The recently ousted executive director of the Lackawanna Municipal Housing Authority returned to work Wednesday and is vowing to remain in the post despite being warned that he faces arrest for trespassing.

The authority’s board of commissioners removed Laurent Swanson from the post on Tuesday. In addition, the board purged two tenant representatives from their seats and fired its legal counsel.

Still, Swanson was back in the executive director’s office Wednesday as about 50 people held a demonstration outside authority offices at 135 Odell St. to protest the board’s actions the day before. Swanson said he received a letter from City Attorney Arcangelo J. Petricca, informing him that he had until 5 p. m. Wednesday to vacate the premises or face trespassing charges. Swanson said he left at 2:30 p. m., but plans to return to work when the authority offices reopen Monday.

Meanwhile, Lackawanna Mayor Norman Polanski Jr. on Wednesday accused Swanson of “throwing the housing authority into chaos” by not turning the reins of the authority over to Robert McManus, the deputy director who was appointed interim director by the authority board on Tuesday.

“Laurent doesn’t have a contract; the board rescinded his contract,” said Polanski. “No one is going to sign [Swanson’s] paycheck because he has no authority.”

Despite the fact that Swanson and the two ousted elected representatives on the board are African- Americans and the four board members who voted to remove them are white, Polanski said the board was not racially motivated in its decision.

“This is not a black/white issue; it’s an issue of who can run [the housing authority] properly. I do not believe that a laborer turned executive director can run this place in a proper manner. You have to have some type of managerial experience,” Polanski said.

Swanson, 28, said that while he started out as a laborer for the authority in 2005, he has for the past two years been running the housing authority’s Youth and Adult Resource Center, which provides adult education services and after-school programs for youth in the city’s housing projects.

“There are no specific qualifications for the [executive director] position, and I have more [formal] education than the mayor,” Swanson retorted.

Polanski also denied that he orchestrated Swanson’s removal or the dismissal of the two tenant representatives on the housing authority board. Polanski said he merely informed the board that the tenant representatives were in violation because they had not sworn their oath of office and the board took the appropriate action in removing them. “They should let a judge or [the Department of Housing and Urban Development] . . . settle this,” Polanski said.