Ethel Tomlin, a member of the housing authority's tenant council, and Angelia Gordon, president of Angelia Gordon Property Management Co., maintain to GlobeSt.com they have done nothing improper or illegal.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, an agency that frequently is under fire itself for alleged lax monitoring of various licensed enterprises, accuses Gordon of mismanaging the Destiny Springs Condominium Association's financials in Maitland, FL, an Orlando suburb.

The Destiny Springs project has nothing to do with the Sanford Housing Authority.

Gordon, a professional property manager for 25 years, denies the charge. "I have asked for an administrative hearing (with the state agency) and will argue the state didn't fully investigate the complaint (against her by the condo association)," Gordon tells GlobeSt.com.

Tomlin couldn't be reached for comment but a representative from her office tells GlobeSt.com Tomlin could consider resigning her post as treasurer and bookkeeper of the tenant council to resolve any conflict of interest issue. The housing authority supervises the tenant council.

Tomlin confirms she accepted a $200 Christmas bonus last year from an $1,800 kitty in the tenant council's account. Eleven other persons in the tenant council's office also received bonuses of $120 to $220 each, Tomlin says.

The federal money was supposed to have been used for community services at HUD's six low-income apartment communities housing 1,200 residents.

Sanford's new mayor, Brady Lessard, selected the authority's five new members and continues to support them. "The mayor feels they are the very best candidates for the positions," an aide in his office tells GlobeSt.com.

The ruckus comes as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general pours over 120 cartons of housing authority files seized two weeks ago in a raid by FBI agents and HUD investigators at the authority's headquarters in Sanford, 30 miles north of Downtown Orlando. The inspector general's office is looking for alleged criminal violations by the housing authority.

After a six-week investigation, HUD's civil litigation division accused the housing authority's former five-member board of negligent property management and ordered the board to repay HUD $750,000 of improperly spend federal funds.