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Priorities go awry

When people who oversee housing for the poor begin to behave like Wall Street executives, they could use a solemn look in the mirror. When their housing authority is simultaneously kicking out 318 poor, elderly residents, these same officials need to look for the door.

The jarring contrast between the financial straits of the St. Petersburg Housing Authority and its generosity with travel and executive pay seems lost on authority members and their executive director, Darrell Irions. But Mayor Rick Baker and City Council members are showing an increasing intolerance, as well they should. They need to consider taking direct action with their authority appointees.

If nothing else, the authority is creating a firestorm of ill will. Irions, who moved the St. Petersburg office to Largo, has managed to thread together three local housing boards in a way that landed him what could be the largest housing paycheck in the nation. His $220,500 salary last year put him ahead of housing authority directors in New York and Chicago and Dallas and places with budgets 10 times the size. Asked in November to defend the salary, longtime board member Walt Smyth said: "He deserves every penny."

Smyth, as it turns out, is getting his own perks. He and board colleague Harry Harvey have taken 46 taxpayer-funded trips in the past four years at a cost of roughly $60,000. At their most recent jaunt, to the four-diamond Pointe South Mountain Resort in Phoenix, a Times reporter watched them duck out on almost half the conference.

The money that is being spent on travel and executive pay wouldn't begin to pay for the necessary renovations at the Graham-Rogall elderly complex in downtown St. Petersburg. But it certainly sends a disturbing signal about priorities and accountability. Are executive pay and fancy hotels the highest priorities?

The Graham-Rogall deal also calls into question the authority's competence. How is it possible the housing authority would have signed a contract that allows a developer to convert to condominiums with so little consideration for the elderly people who will be forced out? How could the board have passed up, apparently, two opportunities to replace the housing?

The authority will meet Tuesday to talk about the Graham-Rogall mess, and board members and Irions would be wise to spend less time on damage control and more time on policies and procedures. If this authority is not going to hold itself accountable, St. Petersburg's elected officials may be forced to do it for them.

[Last modified February 3, 2007, 07:16:31]