Council in Standoff Over Housing Commission Chief : Politics: The commission members won’t go along with a bid by Mayor Maureen O’Connor to reevaluate Executive Director Evan Becker’s performance.

San Diego Housing Commission members loyal to Executive Director Evan Becker on Tuesday blocked a City Council attempt to tear up Becker’s $93,700-a-year contract and launch an 11th-hour evaluation of his performance.

The commission’s refusal to go along with the council plan created an unusual standoff between the two agencies, postponing action until Friday on an apparent bid by Mayor Maureen O’Connor to force Becker from the office he has held for nearly three years.

In a rare joint meeting of the two agencies, the council, led by O’Connor, voted, 7 to 2, to conduct an unscheduled evaluation of Becker. Until now, the appointed seven-member Housing Commission has been evaluating Becker annually.

Although many council members praised Becker’s three years as head of the $81-million agency that oversees housing for the city’s poor, only Councilman Wes Pratt and Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer voted against the unprecedented evaluation of him.

“The intent is not to eliminate Mr. Becker, the intent is to have an evaluation,” O’Connor said Tuesday.

But a majority of Housing Commission members, who serve as Becker’s co-employers, refused to agree to that plan, though the issue never came to a formal vote.

“I’m saying he’s done such a good job, I don’t see any reason not to extend (Becker’s contract) right now,” said Shufert Swift, one of the seven commission members.

With the council and the commission in disagreement, city attorneys were scheduled to meet with Becker to determine if agreement could be reached on a method to conduct the evaluation. The council, which doubles as the city’s Housing Authority, and the Housing Commission will meet again jointly on the topic Friday.

Becker’s year-to-year contract with the city is automatically renewed every Aug. 1. To fire him, the council and Housing Commission must warn him by June 1 that he faces termination.

O’Connor, who took over as chairwoman of the Housing Commission this month, asked Becker to waive the 60-day notice provision to allow for the evaluation. When he refused, she called for Tuesday’s joint meeting.

Offered the chance to waive the provision again Tuesday, Becker said that he could not unilaterally allow a rewriting of his contract without first knowing what provisions would be inserted.

O’Connor and Becker faced off publicly earlier this year over the Housing Commission’s plan to purchase two low-income apartment complexes from a Miami Beach attorney with reported connections to organized crime.

To O’Connor’s frustration, the council eventually approved the commission’s $385-million purchase of the Penasquitos Gardens and Mt. Aguilar apartment complexes from Alvin I. Malnik. During the acrimonious debate, O’Connor criticized the Housing Commission staff and Becker for not at first informing the council that Malnik owned the dwellings.

After an investigation, the commission was cleared of wrongdoing by Dist. Atty. Edwin L. Miller’s office.

A source in the mayor’s office has said that O’Connor wants to force Becker out if she can garner council support for the move. Short of that, the source says, O’Connor wants to make clear her displeasure over Becker’s perceived rudeness to O’Connor.

Tuesday, council members downplayed news reports that Becker’s tenure is threatened. O’Connor said that Becker’s evaluation is one in a series that council members plan for department heads who report to them.

“I am certainly not out to see Mr. Becker leave,” said Councilwoman Judy McCarty. “I have been very impressed with him since he has been here.” But McCarty added that it is the council’s prerogative to evaluate Becker.

Pratt and Wolfsheimer, however, appeared to subscribe to the theory that there are ulterior motives to the evaluation.

“I’d like to think this issue is about a performance evaluation only, but to be perfectly honest, I have my doubts,” Pratt said.