Plan to consolidate moving slowly

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Friday, Oct. 27, 2006 | 7:36 a.m.

Even as it becomes harder to afford a roof over your head, a two-year-old idea to merge the region's three housing authorities sputters along, a victim of loose-lipped officials or a flawed process, depending on whom you ask.

About 30,000 low-income people get housing assistance from three agencies, so the possibility of rolling them into one and getting better services or even more housing from a more streamlined system is an important one.

The Housing and Urban Development Department suggested combining the agencies in early 2005.

In late August, a committee of the three agencies and Las Vegas staff was scheduled to decide to whom to award a federally funded grant to study the idea.

After the Sun learned that one of the bidders was Michael Liu, a former Housing and Urban Development official who was one of the original backers of the idea, the meeting was canceled.

Two months later, Las Vegas officials concluded that the process of evaluating competing consultants was prejudiced, given how officials were quoted in the newspaper saying they opposed giving the job to the former federal official. Those comments were inappropriate, officials said.

A city spokesman said that, as a result, new criteria on how to evaluate consultants needed to be developed, and the request for consultants had to be reissued.

Furthermore, Las Vegas officials decided, the selection of a consultant to study the idea would be made by the city's finance department, not the committee that includes the three housing authorities. Mayor Oscar Goodman said he favors the merger and "I'm hopeful that once a consultant is retained they will reach the same conclusion."

Clark County Housing Authority officials and board members have said in the past that they were against the idea of merging the agencies, because they fear it would mean inheriting the problems of the other two agencies, which have suffered negative audits, stalled projects and allegations of mismanagement.

Now the same officials who spoke against allowing the former federal official to compete for the consultant's job said that this time around, all three agencies will be out of the picture when it comes to deciding who gets the contract for the study.

Not having housing authorities involved in choosing the consultant doesn't make sense, officials from all three say.

"No matter how good of a criteria they come up with, I think something will be missing from the table," said Carl Rowe, hired as a consultant in August to direct the troubled Las Vegas Housing Authority.

"Not having the three housing authorities there to decide what would be best ... is probably a little disingenuous," Rowe added.

"The three entities are supposed to be working together," said Nancy Wesoff, executive director of the Clark County Housing Authority. "This puts a cloud over the whole process."

North Las Vegas Housing Authority Chief Executive Don England said he hadn't been updated about the issue.

"I'm still working on the assumption that the selection committee is made up of the three housing authorities - and that's the way it should be," England said.

"I would think we would bring knowledge to the table ... about people who would study the pros and cons of merging the three agencies," he added.

Wesoff said the whole process got off to a bad start since questions she asked in a May meeting of the three agencies and city staff about who could bid were not answered.

In that meeting, she asked whether former Housing and Urban Development officials and former consultants with the housing authorities could compete for the funds.

But the issue was left for another day, she said.

"You ever look at something and know it's wrong?" Wesoff said.

"The way they set (this) up was wrong."