politics

Another One Gone at HACEP, Another Lawsuit Possible

by Sito Negron

Arturo Huerta no longer is with the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso. His departure continues a string of upheavals at the agency, which is under investigation by HUD.

Posted on April 15, 2008

Yet another top administrator is leaving the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso and heading straight to a lawyer.

Arturo Huerta was promoted in July from human resources director to interim president and CEO of the authority, a position he held until December, when Gerald Cichon was hired as the new director.

Huerta said that he left the authority at the beginning of April, following unspecified allegations against him.

"I guess Mr. Cichon decided I wasn’t going to be part of HACEP," Huerta said.

He declined the say what the allegations were, "because there may be some litigation pending. I'd rather not go into it but there were some allegations, things that allegedly occurred during my term as interim president and CEO."

Cichon could not be reached for comment.

At the time Cichon was hired, Huerta said that the HACEP management had to pull together to support the new CEO.

"I said what I said because I really felt that at the time, although he may not have been the best choice the board could have made at the time, whoever they chose had to be supported, and I and the others in directorship positions had to make every effort we could to support him," Huerta said.

Now, he said, "I am being represented by legal counsel and I will go ahead and pursue this and see where that takes us. … This had already been decided some time back and the direction it took left me without a position, so therefore I have no choice but to defend myself."

Huerta said the turmoil at the Housing Authority "will continue for as long as they keep going with the same type of practices. I just hope not too many other people are hurt."

When asked to elaborate on what he meant by "practices," Huerta said, "Just what they have planned pretty much as to who they hire, how they hire and we'll just leave it at that."

The Housing Authority has been in turmoil at the top on and off for years, and the most recent flareup came in fall when the board's actions in awarding contracts came under scrutiny, in part because of allegations raised by the former director, Pablo Salcido, in a lawsuit he filed in summer 2007. That lawsuit was settled, reportedly for about $200,000, in the HACEP board's last meeting as it was constituted. [march 25, 2008] [march 26, 2008] A new board took over in a special meeting earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the agency is under review by the department of Housing and Urban Development for actions taken by the board.

Readers Respond

Please fill out the form below to post your response on this page.

Required fields marked in bold.

2 reader responses to this article:

Jerry Kurtyka

April 16, 2008

I had the sense that Mr. Huerta was a stabilizing influence at HACEP. I wish him well in the future.

Mr. Cichon has to expunge anyone who was involved in the hiring process and can speak to how he was selected without relevant experience. I believe that Mr. Huerta was present in the interviews. Except for Comm. Quinn, the others are gone; Comm. Branton was not present for any interview.

I have submitted an open records request to get the employment applications and questionnaires that the CEO finalists completed for their interviews with the HACEP board. HACEP is pushing back, saying that I do not have a “concern for the public” and has asked the Texas Attorney General for an opinion on the matter and if they can withhold the information. Of course, some can be withheld, such as personal addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, etc. Those items are not what relevant here; experience is what is relevant.

So I wrote back to the AG and included a copy of the letter from HUD to Mayor Cook that outlines the allegations of misconduct against the board. One of the allegations dealt with the hiring process (or lack of it) for the CEO and that there is a concern for the public to actually see how the candidates stacked up compared to Mr. Cichon (fair disclosure: I was one of the candidates).

As for HACEP, I keep saying it's the best political theatre in town and HACEP keeps proving that true. Unfortunately, we need stable public institutions in El Paso that perform their public function, not soap operas like HACEP that are run as feeding troughs for friends of the board.