Members of the Tulsa Housing Authority Board declined to comment today on the agency’s multi-year audit backlog after their final scheduled meeting of 2025. The 20-minute meeting provided no substantive update on THA’s longstanding audit backlog, which nearly derailed tax credit applications for a key north Tulsa housing development last month.
Thursday’s only acknowledgement of the lingering situation came when board member Kim Holland offered a short summary of the Budget Audit Committee’s most recent meeting.
“Our Budget and Audit Committee met on Dec. 1, 2025. All members were present, so we did have a quorum,” said Holland, a health policy consultant, former state insurance commissioner and the most recent appointee to the THA Board. “CliftonLarsonAllen representatives were present via (Microsoft) Teams, and they provided several updates to the committee.”
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CliftonLarsenAllen Wealth Advisors is a large accounting and auditing firm contracted to work on the audits for THA, which has also hired the global auditing firm BDO for the project.
With no other meetings scheduled for 2025, it appears THA will have completed none of its overdue audits this year.
The agency released its 2020 audit in December 2024, which identified a material weakness for internal controls over financial reporting and a repeat finding for “not providing accurate data to HUD.” The 2020 audit included a test review of 10 tenant files that showed a 40 percent rate of “incorrectly calculated rent.”
Asked after Thursday’s meeting whether any board members would be willing to discuss the audit backlog, Holland, Chairman Rick Neal, Debra Morrow Ingram and Sheila Johnson-Brown quickly conversed with Aaron Darden, THA’s president and CEO, and Ginny Hensley, THA’s vice president for communications and public affairs.
Ultimately, THA’s CEO and board members declined to discuss the situation. Board member Lisa Alberts was absent from Thursday’s meeting.
Mayor Monroe Nichols ‘aware of the issues facing THA’
District 9 Councilwoman Carol Bush confirmed Thursday that concern about THA’s four-year audit backlog has caught the attention of the Tulsa City Council, but she deferred comment to Council Chairwoman Karen Gilbert.
Gilbert, who represents District 5, said THA’s work is “very important, especially as we’re going through the process of finding the unsheltered housing.”
“Any time anybody is spending public dollars, we go into it very cautiously, so we are just as concerned as others about this situation,” Gilbert said of her fellow council members. “Because of the holidays, we haven’t been able to meet with them, but that is coming up very soon.”
Asked what THA’s leaders and board members have told the council since the agency began falling behind on the audits earlier this decade, Gilbert noted that she only rejoined the Tulsa City Council last December and that she learned about the issue in November.
“It’s concerning to, I think, all of us on the council,” Gilbert said. “Again, when you’re using public dollars, it’s up to us as that body to find out exactly what is going on and how is that money being used or how is that money not being used. We hope to have those answers in the very near future.”
Michelle Brooks, director of communications for Mayor Monroe Nichols, responded to a request for comment on THA’s audit backlog by saying Nichols “is aware of the issues facing THA.”
“The mayor has been in contact with stakeholders and will be announcing plans for the future of the THA Board before the end of the year,” Brooks said.
During the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency’s Nov. 19 board meeting, several OHFA staff members expressed concerns about the THA audit backlog to the OHFA Board, which was being asked to approve a pair of tax credit applications to support the 36 North development. Because THA is only a partner in that multi-phase project and not the lead developer, the OHFA Board ultimately approved the tax credits, but not without robust discussion of THA’s uncertain finances.
“The old adage, where there’s smoke, there’s fire?” said Darrell Beavers, OHFA’s housing development program director. “We saw smoke in some of their audits. We’re just afraid there’s a fire.”
During that meeting, Darden erroneously told OHFA Board members that THA had completed two years worth of auditing this year, which it has not. Darden also blamed the audit backlog on a software transition he said occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, but THA’s own report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said that software switch was finalized nine months prior. OHFA Jenkins also accused him of lying about a meeting they’d had in late August about the tax credit applications.
“We really don’t understand what the reasoning is that THA can’t get their audits completed timely,” Jenkins said Nov. 19. “They are required, because they’re administering HUD programs, to have an annual audit, and they have not had one. Our concern is, why isn’t their board pushing them to get these audits completed?”
At the THA Board’s April meeting, Darden and his staff told commissioners to expect the completion of audits for 2021, 2022 and 2023 by the end of the year. Barring a special meeting in the next three weeks, none of those audits will be approved and released before 2026.
Beyond Thursday’s brief committee update, the THA Board approved the authority’s 2026 operating budget for low-rent public housing and for the utilization of unrestricted net assets. Board members also unanimously voted to renew the authority’s contract with Yardi Software for housing management software, and they amended the authority’s housing choice voucher program to transition recipients of an expiring federal housing voucher program into the authority’s regular voucher program.
‘Needs to be turnover’: THA board chairman Rick Neal to retire
During Darden’s formal CEO update Thursday, he focused solely on recognizing the upcoming retirement of Neal from the Tulsa Housing Authority Board.
“Rick has served as chairman of THA Board of Commissioners since 2016. He has been the chair for nine years, with a total of 11 years of service,” Darden said. “Rick was initially appointed by Mayor Dewey Bartlett and was subsequently reappointed by Mayors G.T. Bynum and Monroe Nichols.”
However, Neal’s current three-year term on the board predated Nichols’ November 2024 election. The City of Tulsa’s website outlining authorities, boards and commissions indicates that Neal, Albers, Morrow and Johnson-Brown all face a Jan. 20 expiration for their terms.
During his speech, Darden said Neal is not requesting that Nichols reappoint him to the board, but its not immediately clear whether any of the other board members with expiring terms are seeking reappointment.
Darden’s speech praising Neal was the longest and most substantive part of Thursday’s meeting, lasting about four minutes — or 20 percent — of its duration.
“And then lastly, and of course, his greatest accomplishment, which was hiring me,” Darden quipped. “In all seriousness, since he came to THA (…) Rick, you’ve been a constant source of support and steadiness. And frankly, without that support, none of those accomplishments that I rattled off would have occurred. I think I speak for myself and all the THA staff when I say we are truly grateful for everything that you’ve done.”
Neal thanked Darden for his remarks and recalled how he initially turned down the first two offers he received to serve on the THA Board.
“It has been an extraordinary experience after I turned Mayor Bartlett down twice,” Neal said. “Telling him [I] didn’t have any experience in this area, I had management experience and things of that nature, but it’s been a great honor for me to do this.”
Neal also offered his “candid” thoughts and advice for the future of the board, warning that without turnover among members.
“I will be maybe too candid and say that I have come to believe that there does need to be — not really frequent turnover — but there needs to be turnover on the [board] because you can get stale,” Neal said. “You can be stuck in your past, and then the organization may not go and make a change it needs to make to deal with current circumstances and needs.”
According to the city’s website, Neal joined the THA Board in 2014, Johnson-Brown joined in 2011 and Morrow joined in 2017. Albers joined in 2020, and Holland was appointed by Nichols in February to replace David Walker.
(Update: This article was updated minutes after its publication to include comment from Councilwoman Karen Gilbert.)
