Furious Gov. Patrick begins state takeover of Chelsea Housing Authority
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By Scott Allen and Andrea Estes, Globe Staff
The
administration of Governor Deval Patrick has asked Attorney General
Martha Coakley to begin a state takeover of the troubled Chelsea Housing
Authority, whose chief executive resigned earlier this month amid an
uproar over his $360,000 annual compensation.
The
Department of Housing and Community Development, which has already
frozen state funding to the authority, requested that the attorney
general place it in state receivership, allowing the state to oversee
the day-to-day operations of the agency.
Coakley
will now petition the Supreme Judicial Court for permission to appoint
an independent receiver who will monitor the uthority and ensure that
staff cooperate with various state investigations that have begun since
former director Michael E. McLaughlin abruptly resigned after his full
salary was revealed by the Boston Globe.
“A
court-appointed receiver can ensure that public funds are being spent
responsibly, leadership is performing their duties in an above-board,
transparent manner and the residents of Chelsea who depend on the
services the Chelsea Housing Authority provides are protected,” Patrick
said in a statement. “This will help restore the public’s confidence,
and my own, and will put the housing authority on a better path.”
Patrick
has said he is “boiling” over the high pay to McLaughlin -- perhaps the
highest among housing directors in the United states - and he demanded
the resignation of McLaughlin as well as the five-member board of
directors who approved his contract.
McLaughlin
stepped down Nov. 3, but not before co-signing checks to himself for
more than $200,000 that he said the authority owed him for unused
vacation, sick, and personal time. The five-member board also resigned,
but not before making one of McLaughlin’s assistants, Albert Ewing, the
new director and offering him a five-year contract.
Now,
the FBI and numerous other agencies are investigating the authority
amid allegations that McLaughlin’s staff shredded records in the hours
before he left, while McLaughlin himself took numerous boxes out of the
Locke Street administrative offices on his last night as executive
director.
A
state takeover of a housing authority is exceedingly rare, but Coakley
and Patrick say it’s justified in Chelsea, where the entire city was
once in state receivership. State housing officials say the resignation
of McLaughlin and the board has left a leadership vacuum at an agency
that manages housing for 1,400 low-income families, receiving millions
in funding from the state and federal governments.
“As
our office moves forward with its own investigations, we hope this
strong action today will help prevent the further abuse of taxpayer
money,” said Coakley in a statement.
If
approved, the receiver would report back to the SJC within 90 days. By
that time, Patrick administration officials say, a new board of
directors -- one named by Patrick, four by Chelsea city manager Jay Ash
-- should be ready to resume normal oversight.
Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com. Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com
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