HOPE, said the center withdrew the complaint against Greenplan Management, which manages about 30 multi-unit buildings in west suburb, this fall after determining that the company unintentionally hung up on a deaf tester and was in compliance with the federal Fair Housing Act.
"There was actually a technology issue," Houghtaling said. "It's always HOPE's intention to achieve compliance with the Fair Housing Act and make sure that people aren't being turned away inappropriately."
Houghtaling declined to elaborate on the other issues that caused the center to investigate Greenplan, but said this one call was the most serious cause for concern.
"It was clear from the meetings and conversations that we had with Greenplan that they were also wanting to achieve compliance with fair housing as well," she said, adding that some of the other agencies being investigated have reached out to discuss and attempt to resolve the alleged violations of the federal law. "We'll see if the other companies are as willing to make changes or do education to make sure they're in compliance."
Houghtaling said the names of those agencies would not be released because of the pending investigations. She added that the decision to withdraw the complaint against Greenplan had nothing to do with the agency president's involvement on the village committee.
"I'm fairly satisfied with what they do so I wouldn't want somebody to have heard about the complaint and boycotted them when they're a company ... (that) is in good standing right now," Houghtaling said.
Greenplan President Bill Planek, who is also a member of a task force, said he was pleased with the center's decision to withdraw the complaint, adding that investigating the alleged violations with the center gave the company an opportunity to "make sure our polices were correct."
"We follow the law and we train our employees," Planek said. "What we stand for is in tandem with what the village stands for and what fair housing stands for."
When he was notified his agency was being investigated for fair housing law violations, Planek notified the Village President Anan Abu-Taleb and Trustee Glenn Brewer, the chair of the task force, he said. Both told Planek it was not necessary for him to resign from the committee because of the complaint, he said.
"It had the potential for being a conflict but I don't think it was, largely because we knew we had the other members on the task force and largely because I knew that based on the organization he represented I knew that Bill would bring forth from his own experience a lot of good information," Brewer said. "I thought it was important to have him there."
On Wednesday night, the task force at its final meeting voted 9-1 in favor of a list of recommendations to the Village Board, including continuing random testing of housing agencies' compliance with fair housing policies and conducting a fair housing marketing campaign to better educate renters and housing providers of those policies. John Murtagh voted against the recommendations.
"I don't see any evidence that this is going to change anything in terms of the administration of discrimination," said Murtagh, 70, one of several task force members who previously advocated for the names of the agencies being investigated by HUD to be released. "We were saying we need to know what happened before we can make a determination of what the direction is in the future."
After being informed by the Tribune that HOPE had filed a discrimination complaint against a task force member's agency, Murtagh said he was shocked but added that it was "very consistent" with how the village has responded to the issue overall.
"They try to get the public to stay calm and then find away to squeeze through and make everybody happy and you don't do that with discrimination," he said. "I don't know why (Planek) would have allowed himself to be (on the committee)."
Planek said he did not believe his participation on the task force was a conflict of interest.
"I was not sitting on the panel to determine if I committed discrimination," he said. "I was appointed as a representative of the property management businesses in Oak Park. ... I think I did a good job."
The Village Board will review the task force recommendations at a future meeting.
