David Gilmore appointed Transportation Administrator
DCPS press release
June 25, 2003

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DAVID GILMORE

David Gilmore has received the well-deserved reputation of being a problem-solver extraordinaire of intractable problems, primarily in public housing. Gilmore has charted more than 30 years experience serving as Executive Director and Director of Operations for the Seattle, San Francisco and Boston Housing Authorities. He was also the Receiver for the once-beleaguered District of Columbia Housing Authority. Gilmore is recognized as one of the most respected public housing administrators in the nation as is evidenced by his appointment as Receiver of the District of Columbia Housing Authority by D.C. Superior Court Judge Steffen Graae and with the endorsement of then-HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

On June 25, the federal court approved a recommendation of the Special Master in the Petties, et al. v. D.C., et al. class action lawsuit supporting an agreement reached among the parties with facilitation by the Special Master. The order appointed Gilmore as an independent Transportation Administrator for the D.C. Public Schools. In this position, Gilmore is charged with the management and supervision of the operations of DCPS's transportation services. He is responsible for implementing necessary longterm institutional improvements to DCPS' transportation system to ensure the safe, timely and appropriate provision of transportation services to students with disabilities.

Gilmore was chosen because the parties involved agreed that he possessed the required management qualifications and experience to assume the role of transportation administrator. The District of Columbia and DCPS will work with Gilmore to provide services to students with special needs in a safe, timely and appropriate manner as required under applicable law, through a collaborative relationship with the administrator under the terms of the agreement.

Before his appointment as Transportation Administrator, Gilmore made his mark in this city as the court-appointed Receiver of the District of Columbia's Department of Public and Assisted Housing (now the District of Columbia Housing Authority). In the summer of 1995, Gilmore left the Seattle Housing Authority, one of the nation's best public housing authorities, to take the post of Court Appointed Receiver. By the time he left in 2000, Gilmore had transformed DPAH into a public housing authority that provides "safe, decent and sanitary" housing. He was instrumental in establishing an independent housing authority and he also developed and implemented a plan for post-receivership transition and governance.

Gilmore oversaw the major rehabilitation of several of the District's most troubled developments through joint ventures with residents and private developers. Three home-ownership programs were developed through cooperative ventures with a consortium of non-profit housing corporations, and more than 7600 units at nearly every development around the city were rehabilitated. Construction has been completed at two Hope VI projects, Ellen Wilson and Wheeler Creek. Under his leadership, two additional Hope VI grants have been secured for the Frederick Douglass/Stanton and East Capitol properties. A DCHA Police Department was formed and has dramatically reduced crime and enhanced safety for residents and employees.

An historic agreement between the Authority and the Union which represents most of its employees has been implemented providing a unique, "performance based", annual compensation package.

The Receivership of the District of Columbia Housing Authority was successfully concluded in September 2000, having met and exceeded all criteria established by the Court at its inception.

In March, 2001, Gilmore formed Gilmore Kean, LLC, to provide service to public housing authorities, local government, communities and private affordable housing development entities in a variety of disciplines. He is the company's managing principal.

The San Francisco Housing Authority had been on HUD's list of most "troubled" housing authorities for well over five years when Gilmore in 1989 was named Executive Director. During his tenure, Gilmore reduced an excessively high vacancy rate to less than 1 %, paid off more than $12 million in debts to the federal government, a utility company, and the city's Water Department, and re-established an operating reserve audit-certified at $9.6 million. Gilmore counts among his proudest accomplishments the winning of more than $186 million in capital improvement funding, unprecedented for the San Francisco Housing Authority and the demolition of one of San Francisco's most notorious public housing developments - Yerba Buena Plaza West - and construction of its modern, lowrise town house replacement - Robert B. Pitts Plaza.

In 1980, Gilmore returned to the Boston Housing Authority, initially for a one-year period, to assist the new court-appointed receiver in developing a recovery program for the Authority, (his initial stint with the Boston Housing Authority was in 1972, when he spent one and one-half years as Director of Management Services). For the next nine and a half years, Gilmore guided the recovery of the Boston Housing Authority, serving first as Special Deputy for Operations, then as Deputy Administrator.

While serving as CEO of the San Francisco Housing Authority, Gilmore was one of six appointees of the United States Senate to the 18-member National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing. Based on this Commission's findings and recommendations the Congress enacted HOPE VI, a program which is funding the revitalization of very troubled public housing developments throughout the nation.

Since the formation of Gilmore Kean, Gilmore has provided planning assistance to the Richmond, California Housing Authority and served as temporary asset manager for a troubled private housing development in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Gilmore is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities. He has been a guest speaker and panelist at events sponsored by numerous private organizations and public agencies. He has been a guest on many public interest programs on radio and television in San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. and has twice been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and was the subject of a Washington Post (Style Section) feature article. He currently serves as a lecturer at The American University in its Washington Semester Program and at the University of Maryland in its School of Public Policy's, Public Housing in the New Millennium Program.