Alesia Watson Removed As Ocean City Housing Authority Director

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Alesia Watson has been removed as the Executive Director of the Ocean City Housing Authority (OCHA). Watson, who pleaded guilty last week to embezzling between $6,500 and $15,000 in funds intended for use by OCHA from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), was removed during OCHA’s meeting Tuesday night, according to published reports.

Ocean City has also terminated its shared services agreement with Brick Township. On Tuesday, it entered into a month-to-month contract with the Vineland Housing Authority for the services of Jacqueline Jones, according to The Press of Atlantic City.

Ocean City will pay Jones $4,875 per month. OCHA is searching for a permanent solution.
OCHA will also conduct a forensic audit of its finances from Oct. 1, 2013-May 1, 2017, according to ocnjdaily.com. This covers the time Watson served as Executive Director for the Ocean City and Brick housing authorities.

Five of the six members on the OCHA Board of Commissioners voted in favor of removing Watson, and the sixth, Vice Chairwoman Patricia Miles-Jackson, was absent.

The removal comes four days after Watson, 54, of Galloway, resigned from her position as executive director of the Brick Township Housing Authority.

Watson served both housing authorities since 2013. Ocean City was paying $61,600 for Watson’s services, according to the minutes of OCHA’s Feb. 25, 2016 meeting.

On May 8, Watson admitted that from December 2013 through March 2015, she bought 69 MasterCard gift cards using OCHA’s two credit cards, according Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick.

She then used the gift cards for personal expenses not related to the housing authority. She also admitted to allowing her friends and family to use those cards, according to authorities.

Watson used the funds received from HUD and administered by the housing authority to pay the credit card bills associated with the purchase of the gift cards. On Monday, she pleaded guilty to an information charging her with one count of embezzling federal funds received from HUD and administered by the housing authority to which she was not entitled. Her sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 15.

In the days following the shocking admission, OCHA Chairman and City Councilman Bob Barr said the housing authority was unaware of any federal investigation into Watson’s actions, but some members suspected something was wrong due to OCHA’s financial statements.

On April 5, he said OCHA learned that it owed Ocean City an additional $141,000 on top of $106,000 it knew it already owed.

“We had $800,000 five years ago,” Barr said on May 11. “Now, we have about $200,000. We owe the city more than we have.”

OCHA met in executive session in March to discuss the discrepancies, at which time Barr urged the other members of the Board of Commissioners to terminate its shared services agreement with Brick.

Barr said OCHA’s Board of Commissioners couldn’t come to a consensus during the executive session, so his suggestion was tabled. The minutes from that meeting have not yet been approved, and are therefore unavailable to the public at this time.

OCHA’s website was completely down, with a message saying it was “under construction” Wednesday morning.

Photo via Ocean City Housing Authority