Island dangerously close to a possible enforcement

It appears the federal government might be running out of patience with the city of Galveston.

Mayor Joe Jaworski said a federal official told him Tuesday the city could expect some kind of enforcement action if the city council passed a resolution designed to block the Galveston Housing Authority’s plans for mixed-income housing.

So, what exactly does enforcement action mean?

What it could mean is a trip to federal court to argue whether or not the city is complying with the Fair Housing Act — and the spigot of federal disaster relief funds turned off in the meantime while the court decides.

The resolution, considered but deferred by the council at its meeting Thursday, suspends tax credits for low-income housing development for three years, effectively ending the viability of the $100 million-plus project proposed by the housing authority and corporate developer McCormack, Baron, Salazar to comply with the Conciliation Agreement entered into with the federal government by the state and fair housing advocates.

Was revealing this conversation before the vote a scare tactic by the mayor in an effort to help defeat the resolution, which he opposed?

Maybe. Jaworski is pretty passionate about the housing authority’s approach on this issue.

Was the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development official, Mercedes Marquez, who Jaworski said called him, trying to help out McCormack Baron Salazar, a company she worked for many years ago?

You probably could make that argument if you wanted to, but I think that’s a stretch for someone who is now an assistant secretary for HUD.

I think it is more likely Marquez was letting Jaworski know the federal government is beginning to view attempts to defeat the housing authority’s proposal as an effort not to comply with the Conciliation Agreement rather than a protest of this particular proposal.

Especially when, three years after Hurricane Ike, there really isn’t an alternative, no Plan B if you will, to consider.

Washington, D.C., is a long way from Galveston, and I don’t think federal officials know or probably care how unpopular the housing authority’s proposal appears to be with the majority of Galveston’s residents.

I believe they should, but I think they are leaving those types of concerns to local officials.

The feds simply want to know the city’s plan is in compliance with the Conciliation Agreement and the Fair Housing Act, so they can move on down the disaster relief road.

Because even though there are somewhere upward of $500 million in federal funds at stake for the city, about half of which already has been accepted and committed, that’s a blip on the screen compared to the billions of dollars at stake for the state of Texas.

And federal officials may be letting us know, from their point of view, the debate over how our disaster relief funds will be spent isn’t as important as the debate being over.

I don’t believe that, but I think they do.

Patrick Graham is president and publisher of The Daily News.