Housing authority disciplines director
The Fayette County Housing Authority board of directors voted 3-2 Thursday night to suspend Executive Director Thomas L. Harkless for 30 days without pay, with the nay votes coming from two board members who preferred to remove him from the job permanently. After a lengthy executive session, board member Angela M. Zimmerlink made a motion to “remove” Harkless – essentially a motion to fire him – and board member Beverly Beal provided the second.
However, board members Kenneth L. Johnson, Nancy Sutton and James V. Bitonti voted against the Zimmerlink motion. After that motion failed on a 3-2 vote, Bitonti put forth a motion calling for Harkless to receive the 30-day suspension, a strong reprimand in writing and removal as the authority’s
contracting officer for a one-year period.
The Bitonti motion also called for Harkless, a veteran public housing administrator, to receive training on contracts and the ethics of procurement. Sutton seconded the Bitonti punishment package, which Johnson also supported. It passed 3-2.
Harkless will begin serving his 30-day suspension June 30, per the Bitonti motion. During that period, director of technical services Andre Walters will serve as the authority’s acting executive director, per a motion from Beal that passed 4-1, with only Zimmerlink dissenting.
Beal’s motion also called for Walters to take over contracting officer duties for the one-year period. In that capacity, Walters will be responsible for the integrity of the authority’s contracting process, which includes sealed bids, small purchases and change orders as needed.
Sutton seconded Beal’s motion to make Walters the authority’s top administrator during Harkless’ one-month absence.
The five-member board’s decision came at nearly 9 p.m. in a meeting that began at 5:30 p.m. Harkless, who was identified only as “employee X” in the motion-making process, declined comment after the meeting, adding that he wasn’t quite sure of all that had just occurred.
During public comment, Michael J. Cavanagh, who is weighing an independent run for county commissioner, told the board that he didn’t agree with the suspension and “would have gone the other way” if he were on the board.
“The public confidence (in the authority) is shattered again,” said Cavanagh, who drew a parallel to the authority’s well-documented problems under former Executive Director John E. Marra. “It’s a decade later and we’re going through it again. This guy (Harkless) makes a tremendous salary. He came in here knowing of the problems.”
Bitonti noted that what Marra did was criminal, whereas what happened with Harkless did not rise to that level of seriousness.
The board also addressed the matter of repaying $108,000, per a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development edict. HUD ordered the repayment after finding serious problems with how the authority did business with two firms that employed relatives of Harkless.
Housing authority solicitor John M. “Jack” Purcell said that HUD has not demanded repayment to the federal government but has told the authority to put the funds back into its public housing modernization program.
Zimmerlink asked what sources of income are available to make that repayment.
Harkless said the two choices were the State Housing Program and a $450,000 fund built from the authority’s fees for administering its Section 8 Program. She suggested that the money come from the Section 8 source.
After a lengthy discussion, Bitonti made a motion to have the solicitor negotiate with HUD to try
to bring down the repayment amount.
That motion passed 3-2, with Zimmerlink and Beal voting against.
Zimmerlink said the authority already had paid enough in legal fees, including $9,000 for its official response to HUD in the Harkless matter and another $6,000 to have her role in bringing it to HUD’s attention dissected from a legal standpoint.