Lackawanna Mayor Norman Polanski is crying foul over the appointment of a new director of the Lackawanna Municipal Housing Authority by its board of commissioners earlier this week.

“They pulled a shady deal,” Polanski said Friday, referring to the board of commissioners’ appointment of Laurent Swanson to replace Thomas Radich.

Radich issued a news release Thursday, announcing that the board on Tuesday had appointed Swanson who, it was noted, is the first African-American director of the Lackawanna Municipal Housing Authority in its 76-year history.

“As a result of the constant interference and hampering of our agency by the mayor, I decided that it was best for me to move on,” Radich said Friday.

“I’ve had a target on my back from the mayor since he took office in 2005, and that’s mainly because I didn’t support him for election,” Radich added.

Radich confirmed that he and the Housing Authority board negotiated a buyout of the remainder of his contract, which was set to expire on Jan. 31, 2011. The value of what was left on the contract was worth about $110,000, but Radich said a buyout of $50,000 was negotiated.

Polanski on Friday insisted that Radich’s resignation and the appointment of a new director was orchestrated to keep City Hall from attempting to make much-needed changes at the authority. Radich, Polanski said, was on the on verge of being removed by the authority board, anyway, because the Lackawanna Housing Authority had failed its last three inspections by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

“As long as they appoint the director, they call the shots and City Hall can’t. We were going to clean up municipal housing,” Polanski said.

The mayor said he removed the two elected tenant representatives on the seven- member authority board just before Tuesday’s meeting, when Radich’s resignation was accepted and Swanson’s appointment as director was approved.

“Dorothy Glover and Mary Rodriguez were removed because they did not take their oath of office,” Polanski said. “They ignored my removal and now I am resigned that we’re going to have to go to court to settle this.”