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Commissioners Call For Housing Office Leader's Ouster
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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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Reader Comments
Posted by ( kouya ) on May 8, 2008 at 7:10 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Come on you wanted the guy out back in Feb. Why not just clean house. Rebuild the Dept. Treat the problem not the symptoms!
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Posted by ( ad ) on May 8, 2008 at 8:03 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Maybe Pat Bean should consider retiring and leave with Brian Blair. I think with the election approaching there is a possibility of getting some fresh air in there. A Mayor who will be responsible instead of the mess there now might be the answer.
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Posted by ( flea ) on May 8, 2008 at 9:05 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
If longtime employees sabotaged the new Director as the auditor indicates, why aren't some of their jobs on the line? There are a lot of other county employees who have lost or are losing their jobs that wouldn't mind being employed.
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Posted by ( Reality ) on May 8, 2008 at 12:42 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Killer Bee Blair seems comfortable with Carroll. I guess he identifies with incompetence...
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Posted by ( alanp1964 ) on May 8, 2008 at 12:52 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Is it possible to print the names of who Barnes if referring to? This issue has come up before with other reporters, where's the beef? Who are the people under Carroll that started the sabotage? Just get to the point and quit dancing around the names. Let's see names in black and white. Isn't it true that Pat Bean hired Carroll, and then took all his power away that Tom Scott set up for Carroll in the first place? Maybe the person that should be fired is Pat Bean, "the fixer".
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Posted by ( flea ) on May 8, 2008 at 5:11 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
rumour has it that Pat Bean is "friends" with some of these employees
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