DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 1997           TAG: 9709300265

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   85 lines

CHESAPEAKE MAY REHIRE FALKNER HOUSING BOARD CALLS MEETING OVER DIRECTOR FIRED LAST WEEK

The Redevelopment and Housing Authority scheduled another special meeting Thursday evening to discuss reinstating the executive director it fired one week ago.

Authority Board of Commissioners Chairman Roland L. Thornton said he called the meeting Monday after discussing former executive director Douglas Falkner with several other commissioners.

``I would like to see him back,'' said Thornton, who had voted against firing Falkner. ``I did not want to schedule another vote until it could be done in open session.''

Falkner said Monday that he would return to the authority if asked. If not, Falkner said, he would pursue legal options against the authority for improper dismissal.

The commissioners may well revive discussion over why they terminated Falkner's employment.

Most commissioners still have not explained publicly why he was fired.

But in a termination letter, the board spelled out three specific reasons, including separate allegations of sexual harassment, racial discrimination and a scheme to pay someone to take a college course for him.

Falkner, who provided the letter to The Virginian-Pilot, denied each of the accusations in the letter, dated Sept. 23 and signed by the authority's attorney.

According to several commissioners, Falkner was fired by a vote of 5 to 4 in a closed-door session on Sept. 22. A vote affirming that decision was held immediately afterward in open session, just before midnight.

Thornton has said that he was overruled when he tried to call for a member-by-member vote in open session on Falkner's employment.

A meeting to discuss possible severance pay for Falkner, scheduled for last Friday, was canceled after a majority of commissioners - the same five members who voted to fire Falkner - failed to attend the meeting.

But for the first time since the board fired Falkner, Thornton has called Thursday's meeting ``for the purpose of discussing personnel matters relating to whether to dismiss or retain the executive director, and or in the alternative, to discuss severance pay,'' according to an official announcement.

Robert R. Kinser, the board attorney, said only five members will need to show up in order to hold a meeting, and a majority of those present may act on Falkner's employment.

At least three commissioners who voted against Falkner said they will attend Thursday's meeting. But those same members - Vice Chairman Robert L. Samuel Jr., Althea W. Gallop and Charles F. Sanford III - said they had no intention of changing their votes.

Those who voted to oust Falkner appeared to be concerned that Falkner's behavior had placed the authority at risk for possible litigation, according to the termination letter signed by Kinser.

No details were provided about the allegations of sexual harassment against Falkner, but the letter did say that it ``continued after (Falkner had) been previously warned and counseled about identical activity.''

Falkner, in an interview Monday, said that wasn't true about the counseling to change his behavior toward employees.

``I have no idea what they're talking about,'' he said. ``They had not said anything to me.''

The second allegation dealt with the hiring of an equally qualified black job candidate over a white candidate, the letter said. Falkner responded that the two candidates did not have the same qualifications, but admitted that he had told a staff member that ``I was looking for a white candidate to replace the white person in that job.''

It was his intention, Falkner said, to keep a racial balance among the qualified employees he hired.

The third allegation centered on a conversation that Falkner had with one of his managers about the board's insistence that Falkner obtain a college degree.

Falkner had requested ``that a subordinate offer another individual payment in the amount of $500 for the fraudulent procurement of `three credit hours' of class work to be applied to (Falkner's) college degree.''

In the interview, Falkner explained that he had joked with a colleague about finding someone to take a college course for him, but quickly dismissed the idea in the same conversation. Employees at the authority have been asked by Kinser not to talk with the press about Falkner's employment.

Thursday's board meeting will be held at the authority's headquarters, 2133 Smith Ave., at 6:30 p.m. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Douglas Falkner KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE REDEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING AUTHORITY

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