North Las Vegas Housing Authority chief resigns

By Timothy Pratt, Mike Trask

Friday, Nov. 21, 2008 | 8:46 p.m.

North Las Vegas Housing Authority Chief Executive Don England resigned from his post today, North Las Vegas City Councilmen William Robinson and Robert Eliason said.

The resignation comes following recent concerns about the authority's handling of an apartment complex it had managed until July.

England and the authority have come under fire in recent weeks following Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal reports about the poor handling of the Casa Rosa Apartments.

A series of e-mails obtained by the Sun showed England seeming to avoid and delay a timely response to dangerous conditions facing public housing tenants at Casa Rosa.

Residents of Casa Rosa are being relocated in the next week.

It’s only the most recent string of concerns over the North Las Vegas Housing Authority. In 2005, the organization that provided insurance to the authority terminated the agency's policy because of ongoing operational and financial problems.

Before that, the federal government labeled the agency "troubled," meaning it couldn't compete for certain federal grants due to the same issues.

There was also the failed Desert Mesa project, an estimated $20 million plan meant to provide 123 homes.

The project never got finished amid lawsuits over an alleged lack of payments to contractors and plans to sell the property on Carey Avenue and Commerce Street to a private company.

In a conversation Friday evening Robinson, chairman of the authority board, said: “It’s probably time. Don has had his challenges.”

But, Robinson noted, the units are old and funding is low.

England had run the agency since 1999.

Carl Rowe, director of the Las Vegas Housing Authority, which took over management of Casa Rosa in July and revealed its problems in an inspection, said he was not surprised by England's resignation.

"He must have felt a good deal of pressure."