Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Goodman to seek audit of Housing Authority

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman says he intends to ask the Department of Housing and Urban Development for a full audit of the embattled Las Vegas Housing Authority.

Goodman said he has talked with Kenneth J. LoBene, director of HUD's Las Vegas office, about his intent to formally request an audit in the wake of a HUD report this week critical of contracting and oversight procedures at the Hosuing Authority.

"I believe a request from my office for an audit will carry some influence with HUD," said Goodman, who as mayor appoints the Housing Authority board members but has no other regulatory authority over the agency.

Goodman planned to ask to address the Housing Authority board prior to today's meeting in which commissioners were scheduled to decide whether to oust their executive director who has been on the job about five months.

Parviz Ghadiri was appointed in January by a unanimous vote of the five-member board after serving as interim director since his predecessor, Frederick Brown, died of a heart attack last June.

Now at least two board members want Ghadiri out and questions have arisen over whether two other board members, who are perceived to be sitting on the fence over Ghadiri's fate, would attend the noon meeting.

The political intrigue doesn't end there.

Metro Police today are investigating the apparent theft of eight housing authority files from a room at the Housing Authority offices at 340 N. 11th St. -- a room that should have been secured, but the door lock has been broken for at least a month, police said.

"It could have been anyone who took those records," Metro Property Crimes Sgt. John McGrath said today, stopping short of saying it was an inside job. "The room was not locked and the files were not locked. And we believe it is unlikely they were misplaced because of whose records were taken.

"We don't know when this occurred, but it was reported to us on Monday. Unless someone uses the information to commit another crime (such as credit card or identity theft) or unless someone comes forward and gives us more information, we may never learn who did this."

Police declined to release the names of those whose records were taken. A police report was not immediately available.

"This does not bode well for security at the housing authority," said Goodman, who in late May said he planned to get more involved in the "tumultuous" goings-on of the commission.

"The mayor intends to attend more housing authority meetings, talk to tenants and others and observe the dynamics of how the board operates," Goodman's spokeswoman Elaine Sanchez said today. "Micro-management is not the mayor's style. He just wants to get more of a feel for what is happening."

The terms for two of the board's members, Robert Forbuss and Dewain Steadman, are up this month.

Today's meeting was scheduled in advance of the HUD report released this week that was critical of five contracts from January 1999 through June 2002. The report also was critical of Brown's leadership and questioned whether the authority board properly oversaw him.

Although nothing in the report specifically criticizes Ghadiri, who has been with the agency eight years, Steadman, his staunch supporter on the board, believes Ghadiri is being tagged as a scapegoat for the bad publicity and the commission's current woes.

"Of course he is a scapegoat," said Steadman, who often has been at the losing ends of votes. "He has done nothing wrong. What he has done in the last several months is make decisions that have saved the Housing Authority $700,000 to $1 million. He has held everything together.

"I am absolutely opposed to him being fired without due process. The words on the J. Edgar Hoover Library say it best that evidence must be 'proven, documented and demonstrated.' I have seen nothing to prove, document or demonstrate why he should be removed."

Steadman confirmed today that he was one of the victims of the apparent theft of records. He said he was told by a housing authority staff member to contact his credit card company and alert them of the incident.

Forbuss, a lobbyist, was in Carson City Wednesday at the special session of the Legislature. Attempts to reach him to determine whether he would be present Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Housing Authority Chairman Michael McDonald, an outgoing Las Vegas City Councilman who lost in his re-election bid to political newcomer Janet Moncrief earlier this month, also could not be reached to see if he was to be present today.

Goodman said McDonald does not automatically lose his seat on the commission when he becomes a former councilman next Wednesday. Goodman said he has not talked with McDonald regarding whether McDonald wants to retain the housing authority post.

Housing Authority board members Christopher Hoye and Beatrice Turner have gone on record as advocating Ghadiri being replaced. Attempts to reach Hoye and Turner Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Attempts to reach Ghadiri were not successful.

At a recent public meeting, Hoye expressed concerns about whether Ghadiri was doing his job and whether he was properly reporting issues to the board.

Nowhere was an apparent breakdown in communication between Housing Authority staff and the board more evident than in the HUD report that came out Wednesday calling into question $158,705 in spending, including a public relations contract given to former Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera in 2001.

The spending of $36,000 with Herrera Communications and $21,000 with Tribeca Media were labeled ineligible expenditures of federal funds in the report. The report said there was no evidence Herrera or Tribeca did any work for the authority to earn that money.

Brown was criticized in the report for awarding a public relations contract with Tribeca Media, and then requesting that the firm split it with Herrera's company.

The board has since changed contract-awarding procedures so that any contract worth more than $25,000 go before the commissioners for approval.

The HUD report recommends the housing authority use nonfederal dollars to repay the $57,000 in federal funds used for those contracts.

Steadman reckoned that all of the federal money in question may have to be repaid to HUD and that the findings of the report could lead to a costly full audit of the agency.

"I think it was well spelled out in the report that that is what they are going to do," Steadman said.

"Yes, I feel vindicated (by the report) because I was waving the red flag. But as a member of this board I will take the same responsibility."

At a late May news conference, Goodman said he may have to "stick his nose" into the Housing Authority's affairs, noting, "I want to quash that before it gets more tumultuous."

Part of that tumult stemmed from the board's struggle to find a replacement for Brown. A consultant was hired to conduct a nationwide search that resulted with the job being offered to Harrison Shannon Jr., a former director of the Charlotte, N.C., housing authority.

Shannon turned down the offer and three other finalist candidates also removed themselves from consideration, leaving only finalist Ghadiri for consideration.

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