U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2010

McGowan v. United States Department of Housing & Urban Development

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · Decided July 29, 2010 · Jolly, Wiener, Elrod

388 F. App'x 433

Counsel

Chequita T. McGowan, Pearl River, LA, pro se., Trudy Barthe-Charles, New Orleans, LA, pro se., Michael Mosley, New Orleans, LA, pro se., Nadja Carr, New Orleans, LA, pro se., Sandra Sweetwyne, Lutcher, LA, pro se., Dennis Blossom, New Orleans, LA, pro se., MacArthur Samuels, New Orleans, LA, pro se., Jomo Kenyatta-Bean, New Orleans, LA, pro se., David M. Reizes, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, Washington, DC, Bam Viloria Gressett, Esq., Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, Stephen Andrew Higginson, Glenn Kenneth Schreiber, Esq., Assistant U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Phyllis Esther Glazer, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General, Michael Courtney Keller, Assistant Attorney General, Louisiana Department of Justice, New Orleans, LA, for Defendants-Appel-lees.

Cases that cite this one

2 later published cases cite this decision.

McGowan v. Housing Authority of New Orleans (La. Ct. App. 2013)
Fred Thompson v. Housing Auth of New Orleans, et a (5th Cir. 2017)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

This is an appeal of the district court’s dismissal of a pro se lawsuit by current and former employees of the New Orleans Housing Authority against the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Louisiana Civil Service Commission (LCSC). Common to all plaintiffs are claims that HUD improperly exempted the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) from Louisiana civil service laws and that LCSC improperly acceded to HUD’s action. As briefly explained below, we affirm the district court’s dismissal.

We first address HUD’s liability. HUD took control of HANO, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1437d(g). Under federal law, when HUD takes over a housing authority under § 1437d(g), it may exempt the housing authority from state civil service rules if those rules “substantially impede[ ]” HUD’s efforts to rehabilitate the housing authority. Id. § 1437d(j)(3)(D)(i)(V). In April 2008, HUD exempted HANO from Louisiana’s civil service rules. The plaintiffs say this action was arbitrary and capricious, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, but the undisputed facts do not support this view. HUD’s action was based on a memorandum that outlined various impediments to HANO’s mission, focusing especially on compensation limits that kept HANO from hiring the employees it needed, such as project managers to rebuild housing stock depleted by Hurricane Katrina, and substantial administrative burdens involved in both retaining necessary employees and terminating low-performing or unneeded employees. This memorandum suffices to pass the deferential standard of review for agency action.

Turning to LCSC, once HUD properly exempted HANO from Louisiana’s civil service laws, LCSC could no longer enforce those laws. Even assuming LCSC had a duty to try to convince HUD to change its decision to exempt HANO, the plaintiffs point to no evidence that such efforts would have succeeded.

The judgment of the district court is

AFFIRMED.

Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cir R. 47.5.4.

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