DATE: Wednesday, September 17, 1997         TAG: 9709170493

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   60 lines

CONFRONTATION IN CHESAPEAKE: HOUSING WORKERS CRITIQUE BOSS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR LISTENS TO ALMOST 4 HOURS OF CRITICISM BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.

It was a bizarre scene.

Douglas Falkner, who acknowledges that his leadership of the Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority has been a tumultuous one, did not face his bosses directly Tuesday night.

Instead, Falkner, who has been the authority's executive director since March, faced his own staff, who criticized his management style for almost four hours behind closed doors.

The authority's Board of Commissioners announced Monday that it would give employees a chance to criticize Falkner's performance in front of him and before the board.

More than 20 employees came to the meeting, but only five in managerial positions stayed to assess Falkner.

After the meeting, Authority Board Chairman Roland L. Thornton called the internal dispute ``a slight personnel misunderstanding between personnel and the (executive director).''

Falkner had gone to employees under his managers rather than go to the managers themselves when he had problems, Thornton said.

``Tomorrow we have to get him to agree to work on that,'' he said.

Most of Tuesday night's emergency meeting was closed to the public.

Falkner, who left the meeting after about three hours, declined to comment, saying he would make a statement today at the regular board meeting at 6:30 p.m.

Several authority staffers, many who waited more than an hour to see the results of the meeting, wondered this week: Is this the beginning of the end for Falkner in Chesapeake or another strange twist at a housing authority with a rocky past?

That past included the 1993 firing of the entire board of commissioners by the City Council, citing neglect of duty. In 1995 a former employee of the authority pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $122,000 in federal funds from the city agency.

Starting two years ago, the authority appeared to rebound, breaking free from a string of failing grades from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is now considered to be a ``high performer'' by federal standards.

But Falkner said he has been restless in his efforts to transform the agency. Since March, he has hired several top managers, including one for finance and another for housing management and pushed his other employees to perform.

But it was three other managers under Falkner who stayed when Thornton closed the session to those ``came to speak their piece,'' Thornton said.

Falkner has gone public with his criticism of the past direction of the authority. He announced recently that the authority had lost $110,000 when it failed to implement an increase in rent for public housing tenants, later blaming, in part, the negligence of staff members responsible.

He has his supporters, like 10-year veteran Charles McDowell, the authority's housing maintenance director, who blamed the leadership controversy on ``loose talk . . . from people who haven't been working or doing what they were supposed to.'' KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE REDEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING AUTHORITY

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu