‘I knew this was a time bomb’

On July 15, it became public that Herbert Coleman and Cynthia Fielder-Boyd were removed from their positions on the Rockville Centre Housing Authority Board of Trustees as of July 3.

Fielder-Boyd, along with nearly 40 residents of the village’s public housing units, voiced frustration over the move, which came without warning, at a raucous unofficial housing authority meeting at Rockville Manor on July 17. “You want control over us!” she yelled to Gary Kondor, the chairman of the authority.

But Kondor insisted that the problem is far more complex than that.

Both Coleman and Fielder-Boyd are residents of Old Mill Court, and were elected by fellow residents of the public housing facility last fall. Each was to serve a two-year term alongside the five other members of the board, who were appointed by Mayor Francis X. Murray.

But on June 7, the authority’s executive director, Jamie Morrison, received a letter from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development stating that the election of Coleman and Fielder-Boyd could not be approved. According to HUD regulations, membership of the governing board of a public housing agency must include at least one person who is eligible to receive assistance from that agency. Meaning that at least one of the elected representatives has to be from Rockville Manor.

Residents of Old Mill Court, which Kondor said was privatized by Sen. Dean Skelos several years ago, no longer fit that bill — meaning that either Coleman's or Fielder-Boyd’s election to the board was invalid. The housing authority was given 14 days to find a suitable candidate for the seat.

It was this deadline, Kondor explained, that led to the last-minute executive session to dismiss the two board members — which Kondor said was done to avoid further issues with HUD, because he did not know if he could remove just one of the two. “Neither of those two were involved in that executive session,” Kondor said. “So if that’s wrong, I’m wrong.”