NECAISE: IRON HAND OR GOOD MANAGER?

GULFPORT - Corangie Barnes pointed toward a stump and the bleak landscape
beyond it as she recalled the day workers from Mississippi Region VIII
Housing Authority cut down the willow tree she had planted outside her
apartment at the L.C. Jones Homes complex.

The workers told her they were following the orders of Roy E. Necaise, head
of the state's largest public housing agency.

"I don't know what's wrong with that man," Barnes said.

Necaise rules the agency and people living in public housing with an iron
hand, many tenants claim. Most recently, an edict from Necaise that tenants
cannot keep gardens, trees or flower beds has generated debate from
breakfast tables to politicians' desks.

But Necaise defends his actions.

"The perception is we run a dictatorship and don't incorporate residents in
the decision-making process. That's not true," Necaise said. "They actually
approve a five-year action plan through their resident councils. They
approve that plan and have input on that plan."

A third-generation firefighter who worked for years for the Gulfport Fire
Department, Necaise began his career with the housing authority as an
investigator and worked his way to the top. He was an investigator during
the early 1990s when the abuse of crack cocaine became prevalent in South
Mississippi, he said.

Since he took over the authority in 1994, he has been credited with
reducing drug use and crime in public housing. But he also has been
criticized by tenants for being insensitive and not treating those in the
authority's predominantly black complexes as well as those in the white ones.

Having been the focus of numerous complaints over the years from residents
about one complex being treated better than another, Necaise said he has to
be careful to make rules uniform even though he wishes elderly residents
could be allowed to garden.

"It bothers you," he admitted. "You do it across the board or you don't do
it at all. There's no other option."

Necaise is not a typical bureaucrat. He is not the type of leader to hold
meetings or devise a mission statement. He is the type who will set goals
and then pursue them without second-guessing himself. And at Region VIII,
the board of commissioners in charge of the agency hardly questions his
decisions.

"All we deal with is policy making, budgets and that kind of stuff," said
Francis "Frank" L. Lee, vice chairman of the Region VIII board. "We don't
get into the day-to-day running of the housing authority. We don't have
anything to do with the day-to-day arrangements, except putting the
executive director there."

Lee, who said he was treated at a hospital emergency room for a heart
ailment Tuesday night, is slated to preside over today's meeting of the
commissioners.

G.M. Sanderson, the chairman of the board, said he could not attend because
he is bedridden. Both men said they have served on the board for about 30
years.

The flower and gardening issue is not listed on the agenda for today's
commission meeting, despite the fact that the controversy has been going on
for the past two months. Politicians from the local to the federal levels
have weighed in on the issue. Even U.S. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott
has issued a statement criticizing Necaise's ban on flower beds.

But the Region VIII commission is standing behind Necaise.

"He's done a lot of good things," Sanderson said. "He broke up a lot of the
dope and stuff we had around in the housing. That was the main thing. He
broke up some of the stuff that was illegal, like people living in the
apartments who weren't supposed to be there. He looked after everything
real good."

Necaise said he has several goals for the agency. The first: Take back the
developments from criminals and make them safe, which he believes has been
accomplished. The second: Modernize and make them structurally sound. The
third: Educate residents and better organize resident councils so they can
assume some duties, such as the orientation of new residents.

The fourth and last goal is beautification.

Necaise said his plans have always been for uniform landscaping at each of
the complexes. But termites at Camille Village in Pass Christian put some
impetus to the goal. Necaise discovered that tenants watering shrubs
planted next to the foundation of apartments was creating ideal conditions
for termites.

Necaise began clearing the grounds at the agency's complex before Region
VIII had the funding for uniform landscaping. The agency has appropriated
$100,000, but that is not enough money for landscaping at 27 complexes. He
said he plans to talk with resident councils from each of the complexes to
learn what type of landscaping they want.

In recent days, Necaise has softened his stance, saying that some plants
can stay to be incorporated in the bigger landscaping plan. He even allowed
Ann Parson, 69, of Pascagoula, to keep her plants after community leaders
including Lott had rallied around her when her garden was threatened.

Necaise said he wasn't making an exception, but had learned that Parson had
obtained permission for the plantings so she was not in violation of her lease.

It is too late for Barnes, who now sits in hot sunshine on her porch at
L.C. Jones where her willow tree once offered shade. The muscadine vine
that grew up the tree is gone. So are the roses and lilies.

But it's the tree she misses most.

"It hurt my heart," she said, "because I set that one out here."