Sanford, a city of 37,327 permanent residents, is 30 miles north of Downtown Orlando.

To aid that investigation, the Inspector General's office and the FBI raided the authority's headquarters and broke into the locked office of resigning executive director Timothy M. Hudson to seize 106 cartons of files and eight computers.

Hudson arrived after the raid and tried to retrieve his personal computer but was blocked by police. Hudson told authorities he wanted his computer to finish drafting a sermon for the Shower Down the Blessings Deliverance Church which he founded and directs.

Hudson, a private commercial developer, is leaving the authority April 20 after running the board for five years. He denies HUD charges that he and the board mismanaged about $1 million in federal funds since he took office in 1996. He makes $113,000 a year as the authority's executive director.

The five-member board, currently stripped to four members, turned on Hudson even as the HUD raid was about to begin. The board ignored Hudson's decision to stay on until April 20 by naming Richard Moore of Stephenson & Moore, an Altamonte Springs, FL-based accounting firm, to replace him immediately.

The city commission is allowing the board's four members to run the authority until May 1 but city hall insiders tell GlobeSt.com that will be an almost impossible chore without the seized computers and records.

Board chairman Edward Blacksheare, and members Shirley Allen, Emory Blake and Bernard Brown challenged the mayor and the city commission by refusing to resign. Blacksheare has previously denied to HUD in a separate civil action investigation any collusion with Hudson on alleged mishandling of federal monies. Ida Stephens resigned from the authority before HUD's civil investigations began in March.

HUD owns six buildings totaling 480 units rented to low-income families. Boarded up and awaiting repairs are 120 units. HUD calls the authority a troubled agency and has told the city it will approve all future new members, including a new executive director.