DECATUR -- Effective Friday, Decatur Housing Authority executive director Debbie Weston resigned her post, which oversees 34 Decatur apartments rented out with income-based assistance available from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In a letter given to DHA board president Carl Florer on Thursday, Weston stated that she thought it would be in the best interest of all if she resigned. The board held a special meeting on Thursday evening in Decatur and unanimously voted to accept Weston's resignation.
The resignation follows the revelation that Weston had used housing authority money to pay for personal expenses and then stated she was deducting those amounts from accrued vacation time since her employment there in 2010.
According to board member Stacy Brooks, two representatives of the regional HUD field office in Little Rock looked at records from Sept. 9 and other HUD representatives will be coming this week to review financial records. Brooks said more items of concern have come to light which HUD investigators will be examining.
In September, Weston sent letters to board members to explain why housing authority money was paid to individuals who did private work for her at her home and why an attorney was retained for her criminal case using housing authority money without housing authority board approval. Weston was arrested and faces possible criminal charges for an Aug. 7 incident in which she allegedly took a resident's dog and refused to return it.
In a Sept. 24 letter to the Decatur Housing Authority Board, Weston wrote: "In an attempt to prevent any more information than necessary reaching the media, I have enclosed documents requested by (board member) Fred Thompson for all of you to view. Also a copy of bank statements since we are only having limited issues on the agenda."
The letter explains that Weston has kept a spreadsheet of her accrued vacation time and the time she has taken off since June 2010 when she started working for the housing authority. She says she broke down her hourly rate of pay to "come up with the figures" she "used to deduct the time" for work done on her house. Weston explains in the letter that she paid most of the individuals who worked at her house with cash or her own personal checks, but she also said: "When they did work for me and I was using my vacation pay, I made entry on my vacation register."
The register she attached shows that she paid Alex Bisbee, Josh Yates, Daniel Eubanks, Garry Finnell and Misty Terry a total of $444 from DHA funds but deducted 18.03 hours of her accrued vacation at $24.58 per hour to cover the personal expense paid with DHA funds.
Her spreadsheet also includes reference to being paid for 142 hours of unused vacation time in December 2013, which she said was approved by Carl Florer, board chairman, and used for auto repair expenses.
She included a receipt for rental of a small front-end loader in Siloam Springs and said the reimbursement to her included payment of $40 for gas for Josh Yates because a dual-wheel vehicle was needed to pull the loader.
In a Sept. 15 letter to the Decatur Housing Authority Board and chairman, Weston wrote: "As you all know, Stacy Brooks and Fred Thompson talked with me on Friday after our previous board meeting, and I was informed that you had decided not to pay for my legal fees. I had spoken with our auditor and fee accountant and they both told me that it was a valid expense, so I retained an attorney on my behalf for $2,500."
Bank records obtained by the Westside Eagle Observer newspaper show that a housing authority check in the amount of $2,500 was written to Joel Huggins as a retainer for legal services on Aug. 19. The check bears signatures of Debbie Weston and board chairman Carl Florer.
Weston went on to write: "I had informed Stacy that I would pay the Housing Authority back with either my vacation pay, which I have three weeks I received in July of this year, or at $50 per pay period."
The letter asks the board to reconsider paying Weston's legal fees.
According to board member Brooks, the board never voted on the matter of whether to pay legal fees for Weston.
When a Westside Eagle Observer reporter asked about the letters on Sept. 26, Weston only said, "How did you get them?" and "Who gave them to you?"
The letters and accompanying documents were obtained by the Westside Eagle Observer from the city of Decatur through the Freedom of Information Act.
No decision has yet been made in regard to criminal prosecution. That decision will come after HUD officials review financial records.
Patricia Campbell, HUD Freedom of Information Act liaison from the Region VI office in Fort Worth, Texas, said the decision to file a criminal complaint would likely rest with the housing authority board of directors and Decatur's mayor because they are over the financial operations of the housing authority.
"HUD Public Housing staff in the Little Rock is in the process of reviewing financial documents to determine if the funds were spent according to the program requirements," Campbell said in an email Friday. "It is a review, not an investigation," she wrote.
General News on 10/08/2014