State investigating assignment of Barton Road units

Longtime Housing Authority executive director and
his secretary at center of controversy.

Secretary given a new three-bedroom Housing Authority
apartment December 13 while homeless families kept on
housing waiting list.
________________________________________________________________
By Rick Holland - The Wellesley Townsman - January 16, 2003

Wellesley, MA - The state is investigating whether a Wellesley
Housing Authority secretary was given preferential treatment over
other applicants when she was awarded access to one of the few
subsidized apartments in town.

The move has created an uproar among residents at the Barton Road
development and has resulted in the state slapping new restrictions
on the local housing board.

Further complicating the matter are reports that Ibel Miranda, the
employee who has been living at 35 Barton Road since Dec. 13,
is engaged in a personal relationship with her boss, Louis
Malerba, Jr.

Malerba, who has served as the Authority's executive director for
about the past 20 years, says he is "very good friends" with
Miranda and loans her his car, which has regularly been seen
parked outside her three bedroom apartment in the evening.

Malerba declined to comment further on their relationship. He was
also unwilling to admit that he has done anything wrong in this
instance. However, he did admit to the Townsman this week that he
may have skirted some state regulations in regard to past
operations at the Wellesley Housing Authority.

But the Townsman has learned that the state's Department of
Housing and Community Development launched a preliminary review
of the Wellesley Housing Authority's tenant selection process on
Jan. 9. This review has resulted in restrictions being placed on
the Wellesley Housing Authority but stopped short of finding that
Miranda was given preferential placement on the housing waiting
list.

"Effective [Jan. 14], the DHCD is removing the Wellesley Housing
Authority from making any unit offer to any tenant," said DHCD
spokesperson Beth Bresnahan. "They must continue to accept
applications and date and time-stamp them. Then, we're looking to
have the Authority use an outside entity to come in to evaluate
tenant applications until further notice."

Asked whether the DHCD ever signed off on Miranda's approval for
an apartment, Bresnahan said no one from her agency ever approved
the awarding of an apartment to Miranda. Such permission was
"required by regulations in our code of conduct," said
Bresnahan.

Bresnahan also said "the matter warrants further review."

Miranda could not be reached for comment. But Malerba said
Miranda had spoken with DHCD personnel about her moving into
Barton Road, though he said he was unaware of how Miranda's place
on the waiting list for housing had been established. Malerba
went to on cite a section of DCHD regulations that he said
essentially exempted Miranda's moving in from being approved by
the state agency. "I look at it this way: she [Miranda] is just
an employee, not a supervisory employee or someone who is a
tenant selector," said Malerba. On that basis, Malerba equated
Miranda's situation with "many other cases of employees moving
into Authority housing in the past."

But that explanation did not satisfy several Barton Road
residents and local housing officials. Asked how she felt about
Miranda's placement, longtime Barton Road resident Renee Spencer
responded, "The nice way to say this is that I'm saddened that
this happened. I feel that there are so many homeless families
out there that need apartments. I get calls from battered women
who have been in shelters for years and are unable to get
housing," Spencer said.

"I think it's completely disgusting," added another resident, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Just because she's
supposedly sleeping with the boss, she shouldn't get an
apartment."

Ann Adams, one of five volunteers who serve on the Housing
Authority's board of commissioners also has concerns.

"The process of people coming into the new public housing units
in Wellesley has at the very least raised a lot of questions,"
Adams said "We have a right to expect that the process [to award
housing units] is absolutely transparent. That's what we expect
of public officials in town."

Before moving into 35 Barton Road last month, Miranda was
reportedly living with her mother in Boston. She was hired by
Malerba in January of 2002 at a salary of $28,600 as an
administrative assistant for the Authority. At that time,
Wellesley's waiting list for Barton Road's inventory of two- and
three-bedroom apartments had been closed for about two years,
while state-funded renovations totaling $14 million were
undertaken. By July of last year, however, as apartments were
readied for tenants, the Housing Authority opened up a waiting
list that, because of attrition over the previous 24 months, had
essentially become a blank slate.

However, at the monthly meeting of the Housing Authority
commissioners four weeks ago, Adams said that Malerba was asked
if the commissioners might know any of the people or families -
about 10 of them - who had moved into Barton Road during the late
fall of 2002.

In the context of that discussion Adams said "there was every
opportunity for [Malerba] to say, in the interest of disclosure,
'You should know that [Miranda is about to move in]."

Two days after the commissioners' meeting, Miranda moved into a
new apartment on Barton Road.

"The commissioners would have expected that staff would have
brought that to our attention before [Miranda moved in], but that
didn't happen," said the Authority's chairman, Bradley Boyd.

When asked about the situation, Malerba said that confidentiality
laws regarding any potential tenant kept him from disclosing that
Miranda was set to move into Barton Road.

But Malerba also acknowledged that mistakes have been made in his
20-year tenure with the Housing Authority and said, "Do you think
there's any [housing authority] executive director in the
commonwealth who goes through all the DHCD regulations?

"I'm not perfect, and over the years the Housing Authority has
made mistakes . . . you can interpret these regulations in so
many different ways."

Malerba believes the agency's reaction is overwrought. "They're
[the DHCD] coming out to do a review, and they make it seem like
manslaughter," Malerba said.

Boyd said that while he believes the relationship between Malerba
and Miranda has moved beyond a professional one, there is nothing
that he can do about it because state regulations do not prohibit
romantic relationships between Housing Authority employees.

"I think it's public knowledge that [Malerba] does have a
relationship with [Miranda]," Boyd said.

Asked if he was concerned about the relationship between the
Authority's top staff person and one of his subordinates, Boyd
said, "The board has had concerns about the relationship from the
beginning. The board also recognized you can't stop the
relationship. We expect employees to act in a professional
manner, given the parameters of their job descriptions."

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