Newark Housing Authority Director Retires Ahead of Audit Report
Newark official retires from troubled agency as audit report looms:
Harold Lucas, Director of the Newark Housing Authority, announced his retirement yesterday, a week before the federal Office of Inspector General is expected to issue the results of an audit of the agency.
The Authority has been under federal investigation since Lucas announced in September 2004 that 99 employees were being laid off even as the agency spent more than $1 million to renovate its headquarters.
From agency funds, Lucas spent $2,849 for a 42-inch plasma television for his office and gave a $25,000 payment to his daughter to run a beauty pageant. He also has at least three relatives on the agency’s payroll.
Lucas came under fire again for investing $1.4 million of authority money in a troubled movie theater run by a nonprofit he headed. The agency also spent $30,000 to take tenants to a picnic held at the same place and time as one given by Mayor Sharpe James' re-election fund.
The questionable spending prompted an investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2004. Still, last March, the Authority awarded Lucas a new contract that would pay him as much as $222,688 by 2008, making him one of the highest-paid directors in the country.
In April, HUD released a scathing audit that accused the Authority of spending $3.9 million in low-income housing voucher funds on the Newark hockey arena project. HUD has since declared the Authority a troubled agency in danger of a federal takeover.
Last month, documents revealed the layoffs in 2004 turned out to be a mirage. More than a year after letting 84 people go, another 81 were on the payroll, including 19 who returned to the same positions they previously held.
Lucas has twice served as director of the Authority. His firs stint was from 1992 to 1998, when he left to join the Clinton administration as assistant secretary of public and Native American housing.
In 2001 Mayor James named him Newark’s city business administrator, a job that paid $150,000. A year later, after James was elected to a fifth term, he again put Lucas back in charge of the $70 million-a-year housing authority - the nation's 12th largest, with 30,000 residents.
Meanwhile, the housing authority, which Mayor James and the City Council chose as the agency in charge of the downtown redevelopment -- including the $310 million hockey arena - moved Thursday to transfer all money for the project to a newly created public corporation called the Newark Downtown Core Redevelopment Corp.
City Business Administrator Richard Monteilh will head the corporation. James said the move will allow the housing authority to focus on housing, something critics of the arrangement called for months ago.
Note: Newark Mayor Sharpe James owns a Rolls Royce, two boats, and multiple homes.
New Jersey Government: New Jersey Corruption
Harold Lucas, Director of the Newark Housing Authority, announced his retirement yesterday, a week before the federal Office of Inspector General is expected to issue the results of an audit of the agency.
The Authority has been under federal investigation since Lucas announced in September 2004 that 99 employees were being laid off even as the agency spent more than $1 million to renovate its headquarters.
From agency funds, Lucas spent $2,849 for a 42-inch plasma television for his office and gave a $25,000 payment to his daughter to run a beauty pageant. He also has at least three relatives on the agency’s payroll.
Lucas came under fire again for investing $1.4 million of authority money in a troubled movie theater run by a nonprofit he headed. The agency also spent $30,000 to take tenants to a picnic held at the same place and time as one given by Mayor Sharpe James' re-election fund.
The questionable spending prompted an investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2004. Still, last March, the Authority awarded Lucas a new contract that would pay him as much as $222,688 by 2008, making him one of the highest-paid directors in the country.
In April, HUD released a scathing audit that accused the Authority of spending $3.9 million in low-income housing voucher funds on the Newark hockey arena project. HUD has since declared the Authority a troubled agency in danger of a federal takeover.
Last month, documents revealed the layoffs in 2004 turned out to be a mirage. More than a year after letting 84 people go, another 81 were on the payroll, including 19 who returned to the same positions they previously held.
Lucas has twice served as director of the Authority. His firs stint was from 1992 to 1998, when he left to join the Clinton administration as assistant secretary of public and Native American housing.
In 2001 Mayor James named him Newark’s city business administrator, a job that paid $150,000. A year later, after James was elected to a fifth term, he again put Lucas back in charge of the $70 million-a-year housing authority - the nation's 12th largest, with 30,000 residents.
Meanwhile, the housing authority, which Mayor James and the City Council chose as the agency in charge of the downtown redevelopment -- including the $310 million hockey arena - moved Thursday to transfer all money for the project to a newly created public corporation called the Newark Downtown Core Redevelopment Corp.
City Business Administrator Richard Monteilh will head the corporation. James said the move will allow the housing authority to focus on housing, something critics of the arrangement called for months ago.
Note: Newark Mayor Sharpe James owns a Rolls Royce, two boats, and multiple homes.
New Jersey Government: New Jersey Corruption
