After only two months as the Hoboken Housing Authority’s chairman, Bill Noonan announced his resignation from the seven-member volunteer board on August 7. The HHA helps oversee the 1,353 units of federally-subsidized housing in southwest Hoboken.
Noonan’s short tenure was marked by a tenuous and often heated relationship with the authority’s Executive Director E. Troy Washington.
Noonan, a governor’s appointee who joined the board in September of 2001, said Thursday that he is leaving the position because of added responsibilities at his day job.
"The fact is that it takes a lot of time to do what is required as the chairman of the Housing Authority," said Noonan, who is a district sales manager for a financial software company. "With my professional responsibilities, I don’t have enough time available to do the job effectively."
Housing Authority Commissioner Ruben Ramos, who is also the City Council’s president, said that he respects Noonan’s decision.
"There’s a lot of heavy lifting involved in being the chairman," said Ramos, who also has criticized Washington. "If his job obligations interfere with his ability to do his duties, it’s only fair to the residents and other board members that he resigns."
Many disagreements
Noonan and Washington have butted heads many times in the past year. The most publicized rift was over who should represent the Housing Authority as its attorney. Several members of the board lead by Noonan attempted to fire the firm of Miller & Galdieri, who had represented the HHA for three years. What ensued was a five-month debate and court battle over who would represent the Authority. On July 9, Superior Court Judge Arthur D’Italia ruled against Noonan’s faction and in favor of Miller & Galdieri, the firm Washington supported throughout the entire process.
On July 12, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced it is investigating the HHA commissioners’ hiring of interim attorneys during the debate over who should be permanent legal attorneys. According to Washington, HUD is investigating whether the interim counsel was hired without having bids taken properly. Washington said Thursday that the results of the investigation are still pending.
Noonan said in definite terms that the on-going investigation had nothing to do with his resignation.
"My resignation has absolutely nothing to do with that or any investigation," said Noonan. "[The HPA] should continue to be investigated, and my resignations should not stop any of those type of activities."
Washington has also criticized Noonan’s road to the chairmanship. On June 20, four members of the HHA called a meeting. Three board members refused to participate because they asserted that the meeting should have been canceled and was illegal. Washington was also not present at the meeting and claimed that the meeting was inappropriate because the board did not have legal representation when the meeting started. It was at that meeting the four-member faction voted Noonan to the chair.
At the board’s next meeting in July, Noonan and Washington’s other critics were close to making an attempt to investigate, suspend or even fire Washington, but during the course of the meeting they yielded and withdrew those attempts.
"Because of differences in our viewpoints and his unfairness when dealing with me, I won’t be sad to see him go," said Washington from his office. "I think his intentions in the beginning were good but his ambitions ended up getting in his way. Now I can only hope that hope that the governor will pick his replacement quickly and wisely."
Noonan says that he believes that he left the HHA better than he found it. He said for the first time since he was on the board, Mayor David Roberts and Washington are talking in a constructive manor. In the past year, there has been an ultra-chilly relationship between the two. He also said that he has recently seen a conciliatory attitude between commissioners who have been highly adversarial over the past 12 months.
"Unfortunately I would be serving at a time when we could be getting things done," he said. "I hope to see big advances in the next year."
Until the board is able to select a replacement, Vice-Chairman Angel Alicea will serve as acting chair.