The new city Housing Authority board made its debut Wednesday, but its members may soon be following up with a swan song.
Mayor Bloomberg announced the seven appointments Tuesday with only three months left in his term — and in January, all seven will get a new boss.
And the new mayor — whoever it is — now has the right to remove all seven NYCHA board members without a hearing.
Two of the new board members are also mayoral appointees to city jobs: Diahann Billings-Burford, director of the city’s NYC Service agency that supports volunteerism; and Kyle Kimball, president of the NYC Economic Development Corp., which subsidizes business and development.
On Wednesday, Republican mayoral hopeful Joe Lhota said if he’s elected, each Bloomberg appointee will have to submit his or her resignation when he arrives.
The GOP candidate said he “believes strongly in a fresh approach that will bring in people from all five boroughs who will look at serving the people of the city in a new light.”
His Democratic rival, Bill de Blasio, wouldn’t say if he’d keep the board, but has said in the past that he’d fire one board member — NYCHA Chairman John Rhea — if he wins the race for City Hall.
“We need new leadership at NYCHA and a mayor ready to own the responsibility of protecting our 600,000 tenants,” he said through a spokesman.
Bloomberg’s spokeswoman, Julie Wood, said the ball is in his successor’s court: “The mayor’s position is that these board members are excellent. The next mayor will have to make his own judgment.”
The new law creating the current board removed the provision that required a hearing to ax a board member. The mayor can now remove board members at will, but must “make the reasons for such removal available to the public.”
On Wednesday the board met for 30 minutes but four of the new appointees asked not a single question.
