At a meeting of Borough Council last week, representatives of the Princeton Housing Authority (HABOP) defended a controversial contract for that agency’s acting executive director. This week, Council member Roger Martindell issued a statement calling for an official look into the matter as well as into the agency’s general administrative practices.

Scott Parsons was rehired as HABOP’s acting executive director last fall after he resigned as its executive director to take an administrative post at the Lakewood Housing Authority. It is his $65,000 salary, reportedly for 10 hours of work a week, that prompted Mr. Martindell to say in a written statement, “It’s exactly the kind of sweetheart deal that Governor Christie has effectively campaigned against, and it’s a blemish on HABOP’s distinguished record in providing low-cost housing to Princeton residents.”

Mr. Martindell has written to New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs asking for an investigation into how HABOP is run. In a discussion of the housing authority during the Council meeting December 13, director Leighton Newlin and board member Toby Levy answered questions about the hiring, which was reported on the Planet Princeton website that day in a story about the housing authority’s failure to properly provide a sunshine notice of the two meetings where the contract with the Lakewood Housing Authority was approved.

Lakewood Housing Authority supplies management services for HABOP under a three-month old, shared services agreement. Other housing authorities also use shared services agreements, according to Mr. Newlin.

According to Mr. Martindell, Mr. Parsons was making $87,500 a year, with benefits of an additional $31,964, when he left the housing authority last September. “Presumably, Mr. Parsons was working 40 hours per week, for total compensation valued at $57 per hour,” Mr. Martindell said. “Now he’s making $65,000 per year for 10 hours per week, or $125 per hour. That’s more than a doubling of his rate of compensation when he’s devoting a quarter of the time that he used to devote to HABOP business. How can that be reasonable?”

Councilman David Goldfarb commented during the meeting that he wasn’t sure Council members should be criticizing the shared services contract and Parsons’ salary. The $65,000 flat fee, he said, is a unique arrangement. “I’m not making any judgment on this matter, but I would point out that Scott’s salary is not the total cost for HABOP,” he said. “You have benefits, liability, plus the fact that you can’t terminate him at will … if you are talking about comparisons, you need to compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges and make sure you get your comparisons correct.”

The housing authority was founded in 1938 and currently manages more than 230 units for low-income residents in the Borough and Township. At the meeting, Mr. Newlin said there are currently 208 applicants on a waiting list for housing, which he stressed is “low-income” rather than “affordable.” Median income for clients is approximately $20,000 per year, he said. “The people we serve have never been more at risk than they are now.”

Mr. Martindell suggested at the meeting that HABOP obtain legal assistance “as soon as possible” since they did not observe the sunshine law before the rehiring of Mr. Parsons. The contract for the shared services agreement with Lakewood was approved at the September 26 meeting of Borough Council. The Sunshine Law requires that notice of a meeting date be made 48 hours prior to the session, except for closed or executive sesssions.

When Mr. Martindell and Council member Jenny Crumiller advised them to seek a full-time executive director, Mr. Newlin and Mr. Levy countered that a full-time director would cost more than the arrangement currently in place.

“Scott is not just the executive director,” Mr. Newlin said. “He is a certified public accountant and a very unique individual. A big part of his obligations include the financial stability of the housing authority. If we hired someone else full time, we’d also have to hire someone extra to take on the financial aspects. That means we are saving an additional $60,000.”

Asked how Mr. Parsons could continue doing his former HABOP job full time while also working a full schedule at Lakewood, Mr. Israel replied, “We feel it works very well. The great thing about this arrangement is, if we feel it doesn’t work, we can cancel it in 90 days. Right now, it works.”

Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman advised Mr. Newlin and Mr. Levy to inform the Princeton Housing Authority board of the Council members’ concerns, and then return to Council at a future date and “address the concerns so they can be documented.”

A call to Mr. Newlin was not returned by press time.