Civil service board OKs housing authority suspensions

The State Civil Service Commission supported the Morgan City Housing Authority’s decision to suspend Housing Manager Sandra Greene and Accounting Tech Diana Pace without pay for the duration of the criminal proceedings against both employees.
The seven-member commission voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the housing authority’s request to suspend the employees without pay. Housing Authority Attorney Robert Duffy and Executive Director Clarence Robinson appeared before the board in Baton Rouge to make the request.
However, the housing authority cannot fill the permanent positions held by Greene and Pace until the conclusion of the criminal case against them because they are classified civil service employees, Duffy said. But the housing authority is allowed to hire staff members to replace the two employees temporarily, which officials intend to do, he said.
On Feb. 18, a federal grand jury indicted Pace and Greene, along with former Morgan City Housing Authority Executive Director Charles Spann and former Housing Manager Tori Johnson, on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The indictment accused Spann, Johnson, Pace, Greene and others of conspiring with one another, from 2007 to 2013, “to commit offenses against the United States” by issuing and receiving over $500,000 in bonus payments to which they weren’t entitled.
Pace and Greene were also indicted for 14 counts of theft of government money. Johnson faces 12 counts of theft of government money, and Spann faces five counts of theft of government money.
Spann, Pace, Greene and Johnson pleaded not guilty in federal court to the charges.
On March 22, the housing authority received a letter from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development notifying the authority that HUD was immediately suspending Greene and Pace from work pending the results of a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana.
A HUD spokesman said the suspensions were to be without pay, but the letter the housing authority received did not specify whether the suspensions should be without pay. Therefore, Duffy wanted to be certain the housing authority could legally suspend the employees without pay, he said.
Spann served as executive director from April 2007 until June 2013, when he resigned. Johnson resigned before Spann did.
A December 2014 Louisiana legislative auditor’s report said the Morgan City Housing Authority paid almost $700,000 in improper bonuses and wages in excess of what state civil service rules allowed between 2007 and 2014.
The audit report said the housing authority “improperly paid” employees $566,544 in bonuses between November 2007 and March 2013, based on a reward policy that was altered by Johnson, the authority’s former housing manager.
The state auditor’s report said another $130,418 was improperly paid by the housing authority to three employees as raises in excess of civil service guidelines between May 2009 and June 2014, the audit report said.
Auditors said each employee received the following amount in improper awards and raises: Greene, $227,161; Pace, $185,626; Johnson, $120,738; and Spann, $111,657.