Member Sybil Kay Andrews-Wells is on the board of a group that owns property targeted for redevelopment.
By DAVID KARP
Published December 9, 2003
TAMPA - When the Tampa Housing Authority moved in May to pursue a $20-million federal Hope VI grant to redevelop Central Park Village, member Sybil Kay Andrews-Wells voted no.
She questioned the extra cost of a consultant, and raised doubts about the entire Hope VI program.
According to a recording of the meeting, she said, "There has to be another solution to this."
There was, but it was a secret. And Wells was part of it.
In July, a private development group led by former Olympic promoter Ed Turanchik signed a contract to buy the Tampa Park Apartments as part of a private redevelopment plan for the Central Park area.
The apartments are key to Turanchik's plan to build a 157-acre, upscale, masterplanned neighborhood in the area. He also needs the housing authority's support for his redevelopments plans.
Wells can help on both fronts.
She sits on the housing authority, and on the board of the Lily White Security Benefit Association, which owns the Tampa Parks Apartments with the Local 1402 of the International Longshoremen's Union.
Turanchik's group will pay the association and the union a substantial sum for the property, said Don Wallace, chairman of Turanchik's urban redevelopment company.
The price was not disclosed. It was negotiated over months.
With the apartments and other land secure, Turanchik now wants the housing authority and his company to jointly apply for a Hope VI grant. But that's a new development.
Until recently, he didn't want the authority to pursue the grant, said housing authority member Toni Riordan, who met with Turanchik about two weeks ago.
In May, Wells did not mention Turanchik when the authority discussed Hope VI. Instead, she questioned the cost of a $93,465 addition to a contract with a consultant preparing the Hope VI application.
"I have several concerns as far as this is concerned," said Wells, who is publisher of the Florida Sentinel Bulletin.
"We don't have money for residential services ... but we can come up with $100,000 to come up with options," she said.
At that meeting, Riordan pointed out the authority was spending $93,465 to possibly get $20-million.
Wells wanted to know if the authority could pursue other ideas.
"Was the Hope VI the only option we had?" she said.
In October, the issue came up again. Riordan asked the board chairman to look into rumors about a private development plan for the area that included the Tampa Park Apartments.
"To clear up the rumors, I am on the board of Tampa Park," Wells said.
But she couldn't tell the board members what they wanted to know. Wells had signed a confidentiality agreement, she said.
Mayor Pam Iorio said Wells and other members should not vote on issues where they may appear to have a conflict. Iorio did not know about Wells' conflict, but she said Wells might want to "think through" whether she can serve on the authority at all.
"If she has to recuse herself through a major aspect of what the housing authority is going to be involved with, that could be a problem in terms of her service to the board," Iorio said.
Iorio reappointed Wells in May even though Wells had missed eight of 13 meetings. Since May, Wells hasn't attended three of seven meetings and skipped a workshop on the Hope VI grant. She attended another meeting by speakerphone and missed portions of two other meetings.
Wells did not return calls seeking comment for this story.
Her father, C. Blythe Andrews Jr., chairman of the Florida Sentinel Bulletin and head of the Lily White Association, declined to comment.
Andrews endorsed Turanchik's redevelopment plans Thursday at a press conference.
Andrews said then that he had never earned "a dime" from the apartments, which operate under a contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD will require that any money earned from the sale go to other nonprofit endeavors, Turanchik said.
"We have never gotten a penny out of it, and we will never get a penny out of it," Andrews said.
- Times staff writer David Karp can be reached at 226-3376 or karp@sptimes.com
