Williams named interim GHA director

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Gary/Chicago International Airport authority board president Nathaniel Williams listens as members vote on a contract with Allegiant Air during a meeting Monday Dec. 12, 2011. The contract was approved and later announced the Nevada-based-company will begin twice-weekly flight out of Gary staring in February of 2012. | Andy Lavalley~Sun-Times Media

Updated: February 13, 2012 10:49PM

GARY — The Gary Housing Authority board of commissioners Monday named assets manager Nathaniel Williams as its interim director.

Williams, who also heads the Gary/Chicago International Airport Board and has strong political ties in the city, said he is “elated” for the promotion and plans to take the agency “in a different direction.”

“We have to clean up the vacancies situation, but I need to study the whole dynamics of the agency as a whole,” Williams said.

Board officials said they will conduct a national search for the permanent executive director, even as members of Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson’s administration have said they have someone in mind for the GHA’s top spot.

In naming Williams its interim director, with an $85,000 salary, the board also accepted the resignation of beleaguered former director Alfreda Peterson, the niece of former Mayor Rudy Clay.

Under Peterson’s leadership, the GHA suffered through a tumultuous 2011, which included allegations of rampant financial mismanagement and emergency visits from the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the source of about 65 percent of the agency’s funding.

Also, a former manager with the Woodlawn Community Development Corp. — a Chicago-based management firm that may be under federal investigation — is suing the WCDC for firing him after he threatened to go public with allegations, in part, the WCDC misappropriated GHA funds.

And the agency is trying to determine what to do with 400 vacant units.

“We just want to move forward,” said GHA Board Chairman Mike Brown. “We’ll work with HUD to make sure things get back on track.”

Peterson has been on administrative leave for medical reasons since Feb. 1. Her contract ends Feb. 20, with about $10,150 in sick leave and vacation days before she’s finished. She’ll also get health insurance benefits until Mar. 31, since the agency prepays for its insurance a month in advance.

Sources in City Hall said Freeman-Wilson has a permanent replacement in mind but has not named the person publicly. It also was unclear Monday who will be the next director, someone found through a national search or the mayor’s appointment, if they are not one and the same.

“We’re still doing a national search,” Brown said. “If (a possible appointment) is qualified, he’s just as entitled to apply as anyone else.”