Fall River Housing Authority board plans interim hire for executive director

The board will vote whether to install Timothy Barrow as interim executive director to replace Thomas Collins Jr. who was brought out of retirement in April 2017.

FALL RIVER — As the Fall River Housing Authority Board of Commissioners struggles to find a permanent executive director, a proposed change of temporary leadership is on the agenda for Monday.

The board will vote whether to install Timothy Barrow as interim executive director to replace Thomas Collins Jr. who was brought out of retirement in April 2017.

Barrow is currently the acting deputy director, appointed to the position by the board the same time they approved Collins return. He retired from the housing authority in 2013 after serving as its head for eight years.

The board cited a lack of experience in senior management as the reason for temporarily appointing Collins. He was originally given a three-month contract with the option to extend it an additional month.

Barrow was formerly the FRHA finance director.

There is also a recommendation to keep Collins on as a temporary employee of the housing authority “to assist the Board of Commissioners and the newly appointed Interim Executive Director,” according to the meeting agenda.

In May, the board approved hiring Somerset attorney and Medford Housing Authority Executive Director Jeffrey Driscoll. But negotiations on his contract apparently broke down and in a closed session in June, the members voted unanimously to stop discussions with Driscoll, who was the only candidate publicly interviewed in the year-long process.

The FRHA board had enlisted the help in the search from the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management, but that did not elicit any qualified candidates.

Filling and keeping key management has been challenging at the housing authority with costly separation agreements approved by the board in a little more than a year.

In April 2017, commissioners voted on a $142,000 separation agreement with the housing authority’s former Director of Facilities Management, Michael Farrell.

In May, Emilio Estacio, an assistant supervisor for FRHA’s operations department, was officially placed on administrative leave that will end April 26, 2019. He received a $120,000 separation agreement.

Both men had been the subject disciplinary action from the board after it received multiple complaints from the housing authority’s employee union.

Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com