A special prosecutor appointed by the city council to investigate the conduct of housing authority members during the tenure of former executive director Mark Holmes has issued a sweeping exoneration of current authority members and “any Board member who may have recently tendered his or her resignation.”

“They appeared to have exercised their duties as Housing Authority Members with integrity, sincerity and honesty, advancing the goals and aspirations of the Housing Authority,” wrote attorney William D. Cunningham in a public statement on Thursday.

In September 2011, the city council passed a resolution calling for hearings to determine whether members of the housing authority should be removed from office. The council’s action was prompted by the findings of an audit report dated July 6, 2011, for the two-year period ending March 31, 2010. According to the council’s September resolution, the audit report “raises serious questions that must be addressed as to whether the members of the housing authority should be removed for inefficiency, neglect of duty and/or misconduct in office after conducting a hearing.”

Cunningham — a former Ocean County prosecutor — was appointed by the council to investigate the matter as special prosecutor. Retired superior court Judge Ira Kreizman was appointed as the hearing officer, if Cunningham had decided to proceed with the removal of the authority members.

Cunningham made it clear that his findings only relate to authority members who may have recently resigned, as well as those still in office.

Cunningham noted in his statement that “Since the passing of the initial Resolution authorizing disciplinary proceedings, there have been several resignations from the Housing Authority. Several vacancies, as well, have been filled on the Housing Authority by the Mayor and Council.”

“I feel that the current members of the Board do not require disciplinary action or removal at this time. I would also point out that my investigation did not reveal any irregularity or impropriety on behalf of any Board Member who may have recently tendered his or her resignation…I found no evidence of any intentional wrongdoing by any of the recently departed members of the Housing Authority,” he wrote.

Former authority chairman Rev. Lyddale Akins resigned on Tuesday. In comments to the Asbury Park Press Wednesday, Akins said he resigned because of his frustration dealing with the Department of Housing and Urban Development as the authority grapples with severe fiscal problems. The Press article noted that Akins’ resignation left only Angeline Brown as a long-serving commissioner, and the five remaining commissioners were either relatively new when Holmes, the former executive director, resigned in June, 2011, or have been appointed since.

After Holmes’ resignation, allegations followed thereafter of mismanagement and lack of financial control at the authority. He had been hired at the end of 2008.

Bill Snyder currently serves as interim executive director. The authority is currently advertising to fill the position on a permanent basis.

[This post is updated from a prior post to clarify that Cunningham’s findings apply to current authority members and those whom he states recently resigned.]