The Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board was ripped Thursday evening by city council members disturbed by potential conflicts of interest, preferential treatment in contracting and money management concerns now being investigated by federal auditors.

The two groups met for the first time since the audit of the authority by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development began last month.

"Either you were negligent or you didn't care," Councilman Sherman Lea told the authority board. "There was a total lack of responsibility."

Lea said he's lost confidence in the council-appointed board.

The audit was prompted in part by a 400-page report compiled by authority Director Ellis Henry, who became concerned about certain practices after being hired in May.

Mayor Nelson Harris said he'll withhold final judgment until the HUD audit findings are in, but he was frank: "As mayor, I support Ellis Henry 110 percent. I believe he asked the right questions. I believe he has acted appropriately."

Harris also said, "In all candor, what has been reported ... is deeply troubling and disturbing."

Henry's report focuses on a series of contracts over the past nine years between the public authority and a private consulting firm, the Issues Management Group, led by former authority board Chairman Rob Glenn. Glenn is a friend of John Baker, the recently retired authority director whom Henry replaced.

City Councilman Bev Fitzpatrick, who didn't attend Thursday's meeting, was also an authority board member while he was a paid associate with IMG from May 2002 to May 2003.

HUD officials told the authority board Wednesday that they have serious concerns and plan to submit their final report sometime in the next 30 days.

Thursday's tense meeting included a number of heated exchanges between council and authority board members.

Authority Board Chairman Ben Fink opened the discussion, saying, "I can assure council that as a board we are going to take appropriate and timely action. ... We take this very seriously."

When it was his turn to speak, Lea waved a copy of Henry's report at the authority board, looked at Fink, and challenged whether he'd read it in its entirety. Fink said he'd read the majority of it.

That appeared to make Lea even madder.

"I think it's the most appalling thing that I've read in a long time," Lea said.

Continuing, Lea said he surmised from reading Henry's report that the board has exercised little oversight, if any.

"There was no question. Nobody asked a question," he said, later adding, "It's not about politics. It's about right and wrong."

Councilman Brian Wishneff focused on the authority board's decision-making, specifically the transfer of part of a federal grant to eliminate drugs in public housing that went to Mill Mountain Theatre.

"You took money for our poorest population ... and decided the best thing to do with it was to give it to Mill Mountain Theatre?" Wishneff said.

Fink replied that the board sets policy and depends on the staff for day-to-day operations.

Though Wishneff had the floor, authority board member Christie Meredith Wills, who has been on the current board the longest along with Fink, entered the fray. She defended the authority and its record.

"I can only imagine what you all must be thinking of us. I would ask you to wait before drawing conclusions," she said.

She said newspaper stories about the audit have portrayed the authority only in a negative light and haven't covered "how the people are being served by how this was handled." She said it could have been handled differently.

That prompted Wishneff to ask if that meant it should have been handled "undercover."

Later, Wills said: "Some people here are more interested in making political hay for all kinds of reasons."

Later Fink promised "this board is willing to make hard decisions."

That pushed Lea to blurt out, "There's no decisionmaking. It's pathetic."

Other authority board members came to Henry's defense, including Anita Powell, its lone public housing resident member. "There were always questions that were never answered," she said. Things changed, she said, only after Henry arrived at the authority.

Joseph Lee applauded Henry for taking swift action. "It saddens me that the very funds intended" for residents may have been diverted to frivolous causes, he said.

Fink said the authority is already addressing some problems, including the creation of a better central filing system, changing who handles procurement, and asking HUD to provide more oversight.

Harris closed the verbal sparring with a series of calm but firm statements.

"I am not pleased by what I have seen," he said. "The problem is, in instances like this ... it shades all of us. I'm troubled not just for the housing authority, but for the city.

"We will be looking to you," he told the board, "to do the right thing."