Council weighs purging housing board - again

Frustration grows over infighting on the Housing Authority board.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT and DAN DEWITT, Times Staff Writers
Published November 7, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - With their frustration over the Brooksville Housing Authority rising, City Council members considered extreme measures at their meeting Monday night.

These included asking the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to take over the authority and replacing current board members, all of whom were appointed earlier this year in an effort to clean house.

The long-running problems have escalated to include reported threats against some housing board members, council members were told.

"To the average citizen, it seems like the Housing Authority is in the same situation it was three months ago, six months ago, a year ago," said Mayor David Pugh Jr.

He was referring to federal indictments, filed in November 2006, against executive director Betty Trent and former project manager Joe Ann Bennett. Both have since been convicted of stealing federal money intended to improve housing for low-income residents.

The current problem, council members said, is infighting, with one faction headed by executive director Ronnie McLean and the other by board member Paul Douglas.

Douglas has asked the City Council to remove McLean's main ally on the board, chairman Steve Zeledon. He asked fellow board members to fire McLean after he incorrectly told a Brooksville insurance agent that he did not have a Florida driver's license. His Florida license had been suspended for failure to pay a fine; it has since been reinstated. McLean said he told the insurance agency that he did not have his license with him.

City Manager Jennene Norman-Vacha has expressed concern that Douglas was flirting with violating the state's open meeting laws by sending e-mails to other board members. This is not a violation, McLean has said, because he does not expect replies.

McLean, meanwhile, has turned residents against Douglas and his allies on the board, several council members said Monday.

Last month, Douglas e-mailed McLean saying he would not attend a meeting scheduled for Oct. 29 because residents had threatened him. Council member Joe Bernardini pointed out that another board member, Shannon Andras-Pettry, resigned partly because she did not feel safe attending meetings at Housing Authority offices in the Hillside Estates apartment complex.

Council member Lara Bradburn suggested sending letters to board members telling them they were welcome to meet at City Hall. Bernardini suggested arranging for a bus to help residents make it to the meetings if they were moved to City Hall.

In any case, Bernardini said, the City Council has to make sure the threats come to an end, he said. "As an elected official, I'm not going to tolerate this," he said.

But what, exactly, can the City Council do? The city had asked City Attorney Tom Hogan for advice on whether it had the legal right to intervene in the board's operation. It could not, Hogan said Monday, echoing the opinion of previous city attorneys.

The City Council does, however, have broad power to remove board members.

To Bernardini, that sounded like a possibility. The City Council must bring order to the authority, he said, "even if we have to remove the whole board again."

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or (352) 754-6116. Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1434.

[Last modified November 6, 2007, 21:23:06]