Berkeley Housing Authority Commissioner lashes out at critics

Berkeley Housing Authority Commissioner lashes out at critics

by Lynda Carson -- May 12, 2010

Berkeley - Under pressure to address conflict of interest charges regarding her position as Chair Commissioner of the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA), in an angry statement dated May 13, 2010, from ICF International (ICFi) vice president Carole Norris to the BHA's board of commissioners, ICFi / Chair Norris does not deny that a conflict of interest exists due to her position as Chair Commissioner of the BHA, but claims that attacks on her are unwarranted, unfounded, and not unexpected.

In a vague rambling statement from ICFi / Chair Norris to the BHA Commission, she complains, "At our last Board meeting it was alleged in oral testimony and in writing that I have an ongoing conflict of interest and that as a consequence the process we are engaged in has been corrupted."

At the direction and urging of ICFi / Chair Norris, the BHA's commissioners are engaged in the process to terminate Berkeley's public housing program, in an effort to privatize 75 public housing units, and sell them to one or more so-called nonprofit affordable housing developers. Around 209 low-income renters face displacement from their long-time housing as a result.

As an employee of ICF International, Carole Norris is part of a huge industry that makes a profit through urban renewal projects and gentrification schemes that displace poor people by the tens of thousands from their low-income housing and communities, in the name of creating affordable housing for higher income populations.

In her statement dated May 13, ICFi / Chair Norris is expressing concern about an oral testimony including an 8 page document from Berkeley's public housing residential organization "Residents Awareness in Action" that was presented and submitted by the organization's president, Keith Carlisle, to the BHA Commission on April 23, 2010.

At the meeting, low-income public housing resident Keith Carlisle had permission from other public housing residents to speak-out on their behalf in an effort to save Berkeley's public housing program, in opposition to the consultants at the same meeting who were pushing for the privatization of Berkeley's public housing units.

The high priced consultants from ICF International, EJP Consulting Group, and Praxis Consulting, have been orchestrating the actions taking place in the BHA to dismantle Berkeley's public housing program, but have not been successful in keeping crucial oral and written testimony from being submitted into the public record at recent City Council and BHA Commission meetings, charging that a conflict of interest is taking place.

In defense of the conflict of interest charges, in her statement dated May 13, 2010, to BHA commissioners, ICFi / Chair Norris states, "Much has been made of the company for which I've worked for 15 years, ICF International. Working for ICF, I provide training and technical assistance to localities in affordable housing and community economic development. In fact, my employer has no interest and no involvement in the Berkeley Housing Authority. It has no contracts with the City of Berkeley now, and has had none in the last 15 years. ICF played no role in my accepting appointment to the BHA. I serve as an individual, on my own time."

After 15 years with ICF International, Norris is beholden to ICF International and it's shareholders. Currently, Wells Capital Management INC., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank, is a major Institutional shareholder of ICF International (around 638,526 shares), and Wells Fargo Advantage Small Company Growth Portfolio holds around an additional 154,200 shares of ICF International.

Additionally, in her statement to the BHA commissioners, ICFi / Chair Norris admits her leadership role in the process to terminate Berkeley's public housing program, and mentions, "I have dedicated the last two and a half years to developing and protecting a process that invites and encourages every member of the Board to be involved."

Indeed, in recent months, the BHA's consultants have also been directed to contact Margaret Schrand of Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco regarding the financing needed to fund the public housing privatization scheme, and if all goes as planned, Chair Norris, ICF International, and Wells Fargo all stand to profit financially by the dismantling of Berkeley's public housing program, and the privatization of Berkeley's 75 three and four bedroom town-home public housing units.

ICF International also has over $25.6 million in recent contracts with Housing and Urban Development (HUD), being directly involved in the way that the nations public housing authorities (including the BHA) are operating their public housing and Section 8 programs, in addition to ICFi's concentrated efforts in assessing fraud, waste, and abuse in rent-subsidized apartments.

In a section from ICF International's code of ethics, it is stated, "Employees shall avoid conflicts of interest, both in fact and in appearance, between his or her obligations to the Company and personal affairs. No employee is to have such an economic interest in or other relationship (including being a director or officer) with any person or firm with which the Company does business or competes, that would influence, or might reasonably be regarded as likely to influence, the employee in his or her actions on behalf of the Company. A conflict of interest is any financial or other transaction, activity, enterprise or association engaged in by any employee or member of an employee’s immediate family that might interfere with or compromise the employee’s obligation to the Company or give the appearance of such interference."

The BHA commissioners were not informed of ICF International's code of ethics, and in contrast Norris states, "I've chosen thus far not to respond publicy to unfounded and inappropriate - and, in my opinion, scurrilous - attacks; I know from my decades of involvement in Berkeley that they come with the territory."

The disposition plan (application DDA0003874) to terminate Berkeley's public housing program and initiated by ICFi / Chair Norris, was filed by the BHA in late December 2009, is currently under review by Arona Wiley, and according to a May 2010, news letter to Berkeley's public housing residents, the BHA hopes to hear from from HUD by June 30, 2010, if the disposition plan is approved.

Currently, public housing is home to around 3 million seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families, and plays an essential role to provide services for the elderly poor and others -- while contributing significantly to local economies by the direct spending of $8.1 billion a year by PHAs on capital improvements, maintenance, and operations of their public housing projects, while generating an additional $8.2 billion in indirect economic activity throughout the nation's communities (See 2007 PHA economic study - Joint Release from CLPHA, HAI Group, PHADA).

The next Berkeley Housing Authority meeting is scheduled for 6:pm - May 13, 2010, at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Avenue, Berkeley CA 94709.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com