By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – One of eight federal officials who contributed to a scathing audit report of the St. John the Baptist Parish Housing Authority came to the parish council on Tuesday to shed more light on what the report uncovered.

Oliver Rose, a public housing revitalization specialist for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s New Orleans office, spoke of a housing organization that is experiencing “dysfunction across every level” and said the current board of commissioners should have done what they could to ensure the financial stability of the agency.

“There are many concerns about management and transactions that were made in the last two years,” Rose said. “We couldn’t tie anything together accurately.”

Rose said HUD is specifically concerned about undocumented spending of more than $1 million by the Housing Authority in 2009. He said HUD is continuing its review to provide technical assistance and help point the staff in the right direction.

“There are no clear figures on what the housing authority has in its budget,” Rose said. “We are finding failures across all aspects of the organization.”

Rose was at the meeting at the request of Councilman Raydel Morris, who was appointed in October to replace Councilman Richard “Dale” Wolfe. Wolfe had resigned so that he could become the Housing Authority’s executive director.

Shortly after his appointment to the council, Morris, a former member of the housing board, moved forward with an initiative to remove all five current Housing Authority members. All five have asked for a hearing to defend themselves, but Morris has been unable to get a quorum of the council to conduct the hearing.

Rose told the council that the missing money was to go toward capital improvements at the parish’s four housing developments, but nearly all went unaccounted for. He said the person keeping track of finances for the Housing Authority had no accounting experience and no accounting degree. He said that person has been handling the finances for more than three months.

Rose said if the housing money was spent improperly, the board would have to pay it back in non-federal funds, which includes rent, administrative fees and Section 8 housing payments. The only problem is that the Housing Authority has been lax in collection of those fees, according to the audit report.

Rose also referenced a lack of control from board members during recent meetings. He said one meeting he attended recently included shouting from tenants and shouting from board members. He recalled one member saying, “HUD couldn’t tell him what to do.”

“It was total chaos and I couldn’t wait to leave,” Rose said. “I’m not sure if that is status quo, but I never want to attend another meeting.”

The council took no action following Rose’s presentation, but Morris said afterward that he is considering resigning from the interim position because the stress is causing health concerns to resurface. He said he considered resigning at Tuesday’s meeting, but decided to put it off as long as he could.”

In other action from Tuesday’s meeting, the council awarded contracts for two major drainage projects in LaPLace and Reserve.

The council approved a $2.37 million contract with Louisiana Contracting Enterprises of Thibodaux to work the Reserve area drainage project. The job includes improvements to the drainage basins that surround St. Peter Church. The parish is looking to replace and reposition culverts in drainage canals that line the streets surrounding the church.

The council also approved a $1.18 million contract with BLD Services of New Orleans for the improvements in the Riverlands subdivision of LaPlace. The project calls for three new pumping stations that will help move water off residential streets and into drainage canals. The identical pumps, which will be placed at the foot of Chattsworth Drive, on Parlange Loop and on Welham Loop, will tie into the Vicknair drainage canal that runs from LaPlace into Lake Pontchartrain.

The council also rejected all bids entered for construction of an airnasium at the West Bank Recreational Complex in Edgard. Brenda Labat, the parish’s director of purchasing, said the bids all came in well above the $550,000 budget for the project. She said the project would be redesigned and rebid.