Housing Authority members chastised

A federal Housing and Urban Development director accuses the two of meddling.

By DAN DeWITT, Times Staff Writer
Published November 20, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - The federal department of Housing and Urban Development has chastised two Brooksville Housing Authority board members for meddling in the agency's day-to-day operations.

One commissioner, Earl Watkins, demanded that executive director Ronnie McLean move the meetings to City Hall, according to a Nov. 13 letter from John Niesz, director of public housing in HUD's Jacksonville office.

Another, board member, Paul Douglas, "approached staff of the Brooksville Housing Authority for detailed information on day-to-day operations," Niesz wrote.

These actions "pointedly underscore the urgent need for board member training on their roles and the scope of their ... responsibilities," Niesz wrote.

Douglas, an outspoken critic of McLean, said a housing authority worker came to him to talk about corruption in the authority. Watkins acknowledges he demanded the meetings be moved about a month ago only after his efforts to discuss the matter at board meetings failed.

"I tried to go through the front door, and then I went through the back door and got some people ticked off at me," he said Monday.

Several board members, including Douglas, have complained that McLean has fostered hostility toward them among residents, making it unsafe to meet at the authority's office at the Hillside Estates apartment complex.

The board finally addressed whether to move the meetings earlier this month. After a tie vote, commission chairman Steve Zeledon, a McLean supporter, said the meeting location would not be moved.

Watkins said the board should vote again on the issue after the Brooksville City Council appoints a seventh board member, as it was scheduled to do Monday night. Still, Watkins agreed he should not have confronted McLean and that the board members should have regular training.

Douglas said McLean told Niesz about his contact with the authority worker, whom he declined to identify. "Ronnie McLean has been directly writing HUD about everything that is happening at this authority," he said.

McLean said Niesz has been keeping tabs on all e-mails and letters because the agency is still working on a monthslong performance audit into the authority's operations; this was prompted by the fraud convictions of two former housing authority managers earlier this year.

Other than the recent conflicts between some board members, the board is "moving in the right direction," McLean said. Vacancies have been reduced, he said, and work is set to begin on underpinning the foundations of three apartments that have long been vacant.

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.

[Last modified November 19, 2007, 19:31:21]