HB 4840 changes the appointment process for commissioners of municipal housing authorities. The bill keeps the existing requirement that each municipal housing authority be governed by five, seven, nine, or 11 commissioners, but distinguishes appointment authority based on municipal population. In municipalities with a population of 40,000 or more, the presiding officer of the municipality’s governing body would continue appointing commissioners. In municipalities with a population of less than 40,000, commissioners would instead be appointed by majority vote of the municipal governing body.

The bill also prohibits an appointed commissioner from being an officer or employee of the municipality. This creates a separation between municipal government personnel and housing authority governance. The bill further updates the small-authority tenant commissioner exception so that, for municipal housing authorities with 150 or fewer units, the municipality is not required to appoint a tenant or housing-assistance recipient if it has given timely notice of the vacancy to eligible tenants or recipients and cannot fill the position within 60 days.

The bill includes a transition provision allowing commissioners who were appointed under prior law and are serving on the bill’s effective date to complete their current terms. As those terms expire or vacancies occur, appointments must be made under the new appointment rules. 

The originally filed version of HB 4840 applied the appointment-process change to all municipal housing authorities. It would have removed appointment authority from the presiding officer of the municipality’s governing body and instead required the municipal governing body, by majority vote, to appoint five, seven, nine, or 11 commissioners. It also would have prohibited an appointed commissioner from being an officer or employee of the municipality.

The Committee Substitute for HB 4840 narrows that change. Rather than shifting appointment authority for every municipality, it creates a population-based distinction. For municipalities with a population of 40,000 or more, the presiding officer of the governing body would continue appointing commissioners. For municipalities with a population of less than 40,000, the governing body would appoint commissioners by majority vote.

Both versions also amend the small-authority tenant commissioner exception for municipal housing authorities with 150 or fewer units. The filed version specifically places the notice-and-inability-to-fill responsibility on the governing body, while the Committee Substitute uses the broader term “municipality.” Both versions preserve the basic exception: a tenant or housing-assistance recipient is not required to be appointed if eligible persons receive timely notice of the vacancy and the position cannot be filled within 60 days.

In practical terms, the Committee Substitute is less sweeping than the filed bill. The filed bill would have made governing-body appointment the uniform rule statewide for municipal housing authorities. The Committee Substitute limits that reform to smaller municipalities while preserving the current presiding-officer appointment model in larger municipalities.