Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
Former Omaha City Councilman Frank Brown is out of his job at a non-profit affiliate of the Omaha Housing Authority.
Brown resigned Monday as development director for Housing in Omaha Inc. He had held the $72,000-a-year post since July 2006. Brown was the lone employee of Housing in Omaha, an entity that the housing authority had created to develop apartments and houses using tax credits and other financing not available to public housing agencies.
The World-Herald has learned that a severance agreement includes $24,000 in severance pay, equal to four months of Brown's salary.
OHA Executive Director Stan Timm, who is also a member of the Housing in Omaha Inc. Board, said Brown's resignation was voluntary. Timm declined to comment further on the terms of Brown's departure, saying the agreement was confidential.
William A. Begley, chairman of both the OHA and Housing in Omaha boards, also declined to comment.
“I can't say anything because I signed a confidentiality agreement,” Begley said.
Brown could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
George Achola, the OHA's in-house attorney, would not disclose the terms of the agreement. He said Housing in Omaha and Brown had reached a “fairly standard severance agreement” that is “not a golden parachute.”
“Nobody should think he's getting a sweetheart deal,” Achola said.
Housing in Omaha is a private entity, he said, and any payments to Brown would come from rent paid by private commercial tenants.
“There are no federal dollars or other public dollars involved,” Achola said. “This is not a situation where the agency has anything to hide. This is one of the options that a private business has when it wants to make a clean break with an employee. ... It allows an employer and employee to amicably part ways.”
Brown served from 1997 to 2009 on the Omaha City Council. Housing in Omaha is a 30-year-old entity that the Omaha Housing Authority created to do affordable housing projects.
For most of its history, Housing in Omaha owned 56 units and had no employees. But within the past six years, it built, bought or became a partner in nearly 250 additional housing units.
The development director's job was created in 2006. Brown left his volunteer post as chairman of the OHA board to take the job.
In August, newly elected Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle expanded the OHA board from five to seven members. Suttle appointed, with the City Council's approval, business consultant Phil Wayne and former Councilman Fred Conley.
In January, Suttle asked Begley to resign from the OHA board. Begley refused.
That prompted criticism from some quarters that Suttle was out for political revenge against Brown, who opposed Suttle's mayoral bid and had clashed with him on the City Council. A Suttle spokesman has said the mayor was motivated not by politics, but by concern about OHA finances and property conditions.
Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray, who defeated Brown for the District 2 seat in 2009, said he had raised concerns with Suttle about management and maintenance of Housing in Omaha and OHA properties. So had new OHA board members Conley and Wayne, who have said they are motivated not by politics, but by a desire to improve the housing authority's operations.
In January, the OHA took over management of the Housing in Omaha properties from Brown. At the time, Brown welcomed the move, saying it would free time for him to do development work.
In January, the OHA board formed a committee to study Housing in Omaha finances, including Brown's position. Phil Wayne and Alfred Suarez, a Housing in Omaha board member, were supposed to report back in March.
“Looking at the activity that's taking place at (Housing in Omaha), and just the fiscal conditions, we had some tough decisions to make,” said Tony Welchen, vice chairman of the OHA board.
Evaluating Brown's position was one of those tough tasks, he said.
Suarez went on vacation after that OHA board meeting. When he returned late last week, he learned Brown was about to resign.
“It's a very difficult situation,” Suarez said. “I feel for Frank. He gave a lot of good service to the city and the housing authority, and hopefully he can continue on and do the same type of thing. I wish him well.”
Contact the writer:
444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
