HUD Scolds Local Agency for Lax Operations

John Niesz, HUD's public housing director in Jacksonville, FL, the government's regional office, declines to comment on the preliminary findings until HUD's final report is made public. HUD's findings, after a six-week probe by a five-member investigative team, follows the earlier announced resignation of commercial real estate developer Timothy Hutchins as executive director of the Sanford agency, effective Apr. 20. He has been with the housing authority since 1991, first as finance director and as executive director beginning in 1996.

HUD's preliminary report found no criminal activity on the part of Hutchins or his agency colleagues, despite earlier perceptions and allegations that almost $1 million in Federal funds had been mismanaged by Hutchins personally over a three-year period. Hutchins and the agency denied the charges.

What HUD found was an easy-going board of directors that didn't keep a regular scorecard on Hutchin's responsibilities and activities. For example, funds earmarked for renovations at the apartment complex often wound up being used for non-housing projects such as starting a cosmetology school at the Sanford agency's headquarters. About $65,000 was alleged to have gone into two commercial real estate development companies co-owned by Hutchins but HUD couldn't prove those charges.

The housing authority itself was slapped with two Federal court judgments totaling $65,000 last month. The authority was ordered to pay $50,000 to a disabled tenant and her lawyer after the tenant received a city parking ticket for leaving her car on the apartment lawn.

In the second case, the authority was ordered to pay $15,000 in legal fees to lawyers who had represented four tenants in a suit charging the authority with illegally entering their apartments without a search warrant. The city of Sanford also paid $10,000 separately to settle that suit.

The Sanford Housing Authority has been the center of charges alleging improper administration of county and Federal funds since at least 1985, court records show. Three previous executive directors have either been fired or resigned over allegations they mishandled financial and administrative duties.