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Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean has had a tough year, and it may not get any easier now with revelations from a former housing official that he was fired unfairly for calling out a direct hire of Bean's.

Michael Rowicki, a former executive planner with the Hillsborough County affordable housing office, is currently involved in litigation against the county, claiming he was unfairly fired earlier this year for telling the truth about problems in that office.

Rowicki has claimed that the head of the Affordable Housing Office, Howie Carroll was directly responsible for a loss of over $2 million in federal grant money.  Carroll was hired by Bean, who will be evaluated by County Commissioners on December 16.

In May of 2008,  Bean announced that federal law enforcement authorities were investigating the housing office, based on the findings of an internal investigation that took place in 2007.  Rowicki and two other officials were announced as being the focus of the investigation.  Among the allegations at the time were that they steered clients of the affordable housing office to businesses owned by affordable housing manager Maggie Tagliarini.

That internal investigation was spurred by allegations made by Sylvia Alvarez with a group called the Housing and Education Alliance, who accused three housing officials with creating a 'hostile environment' that was hurting her agency.

But in a recent deposition, Bean was questioned about Rowicki, and an internal investigation performed by Robert Sheehan of the county's Professional Responsibility Section that led to his ouster.

The investigation said that he had failed to file conflict of interest disclosures on two different occasions.

But during the deposition, Bean was confronted with evidence that showed that Rowicki did file disclosure statements.

When asked if those omissions would lead her to question the results of that investigation, Bean replied in the deposition, "It certainly raises a question."

Later on in the deposition, Bean was asked by Rowicki's attorney,

q Although this report was given to the FBI.  And it contains issue's about Mr. Rowicki's credibility, wouldn't you think that that would affect their investigation?

A I'll make sure that they know if they don't already know.

Q So you're saying this is not a criminal allegation, No. 2?

A It's a violation of county policy.  I don't believe that rises- a county policy, I don't believe that rises to a criminal violation.

Later on, Bean is questioned again

Q And when you're handing  documents over to the FBI, don't you think it's important to make sure that everything in the report is accurate?

A I would prefer that it be this way, yes.

Q Especially when you're potentially targeting an employee's reputation, don't you think it's important to make sure that these reports are accurate?

A When I spoke to the FBI, I did not target any individual.  I spoke about the entire office Affordable Housing.  I did not target any individual.

Q Okay.  So would you say that Mr. Sheehan did a poor job on this investigation?

A I would say there are errors here, yes.

Bean is not talking about the Sheehan's report.  But an official with her office told today's St. Petersburg Times to "be careful" about the claims made by Rowicki.

The County Commissioners have access to the deposition, and one might surmise that it could be added to the list of other