Issues went beyond conflict

Conflict of interest, in the form of nepotism, wasn’t the only reason for eliminating the Portland Housing Authority executive director funding.

Mayor Randy Geesaman explained at the Oct. 10 Portland City Council meeting that the funding had been pulled because of nepotism, since the director, Carol Geesaman, is his wife.

But according to Gina Rodriguez, public affairs director for Chicago-based Region V of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), performance failures were also part of the decision to pull funding for the housing authority executive director. Local officials say those problems are a result of a lack of proper training for the position.

Carol Geesaman’s role as both housing authority executive director and mayor’s assistant meant her salary was split, with 50 percent coming from HUD and 50 percent from the City of Portland. The positions have traditionally been structured in that fashion.

Rodriguez said Portland’s board of commissioners for the housing authority was notified of compliance issues starting in early 2015. A series of emails beginning in August 2015 shows that Portland Housing Authority was deficient in its tenant information reported to Public and Indiana Housing Authority Center.

In December 2015, Valarie Calhoun, a portfolio management specialist for HUD’s Indianapolis office, sent an email setting four requirements, to be completed by the end of March 2015, to rectify issues with Portland Housing Authority.

Carol Geesaman explained that minimal training and poor communication from HUD were contributing factors to those issues.

“They don’t offer much training, you have to go find your own and you’re supposed to have much stricter inspections than what I was told,” Geesaman said.

But by March 14, Calhoun had sent another email listing five compliance violations by Portland Housing Authority, and asked Carol Geesaman and the board of commissioners to contact the office to discuss repositioning of the voucher program. The compliance violations included: not completing an annual utility allowance review in the last three years, not submitting an annual budget to the HUD Field Office in the last three years, not completing an annual independent audit and failing to improve management of the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program.

“The HUD Field Office has not been able to determine whether the Portland Housing Authority has begun to use operating funds to pay administrative expenses for the HCV or other programs based on the inconsistencies in reporting monthly operating funds correctly,” Rodriguez said.

Carla Horn, who served as executive director of the Portland Housing Authority under former mayor Bruce Hosier, explained that she had to find help from people outside of the Indianapolis HUD office.

“They’re not who I went to when I needed hands-on help. They would audit me and tell me what I was doing wrong, but I had to go to another housing authority or someone else who was in my same position for help,” Horn said. “It’s not something that’s really easy to go in there, you don’t have a lot of training.”

At the Portland Housing Authority board of commissioners meeting Tuesday, board vice president Ryan Myers explained that since the position was held by the mayor’s assistant, it meant a new executive director for each new administration.

“That’s kind of how we’ve gotten so far behind …” Myers said. “Every mayor change we put a new person in, that person is gonna try to ruffle through as fast as they can and figure out, ‘This is what they were doing in the past.’”

At its Oct. 10 meeting, Portland City Council discussed that Geesaman’s pay from HUD was cut on Oct. 1. It voted to cover the lost half of Geesaman’s salary for the remainder of the year, after hearing about the conflict of interest accusations.

Mayor Randy Geesaman explained that the conflict of interest was the main reason for the HUD money being pulled, but that contradicts what officials from HUD have said and what evidence from emails shows. City council members were aware of the performance failures according to council member Bill Gibson, but they were not discussed publicly by the four present council members during the Oct. 10 meeting.

Rodriguez also said neither the board of commissioners for Portland Housing Authority nor the mayor’s office notified HUD of whom they had hired as executive director, and that HUD only found out about the conflict of interest after being informed in February 2015.

Mayor Randy Geesaman said that’s not true.

“We thought they knew when I (came into office) in 2011 … To make that comment in 2015 that they didn’t know she was executive director in 2011, she had a business card that said executive director and they’ve met me and her before,” Geesaman explained.

Linda Leonhard, president of the board of commissioners for the local housing authority, also said she thought HUD was aware of the mayor’s wife’s role.

“I wouldn’t have thought there would be anyway that they wouldn’t (know),” Leonhard said. “She had several different contacts (in HUD).”

Since Oct. 1, the administration of the Portland Housing Authority’s voucher program has been contracted to the Muncie Housing Authority. Portland’s board of commissioners will still retain control of the housing authority, and the contract with the Muncie Housing Authority will last two years, with an option to renew for one additional year.

Jerri Bost, CEO of the Muncie Housing Authority, explained that even though Muncie will administer the voucher program, the local board will still retain control of Portland Housing Authority.

“We are not governing the Portland Housing Authority, we are managing their voucher program,” Bost said. “There are 50 vouchers. The Muncie Housing Authority manages 855 vouchers and three public housing complexes … It should be a smooth transition … and really I would say most of the transition with inspections and everything should be finished Dec. 1.”