Cisneros

Washington.--Secretary Henry Cisneros hopes he's created a vision, a blueprint of a Department of Housing and Urban Development that's worth having.Mr. Cisneros didn't have much choice. Even friends of cities and low-income housing have questioned the effectiveness of the bureaucracy and red-tape-ridden department. The Republican sweep of Congress immediately raised prospects of placing HUD on the butcher block. Then President Clinton, also having read the election results, said: Justify HUD's existence or I'll recommend elimination.

WASHINGTON -- Henry G. Cisneros, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, yesterday laid out plans that would dramatically alter the face of public housing by giving poor people vouchers that would allow them to live anywhere they choose.The restructuring of HUD is intended to help President Clinton pay for his proposed middle-class tax break, but it's also part of a larger effort at "reinventing government" begun 20 months ago by Vice President Al Gore. The effort took on urgency after the Nov. 8 elections, when President Clinton told Cabinet officers to examine their agencies as part of a budget- and tax-cutting initiative.

It was a mess and a miracle.Powerful thunderstorms produced widespread damage across Central Maryland yesterday and ripped through several densely populated Baltimore neighborhoods.The winds blew apart walls and ripped the roofs off dozens of houses, showering streets with a blizzard of bricks and debris.About 150 buildings were damaged -- 25 of them so badly they will have to be demolished -- and close to 200 families were forced out of their homes at least temporarily, officials said.The miracle was that no one died -- and the few injuries reported from the storms that hit Baltimore minutes before the school day's end appeared to be minor.

WASHINGTON -- After an inquiry into whether Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros misled the FBI about payments he made to a former girlfriend, the Justice Department has found the allegations credible enough to warrant further investigation, Mr. Cisneros' lawyer said yesterday.By moving into the next stage of the investigation, the Justice Department has 90 days to determine whether to recommend the appointment of an independent counsel to conduct a fuller inquiry.Mr. Cisneros' lawyer, Cono Namorato, said he was not surprised by the Justice Department's decision, given the narrow scope of the initial probe -- which looked only at whether the allegations were specific and credible -- and was confident that the investigation would exonerate Mr. Cisneros.

Baltimore County Executive Roger B. Hayden, who was endorsed this week by the two activists leading the campaign against the federal Moving to Opportunity subsidized housing program, has charged that HUD Secretary Henry G. Cisneros is "playing politics" with the issue.Mr. Hayden said he had heard that his meeting with Mr. Cisneros to discuss the Moving to Opportunity program won't be scheduled until after the Nov. 8 election, a delay he said is deliberate "stalling."Mr. Hayden said he also still plans court action to block the program, although County Attorney Stanley S. Schapiro said he is not sure when that action will come.

WASHINGTON -- Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros said yesterday that he has no plans to resign over an investigation into allegations that he misled the FBI."I have not offered my resignation to the White House, nor are any discussions under way about resignation," Mr. Cisneros said in a statement issued by his Washington attorney, Cono Namorato.At the White House, Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers also said that Mr. Cisneros "has not offered his resignation, nor has he been asked to resign."The Justice Department is studying an ex-lover's allegation that Mr. Cisneros, the former mayor of San Antonio, misled the FBI about money he paid her after they broke up and he reconciled with his wife.

WASHINGTON -- One day after ethics charges toppled Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, speculation intensified yesterday about the future of another member of the Clinton Cabinet who is under ethical scrutiny: Henry G. Cisneros, the secretary of housing and urban development.A White House official said Mr. Cisneros has told friends that he would be willing to resign if the controversy surrounding his payments to a former girlfriend became a political liability for the president. Legislative aides involved in housing issues said they feared that in the climate of scrutiny that led to Mr. Espy's forced resignation, "Cisneros is right behind him," as one put it.For his part, Mr. Cisneros said that he has not told the White House that he was prepared to resign.

Baltimore County Executive Roger B. Hayden says he expects to meet soon in Washington with U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry G. Cisneros to discuss local objections to the controversial Moving to Opportunity program.Mr. Hayden said Mr. Cisneros called Wednesday to propose the meeting. Yesterday, he said, he mailed the secretary videotapes of TV news clips of the raucous MTO protest meetings held in eastern Baltimore County this summer.He said the tapes will give federal officials a sense of local outrage over the program, which will disperse 285 residents of city housing projects to private rental units in Baltimore City and surrounding counties.

When Daniel P. Henson III, a successful private developer, was brought in to rescue Baltimore's troubled housing bureaucracy in March, 1993, one of the first things he did was to declare an emergency. That way he could award repair contracts without time-consuming competitive bidding and get vacant and vandalized public housing units occupied in a fast-track fashion.Mr. Henson was the first to acknowledge that his action enabled him to circumvent cumbersome federal rules and would earn him subsequent criticism from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It is understandable that Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III would disagree with the findings of a federal audit on the city's Housing Authority.Perhaps there are inaccuracies in the audit, perhaps there are misinterpretations. But the main thrust seems unassailable: A $25 million no-bid repair program cost more than twice the going rate to fix 1,136 public housing units, paid some contractors for work that was never done and gave millions to firms run by relatives of managers.