Housing Group Rejects Grant From Troubled Hillsborough Agency

TAMPA - A local nonprofit housing group, seeking to distance itself from Hillsborough County's troubled Affordable Housing Office, will turn down a $300,000 grant from the office.

Board members of Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay, which rehabilitates substandard housing for poor people, voted to decline the grant because of publicity surrounding a federal investigation of the Affordable Housing Office.

"Our reputation is very important to us and we don't want to take the money under any kind of cloud because we haven't done anything wrong," said Jim Clark, president of the group's board of directors.

The U.S. Attorney's Office and other federal agencies are looking at whether former and current employees attempted to use their positions at the county's housing office for private gain.

The federal probe was triggered by an internal investigation of the housing office by the county's Consumer Protection and Professional Responsibility Agency.

Rebuilding Together board members learned this week that the group's executive director, Jose Garcia, is mentioned in the county's investigative report.

The report alleges that former and current employees of the housing office helped doctor Garcia's resume when he was applying for his current job.

The resume said that Garcia had formerly worked for the county, according to the report.

It cited minutes of a Rebuilding Together board meeting in which Garcia is described as a former county employee.

Garcia had worked with the county housing employees in his job at another nonprofit housing group.

"Allegations have been made that the county employees played an improper role in hiring of our Executive Director Jose Garcia, and in the approval of the contract," the board stated in a press release. "We categorically deny those allegations."

Clark said the false reference in the board minutes about Garcia being a former county employee was a "simple mistake, nothing else."

"Jose never represented that he worked for the county," Clark said.

Garcia has denied the report's allegation.

The county commission awarded the grant to Rebuilding Together in December. The nonprofit was going to use the $300,000 to rehabilitate 23 houses in East and West Tampa. The money comes from the state and is administered by the county.

Bill Armstrong, who is leading the county's housing office on an interim basis, said he would call Rebuilding Together officials today to reassure them the investigation is not disrupting federal and state grants.

"We have no indication that anything we do is going to be jeopardized by the investigation," Armstrong said. "If we have a conversation with them, hopefully we can put those fears to rest."

County Administrator Pat Bean announced May 21 that federal law enforcement authorities were investigating the Affordable Housing Office based on the findings in the internal investigation. The probe focused on three people: former affordable housing managers Maggie Tagliarini and Frank Turano, and Michael Rowicki, an executive planner at the housing office. Among the allegations were that the three steered clients of the affordable housing office to businesses owned by Tagliarini and her husband, James.

Tagliarini and Turano have denied the allegations. Rowicki has not commented.

Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay was formed in 2000 to rehabilitate substandard housing for poor, disabled and elderly clients. The local group is one of 258 Rebuilding Together chapters nationwide.

In the first few years of its existence, the organization rehabilitated about six houses a year in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties using mostly volunteer labor. In 2007, the nonprofit raised enough money to rehab 17 houses.

"We're on track to do 40 this year," Clark said.