An investigation of board members of the Asbury Park Housing Authority may be nearing a conclusion, according to city attorney Frederick Raffetto.
In September 2011, the city council passed a resolution calling for hearings “to determine whether members of the housing authority should be removed for inefficiency, neglect of duty and/or misconduct in office”.
The evidence gathered during the investigation will be presented at the hearings.
According to Raffetto, retired Superior Court Judge Ira Kreizman has been appointed as the independent hearing officer to conduct the proceedings. Kreizman will make recommendations to the council for final action regarding current board members who were in office during the tenure of former authority executive director Mark Holmes. Attorney William D. Cunningham has been appointed the city’s special prosecutor in the matter, Raffetto said.
Holmes resigned in June 2011, amid allegations of mismanagement and lack of financial control at the authority. He had been hired at the end of 2008.
“No hearings, either private or public, have occurred as of yet,” Raffetto said. “It is my understanding that the investigation is still ongoing, but that it may be nearing a conclusion.”
The housing authority board consists of seven members. Five are selected by the city council. The mayor selects one member and the state selects another. The board votes on an executive director, who receives a full-time salary.
The city’s investigation of board members 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.”
The resolution lists some conclusions of the audit report, including the following:
• The authority’s inadequate control over state grant funds. Specifically, $66,000 in grant funds intended for tenant training were instead used to pay salary increases to three key housing authority employees — the former executive director, director of finance and executive secretary, according to the resolution.
• A lack of control over debit card purchases, including an apparent charge to an adult entertainment club in Florida and duplicate hotel and restaurant charges.
• A lack of policies and procedures to manage or control overtime, resulting in apparent overtime incurred in excess of $175,000 for both 2009 and 2010, and resulting in apparent budgetary salary account overruns in 2009 alone of $387,849, and with no information for 2010 because a salary budget was not prepared.
• An ineligible expenditure involving the housing authority’s apparent purchase on May 3, 2010 of a 1995 Jeep Cherokee from the wife of the housing authority’s board chairman at the time.
• Unauthorized use of corporate credit cards totaling approximately $12,369, according to the resolution, as well as excessive travel expenses in the form of expenditures for meals and entertainment totalling at least $30,470.75.
The report found as of March 31, 2010, the housing authority’s liabilities exceeded its assets by approximately $957,905, and the authority was about three months delinquent in paying utility bills and employee medical insurance costs.
The Asbury Park Housing Authority currently has an operational deficit of $800,000 to $900,000, according to interim executive director Bill Snyder.
