Members of the Little Rock Board of Directors on Tuesday denied the reappointment of Kenyon Lowe Sr., the chairman of the board of commissioners of Little Rock's public housing authority, to another five-year term.
Lowe has served on the five-member board of the Metropolitan Housing Alliance since 2012, and his latest term expired Sept. 30.
The housing authority's board is self-appointing, meaning sitting members make recommendations to fill vacancies or reappoint their peers, subject to the approval of the city board.
In a recent interview, Lowe, 63, said a recommendation for his reappointment had been submitted to the city board.
City board members on Tuesday entered a closed executive session at the outset of a special-called meeting to discuss the proposed reappointment.
Ward 1 City Director Virgil Miller Jr., who is currently facing Lowe as well as Herbert Broadway in the Nov. 8 contest for the Ward 1 seat, recused himself from the vote after board members' return to open session.
City Director Doris Wright of Ward 6 explained that she would be voting "present."
"I have no issue whatsoever with this particular individual. However, I do have some questions that I asked that I cannot get an answer to," she said before the vote.
Ward 2 City Director Ken Richardson voted "present" during the voice vote denying Lowe's reappointment. No city directors could be heard voting yes.
After the vote, City Manager Bruce Moore explained that the city attorney would notify the housing authority board today that Lowe's appointment was not approved. The housing authority will have 30 days to send over another appointment request and the city board then will have another 45-day window to act on it, he said.
If the housing authority decides not to forward a candidate for the seat, "then we would go through our normal process of filling a board or commission vacancy," Moore said.
If reappointed and then elected to the Ward 1 seat, Lowe would have had to give up his seat on the housing authority's board.
A string of executive directors at the housing authority have come and gone in recent years amid turmoil internally.
In mid-2020, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said he would begin the process of dissolving the housing authority's board in light of concerns expressed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as employees at the local housing authority, but dissolution never occurred.
Last year, then-Metropolitan Housing Alliance Executive Director Nadine Jarmon sent a memo to Scott and the local field office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in which Jarmon accused board members of a series of misdeeds and asked that they be dismissed.
The housing authority's board later voted to fire Jarmon in August 2021.
And earlier this year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Departmental Enforcement Center found the Little Rock housing authority failed to follow laws and rules surrounding procurement.
A report said nearly $259,000 in recent expenses were "unallowable" and another $11,355 were "questionable," according to a copy published by the Arkansas Advocate.
In a brief phone interview after the city board meeting Tuesday, Lowe said city board members "did what they did." It was not his seat but rather "the people's seat," he said.
Nevertheless, Lowe intimated that by not confirming his reappointment, officials might "upset" an upcoming redevelopment deal in light of the developer negotiations associated with it.
Without a group of people "who understands these deals, they could end up bankrupting the housing authority, which would bring in a whole new set of problems," Lowe said.