Board to decide fate of housing director

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, March 21, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

The fate of Las Vegas Housing Authority Executive Director Frederick Brown could be determined Monday in a special closed-door meeting requested by one of the five board members.

Dewain Steadman, Brown's most vocal critic, said he hopes his colleagues will review Brown's behavior during the past year and decide Monday whether he should continue to lead the agency.

Board members have criticized Brown for hiring Clark County Commission chairman Dario Herrera and paying him more than $50,000 for public relations work without their knowledge.

Steadman said he sees no need to delay evaluating Brown until U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials finish their audit review of the process, during which housing authority contracts are awarded. HUD agents are scheduled to begin their review Monday.

"I think they should consider all the background information and vote their conscience and their feeling to better an agency that in my opinion is in bad shape," Steadman said of his colleagues.

Herrera's company, Herrera Communications Group, was paid $4,500 a month for eight months between January and September 2001.

In November Brown awarded an $84,000 public relations contract to Tribeca Media and subsequently told the firm to split the work with Herrera, who was expected to handle government affairs consulting. Board members and residents of the city's affordable housing program have questioned why the agency -- whose task is to provide low income residents and senior citizens safe, clean and affordable housing -- needs a public relations firm.

Bob Forbuss, chairman of the housing authority board, said some board members may disagree with the timing of the meeting, but he is willing to go forward.

"Some scrutiny is needed at this point in time," Forbuss said. "I think a board has a right to evaluate their executive director -- whether that be the school superintendent or the county manager -- anytime they want."

Brown and commissioners Christopher Hoye and Simhan Iyengar were returning from a housing authority business trip in Washington on Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.

Commissioner Michael McDonald did not return a phone message left Wednesday.

The housing authority's procurement plan allows Brown to award contracts or make purchases for more than $25,000 without the board's approval once the expenditures are approved as budget line items. The plan also requires Brown to inform the board of the expenditure during the next meeting.

The housing authority's fiscal year 2001-02 budget allows for $75,000 to be spent on public relations.

Steadman said the contract alone exceeded the allotted amount by $9,000, and the board was never notified. Herrera's previous work -- for which he billed the authority $36,000 -- was never listed in the budget.

"I'm not pro-backroom politics at all," Steadman said. "I think everything should be aboveboard and in the open."

The question about whether politics played a role was raised when board members learned that Brown served on Herrera's exploratory committee for his bid for Nevada's 3rd Congressional District seat.

Herrera's Democratic supporters also claim politics are playing a role in the controversial contract.

Democrats have said Tribeca Media owner Lucie Melchert has changed and amended her story to damage the party's reputation because Melchert does campaign work for Republican Lynette Boggs McDonald, a city councilwoman running for the 1st Congressional District seat.

"I think partisan politics is definitely playing a role in this," said Achim Bergmann, Herrera's press secretary. "You have a popular elected official who is running for Congress and a political consultant who has changed her tune since she became a paid Republican operative."

Bergmann called her a "Republican operative with partisan motivations."

Melchert, who said she comes from a "long line of Democrats," called the allegations "absolutely false." She said her opponents were trying to "explain what happens to be the complete truth."

"When I joined Lynette's campaign, it wasn't necessarily because of any political philosophy," said Melchert, who served as a spokeswoman for the city's Neighborhood Services Department. "I joined her campaign to help her as a PR professional and not because of my political philosophies. I thought when I joined the campaign it was because (of) the person, not the party, but I guess not everyone sees it that way."

Tribeca Media and Herrera Communications Group backed out of the contract last month. Melchert has said she is in the process of closing her business; Herrera said he is dissolving his company until after the congressional race. The agenda for Monday's housing authority meeting lists a request for "possible disciplinary action against the executive director including but not limited to an oral warning, written reprimand, suspension, termination or no action."

The housing authority meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Harry Levy Gardens community room, 2525 W. Washington Ave. in Las Vegas.