Troubled housing agency names interim leader, plans sweeping audit

The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority chose a temporary leader Tuesday, as board members prepared to hire an outside professional services firm to run and evaluate the agency.

The agency’s board of commissioners voted to immediately appoint Chief Administrative Officer Fred Haron to serve as the agency’s interim executive director. He previously oversaw the housing authority’s finance, information technology and contracts and procurement departments.

“My role is just to kind of keep the course going steady until the new executive search firm the commissioners spoke about would be here,” Haron said Tuesday.

The board also voted to negotiate and enter a contract worth up to $335,000 with an unnamed professional services firm. Chairman Scott Black said the finalized contract will not come back to the board for a public vote of approval.

Black said the move is being made with the blessing of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal agency that provides the bulk of the housing authority’s funding.

While it is unclear exactly how the outside firm will evaluate the agency, board members alluded that its scope would be sweeping. They said it would lead to improved resident services, employee relations and agency spending.

“It’s incredibly important that we actually know what’s happening within our organization, how it’s functioning,” commissioner William McCurdy II said.

McCurdy and commissioner Cheryl Davis said the board needed to allow residents more involvement and input when the time came to select a new permanent executive director. Black promised that residents and employees would have a seat at the table.

Last month, board members placed former Executive Director Chad Williams on paid administrative leave until his contract expires on June 4. They did not publicly discuss the reason why they took the action.

Williams joined the housing authority in June 2018 and came under fire the following year after a former secretary accused him of sexual harassment. An outside human resources firm later concluded there was no evidence Williams had violated the housing authority’s sexual harassment policy.

Deputy Executive Director Theodore C. Tulle has been on paid administrative leave since August 2020. He is the subject of a pending human resources investigation, according to a source with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

Haron will now oversee the agency’s more than 200 full-time employees and vast catalogue of public housing.

He has been an executive at the regional housing authority since it was formed in 2010. From 1999 to 2009, Haron served as chief financial officer for the Las Vegas Housing Authority, one of three agencies that was consolidated to form the regional housing authority.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.