El Paso’s public housing agency CEO gets contract extension, pay raise

Feb. 03--Months before his annual evaluation, the head of the city's public housing agency received a three-year contract extension and a 5 percent pay raise, placing him among some of the highest paid public housing executives in the country.

The board of commissioners of the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso, or HACEP, evaluated CEO Gerald Cichon on Wednesday -- four months after renewing his contract.

Cichon's contract was amended in September, when the five-member board extended his employment through 2017 and raised his salary 4 percent to $226,391 a year. The contract also called for an additional 1 percent pay raise starting Jan. 31 of this year to $228,568 annually.

The contract also includes an annual bonus of 5 percent to 15 percent of his base salary, which at its highest can be more than $34,000. Other compensation includes contributions to two retirement accounts, and reimbursement allowances for travel, food and entertainment, and a car, among others.

Cichon's contract states that the board will consider increasing his base salary based on his performance following a January evaluation each year starting in 2015. Cichon was to be evaluated in executive session during the board's meeting on Wednesday, but officials said no action was taken in open session.

Joe Fernandez, the HACEP Board of Commissioners chairman, said Cichon's evaluation is still in progress and should be completed within two weeks.

HACEP spokesman Shane Griffith in a two-page statement said that the September contract negotiations were for "continuity purposes" as Cichon's contract was to expire last week.

"In terms of the minor salary increase that (took) effect January 31, that was part of the contract negotiation that occurred back in September and is unrelated to the annual evaluation," the statement reads.

Fernandez pointed to the authority's successes in discussing Cichon's contract extension and pay raise.

"The (authority) has been a high designated performer the last several recent years in two of the largest programs -- Public Housing and Housing Choice Vouchers," he said. "HACEP is out-performing most of the large public housing authorities in the nation in terms of core residential housing programs."

A public corporation organized under the State Housing Authorities Law, HACEP is managed by a five-member board of commissioners appointed by the mayor. The commissioners serve without pay for two-year staggered terms with a three-term limit.

Commissioners Sue Pratt, a professor at El Paso Community College, and Lynn Coyle, an attorney, are serving the final year of their third term.

Former Mayor John Cook last year reappointed to their final term Fernandez, first senior vice president of United Bank of El Paso; Kevin Quinn, a retired sergeant in the Sheriff's Office; and Guadalupe Licerio as the public housing resident representative.

OPEN RECORDS BATTLE

The contract amendment comes as Cichon finds himself in an open records battle with a former employee and several local media outlets over release of his employment contract and reimbursements the past three years.

Cichon has sued the attorney general over the ordered release of the documents requested by a former employee who is suing the authority for wrongful termination. Several media outlets later requested the same information, for which the authority is billing more than $500 to research and produce the records.

This week, the housing authority released the latest amendment to Cichon's contract to the media "in light of his sixth anniversary" in the position, according to the email release. The authority made no mention of the Open Records requests.

Cichon acknowledged that taxpayers pay his salary, but said tax dollars should not be used to pay for media records requests.

"We don't want to burden the taxpayers so they're not paying for requests that the media should pay for," Cichon said. He added that the housing authority was trying to balance transparency and responsiveness with the time and cost of producing the documents for the media.

The Texas Administrative Code allows a governmental body to charge for labor, overhead and copies related to an open records request. The code sets limits on the charges for copies of the documents, but the cost of the labor is set by each individual organization. The code also states that government agencies can also waive or reduce the charges if they determine that the documents are in the public interest.

Cichon said the media asked for the contract and expenses in the same request and felt he should release both at the same time -- and after payment was received -- rather than separately. He called the charges fair, and said there was no easy way for his staff to compile the information requested.

He hasn't yet released documents rated to his financial reimbursements dating back to January 2010, billing the media $500 for staff time to locate, compile, assemble and scan the information.

Cichon said he couldn't comment about the ongoing lawsuit by the former housing authority employee. He did say, however, that he was fighting the release of the documents in that case because the prosecuting attorneys were trying to circumvent the discovery process by filing an open records request to his office under the Texas Public Information Act.

A "TYPICAL CONTRACT"

Cichon, a licensed attorney and real estate agent, said that he didn't understand why the media was interested in spending time reading a "typical contract."

Under the contract, which expires April 10, 2017, Cichon oversees the agency's $91 million annual budget and operations, as well as its affiliates. Those include the HACEP Acquisition Corporation and its subsidiaries, Affordable Housing Enterprises Inc., Affordable Housing Ventures Inc and the Paisano Housing Redevelopment Corporation.

He will also receive an annual incentive pay of up to 15 percent of his base salary with the taxes and other deductions paid by the housing authority; retirement benefits of 7 percent of his gross income, as well as 8 percent to a 401a retirement account in his name; health and life insurance; travel reimbursements; up to $500 a month in food and entertainment reimbursement; a $900 a month vehicle allowance or personal use of an agency vehicle; and reimbursements for a personal laptop and cell phone.

Cichon began working as executive director of HACEP in 2008, and was paid a base salary of $169,500 at the time. He was made CEO in 2011, and then received a base salary of $200,000, according to his past contracts.

REGULATING SALARIES

Cichon's latest employment contract and pay raise come at the heels of the federal government trying to better regulate the compensation of public housing authority executives nationwide.

That effort led to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development capping the use of federal contributions that can be used for executives' salaries at $155,500. Any amount above that must be paid with other funds.

Cichon's salary is paid partly with funds from one of HACEP's for-profit subsidiaries, the HACEP Housing Acquisition Corporation, officials said. Corporation filings with the Texas Secretary of State list Cichon as the corporation's registered agent and HACEP board members as its officers and directors.

Under new regulations, the public housing authorities, including HACEP, must report the compensation of their top three paid executives to HUD by Feb. 28.

HUD first required housing executives to provide data on the compensation for their top five highest paid employees in 2010. That data showed 97 percent made less than $155,500 in total cash compensation. That requirement was later lowered to the top three employees.

"The data also shows, however, that there are outlier PHAs that pay certain employees a level of compensation that's clearly excessive," a 2012 HUD report on the compensation limits and reporting states.

That included the top official at the Atlanta housing agency who received a total compensation package of more than $644,000, the highest in the country. That compensation included a base salary of about $312,500 plus a slew of bonuses.

Industry professionals have objected to the cap, including the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials and the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association. In a joint statement in 2012, the organizations called the cap "a far-reaching policy of questionable fairness and practicality."

"These caps also infringe upon the autonomy and authority of local boards of commissioners, who have a fiduciary responsibility to hire and retain the best staff possible but may be hindered by these constraints in attracting the best talent," the joint statement read.

In its own two-page statement, HACEP said Cichon's base salary "falls squarely within the competitive range paid to CEOs of regional and national organizations with similar budget sizes, employees and operational complexity."

According to the statement, commissioners took into account Cichon's achievements, such as rating a high-performance status by HUD and clean audits of its financial statements the past three years.

HACEP has a $91 million operating budget, about 430 employees and serves more than 40,000 low-income El Pasoans through its housing assistance programs.

In comparison, the El Paso city manager is paid nearly $239,000 a year and oversees more than 6,200 city employees and an annual budget of more than $801 million.

The superintendent of the 64,000-student El Paso Independent School District is paid a $285,000 annual base salary and oversees a $461 million budget and 9,000 employees.

Cindy Ramirez may be reached at 546-6151.

___

(c)2014 the El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas)

Visit the El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas) at www.elpasotimes.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services