Housing authority holding up payment to consulting group
The Fayette County Housing Authority is holding up payment of $45,217 to H.J. Financial Group, the consultant brought in to get things up to speed during the one-month suspension of finance director Sonya Over. Sources say that housing authority solicitor John M. “Jack” Purcell intends to contact the Philadelphia-area firm about some of the costs associated with two recent invoices, one for $5,854 and the other for $39,364.
The larger bill includes $3,275 for travel, $2,868 for hotel costs and $832 for meals, all apparently paid to workers that the firm supplied to the authority during Over’s absence. On one occasion, H.J. Financial was paid $807 to “review grants,” according to a source familiar with the invoices.
Executive Director Thomas L. Harkless had recommended using HJ Financial as a means of getting the authority’s financial house in order. Harkless recommended in May that the board fire Over for nonperformance; when that didn’t happen, he suspended her for 30 days without pay, using unilateral power afforded him as executive director.
Over’s annual salary is $54,000. On that basis her one-month absence saved the authority $4,153. Over has maintained that her department was hamstrung by a personnel shortage that made it impossible for her to carry out a list of duties assigned by Harkless in December.
Ironically, Harkless now finds himself slapped with a 30-day unpaid suspension, which went into effect June 30. The authority’s five-member board of directors doled out that punishment for contract administration problems and conflict of interest concerns arising from the authority’s business dealings with two firms that employed Harkless’ relatives.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has ruled that the authority must repay nearly $108,000 to its federal modernization program, the initial source of those funds, from nonfederal sources.
The two revenue streams at the authority’s disposal to make the repayment are its State Housing Program and its Section 8 Program administration fee fund.