Motion filed in LR housing suit for nonprofit
Intervention in litigation, judgment sought by lawyer
An attorney for a development nonprofit affiliated with the Little Rock public housing authority has filed a motion to intervene in litigation filed against the city and Mayor Frank Scott Jr. by two housing commissioners whom the Little Rock Board of Directors ousted in September.
Attorney Rickey Hicks on Thursday filed the motion to intervene as well as a petition for declaratory judgment on behalf of the nonprofit Central Arkansas Housing Corporation and H. Lee Lindsey, Leta Anthony and Kenyon Lowe Sr.
Lindsey and Anthony served as the chair and vice chair, respectively, of the housing authority’s board before they were expelled last month. Lowe is a former chair of the housing authority’s board whose reappointment the city board denied last year.
Hicks’ filings identified all three as board members of the Central Arkansas Housing Corporation.
The petition for declaratory judgment named the housing authority as a cross-defendant.
Hicks noted in a separate filing on Monday that he was unavailable to attend a hearing in the case that has been set for today at 9 a.m.
He asked that another hearing be set to address his filings unless the judge felt she had enough information to decide the issues without oral argument.
Following increased scrutiny of the Little Rock housing authority by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, city board members on Sept. 26 voted to remove Lindsey and Anthony.
In addition to the housing authority’s failure to submit audited financial information for 2019 and the following years, a Sept. 1 report from HUD’s Quality Assurance Division identified what appeared to be problematic financial issues tied to the Central Arkansas Housing Corporation, including an apparent co-mingling of financial records of the nonprofit and the housing authority.
Lindsey and Anthony filed suit in Pulaski County Circuit Court earlier this month in an effort to be reinstated. They are represented in the case by attorney Sylvester Smith.
On Oct. 17, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Cara Connors granted a request for a preliminary injunction and barred the city of Little Rock from replacing Lindsey and Anthony on the housing authority’s five-seat board of commissioners.
Later that day, the city board confirmed two new members to the housing authority’s board.
Karen Buchanan and Bruce James were named as the replacements for Branndii Peterson and Louis Jackson.
Buchanan and James joined commissioner Kerry Wright, whom the city board declined to remove in September, at an Oct. 25 special-called meeting of the housing authority’s board.
At the meeting, the three
commissioners voted to remove the board members of the Central Arkansas Housing Corporation.
The approved resolution listed Anthony as the Central Arkansas Housing Corporation’s board president and Lindsey, Lowe, Peterson and E. Regina Pierce as directors.
In the motion to intervene, Hicks wrote that federal law requires one commissioner on the housing authority’s board to be a recipient of public housing, which Buchanan and James are not.
With four at-large seats on the board that can be filled by any citizen of Little Rock, and one at-large commissioner, Wright, already in place, the city board could only appoint one at-large member and one public housing recipient pursuant to the judge’s order, Hicks wrote.
As a result, Hicks argued, the city board’s action violated the judge’s order.
His clients “have a property interest in their positions on the [nonprofit’s] board,” the filing said, adding that they did not receive notice and a hearing prior to their removal.
In August, Jackson announced that he would step down from the housing authority’s board; at the time, Anthony said it was because Jackson was no longer receiving subsidized housing and therefore could not serve as the resident commissioner. Nevertheless, Jackson continued to participate in subsequent meetings.