Two Roanoke housing authority board members, including longtime chairman Ben Fink, have resigned from the board in recent days, citing a conflict of interest and the public berating the board took at the hands of two city council members last month.

The departures of Fink and Greg Cupka come as the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the authority's procurement practices and potential conflicts of interest.

Fink's resignation leaves the normally seven-member board without its leader of the past four years at a time when the authority is facing serious consequences from HUD for the way the authority has spent taxpayer money. Last week, HUD informed the authority that it is now considered "high risk" for its procurement practices in recent years and tightened the regulatory leash on the authority as a result.

In talking with a HUD official involved in the investigation, Fink learned that he has a conflict of interest by virtue of his employment as a project manager with Hayes, Seay, Mattern and Mattern. HSMM has a $141,000 contract with the authority for architectural and engineering services for the South Jefferson Street redevelopment area, commonly called the biomedical center. Cupka is also a project manager at HSMM and therefore has the same conflict.

The HUD investigation was triggered in part by a report by authority Director Ellis Henry that raised concerns of conflict of interest and preferential treatment in the authority's awarding more than $1 million in contracts to a Roanoke consulting firm called the Issues Management Group. Henry's report did not mention Fink, Cupka or contracts with HSMM.

Fink said in his letter of resignation to Mayor Nelson Harris, dated Friday, that the authority's legal counsel advised him that he has not violated Virginia's law against conflict of interest. HUD's regulations, however, are more stringent.

Fink emphasized in an interview that the conflict precipitated his resignation, but his decision to resolve it by resigning was made easier by the tongue-lashing the board took from city councilmen Sherman Lea and Brian Wishneff at a meeting three weeks ago. The two councilmen questioned the board's leadership and decision-making during the period of time HUD is now scrutinizing. Lea said he had lost confidence in the council-appointed board.

After that meeting, Fink wrote to the mayor, "I no longer have any desire whatsoever to serve as a volunteer to the city of Roanoke in any capacity."

Cupka said as much in his letter of resignation dated Tuesday.

"The board members are hard working 'volunteers' undeserving of unwarranted and blatant attacks from select city council members," he wrote.

Fink joined the board in 1997 and has been chairman since 2002. The current contract with HSMM began in December 2001, according to authority records, but Fink didn't go to work for HSMM until the fall of 2005, so the conflict arose when he changed jobs, Fink said.

At the time, Fink wrote, he should have alerted HUD and requested a waiver, but "I was not made aware of this provision" in HUD regulations.

Likewise, Cupka worked for a different firm when he joined the board in 2004, and joined HSMM in October 2005.

HSMM held two other authority contracts valued at $170,000, but both expired in 2001.

Two remaining board members were disappointed to learn of the resignations.

Jim Allen, a board member since 2004, said he understands Fink's feelings about the meeting with the city council.

"What I learned in the military is that you should always reward in public and punish in private," Allen said. Unfortunately, the meeting with the council "turned into a finger-pointing session ... I thought that was a little unfair, a little premature."

"Roanoke deserves leaders who are willing to work together for solutions rather than kick around volunteer commissioners for political gain," said Christie Meredith Wills, vice chairman of the authority board and a member since 1997.

"Ben and Greg were clearly looking for a way to serve," she said. "They are probably two of the least political people I know."

Allen said he had great confidence in Fink's leadership.

"I have grown to respect his intelligence, his leadership and his ability to think on his feet," he said. "Never saw him discouraged, never saw him with a loss of words. He was very, very professional."

At the same time, Allen said the authority will persevere without Fink and Cupka.

Mayor Nelson Harris said the city will advertise the vacancies to publicly solicit candidates to fill the vacancies on the authority board.

matt.chittum@roanoke.com 981-3331

todd.jackson@roanoke.com 981-3253