WHA board ousts Moreau as director
Following months-long probe, Housing Authority terminates employment of Robert Moreau
WOONSOCKET – Former Woonsocket Housing Authority Executive Director
Robert Moreau’s contract and employment were terminated by the WHA’s Board of Commissioners during a special meeting Thursday night, after an independent law firm found he had demonstrated “disturbing failures” while filling the role.
The Board voted 6-0 to terminate Moreau’s employment agreement, which itself was a subject of the investigation, and 5-1 to terminate his employment at WHA, with Vice Chair Steven D’Agostino as the dissenting vote.
Moreau had been on paid administrative leave for almost six months following a letter from the accounting firm Marcum, that highlighted three instances of alleged wrongdoing involving Moreau and two other senior WHA employees, who were also placed on leave. In response to that letter, the board hired the law firm Whelan Corrente & Flanders LLP to conduct an independent investigation into “alleged financial irregularities,” which was released on March 17.
“These failures were characterized by a near-complete disregard for [U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development] policies and WHA rules, regulations, and budgets, coupled with senior leaders’ repeated disavowal of any responsibility and deflection of blame to others,” according to the report.
Robert Corrente, the attorney who prepared the report, declined to comment, as he is
still investigating some additional incidents that “came to
light” during the first investigation. He confirmed that the
Board of Commissioners voted to allow him to continue the investigation.
Both Corrente’s report and the Marcum audit allege Moreau and then-Security Director Roger Biron, now on leave, knew they were overspending on a contract to provide additional 24/7 security to the authority’s properties but failed to inform the Board and HUD.
The report goes on to accuse Moreau of deliberately “misrepresenting” his knowledge of the cost of the security contract when he wrote to the HUD in May 2021 requesting retroactive relief for the costs. WHA
overspend on the security contract by over $600,000, though the Marcum audit and Corrente’s report have a $24,588 discrepancy in the total payments to the security firm.
Moreau, who requested the meeting take place in open session, defended his actions in a statement before the board Thursday night.
“I was the person who shined a light on the fact that we went over the [private security firm] NES contract,” Moreau said. “If I was engaged in any wrongdoing, I would not be writing to HUD to highlight it. From my perspective, we – and I put we in bold in my notes, meaning not just me, but Procurement, Finance and others – made a harmless mistake in not catching the issue sooner. Why do I say harmless? Because no matter what the cost was, we needed the security 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep these residents safe from getting sick and keeping them alive.”
The audit and the investigation also took issue with Moreau’s own administrative contract. When Moreau became the permanent executive director in December 2018 (after serving for six months as acting executive director), he signed a three-year contract, which was “the subject of detailed discussion and negotiations” with the Board of Commissioners, according to Corrente’s report. The contract was accepted in January of 2019.
Less than a year later, in December of 2019, the board approved a new contract, which included a new three-year term with two automatic three-year renewals for a potential total of nine years. Under current HUD regulations, public housing authority directors cannot serve terms longer than five years.
Moreau said he drafted the new contract to restart the three-year cycle so he could continue working at the WHA, and that he followed the same process in presenting his draft to the board in 2019 as he did with his original contract in 2018.
“That I wanted to stay as long as possible is now being turned around on me, as if there is something wrong with that,” Moreau said. “From my perspective, there is nothing wrong with loving your job and wanting to keep it as long as you can. It is important for you to know that nothing about the 2019 agreement to start fresh was a secret.”
Corrente’s investigation, however, alleges that the December 2019 meeting when the board approved the new contract was the first time any of the commissioners saw it, and that there was no discussion or negotiation. At least two commissioners were under the impression they were approving a contract for a shorter term than they really were, according to Corrente’s investigation.
Moreau also alleged that Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt called several commissioners between December 2018 and January 2019 and asked them not to appoint Moreau as director.
Baldelli-Hunt said she thought Moreau was referring to his original 2018 contract, when he was made permanent executive director rather than acting executive director. She said that at the time, she had suggested that the commissioners post the job opening before appointing Moreau, and that even though it could have ended in the same outcome, she thought it important to post the opening and see who responded.
The new 2019 contract also gave Moreau, rather than the WHA, the option to renew, and stipulated that a “for cause” termination would require unanimous rather than majority approval from board. The “for cause” provisions in this contract were the subject of lengthy procedural discussions at Thursday’s meeting.
Because of the structure of the agreement, the board took two separate votes to end Moreau’s employment at the WHA. The first was to uphold four charges of wrongdoing, as supported by the evidence in Corrente’s report and Moreau’s testimony before the board, which constituted “cause” as defined in Moreau’s employment agreement to terminate the agreement itself. The four charges of wrongdoing corresponded to the findings of Corrente’s investigation and the Marcum audit.
The board discussed and voted on each of the charges independently, determining whether the evidence they’d been presented in Corrente’s investigation report and Moreau’s statement was strong enough to support terminating the agreement, before voting on a resolution that grouped them together into a single action.
“Do I feel bad about it? Yes, I do,” Chairman Michael Houle told The Call. “But everything was supported by physical evidence. Everything we’ve done is based on facts.”
The second vote was to end Moreau’s employment at WHA, as it’s possible to remain an employee without an employment agreement. The board offered no discussion, and D’Agostino voted against ending Moreau’s employment.
The third instance of noncompliance found in the Marcum audit and addressed in Corrente’s investigation was a series of “merit” payroll increases awarded improperly to Biron and Human Resources Director Katrina Lapierre, currently on leave.
These raises went unapproved by the board and HUD, violating WHA and HUD policy, and caused the WHA to exceed its payroll budget, Corrente’s investigation found.
Moreau said he never had to get permission from the board or HUD to award raises, and defended the reasons for awarding them to Biron and Lapierre, which had to do with extra work they each took on.
“In my 13 years, I was never trained to have wage rates, or any other compensation decisions, approved by HUD,” Moreau said. “Before you discipline someone for something, it is important to know whether that person was aware of the rule or was trained in how something should have been done.”
Moreau’s attorney, Carly Iafrate, said they will have to look at all their options, which may include going to court to seek enforcement of Moreau’s contract.
“Obviously there was an employment agreement in place we think was enforceable,” Iafrate said.
Current acting executive director Visiliki “Celia” Milios declined to comment, saying she has “no idea” what comes next for the WHA and that she thought everyone was “emotionally drained” after the three-hour meeting.
Biron’s hearing before the board takes place on Thursday, and Lapierre’s has not been scheduled yet, according to Houle.