(Source: Josh Sweigart Dayton Daily News, Ohio (MCT) — The Dayton Daily News has uncovered shoddy record-keeping at Dayton’s housing authority that calls into question the management of a program that helps disadvantaged people buy homes.

Completely missing are records of most of the homes sold by Greater Dayton Premier Management — formerly the Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority — through its home-ownership program, including a property purchased in 1996 by the mother of agency CEO Gregory Johnson.

Johnson, director since 2004, has announced his resignation effective May 31. His two-sentence resignation states no reason for leaving GDPM and says it comes “with great regret.” His annual salary is $169,744.

The Daily News spent days going through thousands of agency records and found no paper records for several properties, including one other purchased by a current agency administrator before he was hired.

In a written statement to the Daily News, the agency said it has about 20 percent of the records for the properties in the program.

“According to the agency’s retention policy, records only have to be retained for a limited time. Some records were kept, some were not — it is unclear why that is the case,” the statement says.

The agency’s records retention policy requires it to permanently keep some records such as contracts, and records on purchased and sold properties.

The Auditor of State’s Office could not comment on any specifics about GDPM, but auditor’s office spokesperson Carrie Bartunek said “records retention and record-keeping are of the upmost importance to this office.”

Legal bills near $80K

There are anomalies with the transfer of Johnson’s mother’s home that agency officials can’t explain. It is unclear how the home was paid for, since the Montgomery County recorder has no record of a bank mortgage used to buy the home. At the housing agency, there are also no records that show the agency’s board of commissioners approved releasing a lien it held on the house in 2003. Those kinds of records exist for some of the other properties sold through the program.

Anonymous agency employees have sent letters to the GDPM board, copies of which were obtained by the Daily News, questioning whether agency resources were used in any work on the home. In response, an agency statement said “(GDPM) has not paid for any rehab work on this property since its sale in 1996.”

Other allegations in the letters were that Johnson treated some agency employees more favorably than others. The letters led the agency board to hire an outside law firm last November to conduct an internal investigation.

That investigation concluded with recommendations given in a closed meeting to change personnel policies. The investigation also led to the decision by the board to discipline two administrators for potential conflict of interest issues unrelated to the home ownership program.

So far, the law firm, Dinsmore and Shohl, has billed GDPM $79,921 for 222 hours of legal work from Nov. 28 through Jan. 23, according to records obtained by the Daily News. The firm is still negotiating a settlement agreement with Johnson, according to minutes from the April 9 meeting when the board accepted Johnson’s resignation.

Missing mortgages

The only record GDPM has linking Johnson’s mother, Margaret Schooler, to its home ownership program is a partial spreadsheet that lists participants in the program. That sheet says she bought the home on Norville Court in July 1996 for $14,650.

This was the same year Johnson was hired at the agency as a Section 8 scheduler. His application listed then-director Roland Turpin as a reference.

The agency had no other records of the purchase of the property or any rehabilitation work done to it.

The Daily News found some documents in the Montgomery County Recorder’s Office, which released Schooler from GDPM’s lien over the property in November 2003. Johnson was assistant director of the agency at that time and became director seven months later.

The agency was unable to provide a copy of a resolution by its governing board approving the release of this lien, though such resolutions exist for other homes in the program, even those for which no other documents exist.

Files and paperwork for some of the homes sold through this program show how these transfers are supposed to work. Eligibility for the program is determined based on income and a work history of at least three years. Applicants must have not previously owned a home, and must have credit that could qualify for a loan within two years. They must go through readiness training and pass a background check.

If they qualify, participants pick from one of the homes the agency has available.

Occasionally repairs are done on the homes. When it comes time to buy, the agency offers down-payment assistance and helps negotiate a low interest rate. Some homes in the past were financed directly by the housing agency, with a portion of the lease payments set aside every month to pay down the principal over a decade or longer.

If the home is financed through a bank, two mortgages are issued. One is a lien from GDPM requiring the buyer to stay in the house for five years or pay back to the agency all money still owed. This is done to keep people from trying to flip houses.

The other mortgage is through a bank and actually pays for the home with a traditional 30-year mortgage.

If homes are financed directly by GDPM, the agency collects a lease from the homeowner and sets aside money each month to pay down the principal over several years.

The agency’s home ownership program was launched in the late 1970s “to provide public housing residents and (program) participants and citizens of Montgomery County affordable home ownership opportunities by working with families that are low to moderate income (giving them) the chance to achieve the goal of owning their own home,” according to a statement from the agency.

Since then, the agency has purchased 248 homes and sold 232.

Loan for repairs

The Daily News found evidence of properties sold by the agency — records GDPM said it did not have — by searching records at the Montgomery County Recorder’s Office.

A housing authority lien filed there in 1996 says Schooler purchased the home from then-DMHA for $28,070. The lien was released in October 2003.

In December 2002, Schooler and a man named Byron Schooler took out a second mortgage through CityWide Building Finance Corporation for $14,650 — the same amount Schooler is listed as paying for the property in the GDPM spreadsheet, roughly half the amount of the agency lien.

GDPM in a written statement said the amount of the GDPM lien is determined based on market appraised values.

CityWide is a nonprofit development arm of the city of Dayton. CityWide President Steve Budd said that Schooler’s loan was through a program that helps low- to moderate-income households fix up their houses, and it doesn’t have to be paid back unless the property is sold. It was not for a home purchase.

“This money was to do some repair work in 2002,” Budd said.

County records contain no mortgage for buying the home and GDPM records contain no record of how it was paid for. Before announcing his resignation, Johnson told a Daily News reporter he had no idea how the home was paid for.

Inspired by mother

When Johnson was promoted to CEO of the agency in 2004, he told the Daily News he was inspired by watching his mother work hard for a home of her own through the home-ownership program two decades prior when Johnson was in the seventh grade.

“Mom worked hard every day for us and stuck with the program. We were all excited about the move,” said Johnson, then 34 years old. “I had a good taste in my mouth because of my mom’s experience with DMHA. She still lives in the house she purchased through the home-ownership program.”

Schooler could not be reached for comment for this article.

GDPM officials discussed Johnson’s resignation in a series of closed-door meetings allowed under state law for sensitive personnel matters. The agency announced Johnson’s resignation after it was reported by the Daily News. Chairman the Rev. Wilburt Shanklin said he has no knowledge of why Johnson resigned other than what was stated in his letter. Shanklin said he had no knowledge of the property purchased by Johnson’s mother.

“Gregory Johnson has been an agent of progress and innovation for Greater Dayton Premier Management during his tenure and the agency has benefited significantly from his guidance,” said Shanklin in the statement. “His leadership and dedication will be greatly missed.”

These sentiments were echoed last week by Greta Banks, an agency client and president of a group that represents resident councils agency-wide.

“We’re going to miss him. He’s always there when we need him. He makes time for us,” she told the board. “We can’t ask for anything better than what we had and we’re losing that, the human aspect of Premier in our CEO.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374.

 

___

©2012 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio)

Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at www.daytondailynews.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

Source: Josh Sweigart Dayton Daily News, Ohio (MCT)