Jan 22, 2007 11:35 pm US/Central
Housing Authority Contract Starts Controversy
by Jack Fink
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
A new controversy came out of the Dallas Housing Authority Monday.
CBS 11 has obtained a confidential contract offer for the man who was supposed to become the agency's new executive director, and not everyone is pleased with it.
Last November, the job offer to run the Dallas Housing Authority was marked confidential. A month before, the agency's board had decided not to renew Executive Director Ann Lott's contract.
Then, Chairman Guy Brignon offered the position to the man who runs the Dallas Housing Department, Jerry Killingsworth, and he accepted.
Now that we've obtained the offer, it's no longer confidential, but it is controversial.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, a Lott supporter, hadn't seen the offer until we showed it to him. "This is unbelievable," he said.
Killingsworth was offered a $200,000 salary, a $10,000 bonus after six months, an $800 a month car allowance and a term life insurance policy worth one and a half times his salary.
After much controversy, the Housing Authority Board last week decided to extend Lott's contract 18 months instead, but her's has fewer perks.
She would receive a four percent increase to her $170,000 salary, but no bonus. Her car allowance is less than $200 a month. Lott hasn't been offered a term life insurance policy.
Commissioner Price says it's not fair, "Yes, I have a big problem with it. Ann's got years of production under her belt and knows the housing authority like the back of her hand."
Mayor Laura Miller says she found out about the offer after it was made. "It was also a surprise because the person I hired to run the DHA didn't tell me that's who he wanted to hire," she said.
For his part, former Housing Authority Board Chairman Guy Brignon declined comment saying he'd "rather not go there..." and that he didn't "want to be an impediment to the new board..." He says, it's "water under the bridge."
Price disagrees, "I think it needs to be investigated. What makes it water under the bridge?"
Price says HUD should investigate to see if Brignon overstepped his authority.
Miller says Brignon did not.
Jerry Killingsworth didn't return my call. His start date would have been January 3rd, but he never resigned from the city.
(CBS 11 News)
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