Mayor-Elect Will Nominate Housing Authority Member for Reappointment

Princeton Borough Mayor-elect Yina Moore plans to nominate Leighton Newlin for reappointment to the Princeton Housing Authority in January, despite the . 

"I think (Newlin’s) leadership has been very important to the constituency he's served and I don’t see his involvement as anything other than positive," Moore said Wednesday. "Nothing that has occurred in the past week has changed my opinion."

Moore and Newlin spoke just hours after Newlin said .

He confirmed Wednesday that his conversation with Moore changed his mind.

"I've made a decision that if Yina would like to keep me, and she's indicated she would, I will remain a member of the board," Newlin said. "I'm from the community, born and raised, and it’s important to have representation. It's important to have a history of living in Princeton and caring about the community."

The authority owns and manages 236 affordable housing units in Princeton Borough and Princeton Township.

It has been about a week since borough officials began to question some of the authority’s practices, specifically citing a contract approved during a meeting held in violation of the state’s Open Public Meetings law.

Some also questioned the propriety of the authority’s $65,000 contract with Lakewood Housing Authority, which provides for a minimum of 10 hours of work per week, services primarily filled by Scott Parsons, who was the authority’s full-time executive director until September when he resgned to take a job with Lakewood.

Borough Councilman Roger Martindell calculated that Parsons previously earned $57 per hour in Princeton, including benefits, but now earns $125 an hour under the Lakewood contract. 

Authority members have said not only are they saving money with the Lakewood contract, it was approved by the state. 

Martindell said Tuesday that it wasn’t simply one administrative oversight that led to an improperly called meeting, but rather a series of errors that the authority knew about but failed to correct.

Newlin adamantly denied that allegation on Wednesday, saying he was never informed of multiple problems with meeting notifications.