Arkansas Online

Lawsuit against LR agency was considered by Spa City before hiring Jarmon.

Members knew about her suit filed against previous employer, chair confirms

DAVID SHOWERS

HOT SPRINGS — The federal lawsuit the new executive director of the Hot Springs Housing Authority filed against her former employer was considered prior to her hiring, the chairwoman of the board that oversees the Hot Springs agency said.

Joyce Craft said the resume Nadine Jarmon has built over two decades in public housing recommended her to the Hot Springs Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. Jarmon is suing the Little Rock Housing Authority board, claiming her August 2021 termination was the result of a letter she sent the director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Little Rock field office and the Little Rock mayor in June of that year.

The letter was included in the complaint Jarmon filed under the Whistleblower Act in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in October 2021. It alleges mismanagement of federal funds and agency resources, abuse of power and violations of the board’s code of ethics. She’s seeking compensatory and punitive damages. A jury trial has been scheduled for June.

“We knew we would be in a precarious position if we offered Dr. Jarmon the job,” Craft said in a written statement to The Sentinel-Record. “But we also felt that with a stellar career in public housing for over 20 years, and who had the integrity to report alleged unethical behavior or wrongdoing risking her own career, [she] was one we should take a serious look at for the position of executive director.

“We felt this is the kind of person we might want to head up our agency, one who has integrity, one who is transparent and forthcoming. This is the kind of CEO any agency should want at the helm. Someone who is open and honest.”

Craft said Barbara Katie Anderson was also interviewed for the job.

Jarmon is succeeding Richard Herrington Jr., the first African American to head the Hot Springs housing agency. He retired in October after eight years overseeing the authority and the transition of all of the city’s 365 public housing units to privately owned, rent-controlled units under Section 8 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937.

The transition accompanied a renovation of every unit, addressing $18 million in deferred maintenance that had accrued since the units were built in the 1960s. Herrington took advantage of HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration to overhaul all of the city’s public housing stock at no cost to the city.

According to her lawsuit, Jarmon was hired as interim director of the Little Rock agency in July 2020. She had led agencies in Louisiana and Florida, according to a news release from the Hot Springs housing authority. She was named the official director of the Little Rock office in April 2021, becoming the latest in a revolving door of interim and executive directors tasked with leading the largest public housing outfit in the state.

About half a dozen directors have resigned or been fired by the Little Rock board since 2018. Jarmon’s filing included the resignation letter from her predecessor. It points to some of the issues she raised in her June 2021 letter to HUD’s Little Rock field office and the mayor.

“A number of the actions have been fundamentally detrimental to the agency and have systematically usurped my responsibilities as the executive director, constructively discharging me as the day-to-day leader of the agency and leaving me no option but to offer my resignation,” Anthony Snell said in his June 2020 resignation letter.

That same month an anonymous employee at the Little Rock agency accused the board of incompetence and improper oversight.

“The board has shown great incompetence in its failure to understand the housing programs it oversees while adamantly injecting themselves in the day-to-day activities and purposefully through its inability to hire and retain an executive director,” the employee said in an email to the Little Rock Board of Directors. “The board proves incompetence by using its platform to blame and belittle staff.”

Jarmon’s complaint also included the resolution ratifying the board’s adoption of the settlement agreement it reached with a former deputy director who brought a federal Whistleblower claim against the board in October 2019. The agreement didn’t require the board to admit wrongdoing, but the board paid the plaintiff and her attorney a sum redacted from Jarmon’s court filing.

“The board had done its due diligence before we invited Dr. Jarmon for the interview,” Craft said. “We researched her online, therefore, we were aware of the pending litigation that she had against the Metropolitan Housing Authority. During the interview, Dr. Jarmon was transparent with the board about the lawsuit. Of course, she was limited to how much information she could share.

“Despite the pending litigation against Dr. Jarmon with the Metropolitan Housing Authority in Little Rock, we felt very confident in offering her the executive director’s position.”

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2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/282140705516080

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