Housing chief leaving his job after 18 months.

BROWARD COUNTY
Housing chief leaving his job after 18 months
Broward County and its affordable-housing director have parted ways.
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD
ebolstad@MiamiHerald.com
Broward County's housing chief, hired to great acclaim 18 months ago, quietly left his job with the county this week.
Joe Kocy, who was tasked with dreaming up and executing creative ways of tackling the county's affordable-housing crisis, lost the confidence of key administrators and county commissioners this spring. Kocy was a planning official in New Jersey and Maryland before coming to Broward in late 2004.
''The frustration was, in general, a lack of follow-through,'' said Commissioner Kristin Jacobs, who heads the commission's affordable-housing subcommittee. ``It became clear he wasn't the right person for the position.''
She and other commissioners who worked with Kocy described him as terrific at coming up with ideas, and said he had a thoughtful understanding of the challenges of developing affordable housing in a county where a steep increase in housing costs has made ownership unthinkable for many working people.
But commissioners also said they felt he was slow to respond to some of their requests, most notably a reorganization that would create a separate housing division within the county's Department of Urban Planning and Redevelopment. Kocy would have answered to the director of the department, which had already combined existing redevelopment and financing programs to focus on housing.
''I think that Mr. Kocy is a superb academic, but the issue is translating it into action,'' Commissioner Lois Wexler said.
Kocy had a poor performance review this spring, in which he was criticized as being responsible for the county's ''inability to gain meaningful momentum'' on housing issues. He did not get a raise and was given until the end of June to show improvement.
But by this week, both he and the interim county administrator, Bertha Henry, decided it would be best if they part ways, a decision she described on Tuesday as ``mutual separation.''
Kocy did not return a phone call left at his home Tuesday. In the response to his performance review, he said that obstacles to doing his job included the political tension over housing between commissioners and the former county administrator who hired him, Roger Desjarlais.
''I have worked diligently to ease that tension,'' Kocy wrote. ``The timetable has not been optimal, but political matters are beyond my ability to control.''
Kocy, who earns $126,000 a year, will stay on the payroll for the next three months, a typical separation agreement for county employees at top management levels.
Henry will immediately begin looking for his replacement, who will work under the Department of Urban Planning and Redevelopment once commissioners approve the reorganization.