Durham housing CEO given raise, $15,000 bonus days before McDougald Terrace evacuation
The head of the Durham Housing Authority received a nearly $3,000 raise and a $15,000 bonus in December despite concerns about the agency’s public housing conditions and operations.
However, Chief Executive Officer Anthony Scott didn’t get the maximum bonus of nearly $20,000 because board members believed the quality of the authority’s housing units, resident services and some other areas needed improvement, according DHA Board Chair Dan Hudgins.
In the past two weeks, the authority has spent nearly $500,000 to evacuate about 270 families from the McDougald Terrace public housing community to area hotels over carbon monoxide concerns. The authority also recently expanded inspections to other DHA properties.
Scott was hired in the summer of 2016 at salary of $195,000. He also has a monthly car allowance of $550, according to his contract.
In 2018, he received a $19,500 bonus and 2.5% raise tied to his performance in 2017, according to DHA.
Hudgins said Scott’s December raise reflected his work in taking over a troubled agency and rebuilding key relationships with the city of Durham and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD oversees and funds housing authorities.
Durham voters recently approved a $95 million affordable housing bond that will give DHA $59 million to modernize it communities near downtown. No bond money is slated to go to McDougald Terrace, however, located to the east between N.C. Central University and Durham Technical Community College.
In 2016, the city also gave DHA a $220,000 grant to improve its Housing Choice Vouchers program after a HUD audit had found the authority didn’t always ensure that its voucher properties met federal standards. In a recent HUD evaluation of the program, DHA scored 145 points, the maximum possible, according to March 2019 DHA board packet.
“Another reason for our recommendation is our confidence that the CEO can lead our massive renovation and building efforts,” states a 2019 memorandum from DHA’s Performance Evaluations Committee . “Although DHA has historically failed in completing lesser projects, we believe the CEO has the skill, education, drive and ability to complete the most ambitious development plan on time and on budget.”
‘Persistent problems’ cited
But the committee, which met in November to review Scott’s performance, also said there continues to be “persistent problems” with the turn around of public housing units, timeliness of rent collections and management of the waiting list and vacancies, according to the memo.
The hiring of a director of operations who worked for DHA from April 2018 to August 2019 “did not result in significant improvement to those problems,” the memo stated.
And key vacancies remained.
“Our present staff is not capable of of carrying forth our massive development program and maintain[ing] the quality required in our existing developments,” according to the memo. “There is concern that the CEO will have to devote too much time with day to day management rather than focus on higher-level concerns.”
Meanwhile, HUD inspection scores for DHA’s roughly 1,900 public housing units “continue to be low reflecting lack of investment in personnel and funding,” the memo noted. “This has the potential to affect the Authority’s perception in the broader Durham community.”
Priorities ‘jacked up,’ says resident
Ashley Canady, president of the McDougald Terrace resident council, said Scott’s compensation shows local leaders’ priorities “are all jacked up.”
“You know this [disrepair] is going on. You have said this has been going on for 40 plus years,” she said, referring to Mayor Steve Schewel’s public statement during a Tuesday news conference that the community has let down McDougald Terrace residents for 40 years.
It’s especially disheartening, Canady said, when she and other volunteers are making actual changes in the community — including establishing a community center and a food pantry.
“You get all this money, and look what’s going on now,” she said. “Look at your bank account and look at what is going on in the community. That’s sad.”
Competitive salary, says board member
Scott’s salary reflects the market, said DHA board member George Quick, who retired as Durham County’s chief financial officer in 2018 and has been on the housing authority board for nearly 10 years. Quick was the chair of Scott’s Performance Evaluation Committee.
Wayne Felton, executive director of the Raleigh Housing Authority salary, had a salary last year of $178,500 and received an $8,000 bonus.
Larry Woods, who retired as CEO of the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem in December, had a salary last year of $191,391 and received a $7,656 bonus.
“[Scott] has done, in our evaluation, a clearly competent job exceeding in many instances our expectation of what was required, and we have compensated him accordingly,” Quick said.
Schewel said he has complete confidence in Scott. Under Scott’s leadership, the mayor said, DHA is shifting from patching up properties to renovating and redeveloping them.
“What distinguished Mr. Scott from the people who came before him is that he is determined not to simply let the DHA properties crumble,” Schewel wrote in an email. “He has taken decisive, effective action on a plan that will change that. It will take a while, for sure, because the money needed to do this work fully is enormous. But he has already renovated some of the crumbling communities, and with the Housing Bond, he will be redeveloping more.”
In May 2018, HUD gave McDougald Terrace a failing score of 34 out of 100 points. The agency cited “life-threatening” health and safety violations of “misaligned chimney, ventilation systems” to gas-fed hot water heaters or furnaces in 11 of the 25 inspected units.In 2019, seven of the 13 DHA properties inspected by HUD failed. McDougald Terrace’s score dropped to 31.
The DHA Board of Commissioners consists of seven members who are appointed by the Durham City Council. They serve five-year terms and appoint the CEO.
“Accountability is important,” Schewel said Tuesday when asked whether officials could have done more to address carbon monoxide concerns sooner. “I am sure there will be accountability.”
But right now, Schewel said, officials are focused on the emergency situation and the long-term issues at McDougald Terrace and other communities.
Mayor Pro Tem Jillian Johnson, the City Council’s liaison to the DHA board said the HUD reports were discussed at board meetings and it was her understanding that life-threatening issues would be addressed immediately and others would be addressed over time.
“But of course it consistently comes back to the issue of funding,” Johnson said. “The public housing authority every year gets less and less funding, even less than what HUD says they need to address these conditions.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Durham housing CEO given raise, $15,000 bonus days before McDougald Terrace evacuation."
