Search for housing chief begins anew

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2003 | 8:53 a.m.

The Las Vegas Housing Authority commissioners will meet as early as Friday to decide how to go about hiring a new executive director now that the commissioners' first choice has turned down the job.

The commissioners could decide to offer the job to another one of the candidates recommended by a search committee, or choose to redo the search process, Commission Chairman Michael McDonald said.

"We really need to move this process forward to be fair to the staff and the residents," McDonald said Monday.

McDonald, who is also a Las Vegas Councilman, said he called for a Friday emergency meeting of the commissioners. If that day does not fit into the other commissioners' schedules, they will discuss the situation at their next regular meeting on Jan. 21, he said.

The search for an executive director hit a snag last week when Harrison Shannon Jr., former head of the Charlotte, N.C., housing authority, said he would not take the Las Vegas job, a housing authority official said. Shannon told the housing authority that his wife did not want to leave Charlotte and that he wanted to give his new consulting business time to grow.

Parviz Ghadiri has been acting executive director since July, after the death of executive director Frederick Brown.

Ghadiri was one of five candidates recommended for the top job by a search committee.

Jemine Bryon of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the co-finalist for the job with Shannon, is still interested in the Las Vegas job, said Joyce Roberson, a special assistant to the commissioners who oversaw the search for a new director.

The other two candidates were Barry Philpott of the Portland Housing Authority and John Harmon of the Bellinghman/Whatcom County Housing Authorities in Washington. Harmon has since removed himself from consideration for the Las Vegas job.

The new executive director of the housing authority will oversee a $65 million budget, 192 full-time employees and an agency that helps provide affordable housing for about 12,000 low-income families and senior citizens.

McDonald and commissioners Robert Forbuss and Beatrice Turner said they are unsure whether the board should start the search over or consider one of the remaining candidates.

"In the end we still have a very good candidate in Parviz," McDonald said.