IRVINE : Housing Agency to Seek City Funding

Officials of Irvine Temporary Housing, the victim of an embezzlement of $450,000, allegedly by its former executive director, plan to ask the City Council for funding Tuesday.

The council agreed last year to give Irvine Temporary Housing $406,000 in federal community development block funds but halted payment when police began investigating former Executive Director Clyde E. Weinman.

The agency’s board of directors fired Weinman last June after questioning his use of agency funds. The board also asked police to investigate, which led to Weinman’s arrest on charges that he forged checks against the agency’s accounts for his personal use. Weinman has denied the charges. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Even after Weinman’s arrest, the City Council still did not release the money. The city wanted Irvine Temporary Housing first to conduct an audit, said Margie Wakeham, an agency board member. The audit is underway but will not be complete before Tuesday’s City Council hearing, she said.

“I think that having the audit is fair,” Wakeham said. “I can’t say that I’m totally overjoyed with their decision because I would have liked to have known what the rules were some time ago. . . . Once we have this objective assessment, and we can move on, we will do that.”

City staff members have recommended that the council wait until Feb. 23 for the audit. But the council is expected to allocate $10,000 in separate federal public service funds to the housing agency to help it continue operating.

Irvine Temporary Housing’s financial situation has been in turmoil since last summer when Weinman was fired, Wakeham said. Although the agency has been on the brink of collapse, it will survive the ordeal, she said.

“This is a good organization,” she said. “It’s being handled well, and that has been borne out by the fact that we have been current on every single bill that has come to the organization since Mr. Weinman departed.”