HUD Archives: News Releases

AWARDS TO TOP CIVIL SERVICE MANAGERS

• Joseph F. Smith received the Presidential Rank Award
• Frank L. Davis received Meritorious Executive Rank Award
• David M. Gibbons received Meritorious Executive Rank Award

These awards conclude a competition by the Office of Personnel Management to recognize the government's top civil service managers. Only 50 of the government's 6,700 Senior Executive Service employees received the Presidential Rank Award this year, and just 200 received the Meritorious Executive Rank Award. Smith, the General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration, has transformed that Office with a new structure to make it more effective and customer-focused. He played a key role in the transformation of the Department under the 2020 Management Reform Plan and oversaw preparation for this summer's successful Best Practices conference in Kansas City. He joined HUD in 1977. Davis, Director of the Office of Departmental Operations and Coordination, helped reorganize the Department as part of the 2020 Management Reforms. Gibbons, acting Chief Financial Officer, was cited for producing the first clean audit in HUD's history earlier this year.

AWARD TO THE CONTINUUM OF CARE

The Office of Community Planning and Development's Continuum of Care Program to help homeless Americans get housing and become self-sufficient received an innovations in Government Award from the Ford Foundation and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. The Continuum of Care recognizes that many factors lead to homelessness and it addresses them through a coordinated community-based program. The fundamental components of Continuum of Care are: outreach and assessment; emergency shelter; transitional housing with supportive services; and permanent housing. The following HUD staff were recognized for their leadership in attaining this award for HUD: Deputy Chief of Staff Jacquie Lawing, CPD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Needs Fred Karnas, and Director of the Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs John Garrity.

AWARD TO REAL ESTATE ASSESSMENT CENTER

Real Estate Assessment Center Director Donald J. Lavoy and his staff received one of Government Executive Magazine's annual Government Technology Leadership Awards. These awards go to organizations from all branches of government that use technology in creative and forward thinking ways. This year the awards will be presented to 21 organizations at a ceremony on December 1. HUD will receive an award for its National Property Inspection System. This system significantly enhances the Department's management and oversight capability by providing timely, accurate and objective information about the physical condition of 40,000 public and multifamily assisted properties across the United States. HUD's new Real Estate Assessment Center, developed the technology to complete these inspections using hand held, computers, Internet transmission of data, and sophisticated software to provide analysis and scoring of inspection results.

HUD AWARDS

• Elizabeth K. Julian was honored for service as Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity from 1993-1997, and Secretary's Representative for the Southwest from 1997-1999.

• Community Planning & Development / Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity Front-End Review Task Force: Betty J. Bottiger (Omaha); Robert D. Buzza (Boston); Nadab O. Bynum (Headquarters); Harold Cole (Birmingham); Joyce M. Gaskins (Philadelphia); Maurice McGough (Chicago); Carolyn J. Murphy (Columbus) ; John L. Perry (Atlanta); Renee D. Ryles (Headquarters); Deborah Seabron-Dickens (Headquarters); Pamela J. Walsh (Headquarters) Katie S. Worsham (Fort Worth). This group successfully developed the process that Community Planning and Development field office staff will use to conduct civil rights limited monitoring reviews of CPD programs. These limited reviews will foster a stronger working relationship between FHEO and CPD to ensure that HUD's civil rights mission is being achieved in the implementation of CPD programs.

• Procurement Team: Jane D. Atkinson (Philadephia); Thomas F. Bucelwicz (New York) ; Norma S. Cannon (Atlanta); Edward L. Girovasi, Jr. (Headquarters); Annette E. Hancock (Headquarters); Edward T. Stever, Jr. (Headquarters); John C. Surber (Columbia). This group awarded and administered key procurements in support of HUD 2020 reforms, and moved toward development of a model procurement system.

• Model Building Codes Working Group: Sheila M. Cain (Headquarters); Linda M. Cruciani (Headquarters); Norbert P. David (Richmond); Barbara J. Elkin (Headquarters); Juanina B. Harris (Headquarters); Judith Keeler (Seattle); Cheryl D. Kent (Headquarters); Mary Maywalt (Headquarters); Gabriel Nemeth (Headquarters); Walter S. Robinson, Jr. (Richmond); Milton F. Turner (Headquarters); Kathleen Pennington (Department of Justice). The Model Building Codes Working Group conducted a review of model building codes to determine whether they met the accessibility design and construction requirements of the Fair Housing Act. The review included a public meeting as well as meetings with industry groups and disability advocates, and will result in a report that will contribute substantially to ensuring that new multifamily housing is available to people with disabilities.

• Northern Plains Office Of Native American Programs Team: Deirdre J. Flood, Betty L. Gress, Deborah K. Keil, Gary L. Murphy, Lori L. Roget, all in Denver. This team played crucial roles in several key initiatives this year, including development of a housing counseling and financial assistance agency as part of the "Shared Visions" initiative for the Pine Ridge Reservation. They also completed several efforts critical to ONAP's reorganization effort including: development of a Library, revision of ONAP's technical assistance plan and procedures, and development of the on-line training modules of ONAP's Tribal Technical Assistance and Training Center.

• Philadelphia Welfare-To-Work Team: Judith R. Axler, Karen L. Black, Rodell M. Burton, Anna M. Cariello, John M. Carpenter, Brenda A. Crispino, Rhona Danzeisen, Adam C. Deveney, Rosemary A. Hocking, Cynthia A. Jetter, Thomas W. Langston, Michael A. Levine, Encarnacion S. Loukatos, Nadine Luckey, Maggie B. McCullough, Karen A. Miller, Eileen M. Morgan, Carolee A. Murask, Malinda G. Roberts, and M. Patricia Wakham, all in Philadelphia. This team has conducted a broad-based campaign to move public and assisted housing residents from welfare to work by encouraging housing intermediaries and other local resources to participate in programs to support resident self-sufficiency. Among the team's achievements are: more than doubling Eastern Pennsylvania's Neighborhood Networks, spreading the concept to 15 public housing developments, procuring over 300 surplus computers for distribution to housing sites, and forging a partnership between a local children's museum and a Neighborhood Networks site to train and provide child care internships for residents. The team's efforts are making tremendous and visible strides in helping poor and disadvantaged people become self-sufficient.

• Boston Housing Authority Civil Rights Enforcement Team: Marcella O. Brown, Amziah W. Craig, Miniard Culpepper, Nancy M. Hill, William G. Howell, Joan Lodi, and Thomas W. Rodick, all in Boston. This team's efforts resulted in the first systemic charge of discrimination in the history of the Department, a determination of reasonable cause and charge of discrimination that the Boston Housing Authority failed to address and prevent severe and pervasive racially and ethnically motivated harassment directed at minority tenants. The case was settled for $1.5 million. Their work also led to improvement of the nationally acclaimed Civil Rights Protection Plan.

• Multifamily Accelerated Processing Team: Klifton O. Barrett (Headquarters), Roger M. Kramer (Headquarters), Joseph E. Malloy (Headquarters), Stuart E. Malmon (Headquarters), Danette S. McAlister (Greensboro), Richard R. Shearin (Headquarters), Eric Stevenson (Headquarters), Trevolia R. Troxler (Greensboro). This cross-program team designed a national accelerated process for underwriting and administering HUD mortgage insurance for affordable multifamily housing projects and health care facilities. The team also drafted a consolidated guide to implement the system. The team's efforts directly support efficiency and effectiveness as HUD works to increase affordable housing throughout the country.

• Multifamily Tenant Characteristics System Team: Patricia S. Arnaudo (Headquarters), Paula Blunt (Headquarters), Gloria J. Cousar (Headquarters), Terry P. Day III (Headquarters), Robert W. Gray (Headquarters), Michael T. LaRiccia (Cleveland), Susan M. Loritz (Headquarters), Barbara J. McGinnis (Knoxville), Suzanne M. Olmstead (Seattle), Doreen B. Pederson (Baltimore), Bobby C. Whitson (Little Rock), Thomas J. Williams, Jr. (Headquarters). The team has brought about dramatic improvements in reporting to MTCS, the Department's demographic data collection system for public and assisted housing tenants. Reporting rates on tenants in Section 8 tenant-based programs soared from 71% to 95%; reporting rates on tenants in public housing increased from 60% to 86%. The increased reporting rates and control systems, coupled with improved data quality efforts, resulted in clearing OIG findings on the Department's' financial statements.

• Income Verification Task Force/Tenant Assessment Subsystem Project Team: Gordon L. Brandhagen (Seattle), Turhan Brown (Chicago), James T. Chaplin (Headquarters), David L. Decker (Headquarters), William E. Dobrzykowski (Headquarters), Althea M. Forrester (Headquarters), Paul H. Goodwin (Headquarters), Robert W. Gray (Headquarters), Janice Blake-Green (Headquarters), Kris D. Kully (Headquarters), Yangja K. Lee (Headquarters), Judith L. Lemeshewsky (Headquarters), Alan K. Lombard (Headquarters), Anne M. Marshall (Headquarters), Susan Myers (Headquarters), Myra E. Newbill (Headquarters), Sheldon D. Serkin (Headquarters), Walter G. White (Headquarters). The Income Verification Task Force and the Tenant Assessment Subsystem Project Team made substantial contributions to the efforts to eliminate internal control weaknesses by improving systems to detect and prevent fraud related to tenant subsidies. The group's work included a large-scale computer-matching project to ensure that subsidies are based on the correct tenant income; resolving complex legal, policy, data, and procedural matters to make the computer-matching and income verification program more effective; and developing a single automated system, the Tenant Assessment Subsystem, that is now in use to check tenant-reported income.

• Team 2000: Adrian Bell, Mary Ellen Bergeron, Carolyn H. Cockrell, Daniel M. Copeland, Laurence E. Firth, Anita J. Gould, Deborah V. Holmes, Sandra K. Jackson, David R. Kaminsky, Kristen D. Lasley, Leonard E. Medford, Joseph M. Milazzo, Aliceann B. Muller,Albert W. Mundy, Kathleen M. Picot, Esther L. Pigg, Norman R. Sparks, Cheryl A. Teninga, William C. Thomas, Bessie A. Williams, Pamela A. Woodside, and Hassan B. Zeraat, all in Headquarters. Team 2000 planned and led a comprehensive, HUD-wide program to upgrade, fix, test, and stabilize HUD's systems, software, and hardware so it will continue to work after December 31, 1999. As a result of their leadership and extensive outreach to business partners, 100 percent of HUD's systems have been certified and implemented as Y2K compliant and HUD's business partners are more prepared for Y2K.

• OMHAR Launch Team: Beverly E. Bishop (Chicago), George C. Dipman (Headquarters), Patrick D. Eckman (New York), Howard A. Menell (Headquarters), David M. McDonough (Headquarters), Madeline M. Mickens (Headquarters). The Office of Multifamily Housing Assistance Restructuring is off the ground and is up and running in record time. OMHAR has successfully contracted with Participating Administrative Entities across the country and has 700 assets in the process with 1,000 by the end of the year.

• Mortgagee Review Team: David E. Adkins,,Dash T. Doublas, J. Kinkaid, Maura R. Malone, Dana M. Narode, Felicia R. Lasley, Michael J. Milner, Jerrel B. Moore, Lisa V. Mulrain, Silvia A. Perez, Estuardo V. Rodriguez, Jr., and David S. Wong, all in Headquarters. This team from the Departmental Enforcement Center eliminated the backlog of Mortgagee Review Board cases, aggressively pursuing fraud, waste, and abuse. Their work made an important contribution to the Department's progress in restoring the public trust.

Content Archived: January 20, 2009