3 days ago
Out-of-town trips continue for Beaver County Housing Authority leaders
After questions were raised last year about how the director of the Beaver County Housing Authority and her board members were spending the public's money, it is unclear if anything has changed.
In June 2024, KDKA Investigates exposed some eye-popping and extravagant travel by the executive director and board members of the Beaver County Housing Authority.
KDKA reports detailed more than $30,000 was spent over two years on airfare, hotel and meals at some of the most exciting destinations America has to offer.
A year later, KDKA Lead Investigator Andy Sheehan went back to the authority to see if anything had changed.
Update on Beaver County Housing Authority's out-of-state trips
Last year, KDKA Investigates reported on travel to far-flung cities and resorts, airfare, and stays at swanky hotels in exciting destinations.
Beaver County Housing Authority Director Kathryn Walter and her board members became frequent flyers in the name of improving life for thousands of their residents.
"We documented how tens of thousands of dollars were spent on travel," Sheehan asked. "How did this benefit your tenants?"
"We learn how to better improve our scores," Walter said. "And as a group, we learn what we have to do as a public housing authority."
KDKA found Walter, her staff and some of her board members rarely missed any professional conferences held in Pennsylvania and around the country. But while Walter and her board say the learning sessions make them better administrators, other housing authorities said those conferences are repetitive and of limited value.
"Have you curtailed your traveling over the past year?" Sheehan asked Walter.
"I am still a member of the (National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials) Board of Governors and a PHADA trustee, and I do that traveling for that, yes," she said.
Board agendas don't reveal the trips taken over the past 12 months, and Walter declined to list them. But as an officer in these organizations, she says her attendance at many of the conferences is required.
In the past year, those organizations held conferences in New Orleans; Seattle; Orlando, Florida; Washington, D.C.; and Chicago — with airfare, hotel and meals for her and others coming from maintenance fees paid by housing authority residents who said they don't see the benefits.
"You tell me what they learned by going down to Palm Springs? What did they learn about our housing in Beaver County?" resident Wendy Bailey said.
Disappointed that not much has changed, though the new board solicitor did say things are under review.
"I can tell you that since I've come on as solicitor, we've been working and reviewing various policies, not just travel but all policies," Beaver County Housing Authority Solicitor Joe Askar said. "So, it is a work in progress."
And so the trips continue, though it is unknown how many and how often.
