Mayor shakes up housing board

Tuesday, June 17, 2003 | 11:04 a.m.

In the late 1980s gangs terrorized the residents of the Las Vegas Housing Authority's dilapidated Gerson Park project. The only thing some residents feared or mistrusted more than the hoodlums were the police.

Nevertheless, then-Metro Sgt. Robert "Bobby G" Gronauer and a small band of officers set up operations at the site that former Las Vegas City Councilman Frank Hawkins once called "the Cabrini-Green of Las Vegas," referring to the infamous Chicago housing project.

Slowly but surely, Gronauer and his officers won the support of many residents. In time the gangs were chased off, the project at Lake Mead and Martin Luther King boulevards was torn down and the Housing Authority built on the 40-acre site the Whispering Timbers single-family public homes.

If Gerson Park could be fixed, Gronauer reasons, no challenge facing today's Las Vegas Housing Authority is insurmountable.

Gronauer, who now is the Las Vegas constable, on Monday was one of three prominent Las Vegans to accept Mayor Oscar Goodman's offer to serve on the troubled Housing Authority board that is facing a potential audit by the Department of Housing and Urban Development on the mishandling of more than $158,000 in contracts.

The other two appointees are Las Vegas commercial developer Don Davidson and Federal Public Defender Franny Forsman.

Gronauer will fill the unexpired term of former City Councilman Michael McDonald, who resigned. That term will expire in June 2004. Davidson and Forsman replace Commissioners Robert Forbuss and Dewain Steadman, whose four-year terms expire this month.

"When I patrolled Gerson Park, I saw that people who are economically challenged really need special attention -- a different kind of leadership," said Gronhauer, who is in Carson City this week receiving training and recertification related to his constable position.

"I can bring that street knowledge to the job to serve the tenants, which is what public housing is all about. To be successful, you need to earn the confidence of the Housing Authority employees and the tenants."

The Las Vegas Housing Authority, now in its 56th year of operation, provides 6,800 units to 16,500 low-income families and seniors and operates on a $65 million budget. Commissioners are paid $80 a meeting.

"These appointees all come from varied backgrounds, but all possess leadership skills," Goodman said. "Their management and personnel skills are paramount to their performance as board members to the authority."

Gronauer declined to comment on the recent HUD report that was critical of contracting and oversight procedures regarding the Housing Authority's handling of five contracts from January 1999 through June 2002, including a controversial, $36,000 public relations contract to former Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera in 2001. Gronauer said he had not yet read it, but would do so.

Davidson, who has lived in Las Vegas eight years and prior to that was a longtime buyer and seller of public housing apartments and manager of Section 8 housing in Ohio, said he sent e-mail to Goodman offering to do what he could to help to address the current crisis.

"I understand the areas of funding, finance and economics and working with HUD," said Davidson, vice president of Triple Five, which built Boca Park at Charleston and Rampart boulevards and Village Square at Sahara Avenue and Fort Apache Road, among other commercial projects

"When I first came to Las Vegas I went to the Housing Authority to volunteer to help out. As I sat in the lobby I listened to angry tenants using a lot of four-letter words and saw a lot of apathy toward them. I felt if there ever came a time that I could be in a position to correct that, I would."

Davidson also declined to discuss the HUD report because he has not yet read it, but said he would do so. He said he is ready to face the rough road ahead.

"I love a challenge," Davidson said.

Attempts to reach Forsman for comment were not successful.

The trio join Housing Authority Commissioners Christopher Hoye, a Metro Police lieutenant, and Beatrice Turner, longtime tenants' rights activist.

Goodman has privately asked both to resign so that he can install more new members, Hoye and Turner said. Turner's term end in 2008. Hoye's current term expires in 2006.

Hoye said he would resign if Goodman makes a public request for him to do so. Turner said she would not resign. Goodman has declined to comment on his private discussions with Turner and Hoye.