|
.jpg)
 Open Newswire
Newswire Archive Hidden
Search
|
by
Michael Steinberg | 02.12.2008
New evidence of corruption has emerged in federal probes of HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson's connections with companies awarded lucrative contracts related to New Orleans public housing projects slated for demolition. New Orleans, February 12-Yesterday's column by Lolis Eric Elie in the New Orleans Times-Picayne revealed more evidence linking Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Alphonso Jackson—and his wife Marcia—with awards of lucrative contracts to business associates and friends for work at the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO). One of these contracts is for the demolition and “redevelopment” of the 723-unit C.J. Peete public housing complex. HUD took over HANO in early 2002. In his February 11 column, Elie asserted that the City Council, “Stacy Head, Arnie Fielkow, James Carter, Shelly Midura, Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, Jackie Clarkson, Cynthia Willard-Lewis, has responded by ratifying the shady deals to demolish the existing public housing complexes.” The seven City Council members voted unanimously on December 20 to approve Jackson's plan to demolish over 4500 units of low income public housing at four public housing complexes, and replace them with “mixed housing” that would result in a net loss of over 80% of low income housing. That day the council locked out many opponents of the plan who had come to voice their displeasure with the already publicized outcome. The members allowed police to beat, arrest, taser and pepperspray opponents. Elie's column was responding to a February 5 article by reporter Edward T. Pound of the National Journal, which is “a leading publisher for people who have a professional interest in politics, policy and government,” according to its website. Pound has written a series of reports chronicling growing evidence of corruption in Jackson's office, much of it linked to HUD financial activity at HANO. In his February 5 report, Pound wrote “Jackson's focus on New Orleans may, in the end, prove to be his undoing.” He also reported, “the criminal inquiry...involves federal prosecutors, [a] grand jury, the FBI, and HUD investigators.” Pound's latest report focuses on contracts awarded by HUD for work at HANO to two companies that his wife Marcia has done work for. “The companies are Kennedy Associates, a St. Louis architectural and engineering concern, and MetroplexCore, a Houston environmental and industrial services company once known as Metroplex Industries,” Pound reported. “Both firms are run by men who have had ties to the HUD secretary.” Both “minority owned” companies “have also used Mrs. Jackson as a consultant,” he wrote. In addition, Alphonso Jackson is a “close...friend of MetroplexCore's chairman and CEO Willard L. Jackson Jr.” (they're not related), and “knew Michael E. Kennedy,” Kennedy Associates “president and CEO.” This circle of friends goes further and higher. Pound reported that Alphonso Jackson is “a close friend of President Bush from their days in Texas. Jackson's wife is a friend of first lady Laura Bush and often attends social functions at the White House. In 2001, President Bush appointed Mrs. Jackson to the Commission on Presidential Scholars.” But wait—there's more. Pound also reported that while Governor of Texas, in 1995 Bush appointed both Alphonso and Willard Jackson “to the Board of Regents of Texas Southern University. According to MetroplexCore's website,” Bush also “appointed Willard Jackson to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board of Dallas in 2002. Willard Jackson, sources said, frequently visits the HUD secretary at his office in Washington, and has lobbied HUD officials on behalf of other companies. Willard Jackson did not respond to requests for comment.” And of course Bush, as president, nominated Alphonso Jackson as HUD secretary in 2004. But who are the friends of New Orleans public housing residents? Big Friends, Big Bucks It appears that all these close relationships have paid off big time, and at the expense of thousands of low income public housing tenants still displaced from their homes, which are in imminent danger of demolition. Because, as Edward T. Pound stated in his February 5 report, “Kennedy Associates has been a big winner in New Orleans. The company was selected by HANO as the architect to design the Guste low-rise development in November 2003. Last year Kennedy Associates, operating under the name KAI Design & Build, was a part of a team led by another St. Louis firm, McCormack Baron Salazar, chosen to redevelop [sic] the C.J. Peete public housing project. “In the case of the Guste development, the Kennedy firm was awarded a $2.4 million design contract on November 6, 2003...public records show that the Kennedy firm still owed [Marcia Jackson] an undisclosed amount of consulting fees. Willard Jackson's company at the time, Metroplex Industries, worked as a Kennedy Associates subcontractor at Guste, HANO records show.” Pound also details the involvement of other Alphonso Jackson close associates in awarding these contracts. An evaluation team at HANO selected the Kennedy company from a group of competitors for the Guste job, Pound reported. That team included “Lori Moon, an old friend of Alphonso Jackson's who worked with him at public housing authorities in St. Louis, Washington, and Dallas,” and who “Jackson, then HUD's deputy secretary, dispatched...to HANO in early 2002 to serve as deputy receiver.” Moon “has emerged as an important witness in the government's investigation,” Pound wrote. She has written Pound that “at the time of the Guste award in 2003” she knew of Jackson's acquaintance with Michael Kennedy, but not of his wife's “financial ties to Kennedy Associates.” Pound also reported , “Moon said that any firm with such ties to Jackson or his wife should have been disqualified from doing business with HANO 'given Mr. Jackson's involvement in the management decisions at the New Orleans agency.' “As for the C.J. Peete housing project, the team of McCormack Baron Salzar was selected by an evaluation panel that included Scott Keller, then Jackson's deputy chief of staff.” In a previous report, late last December, Pound described Keller as Alphonso Jackson's “right arm,” another target of the federal probe who had recently received a HUD investigation search warrant, and who Jackson had put in charge of HANO after HUD took it over in 2002. Pound also reported then that Keller was “smack in the middle of the HANO decision to award the $127 million development to the team that included Columbia Residential to restore [sic] the St. Bernard public housing project.” The 1463 unit St. Bernard public housing project is another of the four complexes scheduled for demolition. Alphonso Jackson formerly worked as a consultant for Colombia, and the company still owes him big bucks, Pound also reported. Nothing like $127 million though. To see Edward T. Pound's complete February 5 report, go to: http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/080205nj2.htm Reply |
)
|
© 1999–2008 Philadelphia Independent Media Center |
|
Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by PhillyIMC.
|