LITTLE ROCK — The Metropolitan Housing Alliance’s Board of Commissioners extended an offer Tuesday to a second candidate for its open executivedirector position after another candidate turned down the job offer and stopped returning phone calls and e-mails.
The board voted unanimously after an hour-long executive session to offer the job to Rodney Forte, a former Razorback football player and former Little Rock employee.
Forte, 48, who works for a private investment company in Texas, said in a phone interview that he has agreed to enter into negotiations with the alliance’s search consultant. He said he would make a decision on whether to accept the position after the negotiations and background checks are completed.
“They’ve asked me to continue and go through that process, and I’ve agreed to, but we do still have to go through that process,” Forte said.
The position was left open when former Executive Director Shelly Ehenger was fired in August after more than three months of investigation by an outside law firm into a personnel complaint of nepotism and unfair hiring practices.
The agency manages about $37 million in property assets and provides housing or housing assistance to 8,000 Little Rock residents through various programs, including 2,000 federal Section 8 vouchers for low-income tenants.
The board interviewed four candidates for the position Nov. 2 but deadlocked on whom to hire. It reconvened Nov. 5 and again Nov. 7 before voting to offer the job to Dwayne Alexander, the deputy executive director for the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority.
According to e-mails obtained through the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act from the Gans, Gans and Associates executive search firm, Alexander first agreed to enter into negotiations, then withdrew from consideration, saying the media had contacted his current employer and made things difficult. He then wrote that he would take some time to reconsider, but according to consultants at the firm, he stopped responding to emails and phone calls.
Calls to Alexander from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette also were not returned.
Forte and Alexander were interviewed as finalists earlier this month after the board conducted a more than twomonth search for executivedirector candidates.
The board has tried to move quickly to find a replacement because of a looming deadline requirement in the Choice Neighborhood Planning grant awarded to the agency by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The grant, which enables the agency to put together a plan to apply for up to $30 million in Choice Neighborhood implementation grants, requires that the agency name a lead developer to administer the various aspects of the grant — including attracting private development and coordinating the efforts for education, health and infrastructure improvements in the targeted area.
The alliance’s board had planned to name itself as lead developer, but an outside consultant expressed concerns in August after discussion with Housing and Urban Development representatives that the alliance “lacks the inhouse experience and track record” needed to administer the grant.
Board members said they hoped the new executive director would be able to bring enough experience to the table to keep the leaddeveloper grant or at least be a part of the decision on what other agency or company could perform those duties.
Forte said he grew up in Pine Bluff and has a lot of family still in the area. He was a Razorback football player in the 1980s, a Pine Bluff firefighter and was Little Rock’s economic development administrator for minority groups several years ago before moving into the public housing and investments fields.
He has worked in several Housing and Urban Development programs and for housing authorities, including Richmond, Va., Dallas and Fort Worth. He is currently working for T.R. Forte Investments in North Richland Hills, Texas, a family venture focusing on development and acquisitions, according to his resume.
Records obtained through the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act show Ehenger was being paid a salary of $119,095 before she was fired in August. Alexander was offered a base salary of $133,000 and was expected to start work Monday before declining the offer.
Gans, Gans and Associates will negotiate a start date and salary for Forte over the next few days, the board said.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 11/21/2012