An emergency meeting of the Vicksburg Housing Authority Board of Commissioners Wednesday to approve advertising for a new executive director  turned once again to stacks of invoices and records of payments to companies that reflect insider deals, yet don’t indicate work was actually done.

In short order the board approved wording of an ad for applicants to replace longtime director Jim Stirgus Sr. — fired last week — and moved on to a second company apparently owned by former maintenance supervisor Charles Jones that was receiving and cashing checks from the housing authority.

Jones, fired by Stirgus, has been indicted on drug trafficking charges and faces embezzlement charges based on merchandise seized at his house following his Dec. 19 arrest.

As new members of the public housing agency board have pored through files since February, they have discovered transactions Chairman Jay Kilroy said will be referred to the district attorney.

Wednesday, he presented the commissioners with a payment history for a company called Phoenix Enterprise, which has been paid about $72,365 for materials from 2001 through September 2008. Included in the payment history were copies of checks, all of which were signed by Stirgus, and some that are endorsed or cashed by Jones. Along with Stirgus, the checks are signed by Charles Abraham, the former board chairman who died in December.

Kilroy said Phoenix Enterprise is not registered with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office and there’s no record of the firm doing anything for the VHA. “Someone would have to prove to me that we actually purchased anything from that company — ever. We purchased an invoice,” Kilroy said. “In my mind this is straight embezzlement.”

The VHA has been in turmoil since the arrest of Jones, 45, 924 Bowmar Ave., who is accused of having 2.2 pounds of cocaine shipped to him at VHA executive offices at 131 Elizabeth Circle. Following the arrest, Stirgus fired Jones, who had been with the VHA since 1983 and had been in charge of maintenance, purchasing and receiving since 1991. In February, Vicksburg officials appointed four new members to the five-member housing commission.

Jones is set to go to trial on charges of possession of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute on Nov. 30. The embezzlement charge links him to $4,370.55 worth of housing authority property found in a search of his home following his arrest on the drug charges. Grand jury action is pending on that charge.

Stirgus, who will turn 79 next week and has been a friend of Jones’ for decades, has said he does not believe Jones stole from the housing authority and claims he had been allowed to store the property at his residence for the past 15 years.

Aside from Phoenix Enterprise, police are investigating whether Jones owned another company with which the VHA had contracted. Central City Services and Supplies was paid nearly $100,000 over a 5-month period to complete renovations on VHA apartments on evenings and weekends. Kilroy said a post office box that served as the mailing address for the business was rented to Jones and that Jones endorsed the checks.

Stirgus has acknowledged signing checks to the company, but maintains he did not know who owned the company and stated that was the case for almost all of the companies the VHA contracted with.

Stirgus has not been charged with any crimes, and has said since Jones’ arrest that he is guilty of none. One week before being fired, Stirgus had stepped down voluntarily on a temporary basis due to his health. He reportedly was hospitalized last week, and could not be reached for comment. His budgeted salary was $70,000 for fiscal year 2008 and $72,000 for the current fiscal year, and he was just short of his 21st anniversary as head of the housing authority when the commission decided 4-0 to fire him during a closed session on May 19. One commissioner abstained from the vote.

Kilroy said a temporary and permanent replacement are being sought. The position is being advertised locally and nationally, and Kilroy said finding someone with administrative experience is key as the VHA is struggling through unprecedented times.

A federal investigation is under way into the VHA resulting from Jones’ arrest. Unrelated to the arrest, the VHA fell into “troubled status” with the Office of Housing and Urban Development due to a temporary dip in reserve funds in 2005 used to repair roofs on 279 VHA homes and apartments following Hurricane Katrina. The troubled designation means the board had to draw up and submit a detailed improvement plan to HUD, and has to update the plan monthly. The commission has one year from April to get out of troubled status or it will face a takeover by HUD. 

If necessary, Kilroy said a commissioner might have to be appointed temporary executive director to re-submit proposals for spending $888,000 of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill awarded to the VHA. A plan Stirgus submitted before being fired for the reroofing of 150 homes in Rolling Acres is far too expensive as proposed and unnecessary, Kilroy said.

The plan called for Southeast Engineering Group — which Kilroy has said also appears to have received checks from the VHA for undocumented services — to contract the roofing work for the entire stimulus allotment. After checking with local roofers, Kilroy said the roofs are only seven or eight years old and he has been told they do not need replacement for at least five years. Additionally, he said the price for the work is far too expensive even if it was needed. He estimated the job could be completed for about $300,000.

“What exactly were we going to pay $888,000 for?” he asked. “We have got to come up with a way to spend this nearly $1 million in stimulus money…and we’ve got to identify projects, advertise them and get them under bid by the end of (September).”

Kilroy also presented the board with copies of invoices from Southeast Engineering Group from 2005 that appear to show a conflict of interest, in which a family member of Stirgus’ is listed as a “person in charge.” Kilroy said he was referring such matters to HUD.

“I’ve got stacks and stacks of these kinds of files,” he said.

The VHA administers and manages 430 homes and apartments at six subdivisions throughout the city, with its tenants meeting income qualifications. Board members present at Tuesday’s meeting were Kilroy, Ella Lee, Abraham Green, Christopher Barnett and Charles Wright. Board Attorney A.J. “Buddy” Dees Jr. also attended. The next regular commission meeting will be June 16 at the VHA office at 131 Elizabeth Circle.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com