All nine members of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board have resigned following a scandal involving the CEO.

Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins, during a special city council meeting Wednesday, said eight of the members resigned by the deadline set by the city council, which was Tuesday, and the ninth resigned Wednesday.

“When you have a system failure you need a system reset,” Gaskins said during the meeting.

Gaskins said the council sent a letter Oct. 6 to all nine board members demanding they resign “due to serious governance failures.”

A lawyer for eight of the board members, Ugo Colella, told The Washington Post the board members agreed to step down, but denied what he called “inflammatory allegations” from the city council.

Gaskins said the city council lost confidence in the board because of breakdowns and failures, “and have caused us to determine that a new path and a reset is needed.”

The resignation of the board members comes after it was discovered this summer that Housing Authority CEO Erik Johnson was living in a highly sought-after public housing unit, as those who qualified for the unit based on their income sat on a waiting list. Johnson was placed on probation in August and later fired.

Johnson told the Alexandria-based news site ALXnow that he temporarily moved into a public housing unit in the Old Town neighborhood in July while transitioning residences.

The Alexandria City Council has appointed six new members to the board, and plans to appoint three more soon. Gaskins said the moves are about the future, “a future that we hope is marked by accountability, greater transparency and a renewed approach to oversight.”