Theodore Parker III, bottom, legal counsel for the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority, addresses the board of commissioners during a special meeting to consider the character, misconduct or competence of the executive director Chad Williams, Tuesday, July 30, 2019.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019 | 7:05 p.m.
Just over one year into his tenure, the executive director of the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority could be removed from his post by the advisory board that hired him.
Today, after some members of the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority Board of Commissioners unsuccessfully attempted to remove executive director Chad Williams on the spot, the body voted to determine the fate of the housing authority’s leader at the next regular board meeting in August.
Williams, who did not attend today’s meeting because he believes he wasn’t properly notified, has been the subject of a months-long investigation conducted by an independent law firm regarding his character and conduct. The investigation was prompted by a sexual harassment claim filed against him by a former housing authority employee, said the board’s vice chair, local real estate agent Sanje Sedera. Although the investigation ended in early July, its findings have not been made public.
Between now and the next regular board meeting, the date of which has not yet been announced, an ad hoc committee will review the findings of the investigation and will make recommendations to the full board, the body voted unanimously today. Board chairman and North Las Vegas Councilman Scott Black appointed the members of the ad hoc committee: resident commissioners Theresa Davis, Cheryl Davis and Sharon Davis and commissioner Dan Shaw, also a Henderson city councilman.
Theresa Davis and Cheryl Davis, who initiated today’s special meeting, both expressed a desire to fire Williams. Theresa Davis made a motion to terminate Williams with cause, effective at the conclusion of the meeting, which two other board members — Cheryl Davis and Sedera — supported.
“The conduct of Mr. Williams, to say the least, is not a favorable conduct, being the head of the agency, being the face of the agency,” Theresa Davis said.
The motion failed, as Black, Shaw, commissioner Lawrence Weekly and resident commissioner Sharon Davis voted against it.
The investigation into Williams comes at a time when the executive director himself is, in his own words, “uprooting fraud, waste, corruption and abuse of power” at all levels of housing authority staff and on behalf of past and current leadership on the Board of Commissioners.
In May, Williams released a report culminating from a separate, housing authority-led investigation into Theresa Davis, which concluded that the North Las Vegas resident commissioner likely committed fraud and embezzlement to maximize housing benefits while on the board over the last three years.
In response to the findings, the housing authority will terminate her Housing Choice Voucher benefits July 31. That could disqualify her from serving on the board, although as far as Black is aware, she is still on the ad hoc committee. North Las Vegas is reviewing the findings and “waiting for all the information” about Theresa Davis before determining whether to remove her from the board, said city spokesperson Delen Goldberg.
Williams has suggested over the past few months that the allegations levied against him were motivated by a desire of some housing authority staff and commissioners, particularly Theresa and Cheryl Davis, to retaliate against him for his attempts to turn around the troubled housing authority. Last week, Williams forwarded an email to the Las Vegas Sun originally sent to housing authority employees, stating that he is “clear of the allegations filed against me.”
Black and Sedera said the email was misleading, and Black denied having given Williams permission to contact the media about the investigation, contrary to Williams’ assertions.
“Who can clear him? The board can clear him. So how can he come to that conclusion?” Sedera said.
According to Sedera, the investigation into Williams did not determine whether sexual harassment had occurred, but a 15-page report presented to board members earlier this month did find that Williams violated the personnel policy of the agency. In addition to the sexual harassment claim, another former employee has accused Williams of age discrimination, Sedera added.
“We have a personnel conduct handbook for every employee that basically says no fraternization, no having affairs or things like that,” Sedera said. “Mr. Williams admitted that he had a lapse of judgment.”
Williams’ absence complicates board decision
Less than an hour before today’s special meeting, Williams forwarded the Sun a 1,700-word email he sent to Black and housing authority legal counsel Teddy Parker, in which he explained why he would not be attending the meeting.
Parker informed Williams Monday of the special meeting, according to the executive director, less than 24 hours before it was scheduled to take place. The official purpose of the meeting was to discuss Williams’ “character, misconduct or competence” in response to the findings of the investigation and to take action as the board deemed necessary.
In the email, Williams said that the request to convene the meeting from Theresa Davis and Cheryl Davis was “improper” and that he would interpret any actions taken at the meeting as “illegal and void.” He also argued that he was not given enough time to prepare for the meeting, as Parker first told him that the manner in which the meeting was called was “fraudulent” before retracting that initial assessment Monday.
“I look forward to receiving proper notice if that is the desire of the board so I can properly defend myself with respect to the question of my fitness of continuing to serve as the executive director of the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority. In fact, I welcome the opportunity for a public forum,” Williams wrote in the email.
In addition to emphasizing the findings of the authority’s investigation into Theresa Davis in the email, Williams accused Sedera of harboring a conflict of interest as a board member, which Sedera denied, and said that another commissioner attempted to “blackmail” him.
“These commissioners willingly and knowingly engaged in uncovered and alleged unlawful activity,” Williams wrote.
Williams’ absence and the lack of a representative on his behalf meant that those attending today’s meeting had little information to rely on other than rumors and statements from board members about the executive director.
Additionally, Parker has not made public the findings of the independent investigation into Williams and has advised board members not to talk about them. Yet, the attorney also insisted today that the board could only discuss the findings in a public setting.
That left the board, housing authority staff and residents of the housing authority’s public and affordable housing in a difficult position as they attempted to determine steps forward, noted Weekly.
“If we have to have these comments public and we can’t talk to our employee in private, Mr. Parker, how do we talk to him?” said Weekly, who also serves on the Clark County Commission. “I don’t want to embarrass a man. I just want to know the facts.”
Weekly further criticized Parker’s handling of the situation, questioning whether the attorney had misled Theresa Davis and Cheryl Davis about the requirements for calling the meeting. As commissioners voted, ultimately negatively, on whether to terminate Williams, Weekly lamented that Parker, claiming to have not seen Williams’ employee contract, could offer little information about the legal implications of such a vote.
“You’re the attorney for the board. I would expect that we would be guided properly and would be given proper information so we can make good, proper decisions,” Weekly said.
In spite of the lack of clarity surrounding the investigation, some housing authority employees spoke in favor of keeping Williams on board. Dozens of employees also booed negative comments made by Theresa Davis about Williams.
“I think if you slow down and take a look at the agency, you’re going to find out that this is the most cohesive employees have been since the merger of this agency,” said Martha Floyd, resident program coordinator with the agency.
Supportive services manager of the housing authority Dave Kauffman said that even if Williams isn’t “perfect,” he has brought “competence” to an agency historically plagued by incompetence and corruption.
“Competence is something to be admired. It’s a heard quality to find in people. I’m telling you, you’ve got that in this man,” Kauffman said.
Weekly said he appreciated hearing from housing authority staff speaking in support of Williams. But other employees and residents of the housing authority’s housing complexes have been sharing with board members contradictory, sometimes unflattering accounts of Williams’ leadership, Weekly added.
“So you ask yourself, what do we want to do with this information?” he said.
