Public housing: things hard to defend
One should never judge by anecdotes, I know, but it’s hard to defend public housing when there are stories like this one:
“This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into!”
The News & Observer has reviewed hundreds of canceled checks and invoices going back five years. They show the authority improperly spent millions for temporary labor, auto repair, landscaping and legal advice. Other financial records requested by The N&O are missing, officials say.
A federal audit completed in November identified $6.9 million that the authority spent without following bidding and purchasing codes. The housing agency is no longer allowed to spend more than $500 without the written approval of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
While some of the matters are trivially small or disputable, the News-Observer cites such delights as this:
· More than $828,000 for vehicle repairs, five times what Raleigh spent. Some vehicles had brake pads replaced only months after a new set had been installed, and mechanics charged up to $65 to pour antifreeze into a radiator.
· More than $1 million to mow grass. The payments included $1,800 for each trip to McDougald Terrace, a public housing complex. The work continued in winter.
These and other peccadillos led to the Executive director’s firing:
Employees at the agency say Executive Director James Tabron made final decisions about who got the work.
Tabron was ousted in April 2003 after 22 years in the top job following disclosure that he had used an agency credit card for personal purchases. He has not responded to numerous requests for interviews.
The authority has an annual operating budget of $9 million, nearly all from federal taxpayers.
Nearly two years after Tabron was fired, the authority is struggling to get its finances in order, and the most recent federal audit warned the agency could run out of money by July.
