THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090339
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
The embattled housing authority's board of commissioners Tuesday voted 5-4 to throw out a secret vote that reappointed John E. Zydron as its attorney.
The board also decided to reconsider nine bids for the position and to make a final decision by Dec. 14 on who would be its legal consultant.
The Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority board met for almost four hours behind closed doors. Zydron left during the executive session and declined to comment on the meeting. He was not present for the vote.
Authority Chairman Walter W. Berry said the board decided to take another vote because the state attorney general's office had said board members previously picked Zydron in an improper ballot.
The board members took a secret paper ballot during a Sept. 27 meeting to ask him to stay on.
Such a vote violates Section 2.1, Chapter 343 of the Virginia State Code, better known as the Freedom of Information Act.
Berry said after the vote that he opposed reconsidering all of the nine bids for legal representation. He said he thought he had already adequately reviewed the other proposals.
Voting with him against reconsideration were board members Robert L. Samuel Jr., Charles F. Sanford III and Roland L. Thornton.
The members who favored reopening the entire bidding process were: John A. Burke, William H. Cherry, John E. Hayslett, Helen L. Spruill and Marjorie A. Taylor.
Several City Council members have objected to Zydron's possible reappointment and the secret vote.
Some threatened to purge the new board if it didn't vote again in public, and Councilman Robert T. Nance has asked the city to explore eliminating the authority entirely and putting housing matters under a city department.
The vote was not a result of council pressure, Berry said.
``If the board was caving in to pressure, my guess is they would have chosen another firm here tonight,'' Berry said, ``because the only pressure has been to dump Zydron.''
When the City Council removed the previous members of the housing authority board last year, Zydron was ``a central figure in that controversy,'' Vice Mayor Arthur Dwyer has said.
Zydron has been a focus of controversy for more than a year. He is the only official with the housing authority who remains from the previous board, which was replaced by the council for inefficiency and neglect of duty in September.
After that purge, City Attorney Ronald S. Hallman asked the Virginia State Bar to conduct an ethics investigation of Zydron. That inquiry has not been completed.
The City Council on Monday voted to ask federal and state investigators to look into a complicated Campostella Square land deal done while Zydron was the authority's attorney.
During the special session of the council Monday, Nance questioned Zydron's representing the authority while Zydron was apparently in line to benefit from one of its projects.
Nance said that Zydron stands to gain $180,000 in development fees from the Campostella Commons project.
Berry said the commission has known for a long time about Zydron's connection to Chesapeake Housing Corp., a nonprofit entity created by the previous board to help it qualify for federal tax credits. Berry said the connection did not bother him because Zydron does not represent the corporation and the authority simultaneously.
The project is being done by a partnership involving Chesapeake Housing Corp.
The previous housing authority had transferred $715,000 in land to Chesapeake Housing Corp., which then passed it on to Campostella Commons Limited Partnership.
That group now includes the Chesapeake Housing Corp. and two Boston investment firms, the Boston Capital Corporate Tax Credit Fund and BCCC Inc.
Zydron at one time was the attorney for both the housing authority and Chesapeake Housing Corp. Some of the housing authority members who were removed last year are still involved with the corporation, Nance said. But Zydron has said he is no longer the corporation's attorney. by CNB