After Lawsuit Revelations, Housing Authority Expands Executive Search

Berdie Cowser at the October 2024 Vets Place Central groundbreaking. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee‘s search for a new leader hasn’t gone exactly to plan.

An executive search committee had narrowed the field to two candidates,  Ralph Jordan and Harold Ince, but one already had an open lawsuit against his former employer and in between being interviewed for the Milwaukee job and being named a finalist, another sued his current employer.

The board has now overruled the search committee and expanded the pool of finalists to four. Keon Jackson and Berdie Cowser, the latter the lone local candidate, are now finalists as well.

The four finalists are now expected to participate in a multi-day, in-person interview process after previously completing virtual interviews.

The process that resulted in the first two finalists has been the subject of some controversy, and a lengthy closed session discussion.

“There were two red flags that came up,” said Commissioner Howard Snyder at a Jan. 21 board meeting. “We all know something happened, but what I want to know is how?”

The board’s consultant, Stan Quy of The Organizational Leadership Edge, didn’t name either candidate, but said one of the situations was known.

Referring to Ince, the former head of the Flint housing authority, Quy said he and the search committee were aware of an open federal lawsuit. “In that scenario, we did have a pretty good read on that, and that was not a surprise to us at that point,” said Quy.

Ince alleges he was fired in 2024 after initiating an investigation the year prior into the alleged “abusive and hostile” conduct of the Flint Housing Commission board president. The lawsuit says the investigation substantiated the claims against the board president. Quy noted that the COO and CFO also left. “It was a very tumultuous process,” he said.

But the other situation, involving Jordan, the head of the Aurora, Illinois housing authority, was a surprise.

“The second scenario really came to light after we had reached our decision on the two we were going to suggest to bring forward to the board,” said Quy.

Jordan was recommended as a finalist. Then an agenda appeared in Aurora to consider his termination. Jordan also filed suit in Illinois. The case was dismissed, but public comments by board members after a closed-session briefing indicated Jordan has an agreement to remain on the job.

“I think that’s a red flag that has to be looked at,” said Quy, who stressed that comprehensive background checks had yet to be completed.

The board held the issue over on Jan. 21 for a special meeting on Jan. 30.

Once the meeting started, it was clear the field would be expanded. The search committee had initially narrowed the field of 19 candidates to five, and then two finalists. Now it’s larger.

Board Chair Charlotte Hayslett said she favored three candidates, which the board unanimously agreed to. Then they voted on which three, with a new frontrunner emerging.

Keon Jackson, the head of the Richmond housing authority, was endorsed by all seven board members. Four of the seven board members voted to simply add Jackson to the list of finalists.

But the final three votes shook up the field. “Me personally, I would remove [Ince] and put in Berdie Cowser,” said Snyder.

Commissioners Irma Yépez Klassen and James W. Nelson Sr. also endorsed Cowser and Jackson, but dropped Jordan instead of Ince.

Cowser was slated to be dropped based on a tally of votes, but then Snyder suggested since she was local she might as well be included.

“At the very least, you pay a little respect to the city of Milwaukee,” he said.

That was all it took for his colleagues to drop their initial rule of only three finalists in favor of adding a fourth.

The board voted unanimously to consider all four finalists. A two-and-a-half-day interview process was to be developed, with portions possibly subject to open meeting requirements because of the number of board members present.

Snyder, at an earlier meeting, had said he knew a local candidate and may need to recuse himself. Nelson, on Jan. 30, explicitly said he knew Cowser.

Quy said he would prepare the final background checks before their interviews. At the Jan. 21 meeting, he said that in his experience 40% of résumés involve some stretching of the truth.

Cowser, a U.S. Army veteran, worked at The Center for Veterans Issues (CVI) for nearly 25 years, rising to vice president of housing and development. According to her LinkedIn profile, she left the organization in November 2025. Cowser is also an adjunct professor at Waukesha County Technical College.

CVI works with HACM on supportive services.

Ken Barbeau, the interim HACM leader and former COO, is not pursuing the job permanently. His public comments in recent meetings have centered on implementing the tasks in the corrective action plan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, including modifying the organizational structure. The organization currently does not have a chief financial officer, chief operating officer or human resources director.

The search committee consisted of HACM board chair and vice chair Charlotte  Hayslett and Karen Gotzler, as well as community members Betty Newton, Michelle Bryant and Willie Davis. Both Newton and Davis are members of Common Ground Southeastern Wisconsin‘s campaign to improve conditions at HACM.

Amid a federal corrective action plan and calls by Common Ground for his resignation, former secretary-executive director Willie Hines Jr. retired in December 2024 after saying three months earlier that he had no intention of doing so.