The Little Rock housing authority board on Wednesday hired acting Executive Director Anthony Snell as the agency's new chief, ending a tumultuous 11-month search marked by two resignations, two temporary managers and one preferred candidate's withdrawal.
The agency's choice of one of its own -- Snell has worked for the housing authority for three years -- concludes a process that some observers believe took too long to resolve, said board Chairwoman Leta Anthony.
Board commissioners have "been beaten over the head by everybody who could find a brick" over how long the search lasted, she said.
Snell's formal elevation to executive director comes as the Metropolitan Housing Alliance continues a major shift away from "public housing" to a tighter embrace of rental-payment vouchers through the Rental Assistance Demonstration program. The program has allowed the agency to work with private partners to refurbish its aging housing stock without taking on new debt.
Snell's hiring also coincided with a change in the board's leaders, as members appointed commissioners Kenyon Lowe and Lee Lindsey as the next chairman and vice chairman, respectively.
Snell was hired immediately after a roughly 15-minute "executive session" in the middle of the board's regularly scheduled meeting. State law allows closed meetings "for the purpose of considering employment, appointment, promotion, demotion, disciplining, or resignation of any public officer or employee."
"We've had an opportunity to test-drive Mr. Snell and his ability to lead this agency," Anthony said when commissioners reconvened in public. "He kept the integrity of our records, our finances, intact. He kept the members of this board informed. He kept the public coming through our doors and created new partnerships that we did not even know existed."
The five-person board hired Snell with a 3-0 vote.
"I refrain," Lowe said during the roll-call vote. Commissioner Monique Sanders was absent.
Lowe did not explain his choice not to vote, and he left shortly after the meeting ended. He did not respond to a phone message left later in the day.
Snell was the authority's deputy executive director for real estate when he took the top post on an interim basis in April. He followed Marshall Nash, who had resigned after a five-month stint as the temporary leader.
Nash's abrupt exit came after the board unanimously decided to suspend him without pay, according to a federal report obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last week. The vote did not take place in public.
Nash filled in as the "special adviser" to the board after former Executive Director Rodney Forte resigned in November 2018 during a public dispute with commissioners about employee bonuses.
After Forte's exit, commissioners' national search attracted 22 applicants. The board whittled down the list to three finalists in March, and it interviewed two of the three in April after one dropped out, the Democrat-Gazette previously reported.
The board in June began negotiating a contract with Nadine Jarmon of Deerfield Beach, Fla. Jarmon, who is executive director of that community's housing authority, declined the job offer in August.
Board members said at the time that they had not considered any internal candidates for the job.
After Wednesday's meeting, Snell said the opportunity to become director permanently had come together "relatively quick."
"They were going through the process and looking for candidates, and it came up probably in the last couple of weeks," Snell said.
Snell's contract, and his new salary, has not been finalized. Lindsey said after the meeting that he expects it to come up when the board meets Nov. 21.
Snell said he currently makes $133,000 per year.
"Certainly the waters he navigated in his interim role, he was not only able to navigate, he kept everybody safe," Anthony said in recommending Snell.
"Whenever you go through a leadership change, that's always disturbing to the organization, so it's just returning the organization to normalcy and showing the public we're still here fulfilling our mission as the housing authority," Snell said later when asked what Anthony meant.
He said that "ensuring we're on schedule" with implementing the Rental Assistance Demonstration program is the "most important" issue moving forward.
The switch has allowed the agency to work with private partners to renovate the Jesse Powell, Cumberland and Fred W. Parris towers. Upgrades to other facilities, including the Sunset Terrace and Madison Heights apartment units, are planned.
Information for this article was contributed by Ginny Monk of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 10/24/2019