A Mobile County judge has voided housing authority contracts that promised more than $4.1 million in retirement payouts to two former Bayou La Batre Housing Authority employees.
Circuit Judge Wesley Pipes ruled that agreements with former Executive Director Virginia Huddleston and former Facilities Manager Darryl Wilson were illegal, unconscionable, and unenforceable.
Mobile’s NBC 15 first reported the ruling.
Pipes granted the Housing Authority summary judgment on Huddleston and Wilson’s claim seeking $4,182,771 under amendments to their employment contracts.
The agreements called for a payment of approximately $2.52 million to Huddleston and $1.66 million to Wilson after about seven years of employment.
Pipes described the proposed payments as a “windfall of epic proportions” and an “attempted fleecing of public money.”
The Bayou La Batre Housing Authority was created in 2008 to operate Safe Harbor, a 99-unit housing development built with federal funding after Hurricane Katrina.
According to the court order, the former board approved a series of contracts between 2016 and 2020 that increased Huddleston and Wilson’s salaries, benefits, paid leave, and retirement compensation.
Huddleston’s annual salary increased from $69,000 to $120,000, while Wilson’s salary rose from $31,200 to $80,000.
The agreements also provided extensive paid leave and required the two employees to work 27 hours per week, according to the ruling.
Later contract amendments promised lump-sum retirement payments that the court said could only have been funded through the sale of Safe Harbor.
“It is incredible that the board of directors of a non-profit housing authority would enter into a contract with two seven-year employees to effectively hand them virtually all of the assets of the authority in the form of retirement,” Pipes wrote.
The judge found that the agreements violated Alabama laws governing conflicts of interest and reasonable compensation at public and nonprofit entities.
He also ruled that the former board violated the Alabama Open Meetings Act by discussing and agreeing to compensation and benefits during an executive session before formally approving the contracts in public.
Huddleston defended the compensation during a deposition quoted in the court order.
“I know my worth and I earned every penny of it,” she said.
The Housing Authority filed the lawsuit in December 2020 against Huddleston, Wilson, and several former board members after new leadership reviewed the contracts.
The July 7 order voided the retirement agreements and rejected Huddleston and Wilson’s attempt to enforce the promised payments.
The ruling does not end the broader civil case.
Other claims involving former employees and board members remain pending, including allegations of breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, and misappropriation of Housing Authority assets.
Sawyer Knowles is a state and political reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].
