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The Boston Globe

Metro

US may tell Chelsea to repay $7m in grants

Federal housing officials may demand that the Chelsea Housing Authority return $7 million in grants, charging that the agency filed false and deliberately misleading reports to obtain the money under disgraced former director Michael E. McLaughlin.

Housing and Urban Development officials have been trying for months to document what happened to the millions in grants that were supposed to pay for modernization of low-income apartments from 2002 to 2009, but that McLaughlin apparently diverted to pay everyday expenses and higher salaries for himself and key lieutenants.

Comments

Chelsea has always been a cess pool of political corruption! All public and private agencies that were involved with McLaughlins crooked gang should be held accountable. And Mikey McLaughlin  should never see the light of a free day after he is sentenced!

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when society builds a bridge over a city and isolates it, that community develops its own rules and functions without contact with the rest of the world. every time you drive over chelsea, think of that. be inclusive.

The Feds forgot to indict Ewing. Hopefully they will very soon. His "contract" needs to be voided. 

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oh? was tenant selection a problem this time around? i believe the article said that was his job under mclaughlin. the level of pay is a different problem, and that would not make him indictable as long as the commissioners offered it.

think back to the days when al gore was vp and charged with reducing federal government by a third. that action decimated hud and  other federal agencies to the point of being unable to do their jobs well. if you want better service, you will have to pay for people to do it. i believe that most rating of performance might be audit-based, in which case the feds would rely on information provided by an certified independent auditor. interested people should be asking to read the notes in the audits over the past 10 years, then make your judgmental statements and be ready to pay higher taxes. 

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That's right, lets blame the victim.  It wasn't the crook's fault he stole the money, it was the taxpayers fault they didn't keep him from doing it.

 No wonder these guys think they can get away with it.

The people of chelsea were cheated and the 7 million should be extracted from those in chelsea government and others responsible for the oversight of the housing authority.  increase in chelsea taxes to be paid by its citizens would be unfair. 

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Where was the state auditor during this time? Oh that's right. He, and now she, are of the same ruling party as McLaughlin, Murray and their cronies. He/she wouldn't want to bring anything to light that would challenge the lemming voters of this state's view that their Democratic minders could do any wrong.

Imagine that $7M is given by the HUD anpaper trail trail or receipts exist for where it went.  It takes a Globe story to find out all of this.

And the Governor wants to raise taxes.  For what?  For out of control departments and bureaus like the Housing Authority?  Let's cut spending first and guarantee to have in place a better, more accountable oversight and swift action -- on every project that is funded by the state through us, the poor taxpeayer.  And why is it always the media that ends up being our watchdog and policeman?  Doesn't our state (and local) government exist to serve and protect us from the many and varied abuses and corruption we hear about almost every day?

How about a claw-back and putting the Chelsea Housing Authority into federal receivership?