ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / October 18, 1999

LAPLACE- Saying this “is a new day for St. John Public Housing, and weneed to extend an olive branch to the housing staff,” St. John HousingAuthority Board of Commissioners Chairperson Sheila Morris introduced Earl White, the interim executive director, at Thursday night’s meeting of the board.

The meeting, attended by about 30 tenants and several deputies from the Sheriff’s Office, was held in the Housing Authority office on Joe Parquet Circle.

Most of the meeting was taken up with trying to straighten up the mess left by the former Executive Director Patrena Ester.

Ester was fired by the Board of Commissioners on Sept. 13 after a longand contentious battle that revealed a Housing Authority in chaos. Eversince June when tenants sent a video tape of unsanitary and dangerous living conditions in the St. John housing projects to the New Orleansoffice of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ester and her staff had been under increasing criticism from the Parish Council and housing tenants.

After the St. John Parish Council disbanded the Board of Commissioners inAugust, a new board was formed and it fired Ester, Assistant Executive Director Clara Lewis and Housing Authority legal counsel William O’Regan.

However, the troubles of the Housing Authority are far from over.

At Thursday’s meeting, tenants learned that White had 45 days to come up with an audit for HUD to tell the department what needs to be done so that a budget for 2000 can be formulated.

White, a St. James Parish resident and the retired director of St. JamesHuman Resources Department, said he could not find the proper records so that he can start the audit.

“The books have not been straightened out since last May,” said White. “Ican’t do an audit until the books are straight, and to do that, I need records, and I can’t find them.”After being on the job for a week, White looked and sounded very frustrated.

“It is next to impossible to find any records to do any planning,” he complained. “I’ve searched everywhere, and I can’t find the recordsanywhere in the building.”But the chaos doesn’t end there.

When Morris asked White if the New Orleans HUD office knew about the missing records, White got even more frustrated.

“New Orleans HUD is not any help,” he said. ” They won’t answer my phonecalls.”Morris got angry, saying, “We are trying to stabilize this situation, and we can’t even get cooperation from HUD. I’ve tried to contact the local HUD totell them about Mr. White, but they won’t answer me.”Attorney Walter Willard, the new legal counsel for the St. John HousingAuthority, listed some of the missing records. Financial records, bankstatements, budget records, vacancy lists and work orders could not be found.

“These are federal records,” said Willard. “And this is very, very seriousif they are missing.”Willard said a serious and tenacious effort must be made in order to find the records. There are even time cards and vacation lists missing, he said,so White doesn’t know who has worked when and who has vacation time and who doesn’t. Willard suggested they interview all housing staffworkers to see if they knew where the records are.

He also said he would hand deliver a letter to Ester the next day asking her to help them find the missing records.

The board instructed White to make a visual inspection of every housing unit in the parish so that a list of all needed repairs can be sent to HUD.

White said he didn’t know if he can inspect all 316 units himself, and Morris called for volunteers to help. She said anybody in the parish whowould like to help White and his staff make the housing inspection should call 652-9036.

Morris went on to say that cooperation is needed by everyone to bring the Housing Authority back up to speed.

“Every tenant’s rent will be re-calculated so that everybody is paying a fair rent,” she declared.

However, she also said that since repairs are the biggest agenda item, from now on all tenants will have to pay for damages they have inflicted on housing units.

“It takes a dual effort to make this work,” Morris said. “We cannot affordto spend money on damage that was done by the tenants.”As a final order of business, Morris entered into the record the two advertisements in the board’s search for a new executive director and assistant executive director.

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