First came the startling revelation made last Wednesday of the $360,000 yearly salary Chelsea Housing Authority Executive Director Mike McLaughlin was being paid.
Mike packed up and prepared to leave but not before the CHA board met to order the CHA accountant to cut Mike a series of checks totaling $200,000.
With those checks in hand, the accountant who wrote them, the duo took off for a trip to a local bank where Mike cashed one check worth more than $80,0000.
This series of events has been followed by the resignation of nearly all the members of the CHA board. Only one member hasn’t resigned as of Monday afternoon.
Investigators and state and federal agents of every kind have descended on the authority’s offices, securing computers and information and checking for shredded documents while McLaughlin has become persona non grata.
Government officials outraged by McLaughlin’s salary and his possible pension, reported to be near $280,000 a year, are preparing efforts to strip McLaughlin of his $200,000 severance and the pension as well – although first glances by a variety of agencies have failed to turn up wrongdoing.
Locally, some tenants of CHA apartments have spoken out about how poorly their units have been managed and maintained, which doesn’t fit with glowing HUD recommendations of the CHA made repeatedly over the years of McLaughlin’s rule.
More to follow…
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