An apparent mistake made by Tampa County administrators resulted in them losing a $2-million HUD grant due to missing a deadline, and being asked to return another $827,000 to HUD.
This is an interesting tale how County staff relied upon a verbal statement from a Federal HUD employee and an internal email to implement an action to sell some apartments that had previously been rehabbed with HUD grant funds if they remained "affordable" AND apparently the units could not be sold without HUD approval. Unfortunately, a staffer said he received a verbal OK from HUD when they should have received the approval in writing, and sold the apartments.
Lessons learned:
- Don't miss deadlines for grant funding.
- Don't violate a grant condition based upon a verbal discussion without specific written approval.
vj
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Two are blamed in rehab debacle
By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer
Published Monday, June 9, 2008 11:47 PM
TAMPA — First, Hillsborough County's Affordable Housing Office was forced to forfeit $2-million in federal grant money for missing a deadline.
Then the office was asked to return an additional $827,000 for mishandling an apartment rehab project.
Now, reports blame a past and current employee of the office with the rehab mishap. They are two of the same men who have been raising issues of mismanagement within the office.
Both stand accused of making false statements and engaging in actions detrimental to the interests of the county by its Consumer Protection and Professional Responsibility Agency.
The latest accusations involve the rehabbing of three apartment buildings near the University of South Florida, known as the Rainbow/Oasis Project.
Owners of the project initially sought federal grant money in 1997 through the county to fix up the buildings. In exchange, they were required to ensure that a set percentage of the units remained affordable for at least a decade.
The clock started in 2001, when the rehabbing was finished.
Five years later, the original owners sold two apartments as part of plan to build a library and transfer the properties to the University Area Community Development Corp. The CDC oversees redevelopment near USF and is the brainchild and pet project of state Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which doled out the grant money, never gave permission for the sale. The reports released Monday claim Michael Rowicki, an executive planner of the county's Affordable Housing Office, falsely claimed that it had.
It cites an August 2006 e-mail he wrote to CDC executive director Julian Garcia Jr. as proof.
"I got approval from Gary Causey the Jacksonville HUD CPD (Community Planning and Development) Director today on the Rainbow/library project while I was up there for training. Little bit of face time helped," the e-mail reads.
Causey told county investigators he never gave the approval and would have done so only in writing. Garcia told investigators he took the e-mail as an indication he could proceed with the library project, and did.
The county reports claim that Rowicki's former supervisor, Frank Turano, then approved the release of mortgages the county held on the properties, enabling the sale. One paraphrases an assistant county attorney, saying both men told her HUD had approved the sale.
HUD has since demanded the grant money back because the new plan does not meet the terms of the original project.
Rowicki did not return a phone call seeking comment.
He has filed a harassment complaint against Affordable Housing Officer Howie Carroll, who commissioners have blamed for the lost grant money. Carroll was hired in late 2006, after the apartments were sold.
Turano left his $91,000 job in October, and had said that it was under threat of termination for reasons never shared with him. He declined to comment Monday.
Steven Wenzel, an employment lawyer he has consulted, said it was Turano who alerted commissioners to the imperiled $827,000 about a month ago. Given that, Wenzel said, "It doesn't make sense to me that he did something incorrect."
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