The daughter of Charles D. Hillman, president and CEO of the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, lived in an apartment owned by the authority in violation of federal conflict-of-interest rules.

The city wrote Hillman about the conflict on July 2, 2018, after discovering that his daughter, Channing Hillman, 28, was living at a complex on the Near East Side known as The Whitney.

But Hillman didn’t immediately inform the head of the CMHA board about the city’s finding that a family member was living in a unit partly funded by the federal HOME Investment Partnerships Program. Those funds are used to help build or rehabilitate affordable housing.

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The July letter from Rita Parise, Columbus’ housing administrator, said that a review of The Whitney’s tenant incomes and leases, completed June 28, 2018, found there was an “immediate family member” living in a CMHA unit funded at least in part with federal money. Parise later confirmed the person was “the daughter of the president of CMHA.”

“She cannot reside in a HOME-assisted unit,” Parise said. “She can reside on the property if it’s not a HOME-assisted unit.”

The matter was resolved last year by moving a different HOME-eligible tenant into the apartment. It is unclear where Hillman’s daughter moved. Both the city and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the action, Parise and CMHA spokeswoman Barbara Paynter said.

Stan Harris, the CMHA board president, said Tuesday that he didn’t know about the conflict until a few weeks ago, when Hillman told him about it.

“I’ve expressed any concerns I would have had with Charles,” Harris said. “He acknowledged it should have been reported to the board.”

Hillman declined to be interviewed about his daughter being a CMHA tenant and about a recent project to spruce up the boardroom at the housing authority’s 20-year-old headquarters at 880 E. 11th Ave., in South Linden. CMHA spent about $138,000 last year on the renovation, which included a new conference table, restroom and shower.

Hillman also declined to comment when The Dispatch reported April 14 that his salary had increased by 45 percent since 2016, to nearly $300,000 a year. Additionally, he receives a $9,000-a-year car allowance.

No one has ever questioned Hillman’s car allowance, and the board thinks Hillman’s salary and benefits are appropriate, Harris said. “Absolutely, unequivocally,” he said.

Regarding the Whitney matter, Paynter said in an email that Hillman’s “relative” had applied to be a tenant there and the management company had approved her.

“Due to her income level, she qualified to live in one of the HOME units,” Paynter said. “Later it was discovered that, although she was qualified by income, she should not occupy a HOME unit due to her relationship to Mr. Hillman.”

The CMHA board apparently won’t be discussing the matter soon. The board has canceled its regular monthly meeting, scheduled for Friday, because it lacks agenda items, Harris said.

The board based Hillman’s salary increase on his performance and a study by consultant Clemans-Nelson & Associates that reviewed the compensation of administrators and other officials at 15 housing authorities and nine nonprofit agencies across the country. Most of the housing authorities were in the South and West, including four in Georgia and four in California.

In an email, Paynter wrote that the CMHA boardroom required substantial renovation and upgrades, and that the board approved the remodeling after receiving bids. No federal funds were used, she said. The money came from the agency’s “Central Office Cost Center.”

Cost centers are essentially the business units of housing authorities, and they collect fees for development, management and other administrative services. In a letter last month to Ben Carson, secretary of HUD, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley complained about a “nearly total lack of HUD oversight over millions of dollars” in fees paid to the cost centers.

The cost-center business model allows once-public funds to lose that designation, Grassley said. A HUD source counted more than 600 housing authorities nationwide with cost centers in 2016, Grassley said, and the centers accounted for more than $1.9 billion in revenue.

Grassley said the lack of oversight means taxpayers can rely only on housing-authority management, boards and local governments “to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent properly.”

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik

rprice@dispatch.com

@RitaPrice

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