By Donald Wittkowski
In only 12 months, Ocean City’s public housing agency has made a “remarkable” turnaround after reeling from an embezzlement scandal that prompted a series of management and financial reforms, officials said Tuesday while reporting on the results of a new audit.
In 2017, the Ocean City Housing Authority was struggling to rebuild its shaky finances following the guilty plea of its former executive director, Alesia Watson, on federal embezzlement charges.
A week after Watson’s guilty plea on May 8, 2017, the housing authority hired the Ocean City accounting firm of Ford-Scott & Associates LLC to conduct an audit of the agency’s finances for 2016. The audit came up with 15 “findings” needing corrective action.
Michael Garcia, a partner with Ford-Scott, said a newly completed audit for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2017, had no findings or recommendations. He noted that the audit showed that all of the findings from 2016 were corrected in just a year, which he called “fantastic.”
“You have turned this place around so quickly, it’s remarkable,” Garcia said while giving a presentation on the 2017 audit to the authority’s board members during their monthly meeting Tuesday.
When Watson was fired as executive director on May 16, 2017, the board also approved a series of reforms to overhaul the authority’s management and financial structure.
Among the management changes, the board brought in Vineland Housing Authority Executive Director Jacqueline Jones to handle the same duties for Ocean City under a shared services agreement between both towns.
Bob Barr, a city councilman who also serves as chairman of the Ocean City Housing Authority, credited Jones and her staff for orchestrating a turnaround that saved the agency while it was fighting to survive.
“Jackie, you and your staff have done a tremendous amount of good,” Barr told Jones during the meeting. “You are a rock star. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
Watson was removed as chief executive after she admitted she had embezzled federal housing funds to pay credit card bills for personal expenses. Federal prosecutors said between $6,500 and $15,000 was lost in the scheme. Watson was sentenced to three years of probation.
Although the authority is in the midst of a turnabout, it experienced about a $102,000 net cash loss in 2017, the audit showed. However, Garcia noted that recent increases in rental income that have boosted revenue by about $15,000 per month should put the authority in the black next year to the tune of $50,000 or $60,000.
“We are heading in the right direction. Of course, we don’t want a loss at all,” Garcia said.
In another sign of the authority’s post-Watson recovery, the agency is moving ahead with plans to build a $4.2 million affordable housing project for senior citizens. The 20-unit project will replace the flood-prone senior citizens complex at the authority’s Pecks Beach Village housing site on Fourth Street.
Two rounds of bids came in too high for the project, though. As a result, the authority rejected both sets of bids and has entered negotiations with four companies seeking the contract to build the senior citizens housing project.
Bidders in the second round included Fabbri Builders, of Vineland, N.J., $5,497,478; Gary F. Gardner Inc., of Medford, N.J., $5,617,000; TN Ward Co., of Ardmore, Pa., $5,730,000; and Levy Construction Co. Inc., of Audubon, N.J., $5,848,600.
Scott Halliday, an authority board member who chairs the redevelopment committee, reported during Tuesday’s meeting that both sides are negotiating changes with the designs for the project to lower the construction cost. He said new proposals are expected to be submitted by the construction companies in two weeks.
In the meantime, the authority is sticking with the same timeline for the project. Construction is expected to begin by year’s end and be completed by late 2019.
The new two-story building will be constructed on what is now a parking lot adjacent to the authority’s Bayview Manor housing complex at Sixth Street and West Avenue. Funding for the project comes from a federal Hurricane Sandy recovery grant.
Pecks Beach Village was swamped by storm waters from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, underscoring the need to build new housing in a location less vulnerable to flooding. It continues to suffer from flooding during storms and even in high tides, Jones said.
Pecks Beach Village also includes a 40-unit complex for low-income families. That part of Pecks Beach will remain open after the new project is built. Jones said the family section of Pecks Beach sits on slightly higher land than the senior citizens complex and does not flood as much. Eventually, the authority hopes to rebuild the family section as well with new housing.
As a public agency, the authority uses federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide affordable housing for low-income senior citizens, families and the disabled at its Pecks Beach Village and Bayview Manor facilities.
