Published: June 04, 2008 11:25 pm         

Housing director making $130,000

New contract also affords 30 days annual leave for position

TERRE HAUTE — The employment contract for the Terre Haute Housing Authority’s new executive director was provided to the Tribune-Star on Wednesday afternoon after a written public records request was issued to its attorney, David Sullivan, on Monday afternoon.

The document was not immediately available for the public Friday at the director’s hiring.

In a meeting lasting one minute, the Terre Haute Housing Authority board of directors voted unanimously Friday evening to approve a contract for a new executive director.

The new director, Jeff Stewart, has a three-year contract from June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2011, which “at the end of each six months, the agreement will be extended an additional six months unless each party issues written notice to the other party of non-extension not less than 60 days prior to the expiration of the each six-month period.”

The position’s salary is currently slated at $130,000 per year, to be reviewed annually with regards to cost of living or performance-based adjustments.

According to the contract, the director also will be afforded 30 calendar days annual leave.

The position reports to the Housing Authority’s board of commissioners and supervises the administrative staff of the agency.

The board voted 4-0 in favor of a contract with Jeff Stewart, a former officer with Terre Haute Savings Bank, who took over the low-income housing agency at 8 a.m. Monday.

Stewart takes the reigns from interim director Tim Buddle, who became acting director after the board voted not to renew the contract of longtime executive director Patrick Barder last November.

The Terre Haute Housing Authority is funded by the U.S. government through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It has jurisdiction over about 2,000 low-income housing units and employs about 48 people.

The new executive director will have “a lot of hills to climb,” board chairman Tom Hunt said at last week’s meeting.

Among the problems he will face, several Housing Authority entities were running deficits through this month, he said.

Three different entities were in the red to a sum of at least $275,000, he said.

The board is still waiting for the results of an audit of the Housing Authority, due next month.

Board members present at Friday night’s meeting were Hunt, Marshall Rector, Patricia Parker-Zaikovsky and John Wolf. Absent were Bryan Kaufman and Ron Simpson.

Each member of the seven-member Housing Authority Board of Directors is appointed by the mayor to non-consecutive four-year terms. Simpson is the only member appointed by Mayor Duke Bennett since the new mayor took office in January. Simpson filled one of two vacancies on the board created when the terms of former board president April Frazier and former board member Carol Smith expired.

A call to Hunt Wednesday evening was not immediately returned.

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com and Brian Boyce can be reached at brian.boyce@tribstar.com.