Project To Be Named After Late OCHA Commissioner: Report

OCEAN CITY, NJ — The Ocean City Housing Authority (OCHA) will name a new building after a commissioner who helped the authority recover from an embezzlement scandal earlier this year.

A proposed $4.2 million affordable-housing project will be named after Edmond C. Speitel Sr., the authority announced this week. He died in September at the age of 61, according to OCNJ Daily. The senior-citizen complex will replace the Peck’s Beach Village on Fourth Street.

Speitel played a key role in helping the housing authority recover from an embezzlement scandal involving OCHA’s former executive director. In May, 54-year-old Alesia Watson, of Galloway Township, pleaded guilty to an information charging her with one count of embezzling federal funds received from HUD and administered by OCHA to which she was not entitled.

She was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay $8,050 in restitution for buying 69 MasterCard gift cards using OCHA's two credit cards. 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. Following her admission of guilt, Watson resigned from her position as executive director of the Brick Township Housing Authority. Four days later, she was removed as OCHA's executive director.

Ocean City then terminated its deal with Brick and entered into a month-to-month shared services agreement with the Vineland Housing Authority for the services of Jacqueline Jones. Barr has maintained that OCHA didn't know she was being investigated by federal authorities.

Ocean City Councilman and OCHA Chairman Bob Barr said he did have some suspicions surrounding her actions, and 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. He said the housing authority went from having $800,000 five years ago to owing the city more than it has. OCHA manages housing for low-income families, senior citizens and the disabled, with funding provided by HUD.

Patch file photo