Home Forward made it official this morning that CEO Ivory Mathews is resigning as the leader of the state’s largest housing authority. Her resignation is effective Friday. It follows WW’s reporting that she spent more than $100,000 on agency-funded travel in recent years even as the agency struggled to fill apartments and saw its finances deteriorate.
Mathews will receive a severance package of six months’ pay—$171,424.80—as well as six months of COBRA health insurance and accrued vacation time. Home Forward also agreed to pay her up to $50,000 in outplacement services to help her find her next job. The agency says her interim replacement, Michael Buonocore, is expected to make $275,000 a year, a significant savings from Mathews’ salary of $342,000.
Now that Mathews is on her way out, the public pressure has shifted to the agency’s board of commissioners. The nine-member board is responsible for hiring and firing the CEO, approving the agency’s $300 million annual operating budget, and making sure the agency is fulfilling its mission of housing low-income county residents…