Pittsburgh housing authority to vote on embattled executive director from Oregon
The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh board is set to name a woman who is under investigation by an ethics committee in Oregon as its new executive director.
Board members aren't talking, but they are set to vote Thursday on Ivory Mathews as the new executive director.
Until recently, Mathews served as the executive director of Home Forward, the housing authority in the city of Portland, but she resigned in May after published reports that she had spent more than $100,000 in public money on travel over a three-year period to places like Hawaii, Las Vegas, Alaska and Orlando.
Mathews is currently the focus of an investigation by the Oregon state ethics commission, whose preliminary inquiry found she would arrive at those destinations two and three days early and use authority p-cards for hotels and expenses not related to authority business.
In August, the commission voted to open a full investigation into Mathews, and said in a report that it will examine other evidence that she amassed airline miles and hotel stay rewards for her personal use, highlighting expense vouchers upgrading her hotel room at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and a first-class seat on the first leg of a flight from Portland to Washington, D.C.
Under heat from the revelations, Mathews agreed to resign from her position and was given a severance package by the authority there. Despite the allegations of excess, Mathews' appointment is on the agenda for approval by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh at Thursday morning's meeting. She would succeed longtime authority head Caster Binion, who is scheduled to leave at the end of the month.
Outside of the agenda entry, no one at the authority is talking. Board members did not return phone calls, and board chair Wasi Mohamed said, on the advice of the authority's legal counsel, he could not comment on the proposed appointment until after tomorrow's vote.
If, as expected, the board approves Mathews, she will be expected to take the reins of the authority on Oct. 1, even as Oregon's ethics investigation continues.
