LITTLE ROCK -- Little Rock's public housing agency will pay attorney Leon Jones Jr.'s consulting firm as much as $160,000 to investigate claims of misconduct and negligence levied against the board of commissioners in June.
The contract between the Metropolitan Housing Alliance and Jones' firm, Pinnacle Strategy Group, began July 1 and will last through May 1. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained the contract through an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request.
Pinnacle Strategy Group will investigate agency director Nadine Jarmon's claims that the commissioners repeatedly engaged in unnecessary spending, sidestepped federal approvals, and engaged in conflicts of interest between commissioners and parties involved in transactions with the housing authority.
The authority will pay Pinnacle Strategy $275 per hour for a maximum of 20 hours per week. The total would amount $160,000 if the investigation takes the 10 months, the maximum time allowed under the agreement.
"The investigation includes, but is not limited to, securing all documents related to the allegations, securing all witnesses and maintaining records related to the allegations," Jones' contract states. "The investigation can move in the direction that the evidence points."
Jarmon sent a 161-page memo on June 23 to Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. and to the field office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She included a collection of emails, bank statements, board minutes, board resolutions and other documents as evidence to back up her claims.
Jarmon asked for the entire five-member board of commissioners to be removed. The board is self-appointing but subject to approval by the Little Rock Board of Directors and mayor.
Jones said in an interview that he had not yet read Jarmon's memo and had requested the documents from Little Rock. He said the housing authority is working on gathering some other documents that will help him in the investigation.
"Until then, I don't have a sense of how long it's going to take," Jones said. "[I will] once I know those allegations and have a sense of where I need to go."
Jones previously served on the Fayetteville Housing Authority board of commissioners, including a stint as board chairman, and has led the Arkansas Department of Labor and the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission. He resigned from the Fair Housing Commission earlier this year when he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for attorney general in 2022.
The Republican primary in May will take place after Jones' investigation ends, if it lasts that long, so the two will not conflict, he said.
Arkansas law allows housing authorities "to conduct examinations and investigations." The commissioners voted unanimously on June 29 to authorize the investigation and to hire Jones to conduct it.
They also voted unanimously to suspend Jarmon with pay until the investigation is complete. During that time, she is not allowed to enter any housing authority buildings or properties.
The Metropolitan Housing Alliance has seen four directors in the past three years. Anthony Snell, the executive director before Jarmon, left the post in July 2020, writing in his resignation letter that the board had harmed and micromanaged the agency. Jarmon served as interim director until the board chose her to fill the post officially in April.
She said last week that both her suspension and the self-authorized investigation likely are "diversionary tactics," and she said the same thing about board chairman Kenyon Lowe's June 28 request for a HUD investigation into her allegations.
Scott previously told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the federal housing department, not the city, has the primary authority to oversee and discipline the housing authority.
The board unanimously chose the agency's financial director, Andy Delaney, as acting executive director throughout Jarmon's suspension.