Two leave housing board under pressure

The Brooksville mayor may have to push two other members he has asked to step down.

By DAN DeWITT, Times Staff Writer
Published December 4, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - Paul Douglas has decided to end his brief and controversial term on the Brooksville Housing Authority, resigning at the request of Mayor David Pugh Jr.

Douglas, who in September had tried to oust Executive Director Ronnie McLean, said he was leaving the authority because he supports Pugh's aim to disband it.

Douglas said the only way to improve the troubled agency "is to fold it into the Hernando County Housing Authority" as Pugh suggested. "The city of Brooksville should get out of the housing authority business," he said.

Pugh sent letters to four of the six board members last week asking for their resignations and telling them that if they did not resign, he would try to remove them.

One other board member who received the letter, Earl Watkins III, resigned by the deadline of noon Monday. Two others, Chairman Steve Zeledon and Vice Chairwoman Jeanette Soto, said they wanted to stay on the board.

Zeledon and Soto are McLean supporters. Watkins, like Douglas, has questioned McLean's honesty and said he supports Pugh's plan to get rid of the authority.

"He wants the city to be out of it and I can't say I blame him" Watkins said. "Obviously, we can't find the right people to help those residents out."

The four board members had all been appointed earlier this year and asked to restore order to the agency after two officials were convicted of stealing federal money. The agency, which is financed by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, operates two apartment complexes for low-income residents.

Soto and Zeledon said McLean has straightened out the authority's chaotic financial records, rid it of under-performing employees and filled apartments that have been vacant for years.

The mayor must schedule a hearing to determine whether they should be removed from the board; removing board members is the city's only direct power over the agency.

In her response to Pugh's request, Soto wrote that the mayor had repeatedly told her she had not caused the problems at the authority. "Having done nothing wrong, there is no reason for me to resign," she said.

Douglas has led the criticism of McLean, whom he said lied to the agency's former insurance agent when he said he did not have a Florida driver's license. McLean does have a Florida license, though it was suspended for failing to pay traffic fines and, more recently, attending a court-ordered driving school, according to court records. McLean said he did not know it was suspended and said his statement to the insurance agent was misinterpreted.

McLean in turn called Douglas a liar, saying Douglas had claimed to file a police report complaining of a death threat. The Brooksville Police Department had no record of such a complaint. That was because he had just talked to an officer about the threat but never filed a formal complaint, Douglas said.

This infighting was the real problem, City Manager Jennene Norman-Vacha said, because it has distracted the authority from doing its job.

"They don't seem to be getting anywhere," she said last week.

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

[Last modified December 3, 2007, 20:33:56]