The Jersey City Housing Authority board of commissioners’ special meeting on Wednesday lasted approximately 45 minutes, including two closed-door sessions.
Essentially it was to take care of the business of confirming Maria Maio as the new executive director of the Jersey City Housing Authority (JCHA). Maio, formerly the deputy executive director of the Jersey City Housing Authority, was hired as the new JCHA executive director after a closed-door interview session July 14.
Maio was one of six candidates interviewed during a two and a half-hour interview session. She had been most recently the confidential aide to the acting executive director of the Hoboken Housing Authority.Longtime JCHA employee Sandra Robertson, who had functioned as the acting executive director, had filled the position temporarily since March.
The board terminated the contract of previous executive director E. Troy Washington in March because of problems that arose from his management of the JCHA and before that, the Hoboken Housing Authority. Washington had alienated many of the Jersey City employees with actions such as bringing former Hoboken Housing Authority staffers to his new post, spending thousands of dollars on new furniture, and traveling to Cuba as part of his law school studies without notifying some of the employees.
At the special meeting, Maio was confirmed by a vote of 5-0 by the board.
Maio received the congratulations of the new board chairperson, Elba Perez-Cinciarelli, and signed the contract to officially become the executive director of the JCHA.
It is a one-year contract that will pay Maio $150,000 for one year, with Maio having to meet certain goals and obligations set down by the board.
Maio, however, said that she would donate $25,000 of her salary for a scholarship fund towards children living in the Jersey City housing complexes, to be done in the memory of the late Robert Rigby, the longtime executive director of the Jersey City Housing Authority who passed in 2003.
Maio and Sandra Robertson were considered the heirs apparent to replace Rigby when he was ready to retire.
Maio’s first day on the job will be August 9. But what she will be facing when she walks through the doors of the JCHA office (located near Sip Avenue on the grounds of the Marion Gardens complex) as a JCHA employee for the first time since December 2003 will be quite different from what she left behind.
Maio doing some catching up
Maria Maio said during a break in last week’s special meeting that she was looking forward to bringing “stability” back to the Jersey City Housing Authority. “We’re looking for stability. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come back here, to just stabilize the authority,” said Maio.
Maio brings over 33 years of experience to her new role as the JCHA executive director, including 24 years in different positions within the JCHA. As executive director, she will be supervising six departments with a total staff of nearly 100 employees.
Her duties include overseeing the development of new housing units, continuing the HOPE VI Revitalization Program that has transformed older housing complexes into newer types of housing, and continuing the relocation program of tenants who had lost their apartments for various reasons.
Maio said that one of her first tasks would be to address morale issues amongst the staff in order to ensure that the services provided to the residents in the past would continue as before.
She also was looking to spend her first couple of days as executive director, visiting all the housing sites located in Jersey City – there are 11 federally -supported developments and two state supported developments – as well as meeting with the members of the Tenant Affairs Board (TAB) and the resident councils of the five major housing complexes in the city (Curries Woods, Holland Gardens, Hudson Gardens, Lafayette Gardens and Marion Gardens).
In the days leading up to the regular monthly board meeting of the JCHA on July 14, there was a flyer circulated amongst some tenants, saying it would be an affront to hire someone else when the current acting executive director Sandra Robertson should have been promoted.
Maio said at last week’s meeting that there will definitely be a role for Robertson at the JCHA, but it will not determined immediately.
Robertson said during last week’s special meeting that she would look to stay with the JCHA in any position available. On the question of the flyer, Maio said, “I don’t respect flyers that are anonymous…I’ve always been known to have an open door.”
Legal issues with those dismissed
One of the problems that will pose a challenge for the JCHA in the coming months is potential litigation.
Former executive director E. Troy Washington and his attorney, David Ben-Asher, are looking to schedule an administrative hearing with the JCHA to determine if Washington was wrongfully dismissed, and could possibly be reinstated as executive director or receive compensation.
Terry Ridley, the general counsel of the JCHA, said in a July 18 Jersey City Reporter article that the decision by the hearing, if favorable to Washington, can be overturned by the JCHA board of commissioners. But that, in turn, could lead to a lawsuit on Washington’s part.
And there is the pending legal action by Harriet Miller, a Jersey City-based attorney, who filed a 10-page complaint in June on behalf of 10 former employees who were fired by the JCHA in March. The complaint, filed with the State Superior Court in Jersey City on June 9, charges that the employees were wrongfully dismissed from their positions and have suffered emotional and financial distress as a result of their dismissals.
Ridley said that he knew about the complaint from Miller and as far as that case is concerned, it will take a couple of months before it sees a court of law.
And then there’s the brewing trouble pertaining to the JCHA board of commissioners voting at their monthly meeting to not renew the contracts of the two of the legal counsel firms that represent the Housing Authority – Miller and Galdieri, and Hunt, Hamlin and Ridley.
When attorney Spencer Miller asked why there was the decision to not renew the contracts, chairperson Elba Perez-Cinciarelli told him that the cost has been too great to the JCHA to have so many attorneys.
Miller challenged that notion, saying that this decision was made too soon without enough consideration and that it can’t be “capricious or arbitrary.”
But board member Ed Cheatam shot back. “I believe there are too many lawyers, and I don’t think we should paying all these attorneys,” said Cheatam.
The board would vote 4-2 to not renew the contracts for both law firms that expire on July 31.
It is believed that the reason that Miller and Galdieri were not retained was because of the firm’s past ties with former executive director E. Troy Washington. Miller and Galdieri had worked for the Hoboken Housing Authority as well.
Terry Ridley and his partner Ray Hamlin, who have been representing the JCHA for about a year, spoke out after last week’s special meeting about the decision not to retain their services.
Ridley said that for the JCHA to dismiss an African-American law firm that represents an agency whose clients are predominantly African-American is insulting.
“I put our law firm against any in the state in terms of representing housing authorities,” said Ridley, who noted that he grew up in the Marion Gardens housing complex, where the JCHA office is located.
When asked if there could be possible litigation on this matter, Ray Hamlin said, “If we feel that they did any wrongdoing, then we are going to file a lawsuit.” Terry Ridley have sued another NJ housing authority for wrongdoing on the part of the board chairperson and some commissioners, and won the case.
Commissioner peeved
Sheila Mosby, a JCHA board commissioner who showed her disdain for the interview process to hire Maio, did not attend the special meeting, still upset at the fact that the board may have acted too hastily.
She said the new decisions are political, approved by Cheatam and Perez-Cinciarelli who are appointments of acting mayor L. Harvey Smith.
“[The board] should have settled all legal matters before they went and hired an executive director,” said Mosby.
“Maria Maio wants the same money as Washington, and what happens if he ever wins his case? It’s a mess.”