Riding roller coasters. Chowing down on fried food. Catching waves in the pool at Hurricane Harbor.
Hundreds of Housing Authority of Cook County employees and their families could enjoy these activities and more for three years at Six Flags on the agency’s dime.
The state’s second-largest housing authority, which was flagged by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as “troubled” in part because of an absentee board, low-grade property inspections, incorrect reporting on leases, high outstanding balances for tenants behind on rent and failure to submit financial reports on time, spent more than $60,000 on such trips.
The money came out of HACC’s roughly $22 million annual budget, dollars meant to be spent on providing public and subsidized housing to some of the lowest income residents in the county.
“This wasn’t a frivolous use of taxpayer funds,” said Richard Monocchio, executive director of HACC for 12 years before he took his current job at HUD in May 2023, in an interview with the Tribune. “This was good governance.”
Monocchio was in charge when the Six Flags trips occurred and went on three himself, describing the outings as a reward for his employees to show appreciation for their hard work. The trips were held in lieu of holiday parties that HACC threw in past years at a similar expense, Monocchio said.
The trip to Six Flags saved “major time” and costs in comparison to a winter event, HACC said in a response to written questions. The agency did not make its board members or current executive director available for an interview in January and instead responded to written questions through its outside public relations firm.
HACC used funds that are not federal dollars and, therefore, are not subject to federal restrictions, a HUD spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The “vast majority” of those non-federal funds, Monocchio said, were used for expenses such as employee salaries and support for residents.
“HUD encourages public housing authorities to utilize their resources in alignment with their mission and local governance priorities,” HUD said in the statement. HUD did not respond to a list of Tribune questions and instead provided the statement.
HACC employees went to Six Flags three times, including in 2022 and 2023, the year HUD designated HACC as troubled for falling short of its performance standards. HACC failed to submit an annual audit on time to HUD, causing them to get a zero in the finance category of the annual Public Housing Assessment System. The housing authority also received a 9/25 in the management category. The agency received an overall score of 42/100; HUD designates a public housing authority as troubled if it scores below 60.
HACC’s troubled status was “primarily due to their failure to submit an audit,” HUD said. Monocchio said he takes responsibility for the late submission.
HACC is one of two housing authorities HUD currently designates as troubled in Illinois, and one of 100 nationally, according to the federal agency. It is the second largest of the 99 authorities statewide, behind the Chicago Housing Authority. It manages over 1,800 units and serves more than 30,000 people in suburban Cook County.
The audit delay was largely the result of the finance department losing more than 70% of its staff during the COVID-19 pandemic through 2022 and the need to then hire and train new staff, according to public records obtained by the Tribune and an interview with current HACC leadership. Included in those departures was the chief financial officer, who resigned the day the board was notified of the housing authority’s troubled status and the late audit in July 2023. The CFO cited health reasons for his departure, according to HACC. The organization had also recently lost Monocchio and its chief of staff.
HACC leadership said they didn’t think the organization’s high turnover rate was abnormal compared to other organizations.
“COVID was a very difficult time. People were not used to working remotely. Managers were not used to managing remotely, so there was just a lot of change that happened in a very short time,” HACC board Chair Wendy Walker Williams said in a November interview. “And while the team did their best to stop, drop and roll to do the best they could, the whole complexities of COVID really weighed heavily on our very small finance team.”
Jon Duncan, HACC’s general counsel , requested an extension from HUD on the 2022 audit, but he submitted it after HUD’s deadline and the request was denied.
HUD calls out board
Once HACC became troubled, HUD did an evaluation of the agency to better determine how it became underperforming. One reason: the board.
“The Board does not provide sufficient oversight of the (public housing authority’s) finances, budget, and use of funds, as indicated by the Board’s lack of awareness of the PHA’s failure to file the annual financial statement for (the fiscal year ending) 3/31/22,” a HUD official wrote in a November 2023 letter.
Monocchio said HUD’s assessment of HACC was “ridiculous,” countering that they were a “model agency.” He said HACC had “one of the best boards” and that tenants’ outstanding rent balances, another issue cited by HUD, are “no different than anywhere else in the country.”
Williams also disagreed with HUD’s conclusions.
“While the criticism paints a subjective picture that we do not agree with, HACC held thorough conversations with HUD” after the assessment, Williams said in a written response.
HUD’s assessment also prompted the board, Williams said, to establish new committees to “be more diligent in its oversight and to collaborate closely with the executive director to increase transparency between operations and governance.”
Even so, after the housing authority became troubled, its leadership took measures to lie low. In a text exchange reviewed by the Tribune from December 2023, HACC Executive Director Danita Childers told an employee to cancel an interview with iHeart Radio because she and Williams “do not want you to draw any attention to HACC because we are a troubled (public housing authority),” adding “We need you to keep us out of the news, not draw attention to us.”
The decision “to limit media exposure,” Childers said in a written response, was “made with the intent to focus on our urgent priorities, organizational stability, and services to our residents.”
Six Flags spending questioned
A month before HUD’s November letter assessing the agency, Williams questioned how the agency paid for the Six Flags trip.
“I’m just more so interested in what funding did we use to pay for it?” Williams said in an email obtained through a public records request.
“I just can’t imagine what public funding would let us do this,” Williams told Duncan, HACC’s then-acting executive director and general counsel.
HACC denies that the funds used were “public,” arguing they came out of an operating budget made up of fees HACC charged when it developed properties.
Asked if the Six Flags spending was an appropriate use of agency funds, Williams said in a written response, “Yes, HACC should invest in its employees. … Employee appreciation can have a considerable positive impact on staff morale and retention.”
“Based on my understanding, the day of appreciation for the staff was widely accepted and well attended,” Williams said.
But in an October 2024 board meeting, HACC employees represented by the union spoke about high rates of turnover among its members, citing wages that hadn’t kept pace with inflation and burdensome workloads.
The Six Flags outings averaged 500 people, according to an email exchange between HACC and Six Flags obtained in the records request. If employees did not go to Six Flags, they had to work, according to public records obtained by the Tribune.
Board Commissioner Eric Slaughter also emailed with HACC’s then-comptroller in October 2023, inquiring about who approved the funds for the Six Flags trip. The week prior, Slaughter emailed the comptroller and Duncan for more information ahead of a board meeting, saying he was requesting the materials because of “the mounting issues that we have at HACC, and to assist in preparing the new (executive director) for success.”
Slaughter referred the Tribune to HACC’s outside public relations firm for comment. Asked to clarify what Slaughter meant by “mounting issues,” HACC Vice Board Chair Polly Kuehl said Slaughter is on the board’s finance committee and “additional oversight was established and inquiries increased during the time of leadership changes and transitions in the finance department.”
Monocchio said he would never have spent money on Six Flags unless he had brought more cash into the agency through state sources such as low-income housing tax credits.
Susan Popkin, an Urban Institute researcher who has written studies on Chicago public housing, said the Six Flags funds could have been spent on tenants.
“It is a bad look,” Popkin said. “HACC is serving people who have extremely low incomes and are struggling.”
HACC did not take employees to Six Flags in 2024. Instead, the agency “encouraged staff to participate in smaller employee appreciation events by department or office” and said it is exploring “new ideas for employee appreciation and development.”
The board of commissioners were not the only ones asking HACC employees about payments to Six Flags. Amusement park officials followed up in 2022 and 2023 about getting paid for HACC’s outings.
“We are around the two week mark since our last email and a check has not yet arrived,” a Six Flags employee said in a November 2023 email to HACC. The company outing took place in August, and the emails show Six Flags followed up for months about payment for the trip. HACC said it paid after resolving tax issues with Six Flags.
HACC spent the money on these trips around the same time as it received more than $800,000 in shortfall funding from HUD for recent fiscal years due to lower rent collections from tenants, according to Sheryl Seiling, HACC’s director of rent assistance and HACC’s finance team.
There is “no relation” between the Six Flags trip dollars and the shortfall funding, Monocchio said.
HACC also said the HUD shortfall dollars are for separate uses from HACC’s funds that it spent on Six Flags.
HACC is a “vital resource in Cook County’s efforts to ensure every resident has access to safe and affordable housing,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in a statement to the Tribune, noting that HACC manages its “own operations and financial decisions.”
“We are aware that HACC is actively addressing administrative challenges identified by HUD and appreciate its commitment to enhancing operations and services.”
HACC’s path forward
One of HUD’s recommendations for troubled agencies is to find a way to increase revenue and/or decrease expenses.
HACC said it has worked with HUD to do so by “adjusting rent rates to current market rents” and “empowering property managers to address efficiencies, cost reduction and budget utilization.” HACC will continue to work with HUD on these efforts, HACC said.
The housing authority said it completed audits for 2022 and 2023, but asked HUD for an extension in filing its 2024 audit. HACC said the next HUD assessment of the agency is in the spring and expects to “exceed the required standards.”
HUD said in its statement that it has been monitoring HACC’s progress through “regular meetings and submitted reports.” HACC has achieved standard inspection scores, maintained high occupancy rates and submitted financial documents on time, HUD said.
HACC’s strategic plan through 2028 has five main goals: reposition all public housing assets, create additional affordable housing, partner with developers to provide high-quality housing through suburban Cook County, provide excellent customer service and pursue additional non-traditional funding resources.
Childers, the executive director, said in November that she is focused on moving the housing authority off HUD’s troubled list.
Williams said she does not think the organization would be in this position if not for the pandemic.
“If COVID had not happened, I am hopeful that the designation would not have been the same,” Williams said. “But there was a lot going on at the same time. I don’t think there’s anything that really happened before to prevent it or to cause it.”