Tacoma Housing Authority botched its executive search. Now it has to regain public trust
It’s a mess now, and it didn’t have to be.
Tacoma Housing Authority is in a pickle of its own creation, and it could get uglier still.
Last week, the agency — which has been searching for a new executive director since Michael Mirra’s retirement earlier this year — was forced to perform an embarrassing about-face. Days earlier, THA’s five-person board voted 3-2 in favor of hiring John Hall, the current executive director for the Indianapolis Housing Agency. But after potentially troubling concerns about Hall’s comments during the interview process came to light, that same board elected to slow down and reconsider.
Given the concerns that were raised, was it the only sensible move to make? Sure. Does that make what has transpired any less damaging? Not a chance. The debacle has taken a toll on public confidence in THA’s ability to find a worthy successor to Mirra, while also raising significant questions about the agency’s dedication to equity and inclusion, and specifically its handling of issues of gender identity and race.
THA’s board now faces the daunting challenge of fixing it, internally and externally.
Within THA’s offices, as The News Tribune’s Allison Needles reported, concerns about the selection of Hall were raised by THA staff, including the claims that he made transphobic comments during his interviews with them. All of this apparently blindsided THA’s board — which is a failure in the truest sense of the word — while also surprising Hall, who has issued denials and suggested his words were taken out of context. The only other current candidate for the job, interim director April Black, rose from within THA’s ranks.
To be clear, there’s much we don’t yet know about the allegations against Hall. Like anyone, he deserves a chance to defend himself, just like the THA staff members who have come forward to raise concerns deserve to be heard.
But fair or not, the reality is that it’s difficult to go back from something like this. If Hall is chosen and relocates to Tacoma, he would face the prospect of having to win back the trust of his staff and the city’s LGBTQ community on Day One, and so would the board that installed him.
Then there’s the other side of the equation, which for THA’s board promised to be just as precarious. The treatment of Hall — a Black man who told The News Tribune he’s spent his life working on issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion — quickly drew the attention of the Tacoma-Pierce County Black Collective.
Chief among the collective’s concerns, according to the collective’s co-chair Lyle Quasim, is whether Hall — who was deemed qualified enough to earn majority support on THA’s board — is getting a fair shake. If Hall is guilty of what he’s been accused of, Quasim believes the offense is disqualifying, but right now he has more questions than answers — and he wants to see the evidence.
While Quasim said that the Black Collective’s concerns aren’t solely based on race, there’s no question that the color of Hall’s skin factors into the conversation, he indicated.
“Injustice to anybody makes it difficult for everybody,” Quasim said. “But … if it happens to a person who has African heritage, yes, it becomes a higher issue for us.”
On Tuesday, longtime THA board member Stan Rumbaugh admitted that THA’s board has significant work to do if it hopes to win back public trust. He chalked the situation up to a rushed process, and believes fences can be mended if the board takes the time to listen and find the best candidate possible.
“I think it can (be salvaged),” Rumbaugh said of THA’s executive director search.
For the sake of the city, the residents who depend on THA and the agency’s dedicated staff, let’s hope he’s right.
What can we say for certain?
It won’t be easy.
This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
