CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Clarksville Housing Authority (CHA) has begun searching for a permanent executive director as well as a full-time finance director after concerns were raised about both positions this week. Additionally, one commissioner has resigned citing fears that the board may be violating federal law.
At a special-called meeting on Tuesday, CHA board members met to discuss these and other issues, particularly with the interim executive director and consultant, Dawn Sanders-Garrett. Action was then taken at a meeting on Wednesday, when the board agreed to move forward with the employee searches.
Sanders-Garrett
Sanders-Garrett has been with CHA on a contract basis since Oct. 18, 2020, when she took over for Patricia Tyus, who left the authority earlier that year. Since then, Sanders-Garrett has overseen the day-to-day efforts of the authority, including the ongoing redevelopment of Lincoln Homes.
When Tyus resigned, the CHA board began looking for her replacement. Former Clarksville Housing Commissioner Steve Stroman told the board that Sanders-Garrett was interviewed and hired for what was supposed to be a 90-day contract.
“While we did the search in a parallel manner to her retention, we weren’t successful. We did make one offer of employment to a candidate, and she refused the offer because of the salary. It was far below what she was making,” he said. “It was always contemplated that an executive director would be hired, and that Ms. Sanders-Garrett would move over from the Housing Authority side to the Development Corporation side.”
Sanders-Garrett also explained the duties entrusted to her with her contractual obligation.
“I was to do an assessment of all areas of the authority and report back to the board, which I did,” Sanders-Garrett said, noting several issues were identified. “We moved forward and continued the arrangement until somewhere around October of the following year.”
Sanders-Garrett explained that at that time, the board requested a search for the executive director take place while creating a Housing Development Corporation for the purposes of redeveloping Lincoln Homes.
“The agency had tried at least two times to get it (Lincoln Homes) off the ground but could not,” she said. “The board felt it necessary that I work with a search firm to find the executive director and also, at the same time, identify a role for me to play as it related to the development activities of the authority.”
Sanders-Garrett said that after four months of interviews and resume reading, the board selected three final candidates. However, none of them made it all the way through.
“Because of the forward momentum of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) development, the board requested that we suspend the activities of the search firm and requested that I remain as the person to continue to lead the efforts forward.”
Sanders-Garrett now coordinates separate efforts for CHA as well as the Housing Development Corporation.
Payment issues
Several matters were addressed at Tuesday’s meeting, including Garrett’s future and current roles with CHA, payments made to her for development-related work and personnel issues surrounding her “management style.”
Some of those issues were brought forward by Sedrick Blake, managing partner at Emerge CPA. That accounting firm currently oversees the authority’s financials.
“On Saturday, Dec. 3, I received a call from Sedrick Blake, who was the fee accountant, and that was later broadened to include certain CFO-type duties. He had questions about (development-related) payments that had been received by Ms. Garrett,” said Bradley Gilmore, attorney for CHA.
The issues with payment amounts seemed to stem from the amount of work being done and whether the compensation matched that of similar housing authorities. According to data collected on Indeed, similar jobs pay anywhere from $50,000 a year to $400,000 a year, depending on the size of the community.
Documents obtained by Clarksville Now show that Sanders-Garrett made $242,800 in less than a year, per her contract with the CHA, along with $68,200 for her efforts with the Housing Development Corporation, totaling $311,000 in payments.
Commissioner Gregory Stallworth said he had concerns about the amounts and where they were coming from.
Currently, salary payments for the Housing Development Corporation are being credited out of CHA funds to accounts receivable and reimbursed out of the Housing Development Corporation. According to Blake, that is a structure that HUD allows.
The 2018 Appropriations Act for HUD prohibits the use of Section 8 tenant-based rental assistance and Section 9 public housing capital and operating funds appropriations to pay any public housing authority’s (PHA) salary greater than $164,200 per employee. That said, PHAs are not prohibited from paying their executives above the statutory cap with funds from other sources.
Further, Sanders-Garrett currently works as a contracted individual and is not a full-time employee of CHA.
Other issues
Blake, the CPA, noted during the meeting that he was not pleased with Sanders-Garrett’s efforts, noting that around $200,000 had been spent on architectural drawings and surveys for a RAD redevelopment project at Lincoln Homes that never happened.
Gilmore explained that those plans were purchased after a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding was signed. The attorney said a master development agreement was sent to the developer, but CHA never received a response.
According to Selenium Consulting Partners, the plans are now property of the authority and could be used for other projects, and not just for Lincoln Homes. The firm also explained that the board is now looking at moving forward with a different developer for the redevelopment of Lincoln Homes.
Additionally, Blake raised the issue of his role as a CPA and whether he reports to the board or the executive director. Gilmore said Blake’s contract with CHA indicated he reports to the executive director, but the structure could be changed by the CHA board.
As far as Sanders-Garrett’s management style, those issues were addressed during a closed executive session. Some members of the CHA did, however, express interest in undertaking anonymous employee satisfaction surveys.
Moving forward
On Wednesday, the board held its regular meeting and passed two resolutions on the future of Emerge CPA and Sanders-Garrett at CHA.
The first resolution approved a search for a permanent, full-time executive director and allowed Sanders-Garrett to continue her current roles and contractual arrangements through the transition period. Her contract is set to expire in October 2023.
The second resolution approved the search for a permanent full-time finance director, with language to clarify that the director would report to the CHA executive director and should maintain regular communication with the CHA board. Emerge CPA would be allowed to continue in their current role until their contract expires in May 2023.
Both resolutions passed unanimously, with Commissioner Calvin Lockett abstaining.
On Thursday, Stallworth announced his resignation from the CHA board, citing concerns about possible penalties for what he believed may be a violation of federal law.
“Although I realize Ms. Garrett is officially a contractor, she is being treated by definition of the law as an employee. Therefore, it could be justly perceived that her quasi/de facto status as contractor/employee is a deliberate attempt to undermine and circumvent HUD’s lawful policy of salary caps for executives,” he said in a letter to the board.
“Hence, in good conscience, I will not participate. In theory, if a fine is levied against us as a corporate body that has been knowingly complicit in violating federal law, it could mean the necessity of paying restitution from our personal assets, if we have no personal liability insurance that would possibly protect and cover such.”
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