The first order of business for four new commissioners of the Vicksburg Housing Authority Board at a called meeting was to set an appeals hearing for former VHA manager Rita Cutley, who was fired Feb. 9.

The hearing will be at 5 p.m. Friday at the VHA office at 113 Elizabeth Circle, and commissioners will decide the matter in three days. Cutley has said she believes she was fired for asking to approach the then-serving commissioners to tell them she had been discriminated against by VHA Executive Director James Stirgus Sr. for several years. Cutley said she made the request Friday, Feb. 6, and was fired by Stirgus the following Monday.

Stirgus has said Cutley was fired due to repeated insubordination. Cutley attended a Feb. 17 VHA board meeting, but was denied a chance to speak by the previous board because she was not on the agenda. That meeting was the session during which Vicksburg Police Chief Tommy Moffett admonished the board to engage in more direct oversight of the management of the 430 homes and apartments in the public housing inventory. Moffett also asked for commissioners’ help in the continuing investigation of VHA’s former maintenance supervisor, Charles Jones Jr., who is accused of possessing cocaine police say was delivered through the mail to the VHA office.

Vicksburg’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen appointed the four new commissioners to the five-member panel Monday. Jay Kilroy, Abraham Green, Christopher Barnett and Charles Wright met Friday, but without Ella Lee, the only commissioner not replaced on the volunteer board. Kilroy said he had left a message for Lee informing her of the meeting, and Stirgus speculated she was absent because of work.

The new commissioners replaced Mary Ruth Jones, David Speyerer, Carolyn Dent and Charles Abraham. Three of the members’ terms had expired at various times, and they had not been reappointed or replaced. Abraham died in December.

Also Friday, the new commissioners tapped Kilroy as temporary chairman until one is chosen at the board’s regular meeting March 17 and asked Stirgus to provide the new members with copies of VHA bylaws, personnel policy, meeting minutes since October, organizational charts and recent audits.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com.