Attacks Prompt City’s Housing Chief to Resign

Telling associates that she “could not cope” with mounting criticism, Leila Gonzalez-Correa has resigned unexpectedly as the executive director of the Los Angeles City Housing Authority.

“She had it,” said Housing Commissioner Dori Pye, one of a few officials the embattled Gonzalez-Correa told of her decision over the weekend. “She is a fighter . . . (but) it was just a pyramid of critique that no human being could possibly endure.”

After learning late last week that her controversial plan to sell the Jordan Downs housing project in Watts was falling apart, Gonzalez-Correa submitted her resignation to the housing commissioners Friday before traveling to Florida on Saturday.

Under Investigation

Gonzalez-Correa, 58, is under investigation by city officials for disregarding federal procurement regulations while awarding contracts to her acquaintances and to Mayor Tom Bradley’s political supporters.

She did not notify Bradley that she had resigned her $100,000-a-year position, the mayor said Sunday. While Bradley--campaigning for reelection at a march against drugs and gang violence in South-Central Los Angeles--said he would have no comment on Gonzalez-Correa’s resignation, Deputy Mayor Mike Gage offered the following:

“The mayor’s reaction was that he appreciated her efforts in a very difficult job and respected her decision.”

The Times has learned that Gonzalez-Correa misled housing officials and tenants when she said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had set aside 700 federally subsidized housing certificates to allow a private developer to purchase and refurbish the dilapidated Jordan Downs and continue to provide shelter indefinitely for low-income tenants. HUD officials confirmed that there is no commitment to Los Angeles for 700 subsidies, and none is available now.

“Again, here comes the misleading promises and false representations,” said Claudia Moore, head of the Housing Authority’s Residents Advisory Committee. “It was about time she got out. I don’t see how the lady could have stayed.”

Gage on Sunday blamed a bureaucratic mix-up in Washington--not Gonzalez-Correa--for the lack of the 700 subsidies. He said the Bradley Administration would work to persuade new HUD Secretary Jack Kemp to restore the federal funds.

Reaction to Gonzalez-Correa’s surprise resignation ranged from relief among some city officials and tenants to dismay on the part of her supporters.

“It’s probably just as well that she resigned,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. “But I don’t think it solves the Housing Authority problem. The Housing Authority is bigger than Leila Gonzalez-Correa. It is an agency that is not only run amok, but has turned its back on the low-income tenants they house.”

Called ‘a Disgrace’

A shaken Pye said she is “very unhappy and very disgusted” over Gonzalez-Correa’s decision.

“I think it is a disgrace. I think it is a great tragedy. I think it is the biggest loss the Housing Authority has had in over 20 years,” Pye said. “I felt she would manage to overcome the tremendous avalanche of unwarranted criticism because she is a strong person.”

Pye faulted the commissioners, who are appointed by Bradley to oversee the agency, for not giving Gonzalez-Correa any support since she was hired in October, 1986, to run the agency’s 750 employees, $135-million budget and 21 public housing projects.

On Friday, Gonzalez-Correa kept her resignation a secret, sharing the news with only two managers, sources said. After failing to reach Chairman Carl D. Covitz by telephone, she told Vice Chairman Louis Janicich and Pye on Saturday of her plans, Pye said. “She simply said she could not cope with the criticism, the overwhelming opposition and lack of support she received from all of the board members,” Pye said.

Gonzalez-Correa wrote her resignation letter to Covitz, the former HUD undersecretary whom Bradley appointed chairman of the commission Feb. 7. Contacted Sunday, Covitz said, “I don’t have a reaction.”

Travel Plans

Gonzalez-Correa told colleagues she would spend the next couple of weeks attending a wedding in Florida, visiting her family in Puerto Rico and then vacationing in Spain, housing sources said.

Since she had been under fire for her management practices over the last several weeks, Gonzalez-Correa had gone into virtual hiding and refused interviews by reporters. Last week, Gonzalez-Correa lashed out at a Times reporter in a brief telephone interview and complained that she had been unfairly attacked in the press.

“It is really sad you are giving the Housing Authority really such a bad name,” Gonzalez-Correa told the reporter. “People like you have to be dealt with.”

According to housing sources, Bradley’s strong public rebuke of Gonzalez-Correa last week persuaded her that she no longer enjoyed the support of the mayor’s office.

Reacting to a Times report that a Housing Authority manager had grilled a tenant leaderfor criticizing the agency in an interview with two Spanish language television stations, Bradley on Thursday issued a memo urging Gonzalez-Correa to stop any efforts to silence activist tenants.

In a letter made public by the mayor, Bradley wrote to Gonzalez-Correa: “It is imperative that, from your office on down, the Housing Authority does everything it can to encourage, not discourage, tenant participation in the management of their communities.”

Gonzalez-Correa told associates that she knew the mayor’s memo was intended to chastise her publicly when she did not hear from Bradley or his housing liaison, Gary Squires, after it was released to reporters, said sources who asked not to be identified.

Gonzalez-Correa also has been under fire for numerous other practices:

- When she introduced her plans to sell Jordan Downs in February, Gonzalez-Correa failed to disclose that HUD had withheld $5 million in improvement funds for the project last fall. As part of the privatization plan, Gonzalez-Correa said she had a commitment from HUD for 700 subsidized certificates to keep the tenants on public housing assistance under a private landlord.

“Although there certainly had been discussion and the subject had been explored in a preliminary way, there was never a firm, final commitment,” said Dirk Murphy, special assistant to HUD’s regional administrator in San Francisco. “To our knowledge, there is no other commitment that exists.”

With the loss of the federal subsidies, tenants at Jordan Downs now face the likelihood of losing the $13 million in physical improvements that were planned by a private developer, in addition to the $5 million taken away by HUD because of the privatization plan.

‘Residents Are Victims’

“It’s unfortunate that the residents are the victims,” Commissioner Ozie B. Gonzaque said Sunday. “This is another example of what happens when someone is determined to have a one-man show in an organization that requires teamwork. This is not an organization set up to be run and dictated by one person,” added Gonzaque.

- The Times reported in February that Gonzalez-Correa ignored federal contracting regulations on at least six occasions while awarding more than $200,000 of Housing Authority business to her acquaintances and to Bradley’s political supporters without seeking competitive bids.

The contracting practices are currently being investigated by Chief Legislative Analyst William McCarley, City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie and City Controller Rick Tuttle. HUD auditors are expected today to begin their comprehensive review of the Housing Authority’s contracting practices under Gonzalez-Correa, said HUD spokesman Scott Reed. The audit is expected to last two weeks. Her resignation will not affect the audit, HUD officials said.

- Gonzalez-Correa recently introduced a “written and oral communications” policy that would make it a violation of the Housing Authority personnel manual for employees to write or speak to commissioners, City Council members, government workers and reporters without the permission of the executive director.

Yaroslavsky introduced a motion last week that would have forced Gonzalez-Correa to appear before the full City Council to explain her proposed policy. The council was scheduled to vote on the motion this week.

Search for Replacement

Pye said the Housing Authority will have difficulty recruiting an administrator with Gonzalez-Correa’s knowledge and resourcefulness.

“She was a person who was going to cut corners and was not going to go through bureaucratic red tape,” Pye said. “We’ll get a lot of people who will go by the book and won’t be anything other than puppets of the board. That’s not what I’m hoping.”

But tenant leaders said they do not believe the search for a replacement will be so difficult.

“I feel that now is the time for the mayor to take a good look at someone else who has sensitivity as far as the residents are concerned, will not come in and mislead the residents and will follow the rules and regulations of the Housing Authority,” Moore said.

HOUSING AGENCY CHRONOLOGY Chronology of events at Los Angeles City Housing Authority:

November, 1985: Executive Director Homer Smith--under fire for five years for bad contracting practices, wasteful spending and dictatorial personnel moves--resigns.

June, 1986: The Los Angeles City Council votes to relinquish control of the Housing Authority to a board of commissioners after implementing a series of management reforms.

October, 1986: Ending a nationwide search, Leila Gonzalez-Correa is named executive director and awarded a three-year contract that pays $100,000 in the third year. The appointment is her third top post at a housing authority in a year.

May, 1987: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development designates the Housing Authority “operationally troubled.” Los Angeles is the only agency among 66 housing authorities in the Southern California region given such a designation in a decade.

December, 1987: Tenant leaders from more than half of the city’s 21 public housing projects accuse Gonzalez-Correa of not following through on promises to improve conditions for the 40,000 low-income people who live in city-run housing. They describe her first year at the agency as a “disappointment.”

March, 1988: Gonzalez-Correa acknowledges that, despite promising the City Council to “turn things around” in the housing projects, she has quietly been looking to become housing director in another city.

April, 1988: Tenant leaders demand in a letter that Mayor Tom Bradley seek Gonzalez-Correa’s resignation. More than 100 chanting residents and placard-carrying children from the projects march on City Hall demanding an end to slum-like conditions, lack of police protection and long-promised physical improvements in the projects.

December, 1988: Bradley demands the resignation of Alvin Greene as chairman of the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners after it is disclosed that he failed to attend a board meeting for six months. Although Bradley reprimands two top aides for failing to inform him of Greene’s attendance record, Gonzalez-Correa and Commissioner Dori Pye say the mayor was personally warned in advance about the absences.

February, 1989: An investigation by The Times discloses that Gonzalez-Correa has disregarded federal contracting regulations while awarding more than $200,000 in Housing Authority business to her acquaintances and to the mayor’s political supporters.

February, 1989: Gonzalez-Correa announces her plan to sell the dilapidated Jordan Downs public housing project in Watts to a private developer. The plan is cautiously endorsed by Bradley and widely opposed by tenants, who fear they will lose their subsidized housing. The plan begins to fall apart and is criticized by several City Council members.

March, 1989: City and federal officials agree to investigate contracting practices by the Housing Authority.

March 31, 1989: Gonzalez-Correa quietly resigns.