It’s a family affair: Fort Pierce hiring practices mock honest scrutiny, critic says
October 12th, 2009 by TCPalm.comFORT PIERCE — At the same time city officials are investigating past allegations of favoritism in the Community Services Department, some actions this week are raising eyebrows.
In particular, citizens are questioning the recent hiring of Finance Director Gloria Johnson’s daughter, Ursula, as a program specialist in the Community Services Department, which assists low-to-moderate income families with obtaining housing using state money.
“The Finance Department is supposed to provide a kind of check and balance over monitoring and checking on the financial transactions, and preventing or finding mistakes and irregularities (in the Community Services Department),” residents Linda Salisbury and Linda Hudson wrote in an Oct. 4 e-mail to City Manager David Recor. “Ursula Johnson may or may not be competent, but this family relationship makes a mockery of serious, honest scrutiny.”
Johnson, who has a master’s degree from Florida A&M University, and has worked as a temporary administrative assistant in Community Services since July of last year, begins her $40,163-per-year full-time job as a program specialist Oct. 26.
“We have a town of 40,000 people,” Community Development Director Matt Margotta said. “It’s a small town and people are related and they know each other. I can understand how people want to make connections, but Ursula by far was the best applicant. It wasn’t even close.”
He said he interviewed five other applicants. And, he said, city policy allows the hiring of relatives as long as there is no supervisory relationship.
Court records show Ursula Johnson received $33,970 from the Community Services Department in May 2006 as downpayment assistance to purchase a home. She was not a city employee at the time.
The Community Services Department first came under fire last month when city commissioners Christine Coke and Eddie Becht questioned lending practices on city-backed mortgages, some of which were awarded to city employees.
“All in all, this is a horrible example of transparency in the spending of public funds,” Becht wrote in a Sept. 23 e-mail to Recor.
Last month, Recor asked Margotta to arrange for an independent audit into the city’s Reforming Employees with Assisted Collaboration for Homeownership, or REACH, program.
He also asked for an audit into the qualification and selection process for the Oaks at Moore’s Creek, a low-income, 12-home development built and designed by the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency.
Last week, a representative from the Florida Housing Coalition conducted a one-day audit of the REACH, State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) and Hurricane Housing Recovery programs. Margotta said he anticipates more independent audits into the department’s programs.
The audit requests stemmed from allegations two employees, former Community Services program specialist Serena Knight and FPRA grant coordinator Linda Whalen, might have received preferential treatment when they received REACH home mortgages — $250,000 and $133,000, respectively — over other applicants. Knight helped market and implement the REACH program. She took a voluntary buyout and left the city in July.
Additionally, three members of the same family each obtained separate mortgages from Community Services to purchase a quarter of the homes in the Oaks neighborhood.
At Monday night’s City Commission meeting, commissioners appointed Knight’s mother, Barbara Harris, to the Communitywide Council, an 11-member board that reviews and approves applications for Community Services programs. Margotta, who recommended the Harris application to the commission, said he was aware Harris was Knight’s mother.
However, “Serena doesn’t even work here anymore,” he said.
In an Oct. 6 e-mail to Recor, Becht asked if Harris was Knight’s mother.
“If so, this was information that I would have expected to be told to us last night before the vote, and it would have affected my vote,” Becht wrote.
Harris resigned her appointment Oct. 7, Margotta said, after he told her a city commissioner was questioning her appointment because of her relationship to Knight.
The commission Monday night also refused to reappoint two members to the Communitywide Council because they had received money from the department.
Board member Liz Roundtree was not reappointed because she had received $6,450 to fix up her home prior to be appointed to the board, Margotta said. Lincoln Park Main Street program manager Elise Rollins was not reappointed because her organization received $6,472, though she recused herself from reviewing and approving the application, Margotta said.
By Alexi Howk
Tags: city manager, community services, favoritism, finance director, nepotism, program specialist
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October 12th, 2009 at 11:48 am
The City/County needs to amend their hiring practices to NOT include ANY relatives working together in the same department. Absolutely outragous.
October 12th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Is there any way one of those bastards could give Jennifer Ross a job?
October 15th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
When the results come in regarding this mess, one can only hope that the people who received “Carte Blanche” treatment get (Kicked-out) and charged with Fraud better known as the (Rico Act). They turned something beautiful into a racketeering organization not only profiting for themselves by way of family members but even where they also can receive kick-backs from their friends who were put before others. This have be going on for a long time. Someone needs to check out the people that they turned down after having them go through classes and credit checks, I bet, none of them, had to take classes, or improve their credit like the ones they turned down. They need to be judged the same way they judged the ones they turned down. Finally, why would you have Margotta, who believes in nepotism, and who believes that nothing is wrong putting a family member on a committee who’s daughter (ethics, which she don’t have) is being questioned? One would question why Recor asked Margotta to arrange for an independent audit into the city’s Reforming Employees with Assisted Collaboration for Homeownership, or REACH, program. This person is part of it too. When you say (independent) it should not include this person but all outside assistance.
February 7th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
All of them need to be put in JAIL!!!!