Housing chief will be one of the highest paid officials in Southern Nevada

The head of the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority has become one of the highest-paid public officials in Clark County.

Executive Director Lewis Jordan’s four-year contract, paying him a base salary of $355,000 with an auto allowance and regular cost-of-living raises, was initially subject to a contentious debate among the agency’s board of commissioners before it was approved Thursday.

“This is a huge amount of money, so you’ve got four years. You’re gonna have to work your ass off,” Commission Chairman Tick Segerblom said before the vote. “Thank you for four more years.”

The nine-member board includes five elected local government officials.

When the contract first came up for a vote in late April, the other four commissioners had advocated for Jordan to have a shot at higher performance-based increases to match the percentage other agency employees earn. They argued that the contract would amount to a pay decrease.

“I believe in performance, I believe in excellence, I believe in everything people that do great things,” Commissioner Larry Blackman said. “He’s going beyond the call of duty.”

Segerblom and Commission Vice Chair Nancy Brune disputed the claim that Jordan would be underpaid.

‘Very reasonable’

In the end, the board approved the $355,000 base pay, amounting to a 5 percent pay raise to his current salary, retroactive to Jan. 3.

Brune said Jordan currently earns about 40 percent more than when he was first hired in 2022, putting him well above what city managers make.

Jordan will also qualify for annual cost of living adjustments and merit-based yearly increases of 3.75 percent starting year two, up from 2.5 percent initially proposed. He will get $1,000 a month as a vehicle allowance.

Jordan declined to comment until the contract is finalized. He agreed to forgo bonuses.

Segerblom in April noted that Clark County School Jhone Ebert, who oversees 20,000 employees with multibillion-dollar budgets, earns a base salary of $385,000.

“To the point that we haven’t compensated him,” said Brune at the same meeting, “42 percent in three years, I think it’s very reasonable, if not borderline fiscally irresponsible.”

Brune said that the housing authority director in Houston manages a “slightly” higher budget and more units with a base salary of $278,000.

Jordan’s new contract would almost put him at par with Clark County Manager Kevin Schiller, who last year earned a base salary of $363,000, including a $14,900 bonus.

Chad Williams, the previous Southern Nevada housing authority boss, earned a base salary of $153,000 in 2020, his last full year with the agency.

The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority administers a yearly operating budget of about $200 million, serving 17,000 residents, according to the agency.

The commissioners seemed to agree that Jordan had turned things around at the agency, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive grants, and morale.

Segerblom expressed uncertainty about possible federal funding cuts under President Donald Trump.

“The truth is, we need to be looking forward to what’s gonna happen to us as an agency when they start to cut (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) and they start screwing us,” Segerblom said in April.

Jordan has more than four decades of experience in public and private management. He last led the public housing authority in Marin County in Northern California, from 2012 to 2021, according to his biography.

“I thank you all,” Jordan told commissioners last week. “I thank the community, staff for this vote of confidence, and looking forward to, as the chair said, ‘working my behind off,’ so we can achieve the things that this great community deserves.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.