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Carmelo Garcia bounced out of Irvington Housing Authority job

07/19/201701/22/2021 by SmartyJones

MILE SQUARE VIEW EXCLUSIVE

Hoboken’s Carmelo Garcia who left in a huff as Executive Director at the Hoboken Housing Authority back in 2014 when his contract was terminated is out again.

This time it’s connected to a short-lived one year contract quickly rescinded at the Irvington Housing Authority. Last April, the Irvington Housing Authority approved a contract to see Carmelo Garcia assume the role he had performed in Hoboken. Not a month later, another vote by that board’s body terminated the agreement.

According to a May report by the Essex News Daily:

Garcia’s appointment was contested by some residents, who said the town’s governing body should have allowed the residents to vote to choose their own representative to the board.

Apparently, a tenant uprising didn’t find comforting the curious past of the former Hoboken Housing Authority ED.

A May story by the Essex News Daily mentions a vetting problem, an issue others would find troubling before any contract was offered. However, the Garcia problem befell another Housing Authority:

IHA board voted to hire Garcia for $155,000, while Paul Watkins, an Econometrica official, told residents at an early morning meeting on Friday, April 28, that his company would be responsible for turning the township’s public housing agency around.

But now Econometrica and Garcia are out and former IHA Commissioner and acting Executive Director Kathleen Witcher said whoever eventually replaces them must be thoroughly vetted before being hired.

In late April, Garcia apparently slipped in by a narrow 3-2 vote. Another report quotes him saying,

“I’m excited and hopeful that we will bring about the change that you’re looking for and that the residents clearly are asking for,” said Garcia on Wednesday, April 19. “The No. 1 thing is building that trust, respecting and listening to the residents, knowing that what you say you’re going to do you carry out. So I’m looking forward implementing the plans that will improve your quality of life, because that’s very fruitful, when the residents can actually communicate with the board of commissioners and its executive director.”

In early May, rumblings began pointing to Garcia’s “sketchy” past in Hoboken:

“IHA just hired a new director with a sketchy background from Hoboken,” Caleb Bryant, the former SEIU Local 617 shop steward, said Wednesday, April 19, alleging that Garcia’s “$155,000 salary is still more than a director is supposed to make for managing a facility this size.”

Carmelo Garcia (l) with friends; Chris Campos is on the far right and faces
federal sentencing for bank and wire fraud in September.

Talking Ed Note: Mister Carmelo is out but he has a third iteration of a civil lawsuit against the HHA and City of Hoboken still alive, originally filed back in 2013. The HHA however filed a civil lawsuit of their own against Garcia. The litigation is pending.

Related: Believe it or not, NJ.com published a story where Carmelo Garcia talks about running for a Hoboken City Council seat again this year.

In 2015, Councilwoman Jen Giattino defeated Garcia’s bid to replace her.
Hoboken, you just can’t make this stuff up.

hobokenhorse.com

Carmelo Garcia bounced out of Irvington Housing Authority job

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Carmelo Garcia bounced out of Irvington Housing Authority job

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