Brian Sharp

@SharpRoc

Immediately after voting to fire executive director Alex Castro last week, the Rochester Housing Authority board voted to hire City Councilman Adam McFadden as the interim replacement, according to board minutes.

The decision to fire Castro and hire McFadden came after a closed-door session from which RHA's general counsel and human resources director were excused, minutes show.

The timeline appears to run contrary to what board chairman George Moses had previously described — saying the night of Oct. 14 that three people would be considered. Moses then announced McFadden's hiring the evening of Oct. 15, saying in a text message that "it was difficult for anyone else once (McFadden's) name got out."

McFadden was the first to publicly confirm Castro's dismissal the morning of Oct. 15, and identified himself as a candidate. He said then, and reiterated Friday, that he was called about 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 14, after the City Council meeting, and asked if he was interested and if he could meet the next day.

"I wasn't told I had been selected. I was told that they wanted to talk to me," McFadden said.

He said he had not spoken with Moses about the job prior to that, and when they did meet on the evening of Oct. 15, the conversation did not open with a job offer but ended with one.

The Rochester Housing Authority owns more than 2,400 public-housing units and administers federal subsidies for tens of thousands of people who live in privately owned houses with federal vouchers. Much of the operation and roughly $60 million budget is highly regulated. RHA has a staff of 180, and is governed by a seven-member board. The city appoints five members, and residents elect two. Mayor Lovely Warren has replaced all the city appointments since taking office in January.

Moses had said the board empowered himself and vice chairman John Page to conduct interviews and make a decision. The meeting minutes read: "Second Resolution: Adam McFadden as Interim Executive Director of Rochester Housing Authority."

"Until you contact a person that is interested and have a meeting of the minds as to what is going to happen, then all you can do, quite frankly, is have a proposed action — but it still has to be consummated by all the parties," said H. Todd Bullard, who is the RHA's employment counsel but was not at the special meeting. "I don't believe Mr. McFadden was contacted until later. That is what he said."

Commissioner Willie Otis, the lone resident representative to vote, remembers it as a hiring decision. He voted against the Castro firing, and the McFadden appointment.

"Both times I said I cannot vote for that because we needed advice of counsel," he said Friday.

Otis said he and other commissioners suggested three RHA staffers as interim — the same three veteran employees who jointly ran the organization for a month in 2010, after the board fired then-executive director Anthony DiBiase. But at the meeting last week, Moses and Page said it had to be someone from outside the organization, Otis said, and "they came up with Adam McFadden."

Back in 2010, the board did later install an outsider to run the organization during the search that led to Castro six months later. McFadden applied for the permanent appointment at that time but was not interviewed. Carol Schwartz was board chairwoman then, and said executive sessions were routinely conducted without RHA staff present — but never without counsel.

"We wanted to be sure we were doing things by the book," she said. "We never asked our attorney to leave."

Moses, Page and board attorney Anne Riley did not return phone calls seeking comment. Moses released a statement that did not address the discrepancies. "The newsworthy discussion should be how could the prior board enter into two secret contracts with former Director Castro," the statement read in part. He alleged board votes on the contract were never recorded, on advice of counsel, and said that officials this week discovered procurement files held by Castro were missing.

"This is an employment matter," Bullard said, seeking to return the discussion to what officials have said is Castro's recently discovered contract and extension committing RHA to a $140,000 or more annual salary through 2021. "We can keep going on and on and on, but what it comes down to is one person's employment matter, where he is getting the community up in arms because he wants close to $1 million."

The vote to hire McFadden was 4-1, with board member Jacqueline Levine — the spouse of McFadden's legislative aide at City Hall — among those voting in favor. The board has seven members, but one commissioner works in the city law department and abstained, and the chairman votes only if there is a tie.

Asked if he thought Levine had a conflict of interest, McFadden said he thought it would be the opposite, because if he becomes RHA director, he would ultimately have to leave City Council and thus Levine's husband would be out of a job.

Minutes show the board convened at 6:01 p.m. Oct. 14, and went into executive session at 6:06 p.m. The board reconvened in public session at 6:42 p.m., voted on Castro and McFadden and had a brief discussion about Castro's employment contract and separation, then adjourned at 6:48 p.m.

Schwartz, for one, has called for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to take over the process of hiring RHA's next executive director.

HUD is reviewing potential conflicts of interest in naming McFadden to the post, because of his being an elected official. In a statement Friday, agency spokesman Adam Glantz said: "We will work closely with the RHA board and Mayor Warren to ensure the authority complies with federal regulations and protects the best interests of RHA residents. We are confident, based on the information provided thus far, that a takeover of the RHA will not be necessary to achieve those goals."

BDSHARP@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/sharproc

About the Rochester Housing Authority

The Housing Authority owns more than 2,400 public-housing units and administers federal subsidies for tens of thousands of people who live in privately owned houses with federal vouchers. Much of the operation and roughly $60 million budget is highly regulated. RHA has a staff of 180.