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Commissioners Call For Housing Office Leader's Ouster

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 8, 2008

TAMPA - Frustrated with continuing problems in the affordable housing office, four Hillsborough county commissioners - a majority - called Wednesday for the firing of its leader.
Affordable housing officer Howie Carroll has been under fire since commissioners learned in February the county had lost $2 million in federal housing money because the county missed an important deadline.

Commissioners' dissatisfaction with Carroll reignited after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a letter last month threatening to make the county pay back $800,000 in housing money spent 10 years ago. The county used the money to rehabilitate apartment units, but the county turned over control of the project without assuring the units would remain affordable.

Longtime Carroll critics Rose Ferlita and Kevin White were joined in calling for Carroll's dismissal by Commission Chairman Ken Hagan and Commissioner Mark Sharpe.

"The skill sets necessary to fix these problems are not in that department," Sharpe said. "We've got to find the skill sets."

Hagan said the recurring problems in the housing office had grown "tiresome."

"We've got to move on," he said.

The outcry Wednesday put County Administrator Pat Bean in a tough spot. For months she has defended Carroll, saying he inherited a quagmire of broken systems and disloyal employees when he was hired in November 2006.

"A lot of things that should have been done years ago were never created as far as processes and systems," Bean said in an interview after the meeting. "There had been a failure for some time to clarify roles and responsibilities so that it was clear who was responsible for what and holding them accountable."

Jim Barnes, the commission's internal performance auditor, agreed with Bean's assessment.

Barnes' office is close to completing an audit of the affordable housing department requested by commissioners after the problems with HUD surfaced.

"Howie inherited this," Barnes said. "He walked into a blind room and it was full of hornets."

Longtime employees who could have helped Carroll sort the mess out sabotaged him instead, Barnes said.

"Why did his people not lend him a hand to right the boat?" Barnes asked. "Instead, they tilted the boat over."

Bean said she didn't know if she would fire Carroll, demote him or leave him in what has become an almost untenable position.

The commission can't order Bean to fire him, but she runs a political risk if she ignores such an obvious expression of displeasure by four members of the seven-member board.

"I will pay a consequence of some sort," said Bean, who already announced in March she would directly oversee the department.

In other action, the board heard Barnes' report on a recently completed audit of the Planning and Growth Management Department. Commissioners requested the audit after hearing a cacophony of complaints from builders over the department's slow review process.

The audit found complex state and local growth control and management policies contribute to delays in plan reviews.

However, the audit concluded the process could be streamlined through effective supervision and control of land development permitting.

Barnes said systemic problems in the department were worsened by some employees' poor attention to customer service. A survey of 143 builders and others who have contact with the department found only 20 percent were satisfied with the service they received there.

Commissioner Brian Blair criticized department director Peter Aluotto for allowing the delays to continue while the building industry is slumping.

"We have never experienced an efficiency problem as deep as the one in Planning and Growth Management," Blair said.

Barnes said Aluotto has made positive changes, including meeting with builders and engineers before they submit plans to make sure they are complete.

The commission also instructed Bean and County Attorney Renee Lee to open talks with Pasco and other counties north of Hillsborough to prepare for Progress Energy's plans to upgrade 200 miles of transmission lines that will connect with a new nuclear plant in Levy County. Some of the new lines will pass through northern Hillsborough County.

The power company has promised to keep the upgraded lines in the utility's right-of-way, but Commissioner Jim Norman said the county can't take a chance on allowing the company to cut through residential neighborhoods with huge, overhead power lines.

"We need to join forces" with other counties, Norman said.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com

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