Goodbye Ann Lott

Tuesday's DHA board meeting escalated into heated words between the Chairwoman of the board and the President of Dallas Housing Authority over something that normally would not be so volatile. The big to do was about the Chairwoman proposing a policy that would prohibit staffers from adding religious messages or personal opinions to their official e-mail. The policy also would require that commissioners review agency newsletters, event programs,
invitations and other communications before they are made public. Ms. Lott, the President of DHA, took exception and felt the board would be taking control of the day to day operations of the agency.

It is reported that Betty Culbreath at one point referred to Ann Lott as "girl." Ms. Lott of course took offense to that. She wanted to be clear that she would not be spoken to that way.

Remember that Mayor Tom Leppert is the person who appoints all 5 of the board members and months ago he rushed over to the Housing Authority meeting for a photo op of him telling Ms. Lott that she had 6 months to put in place management tools to correct the accounting of the 3.8 million it received from HUD. There has never been any allegations that the money was taken just that it was not accounted for appropriately. Ms. Lott along with the board began to make what was reported by HUD and Ms. Culbreath as significant strides to improvement.

Mayor Tom Leppert is waiting to reappoint 3 of the members. If they do not vote to take Ann Lott out he will not reappoint them. We have seen this move before when he refused to appoint committees on the council until he got some votes done and then he punished council members who were not with him.

Ann Lott, has done a good job for DHA, but she is not apart of the INNER CIRCLE and will be fired by Mayor Leppert's board.