When Mary Carol Caiezza, the recently fired coordinator of resident services at the Hoboken Housing Authority, walked into a hastily-called board meeting Wednesday, the 25 residents who were watching the proceedings burst into applause.
The show of support was simultaneously a pat-on-the-back for Caiezza, whom some residents say was one of the few administrators at the HHA that treated them with respect, and a slap in the face to Executive Director E. Troy Washington, who had let her go.
After the outburst, the meeting resumed with the pressing business at hand. The board was racing to approve the 1,300-unit housing agency’s $8.7 million annual budget so that Washington could hurry it to HUD headquarters in Newark before offices closed there for the day. For weeks the board had tried to come together to approve the budget, but the recent resignations of Tony Pasquale and Andrew Canonico, the chairman and vice-chairman of the board respectively, forced them to cancel previous meetings, HHA officials said. The budget was due at HUD headquarters by Sept. 15.
Under pressure
Due to the pressure of the looming deadline and the complications of trying to coordinate the schedules of the seven volunteers who serve on the board, it was forced into holding its monthly meeting at 2 p.m. rather than at 6 p.m. as it usually does, said Washington.
The unusual move left residents who have been frustrated with the way that Washington manages the agency steaming. They argued that the meeting was being held at 2.pm. to make it as difficult for residents to attend the meeting as possible.
“We all have children that we need to pick up at this time,” said Lynda Walker, an evangelist and HHA resident who has used her booming voice to rally residents against Washington in recent months. “You say that this was the only time this could work for the commissioners, but this is supposed to be about us, the residents. And for us, this is a very awkward time. The residents are tired of being shuffled and pushed around.”
Washington’s efforts to mollify the crowd seemed to fall on deaf ears. “After conferring with the commissioners this was the only time that this could be held,” he said, after pointing out that other housing authorities in the state frequently met at 2 p.m. “We weren’t trying to slip one by. We are just trying to get the budget done.” Washington also pointed out that most of the board’s regular business was being deferred to a later meeting where more residents could be present.
The budget, which is composed of $4.5 million in HUD funding and just over $4 million of funds generated by residents payments, passed with nary a peep from the crowd or the commissioners.
But the underlying tension between the crowd and the administrators boiled to a head when Caiezza – who had been sitting patiently in the back with a ream of papers clutched in her hand – strode to the microphone during the public comment period of the meeting.
Five-page letter
As soon as she began reading from a five-page letter addressed to nearly every public official in town, Washington and Michael Stefano, a commissioner who has served on the board for two years and was elevated to be chairman pro-tempore for the meeting, began to raise objections.
“A couple of people have to go back to work now,” said Stefano, prompting the crowd to yell that they should not have held the meeting at 2 p.m.
Saying that he had to bring the budget to Newark, Washington began to get his papers together as the crowd started to shout at him saying that he did not care about the residents and that he was running away. As they continued to yell at him, he suggested that the board “close” the meeting but keep the record open. “That way she can read her letter into the record,” he said. The board quickly followed his advice.
As Washington said his good-byes to board members and Spencer Miller, the board’s attorney, a handful of particularly agitated residents left their seats screaming at the top of their lungs.
“I’m really, really mad now,” Walker could be heard screaming above the din. But she was not the only one screaming. Several others harangued the executive director until he slipped out the back door.
“It was like the Jerry Springer show in there,” said City Councilman Tony Soares, who attended the meeting, later.
As soon as Washington left, order was restored and Caeizzi read a scathing letter that documented the events that led up to her August 15 release. In the letter she charged that Washington, at one point asked her, “Whose side are you on the Housing Authority’s or the residents?”
That line drew large cheers from the crowd. Throughout the letter, she charged repeatedly that she had been let go because of her efforts to help launch a tenants’ advisory committee, which would have been chaired by Walker. Washington said that he could not comment on the matter since it was a personnel issue, during the meeting.
Since Caeizzi was fired, tenants complained that they have not had any access to the residents’ service facility, a room for the resident advisory board to meet and do paperwork in. When Washington suggested, during the meeting, that Caeizzi’s replacement would be happy to work with them, the audience groaned while her replacement smiled and waved to the crowd.
“We don’t want to work with anyone but Mary Carol,” said Walker in response to Washington’s recommendation.
When Caeizzi finished reading her letter, the crowd erupted into applause once again.
After the meeting a number of the board members said that they hoped that they would not have to meet at 2 p.m. too often.
“Meeting at 2 p.m. really stinks,” said Arlette Braxton, a commissioner who was appointed last year. “I understand why we had to do it. And I guess once in a while is O.K., but all the time is no good. No good at all.”
Filling vacancies at the HHA Board
Like a sports team that keeps losing players to the injured reserve, the Hoboken Housing Authority Board of Commissioners struggled to hold its first meeting Wednesday since Chairman Tony Pasquale and Vice Chairman Andrew Canonico stepped down last month.
Only four of the seven seats on the volunteer board were filled since Angel Alicea, a just-named member of the board, and Nellie Moyeno, the City Council President who was appointed to the board this summer, were unable to attend. The seventh seat is vacant.
Who will sit in it has become a subject of some controversy. At the last City Council meeting, a proposal to install Frank “Pupie” Raia on the board was pulled at the last moment so that the developer could “triple check” to ensure that a board seat would not conflict with his business interests in town.
At Wednesday’s board meeting, City Councilman Tony Soares took the podium to urge the HHA to investigate the potential problem.
Soares and his allies on the council are pushing their own candidate: Lynda Walker, an HHA resident who has been an outspoken critic of the agency’s Executive Director, E. Troy Washington. Councilman Ruben Ramos Jr., who represents the ward where the HHA is located, is expected to nominate Walker at next week’s council meeting.
“We have seen way too many commissioners given a seat only to be taken off later,” said Soares.
But Spencer Miller, the board’s attorney, pointed out that it was actually the council, not the board, that made the appointments and that the HHA did not have the resources to go and investigate every potential board member to see if their nomination might create a conflict.
Meanwhile, Father Michael Guglielmelli, who serves as a commissioner, has his own ideas of whom he would like to see fill the vacant seat.
“There are no seniors on the board,” said the father as he looked down the table at his peers. “There are a large number of seniors in the Housing Authority and I think that everybody deserves a voice.”
HHA officials promise that once the last seat is filled, the commissioners will re-organize at the next meeting in October.
Before any business could be conducted Wednesday, the board had to elect a chair pro-tempore to serve as the body’s leader until a new one is appointed at the next meeting. Michael Stefano, a real estate agent in town and a two-year board member, was approved unanimously.
It is unclear who will wield the board’s gavel in the future. Stefano said that he would be happy to continue playing the role if the other members believe that will be the best thing for the agency.
“If I am asked, I’d be honored to serve,” Stefano said during a break in the meeting. “Its taken us a couple of weeks to get our ducks in a row since Chairman Pasquale and Andrew Canonico stepped down, but now we are moving forward.”