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Hernando Today

City Housing Authority Taps New Director

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: November 11, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - The Brooksville Housing Authority's new executive director has experience bringing a deficient housing authority up to snuff.

During his job interview, Tommy Brooks told the authority board he helped turn around the Ocala Housing Authority in the 1990s when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developed mandated corrective action there.

Now he's ready to apply that experience here.

Brooks started Monday, taking the helm of the distressed Brooksville authority and working to shed its troubled status from HUD.

Brooks, 63, served as director for the Ocala authority from 1991 to 2000. For the last eight years he's focused on his job as minster at New St. John's Baptist Church in Ocala, but decided to get back into public housing administration.

When asked why, he replied, "It's what I do, and I enjoy doing it. You're providing a service, and it's measurable. You can evaluate the quality of service."

The authority ended up with Brooks almost by default.

The board entered contract talks with Kathryn Haynes, who had extensive housing authority experience and was working as a consultant. But Haynes decided to take another job after the authority couldn't meet her salary requirements.

The board ran into the same problems with two other qualified candidates: Omar Arce, currently the maintenance and modernization superintendent for the St. Petersburg and Pinellas County Housing Authority; and TiJuana Woods, who has served as deputy director for the Ocala Housing Authority for the last 10 years. Woods worked under Brooks and listed him as a reference.

Haynes, Arce and Woods all sought annual salaries beyond the range allowed by HUD, which funds and oversees the authority.

But Brooks, who is married with three grown children and who will commute from Ocala, was fine with the salary of $50,000 a year.

Board members said they're happy with the hiring.

Board member Brian Adair said Brooks' experience bodes well for the Brooksville authority, which is working to fulfill a host of HUD mandates.

"He's done it before," Adair said. "If you can find somebody you can afford who's got the experience you need, that's the best combination."

"He seems like he will be a good fit for the community," Board Chairman Randy Woodruff said. "I think he's going to be a good communicator to residents. He's very approachable."

A HUD contractor has been helping to run the authority since the board fired former director Ronnie McLean in May for lack of confidence in his ability to fix problems at the authority, including substantial financial disarray and crumbling infrastructure. McLean's predecessor, Betty Trent was convicted in June 2007 after a jury found she'd stolen money from the authority.

The board has seen substantial upheaval as well with some stepping down at the mayor's request and others being removed by the city council. The city council only has the power to appoint and remove the volunteer board.

Mayor David Pugh Jr. and other council members have expressed a desire to turn the authority over to the Hernando County Housing Authority. But that authority also has a troubled status and members of that organization's board have said it must shed that before any merger happens. Even then, HUD officials haven't indicated they'd be willing to go along with such a plan.

When asked about the hiring of Brooks, a HUD spokesman said in a statement: "Given the Brooksville Housing Authority's 'troubled' status, we are pleased that the Board of Commissioners has hired an individual with prior Public Housing experience to serve as Executive Director and to lead the recovery of the (authority)."

HUD staffers will visit Brooksville this month to do on-site monitoring of the authority's progress, according to the statement.

Brooks said it's that progress, not a possible merger with the county authority, that he has to focus on now.

"We want to make sure we have housing units that make Brooksville proud," he said.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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