Mirasol's project manager quits
The project manager overseeing repairs at the San Antonio Housing Authority's troubled Mirasol Homes development abruptly resigned Thursday, leaving behind more questions than answers. In his letter of resignation, Bart Swider gave no reason for quitting but acknowledged that he'd received a subpoena for information related to an ongoing lawsuit between SAHA and Mirasol's builder, KB Home, over allegations of shoddy construction at the West Side subdivision. Swider's work was routinely questioned by Mirasol critics, including some task force members. He was criticized for the number of repairs that hadn't been completed and for decisions on how to make repairs.

Mirasol's project manager quits

06/27/2008
By Josh Baugh
Express-News

The project manager overseeing repairs at the San Antonio Housing Authority's troubled Mirasol Homes development abruptly resigned Thursday, leaving behind more questions than answers.

In his letter of resignation, Bart Swider gave no reason for quitting but acknowledged that he'd received a subpoena for information related to an ongoing lawsuit between SAHA and Mirasol's builder, KB Home, over allegations of shoddy construction at the West Side subdivision.

Swider, a former Pulte Homes executive hired in November, did not return calls seeking comment.

Scott Tschirhart, Swider's attorney, declined to state a reason for his resignation, saying only that he was hired to help Swider comply with the subpoena.

“He didn't hire me for the purposes of quitting the job,” Tschirhart said. “I believe it was because he received a notice of intention for production of documents and tangible things in that lawsuit. And there are 87 different categories of documents for him to produce, and so I think anybody would hire a lawyer to help him through that.”

SAHA's board is scheduled to hold a special meeting Monday to discuss Mirasol's budget. Chairman Ramiro Cavazos said he believes the ongoing repair work in the 246-home development has exhausted the initial $4.9 million budget.

“Our main priority will be to continue to finish the work and the repairs and the remediation with the resident homes and do that 100 percent and stay on schedule, even with the resignation,” Cavazos said.

The board could decide to prioritize work at Mirasol, ensuring that occupied homes are completed on schedule, he said.

With “the homes that SAHA owns that might not have any residents inside, it could be that the repairs on homes like that aren't done unless those homes are potentially being sold to the general public at a future date,” Cavazos said.

SAHA officials said work would continue seamlessly under Ed Pape, Swider's assistant, who will take over the position.

Swider was praised for his work overseeing a “no-win job” by Mirasol Task Force Chairman Gordon Hartman.

“I think he did an incredibly fantastic job,” Hartman said. “He went in there and managed a position of bringing on good people to do the work, good contractors to do the work, having to work around a lot of provisions, both from a bureaucratic standpoint and from the issues that we had to deal with as a task force.”

Tschirhart said he believed Swider left on good terms.

“There's no bad feelings amongst anybody as far as I know at this point,” he said.

But Swider's work was routinely questioned by Mirasol critics, including some task force members. He was criticized for the number of repairs that hadn't been completed and for decisions on how to make repairs.

In his latest update to task force members — sent Tuesday — he wrote that 22 homes had been completed and 200 were under repair. Seven homes were scheduled for repairs to begin, and 17 were yet to be scheduled for repairs.

SAHA records show it has been billed $150,779 for Swider's services.