Haney Hong has resigned after nine years as president and CEO of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association and has been replaced on an interim basis by former San Diego Housing Commission President and CEO Rick Gentry.
Mike McLaughlin, chair of the Taxpayers Association Board of Directors, announced the change Monday and said in a press release that the move was effective as of Feb. 28.
Hong, who said he earned about $300,000 a year under his most recent contract, will remain as an unpaid volunteer to assist in the transition. Gentry has signed a one-year contract for $150,000.
In a phone interview Monday, Hong said he had taken a three-month sabbatical after signing a three-year contract last year, which gave him time to reflect on his future. His sabbatical ended last week, and Hong, 43, said his decision to leave was based in part on spiritual reflection, a desire to spend more time with his two young children ages 3 and 5 and a sense that the time was right.
“The Taxpayers Association just had win after win after win,” he said. “All the sales taxes we supported passed except one, and all those we opposed failed. We had a great election, and I was riding that high going into the sabbatical.”
Hong also said his focus over the past nine years has been to transform the organization, and he sees that goal as accomplished.
“I have delivered the promises I made to the people who hired me,” he said.
On a more personal note, Hong said he began converting to Catholicism late last year, fulfilling an agreement with his wife to have one faith in their household after they had children.
“There’s a beautiful line in the Catholic faith where your first vocation is your spouse and parents, and I’ve got to give that due diligence,” he said. “And I was doing a lot of prayer and I thought, you know, my kids also really need me, too.”
Hong also said the time felt right as San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria begins a new term, and he felt confident with Gentry taking over.
Gentry, who has been on the Taxpayers Association Board of Directors for two years, resigned from the city’s Housing Commission in February 2022 following a controversy involving the commission’s purchase of two extended-stay hotels to house homeless people and the later discovery that a broker involved in one of the purchases had a financial interest in the property.
Prior to his resignation, Gentry had been with the Housing Commission 14 years and oversaw its transition from a focus on affordable housing to sheltering and housing homeless people.
Since leaving the Housing Commission, Gentry has run the consulting firm Rick Gentry LLC, which he said has some local and national clients.
“It’s nothing of great value, but enough to keep me busy,” he said.
Gentry said he enthusiastically accepted the offer to temporarily head the Taxpayers Association when he was offered the position last week.
“It’s a good next thing for me to do, and I think it’s good for the organization so they don’t have to move too quickly,” he said. “In the meantime, they need someone who’s an ‘old hand,’ who knows the community, knows the organization, and will be kind of a steady hand on the tiller while they go through this interim period.
“‘Interim’ means I don’t need to be in it for another five or 10 years, but if it’s a year or more, we’ll see,” he said about his future in the position.
