Pecks Beach Village in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in November 2012 in Ocean City, NJ.
The Ocean City Housing Authority delivered a check for $973,000 to the City of Ocean City on Wednesday morning.
The payment represents a reimbursement to the city for repairs to a low-income housing project that sustained major damage in the record flooding of Superstorm Sandy in October 2012. The payment ends a months-long saga in which the Housing Authority refused to repay the city.
Three of the seven Housing Authority Board of Commissioners members (including Chairman Ed Price and Vice Chair Steve Lalli) resigned May 20 after voting no to the reimbursement on the losing side of a 4-3 vote. (
Read more about their votes and resignations.)
On Tuesday evening (May 27), the four remaining commissioners named Bill Woods as chairman and Stu Sirott as vice chairman in unanimous votes (including Portia Thompson and Patricia Miles Jackson by phone).
Woods had served as chairman during Sandy and in the immediate aftermath when the city agreed to use an affordable housing fund to perform the work.
The meeting included no public input, and the naming of new officers was required for the Authority to sign checks, according to Woods and Sirott.
“It's time to put this in the past," Woods said on Wednesday of divisions and "name-calling" among commissioners.
He said the Authority should get on with the business of "doing the things we need to do," including potentially raising or replacing the flood-prone units at Pecks Beach Village.
"The seven of us did work together," Sirott said. "I thought it was kind of silly that the chairman didn’t get his way and decided to quit."
The city is
seeking volunteers to fill the three unexpired terms on the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.
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