MOULTRIE — The Moultrie Housing Authority’s executive director, Ronald Reagin, was all but cleared from conflicts of interest Thursday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Linda Allen, a spokeswoman for HUD, said that while it wasn’t official, the fact that Reagin owns rental property, some of which is rented to people with Department of Community Affairs Section 8 vouchers, doesn’t conflict with his capacity as the MHA director as it relates to HUD.

“I had to do some research and have our legal people look at it, and there are no waiver requests, (but) there is no violation of any conflict of interest …,” she said. “It will be looked into, and that’s probably the answer they’ll come up with.”

Reagin owns about 20 rental houses and a portion of Jac-Lyn Apartments in Moultrie.

The possibility of conflict of interest arose several years ago and again recently when Reagin opposed the construction of more affordable housing in Moultrie. Reagin represented himself as speaking for the MHA in that opposition.

However, Billy Fallin, MHA chairman, said Reagin was not officially representing the authority with his comments. Also, Fallin represents the developer who sought support of City Council for bringing an affordable housing complex into southeast Moultrie.

Reagin told the Observer Wednesday that four of his tenants use Section 8 vouchers from the Department of Community Affairs. A HUD official initially said that would be a conflict of interest, but would not go on record.

Allen, however, said Thursday that is not a conflict because the MHA does not have a Section 8 program.

Fallin denounced any idea that there was a conflict of interest when Reagin privately got into the rental business, and again last week at a called board meeting.

“Ronnie owns an interest in Jac-Lyn Apartments,” Fallin said during the meeting. “I’ve known that. The board has known that. Everyone has known that.

“I have never considered Jac-Lyn Apartments in competition with the Moultrie Housing Authority, although some people have said, ‘Isn’t that a conflict of interest?'”

The board agreed.

“I don’t personally think that Ronnie and the Housing Authority are competing, I think that’s the bottom line on it,” said board member Alton “Butch” Parrish.

Fallin also announced at the meeting that a HUD representative had visited the MHA to investigate the alleged conflict of interest and claims that appliances from MHA units were being channeled to Reagin’s properties.

HUD representatives would neither confirm nor deny that investigation.

According to the MHA’s disposal policy, the director may sell any property that is worth less than $500. The sale shall be documented by a bill of sale, the policy says.

Fallin said that the process might need a second look.

“We probably have not supervised that as closely as we should have. But I can’t say that we haven’t,” he said. “I don’t know what else we can do. A lot of that stuff goes to the dump. Most refrigerators are sold, but some are dumped with other appliances.”

He told the board they could revamp the process if they wanted.

“If you want to monitor that closer,” he said. “If you want to know when it was picked up, who picked it up, when it went to the junk pile, we can do that. I think that that potentially is where there has been some criticism as to what happened to some of that stuff.”



To contact reporter Kevin Liles, please call 985-4545, ext. 225.