ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / May 9, 2000

LAPLACE – In what is turning into a yearly ritual, the Housing Authority of St.

John the Baptist Parish is under fire from the Louisiana-Mississippi district office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In a letter sent to St. John Parish President Nickie Monica, HUD accuses theSt. John Housing Authority of being poorly run. Director of HUD’s LouisianaMississippi office Chester Drozdowski warned that St. John may lose federalfunding for its housing authority if something isn’t done to alleviate the problem. Drozdowski also mentioned the possibility of Monica firing the boardof commissioners.

All this is reminiscent of last year’s scandal involving the St. John HousingAuthority. In May 1999 the Parish Council received a letter from HUD sayingresidents were being forced to live in substandard housing and their needs were not being met.

A firestorm blew up over the letter and resulted in the council holding hearing and firing the board of commissioners and Executive Director Patrena Ester.

Then-Parish President Arnold Labat appointed new commissioners to the board, including Sheila Morris, who had been on the original board. Morris wasselected as chairperson of the board.

The new board then hired Thomas Gholson as executive director of the housing authority.

It seems Drozdowski is concerned that Morris is still on the board because he had warned the council and Labat last year that the new board should not have any of the old members on it.

“I just don’t understand why he is attacking Sheila Morris,” said a stunned Gholson.

Drozdowski’s letter also complained about how the St. John HousingAuthority has been unresponsive to HUD’s request for certain reports and documents.

Gholson replied, “We told them that we are having a hard time locating certain documents and records, and we will continue to be late until we find those records.”When Gholson took over as executive director he discovered that many records and important financial reports were missing from the housing authority’s office. Many of the computers used by the former executivedirector had their hard drives erased, and Gholson has been trying to find missing records and re-construct missing data since his appointment as executive director.

“I challenge HUD to set some guidelines,” said Gholson. “I can’t understandwhy they called us unresponsive.”Drozdowski also accuses the housing board of failing to provide documents to the state office of the legislative auditor so the yearly audit can be completed and of allowing evicted residents back into the housing projects which is a violation of federal policy.

Drozdowski warned in the letter that, “if the problems are not corrected, I will have no other option than to once again request that the parish president dismiss the entire board of commissioners and recommend alternatives to the current executive director.”Monica was not happy about the letter.

“The HUD affair was a nightmare last year,” Monica said, “and I should think that HUD would have other things to worry about.”Even though he admitted that HUD has given him a little more authority over the situation, Monica said he would not do anything until he has discussed the letter with the entire Parish Council.

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