Berkeley, Norfolk Administrators Are Finalists : Candidates for Housing Helm Winnowed to 2

Housing administrators from Berkeley and Norfolk, Va., were chosen Friday as the two finalists for the job of San Diego Housing Commission executive director.

Councilman Ron Roberts, chairman of the housing commission, said he and other commissioners will visit Berkeley and Norfolk within the next two weeks to check on the background of the finalists and see “if there’s any skeletons in the closet we would like to uncover before they came to San Diego.”

Selected Friday after the latest round of job interviews were Vicki Elmer, Berkeley’s assistant city manager for planning and community development, and Evan E. Becker, assistant executive director for development at the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Not chosen for final consideration was Betsy Morris, the commission’s acting director, who assumed leadership of the problem-plagued agency last year after former director Ben Montijo was ousted.

Roberts said the field of seven candidates was narrowed to Becker and Elmer because the two showed a record of “very, very strong management skills” and knowledge of federal housing programs that haven’t been tapped by the San Diego commission.

Of Morris, Roberts said her knowledge of local housing programs was good but that the commissioners felt she had “slightly less experience” in management than the other candidates.

In an impromptu press conference, Norfolk’s Becker said that he wanted the San Diego job because he has been second in command for years.

“I’m a No. 2 man in my organization, and I’ve been a No. 2 person for several years,” Becker said. “I’d really like to lead my own organization.”

Becker said there are strong parallels between the housing programs in San Diego and Norfolk, although the East Coast Navy port built most of its government-assisted units in the 1950s. The city has 6,000 housing units and an additional 1,300 units subsidized under the Section 8 rental program. The Norfolk housing and redevelopment agency’s annual budget is $70 million.

Elmer, who heads a department with 104 employees and a $15-million annual budget, said that she helped institute a construction program that has led to more than 100 housing units in Berkeley, where land for development is scarce.

Elmer also said her department has sought to help the homeless by building a $400,000 shelter on land donated by UC Berkeley.

“I think that the situation here is one in which the bundle of skills that I have could be well-used in the job of refocusing the commission,” Elmer said.

The executive director receives $80,000 a year.