STEUBENVILLE — The Jefferson Metropolitan Housing Authority Board of Directors might have broken open meeting laws when all of its members met outside a public meeting to hire its new executive director.

Board members recently voted to hire Melody McClurg, an Ohio Valley resident who has experience as health care administrator, as their executive director. The board announced its decision Tuesday in an emailed statement that was not on formal JMHA letterhead.

Board member Gerald DiLoreto said the board did get together and make the decision to offer McClurg the job.

Because the board sat as a quorum outside of a public meeting to make a decision on an issue, county Commissioner Tom Gentile said Wednesday the meeting might have violated the law.

“I am extremely disappointed with the lack of respect for the sunshine laws with the two senior board members, who should know so much better than to do what they did,” Gentile said.

According to board President Dr. Frank L. Petrola, the board sorted through 41 applications it obtained after the position was advertised on Indeed.com. JMHA board members held interviews Sept. 24 at the Crossroads Christian Church in Wintersville.

Petrola said the board interviewed one applicant from Youngstown and another from Pittsburgh in addition to McClurg. He said the board offered the job to the woman from Pittsburgh, but the authority couldn’t afford her salary request. He said board members then determined they would offer the job to McClurg, but he also said the board did not meet formally or take a vote. McClurg was called last week.

Some questioned the hiring practices when longtime authority employee and property manager Gloria Martin said she was not aware of the open application period. She also said she gave her resume to board member Tony Morelli and declared openly at the Sept. 26 board meeting that she was interested in the position.

Residents and civil rights leaders — including Delores Wiggins and Royal Mayo — said they were concerned about the board’s decision to hold interviews outside of authority properties or at the authority’s offices in the JFK Apartments on North Sixth Street. They also questioned its decision to hold a government entity’s meeting in a church.

Wiggins, who is president of the Ohio Valley Black Caucus Inc., called a meeting Tuesday with members of the media to allege the board racially discriminated against Martin for not granting her at least an interview for the job. Martin has worked for the authority for 23 years and is president of the authority’s AFSCME employee union local. She has said she would have resigned the post if hired as the executive director.

Activists and residents also have asked why no one on the board is black. The board is comprised of one appointment by the mayor of Steubenville, one by the Jefferson County commissioners, one by the probate judge, one by a common pleas judge and a resident of JMHA.

“There is no racial issue with me,” Petrola said. “Gloria is in charge of the union and she is a union employee. We can’t hire someone in the union to oversee union employees, which she is doing now.”

Petrola also said Martin is manager of the JFK Apartments. He said the building looks bad and she hasn’t asked the board for additional help.

More than 60 residents signed a petition Monday supporting Martin. Various employees and residents voiced their support of her following Wiggins’ press conference.

McClurg’s hiring is one of a string of executive director issues that have faced the board in recent years. Those include hiring Pat Mader, a director who later said she was harassed by some board members during the summer of 2016 when allegations of violations of state open meetings rules were made.

Petrola and DiLoreto had refused to participate in the vote to hire Mader in October 2015. They said they had not been involved in the interview process. In the summer of 2016, they and board member JoAnn Welday voted to reassign Mader from the executive director position before hiring longtime JMHA employee Debbie Bailey to serve as interim director. The board named Bailey executive director that fall.

U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, has been monitoring the authority. Earlier this year, Johnson requested the resignation of Petrola, DiLoreto and Welday from the board to make way for new members.

“I’ll continue encouraging those who are responsible for appointing JMHA board members to choose wisely when making appointments, and select the best people for the job, irrespective of any affiliation,” he said. “While I don’t have the authority to make personnel changes or set meeting times or locations for the JMHA board, it’s been clear to me — and a large number of local residents — for some time that change at JMHA is needed.

“Moving forward, my staff and I will continue working with residents, local officials and HUD to improve the situation at JMHA properties for the betterment of the entire community,” Johnson said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

The executive director’s position was vacant because Bailey retired as of Sunday. The board did not name an interim director publicly.