The Jefferson Parish Housing Authority has fired Barry Bordelon, the agency's former director whose controversial rehiring last fall ignited a Jefferson Parish political takeover of the agency, according to attorney Robert Garrity, Jr.
The Jefferson Parish Housing Authority on Friday fired Barry Bordelon, the agency's former director whose controversial rehiring to another post last fall ignited a Jefferson Parish political takeover of the agency. Housing Authority Director Pamela Watson fired Bordelon shortly before noon Friday, the deadline a new housing board gave her to oust Bordelon, according to Bordelon's attorney Tracie Washington.
"Barry was a civil service employee whose probation period ended today," Washington said. She called his firing "simply outrageous and maybe illegal. Barry is exploring all his legal options."
Watson didn't return a call seeking comment Friday. Housing authority attorney Wayne Mancuso said: "I don't discuss legal matters of my clients, and the housing authority is one of my clients."
Bordelon's firing is the latest development of the political battle for control of the housing authority, and its $41 million in annual contracts to provide subsidized housing. Bordelon is not the man of the same name who served in the Jefferson Parish School Board and as a Parish Council aide.
Bordelon was the agency's director until last summer, when a federal audit questioned more than $650,000 in expenses during his tenure. Bordelon and the previous board majority maintained they had done nothing wrong, and the agency has disputed the audit's findings. But Bordelon resigned under pressure, only to be rehired in the fall as maintenance foreman.
Parish officials called for Bordelon to be fired, as they put increasing political pressure on the housing authority. When six housing board members voted against getting rid of Bordelon late last year, Jefferson Parish President John Young fired them. The Parish Council ratified the firing of five of those board members earlier this month, and began appointing replacements. The sixth board member fired didn't appeal his removal.
Some of those replacements, together with three holdovers from the previous board, met Wednesday and instructed Watson to fire Bordelon by noon Friday. Attorney Robert Garrity Jr., however, has questioned the validity of Wednesday's meeting. Garrity, who represents five former board members, said current board member Lynn Giordano didn't property file her oath of office with the secretary of state, and thus her seat was vacant. If so, the board lacked quorum to meet Wednesday.
But the Young administration said eight of the nine previous authority commissioners, including Giordano, had not filed the appropriate paperwork. Young said the parish attorneys office administered the appropriate oaths of office to almost all board members Wednesday and Thursday, meaning all but one of the current appointees have now complied.
"The housing authority's attorney was supposed to check that they had filed the proper paperwork," Young said of Mancuso. "This underscores why reform is needed on that board, and we're moving in the right direction."
Far from it, said Garrity. He said all the former board members he's representing, including former board Chairman Patrick Pierson, had taken proper oaths of office and filed the required paperwork. Pierson said the same thing on Friday, rejecting the parish's assertion that almost all the previous board lacked proper documentation.
"That's a complete and utter lie," Pierson said. He said he checked secretary of state records earlier this week and the only member who had not filed paperwork was Giordano.
Former board member William Boada, Sr., also questioned the parish's assertions. Boada said he took a proper oath and registered with the secretary of state.
"The parish is going to do what the parish is going to do," Garrity said. "Apparently, there are rules for everybody else and rules for their people."
A phone message Friday left at the section that handles those records in the secretary of state's office was not answered.
Adding another wrinkle to the controversy, Parish Councilman Elton Lagasse confirmed Friday that his new appointee to the board will not take the post. Lagasse said the Rev. Thomas James Brown, Jr., told him that his elders at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church asked Brown not to serve because it could interfere with the church's own housing aid programs.
A person who answered the phone at Brown's church Friday afternoon said he was gone for the day and would not be available until Monday.
Lagasse said he plans to appoint Joe Fennerty, former principal a Higgins High School.