A call to clean house

Critics of the troubled Brooksville Housing Authority say it's due.

By DAN DEWITT
Published July 2, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - When Ronnie McLean took over as interim executive director of the Brooksville Housing Authority in early June, he found a stack of paychecks dated through the end of the month.

Even stranger, McLean said, the checks were signed by the former vice chairman of the authority's board, Allen Rhodes, whose term expired May 31.

Strangest of all, McLean said, several checks included overtime pay for work that had not yet been performed.

"That's kind of alarming, " said Brooksville City Council member Joe Bernardini. "How can you write a check for overtime when you don't even know it exists?"

The council is scheduled to decide tonight whether to remove some or all of the authority's board members because of the recent federal fraud conviction of suspended executive director Betty Trent.

But the paychecks and other documents raise questions about the housing agency that extend far beyond Trent's fraud case. The documents include a June 11 letter from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development stating that the authority appears to have hired an electrical contractor to do more than $200, 000 worth of work at Summit Villas without putting the job out to bid and without having enough money to pay the contractor - a violation of state law.

The board also hired McLean without adequately interviewing other candidates or reviewing their resumes, said City Council member Lara Bradburn.

She added that she has seen enough evidence to seriously consider removing at least some of the board members for "inefficiency ... neglect of duty or misconduct, " as state law allows.

So has Bernardini.

"I think we need to start out with a clean slate and a new board and see if we can get some positive things coming out of that organization, " he said.

* * *

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which funds the Housing Authority, took action against it soon after Trent and former project manager Joe Ann Bennett were accused in November of stealing federal money meant to improve low-income housing. Bennett has since pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and was sentenced to a year in federal prison.

Because of those charges, the HUD office in Jacksonville "placed the housing authority on a zero threshold for the Capital Funds Program, " said the June 11 letter from John Niesz, the office's director of public housing.

That meant HUD would pay for repairs to the authority's two apartment complexes, Summit Villas and Hillside Estates, only if the authority provided documents showing why the work was needed and how it would be done, said Gloria Shanahan, a department spokeswoman.

In March, after Brooksville electrical contractor Jim Lane found dangerously corroded wiring in apartments for elderly residents at Summit Villas, the authority asked to pay for the repairs with $147, 000 in capital funds that had accumulated over the previous three years.

"We expected that the need for these funds was so great that the Housing Authority would immediately respond with the proper documentation for the funds requested, " Shanahan wrote in an e-mail.

"To date, they have not provided the documentation requested for these funds."

Also, the department authorized paying Lane only $9, 800 - enough to repair life-threatening problems, the letter said. The department told then-interim executive director Donnie Singer it would pay for more work only if the authority put it out to bid.

Singer, executive director of the Hernando County Housing Authority, said he relayed that message to the board after inspecting Summit Villas on March 29 with a HUD engineer and other experts.

"Everybody agreed, " Singer said. "The wiring, even though it was in poor shape, did not constitute a life-threatening emergency."

Even so, the board decided to allow Lane to continue working, Singer said.

Lane, who said he has been paid only $25, 000 of the $249, 000 the authority owes him, also said the board approved his contract because residents were in danger. That opinion was supported by an electrical engineer, Robert Toth of Palm Harbor, hired by the authority.

But unless the authority can provide documentation to explain why the work was not put out to bid, Shanahan said, the authority will be stuck with the bill.

"BHA would be responsible for (paying Lane) and for seeking funds from other non-Public Housing resources, " she said.

Postdating paychecks is another violation of HUD policy that requires "work or services be performed and goods received before payment, " Shanahan said.

McLean said he found the stack of about a dozen checks in the office the weekend before his official start date, June 11. At least four of the checks - dated June 21 and June 28 and made out to secretary Elizabeth Loos and maintenance supervisor Larry Trent- include overtime pay. Larry Trent is Betty Trent's son.

"How do you know you are going to have overtime, and how do you know people are going to be employed during that period?" Singer asked rhetorically.

"If Mr. Rhodes' term ended in May, why (was he) signing checks well in advance of the work actually being done?"

Rhodes said the checks had not been co-signed as would be required before they could be redeemed. He then abruptly ended the interview: "There were extenuating circumstances surrounding this, and I'm not going to comment any further."

* * *

Rhodes continued to support Betty Trent and Bennett months after their indictments. So did current board members Carl Pilcher, who declined to comment for this story, and Chairwoman Gertrude Mobley, who could not be reached.

Because both served on the board when the authority's two administrators were stealing money, said Brooksville City Manager Jennene Norman-Vacha, "it led to the (City) Council saying, 'Uh, do we have the right housing board members?' "

But they are not the only ones under scrutiny, said Bradburn, who has questioned McLean's appointment, which Pilcher opposed.

Paul Boston, who for months was Trent's only vocal critic on the board, and Vice Chairman Steve Zeledon, who was appointed to the board shortly before McLean was named to his position, both voted for him and have said he has the energy and ability to straighten out the authority.

Also, program manager Billye Fetrow said she called both local newspapers and WWJB radio in Brooksville to tell them of the June 6 meeting when McLean was chosen interim director.

But another candidate, Glenn Claytor, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for state representative in 2006, said he did not attend the meeting because he was not told about it.

"There is some question about whether or not they gave sufficient notice for the board meetings, " said Claytor, who worked closely with HUD offices in Chicago and Philadelphia as a developer of affordable housing.

"I have quite a bundle of experience, " he said.

Bradburn said, "My concern is, they appointed somebody in a rush without proper notice and without a proper vetting process." The City Council member added that Boston has previously accused the board of doing business out of public view.

"Those who appointed Mr. McLean in the fashion they did it were doing exactly what they were criticizing others of doing, " Bradburn said.

McLean, 42, whose previous job was monitoring foster homes in Pasco County, said he too has experience working with HUD in his native New York.

He also said the disputes have taken the authority's focus away from its main mission: providing decent housing for low-income residents. Among the outstanding problems are the outdated and deteriorating wiring at both apartment complexes and settling that has forced the closure of apartments at Hillside Estates.

One of them was occupied by Betsaida Garcia, 22, who moved to another apartment in Hillside because a crack in the kitchen ceiling had grown so wide and long that she worried debris might fall on her 1-year-old son.

"They need to either fix this place or tear it down and start over, " she said.

[Last modified July 1, 2007, 20:50:55]