Housing Authority of City of El Paso releases CEO’s reimbursement documents
The Housing Authority of the City of El Paso (HACEP) has released to ABC-7, free of charge, the employment contract and reimbursements for the last three years to its CEO. The documents reveal CEO Gerald Cichon has been reimbursed more than $68,000 for meals, travel and other expenses since January 2010.
CONTEXT:
In late January, ABC-7 filed an open records request asking for CEO Gerald Cichon’s employment contract and all reimbursements requested by and issued to him since January of 2010. ABC-7 requested the documents after learning HACEP had not released the documents to local attorney John Wenke.
HACEP’s Public Information and Government Relations Officer, Shane B. Griffith, said the agency did not release the documents to Wenke because he is representing a former HACEP employee currently suing the public agency for wrongful termination.
HACEP believed Wenke was using the open records request in an effort to circumvent obtaining the documents in court. In late January, Griffith said HACEP knew the information was public and would be willing to release it to other requestors not tied to the litigation, hence ABC-7s request.
After sending an open records request, HACEP responded to ABC-7, saying the release of the reimbursement documents would cost $502.00 because of the time it took HACEP staff to identify, compile and process the receipts.
However, HACEP officials changed their stance last Friday and released the documents to ABC-7 free of charge.
Griffith released a statement that in part reads:
“HACEP staff spent significant resources to provide the requestors complete copies of the CEO’s employment contracts and business reimbursements over the last several years. Approximately 1,000 pages were released to the requestors at no charge by January 31 last week, thus closing out the open records request. In hindsight, HACEP found itself in a unique position of having to respect due process litigation procedures while balancing our commitment to provide accurate and timely information together with our responsibility to be good stewards of our public resources. It has been an enriching learning experience for us.”
REIMBURSEMENTS
ABC-7 went through more than 1,000 pages of documents and receipts detailing Cichon’s reimbursements since 2010 and added the amounts.
HACEP reimbursed him $13,660 for meals, $22.262 for travel which includes car rentals, flights, gasoline and parking. The agency also reimbursed him $31,632 for training courses, professional licenses and tuition; plus $2,563 for a laptop and phone.
Per his contract, Cichon received a pay raise late January. His base salary was bumped to $228,568 from $226,391, the amount the HACEP board had set for him when Cichon’s contract was renewed in September.
Cichon’s contract also includes annual incentive pay of five to 15% of his base salary based on performance/and or completion of goals set in performance evaluations. He is also entitled to $500 reimbursement for food, entertainment and similar expenses that are “reasonable and related to the business of the HACEP” plus a $900.00 monthly vehicle allowance or the use of a HACEP car.
HACEP reimburses him for any dues required to maintain professional licenses up to $2,250 a year and $2,750 for a new laptop and software and a cell phone which Cichon owns.
Griffith said the Board is happy with Cichon’s performance and comfortable with his salary.
He said that because of Cichon’s work, El Paso was able to receive 11 percent of the federal allotment meant to remodel public housing units. Griffith said El Paso received the most federal funds than any other city in the Country.
Cichon often travels to Washington D.C. and Austin to ‘share vision and create new ideas’ with industry leaders.
Cichon was also reimbursed more than $495 for an identity theft protection program. HACEP provides the annual protection because Cichon is required to sign some business contracts and documents relating to the purchase or selling of HACEP apartment complexes with his signature, social security and date of birth, according to Griffith.
MOVING FORWARD
HACEP sued the Attorney General of Texas in an effort to keep the documents from Wenke but Griffith said the lawsuit was now “moot” because HACEP had already released the disputed documents to ABC-7. Griffith said HACEP planned to withdraw it’s appeal.
