Mayor Harold Washington appointed three new members to the Chicago Housing Authority board Wednesday and, in doing so, assumed a large share of responsibility for the future of the financially distressed agency.
”The residents of the Chicago Housing Authority and its longstanding problems are at the top of my list of priorities,” the mayor said at a news conference. He promised the new board members that he would give the CHA ”the highest possible application of city resources.”
The newly appointed board members–Irving M. Gerick, a management consultant; Odell Hicks Jr., the founder of an accounting firm; and Harold K. Lewis, a real estate broker–will replace three members whose terms have expired. They will join three board members appointed by Washington within the last year.
The final seat on the board–that of former CHA chairman Renault Robinson, who resigned under fire in January–will be filled soon, possibly by the end of the week, Washington said. The mayor said he is seeking someone experienced in large-scale housing management.
Although Washington promised not to usurp the board`s powers, he indicated he hasn`t decided whether he will keep his pastor, Rev. B. Herbert Martin, as CHA board chairman. The mayor named Martin chairman in January after Robinson, Washington`s former campaign manager, resigned.
Martin, who said he would like to continue as chairman, said the mayor has indicated that he will be retained. But when Washington was asked at the news conference whether Martin would remain chairman, he replied, ”That remains to be seen.”
The mayor`s appointments, which are expected to win quick approval by the Washington-dominated Chicago City Council, were made a day after federal authorities said they have requested an investigation of possible criminal violations at the CHA by present and former top officials, including board members.
The Tribune disclosed Sunday that the FBI is investigating one top CHA official`s fundraising for Washington, but the request for a new inquiry is the first indication that CHA board members are suspected of criminal activity.
Gertrude Jordan, the regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, made the request in a memo to the regional office of the HUD inspector general. A spokesman for Jordan said the inspector general`s office hasn`t yet begun an investigation.
The council, which referred the three appointments Wednesday to its housing committee, should be able to approve them at its May 27 meeting, the mayor said.
Gerick, 63, described by Washington as ”a knowledgeable and sensitive housing expert,” was named to replace lawyer Earl Neal, who was appointed by former Mayor Jane Byrne.
A former executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority, Gerick once was suggested as a court-appointed receiver for the CHA`s controversial scattered-site housing program. Gerick, who is to serve until July, 1991, said Wednesday that his first job in housing management was with the CHA, from 1959 to 1963.
Hicks, 49, was Washington`s campaign treasurer in 1983 and was a member of his campaign finance committee this year. Appointed to a term that expires in January, 1992, Hicks replaces entrepreneur Leon Finney Jr., who was appointed by Byrne.
Lewis, 75, was named to a term that will run through January, 1990. He replaces Letitia Nevill, a city worker who was appointed to the board in 1968 by Mayor Richard J. Daley.
Asked about being taken off the board after 19 years, Nevill said Washington ”had to do what he wants to do because he wants his people in there. I just hope and pray that he has a good clean board now.”
The CHA is in the midst of the worst fiscal crisis of its 50-year history, and some CHA board members have acknowledged that they failed to adequately monitor the agency`s spending, which last year alone depleted the CHA`s reserves by $43 million.
Washington has refused to accept responsibility for the situation, arguing that for most of his first term his attempts to appoint new board members were blocked by his opposition in the city council.
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But since his re-election last month and disclosures about the depth of the CHA`s financial problems, Washington has become directly involved in dealing with those difficulties to an unprecedented extent, meeting locally with federal officials and flying last Friday to Washington, D.C., to meet with HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce.
”I`ve given a lot of attention to CHA all of my life,” Washington said Wednesday. ”I spent the last 20 years criticizing the CHA. I called for audits of the CHA when I was in Congress.
”I`ve said before: We inherited a board which we could not change because the city council wouldn`t do it. So we did the best we could with that board. There were some problems. As I`ve said before, funding was inadequate, and the management wasn`t up to snuff.”
He acknowledged that he appointed Robinson as chairman but added, ”At that time, most people agreed he was the best that that board could offer.”
Noting that the seven-member CHA board will now be made up entirely of his own appointees, the mayor predicted, ”This board will be second to none that we`ve ever seen.”
Washington said he expects his new board members to be ”strong, forthright” and to provide ”hands-on policy formulation and oversight, keen oversight” of the agency`s operations.
But local housing experts said the new CHA board may still not be strong enough to deal with the agency`s present and future difficulties.
”This board was overly politicized, and we`re paying the price for it,” said Louis Masotti, a professor of management and urban affairs at Northwestern University.
”The next board has to be highly professional, and that`s not easy, considering it`s an unpaid position. The three men should be commended for having accepted, and I just hope they are as strong as they need to be because, if they aren`t, I fear the next step (for the CHA) will be receivership.”
Edward Marciniak, a professor of urban studies at Loyola University, said: ”The current board is concerned with putting out fires every other week. There is no evidence of anyone being concerned about the future of unmanageable high-rises and finding alternative ways of finding safe and decent housing for families that are eligible.”
In another development Wednesday, Curtis Cowsen, the CHA official under investigation by the FBI for his fundraising activities, filed a libel suit in Cook County Circuit Court against CHA contractors Lee Brown and Willie Warfield.
Cowsen, a close friend of Robinson, is the director of the CHA`s affirmative-action and minority business office.
In his suit, Cowsen charged that Brown ”maliciously and wrongfully”
made false statements that Cowsen was responsible for Brown`s loss of a CHA contract. He also contended that Warfield had libeled him when he told the FBI that Cowsen had sought kickbacks from him.