No violation seen in board meeting

Wednesday, July 16, 2003 | 11:02 a.m.

The five-member Las Vegas Housing Authority board probably will not violate the state Open Meeting Law when it meets behind closed doors next week for a mandatory training session, the Nevada Attorney General's office said Tuesday.

The predominantly new board, looking to clean up the image of the tarnished agency, was ordered by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman last month to undergo training provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The closed 8 a.m.-to-noon session will deal with "procedures, policy and decorum," acting Housing Commission Chairman Robert "Bobby G" Gronauer said Tuesday. He said that according to an opinion from board attorney Teddy Parker, such sessions are not subject to the Nevada Open Meeting Law.

Nevada Senior Deputy Attorney General Bob Auer agreed with that assessment but cautioned that the perception of the five members meeting at the same time out of the public view can present problems, and that precautions should be taken.

"A training session probably does not fall under the jurisdiction, control, supervisory or advisory power of the public body and so it wouldn't constitute a meeting under the Open Meeting Law," Auer said.

However, should one of the board members during the session bring up an example of something that is slated to go before the board, then, Auer said, "a danger is present."

Auer said to prevent such dangers, the board could opt to have its attorney present to "say hold it, don't go there" or perhaps open the meeting for the public and news media to observe.

Assuming that the training session is not a public meeting, Auer said, the board could allow people to observe the session but not take public comment that would disrupt the training.

Gronauer, the Las Vegas township constable, said he had been concerned about the Open Meeting Law since being informed by the Las Vegas Housing Authority staff last week that the five board members would be trained simultaneously.

"We suggested that perhaps we could meet two, then two more and then one, but HUD told us that would not be cost-effective," Gronauer said.

After receiving word from the attorney general and in-house counsel, Gronauer said, "I feel comfortable we are making the right decision" with the private session.

Gronauer said board members "will be very careful not to discuss specifics," such as issues that may come before them at future meetings, thus avoiding potential noncompliance with the Open Meeting Law.

Since June Goodman has replaced four out of five authority board members, two whose terms expired, with Gronauer, federal Public Defender Franny Forsman, commercial developer Don Davidson and Deputy Public Defender Bill Gonzalez.

The only holdover from the previous board was Vice Chairwoman Beatrice Turner, who was appointed in November.

The agency, which has a $65 million operating budget and provides 6,822 housing units for 16,500 low-income and senior residents, is facing a full HUD audit stemming from a report from a limited HUD review released in June that criticizes accounting, contracting and oversight procedures.

Goodman called for the full audit and, although he has received support from the local and regional HUD directors for his request, that accounting procedure has yet to be approved and scheduled.

The HUD limited review found that under Executive Director Frederick Brown, who headed the authority from December 1994 until his death in June 2002, there were inconsistencies with five contracts worth more than $158,000.

Shortly after the release of the audit, a burglary was discovered at the agency's downtown offices on 11th Street. Travel and reimbursement records for Brown, his successor current Executive Director Parviz Ghadiri, three former board members and three staff members were missing.

Metro Police said the files were taken from a room that should have been locked, but that the lock had been broken for about a month. The theft remains unsolved.