The Schools Development Authority inadvertently released personal identifying information of its employees late last year and then promoted the acting director of the department responsible for the data leak, NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey has learned.

The Nov. 12 data leak — which included employee Social Security numbers and other details — prompted the authority to notify the state police of the incident and warn employees to "remain vigilant" about their financial accounts and credit reports, since the information that was released could be used for identity theft or to open fraudulent accounts, according to a letter obtained by the Network.

The Nov. 16 letter notifying employees was signed by acting human resources director Miguelina Diaz, who was hired by Chief Executive Officer Lizette Delgado-Polanco in a restructuring that is now the focus of an internal audit and has prompted a push for the authority to be abolished and folded into the Economic Development Authority.

Delgado-Polanco has defended the restructuring, in which longtime employees were fired and people with family or professional connections to her were hired, within her purview as the authority's leader. Some of the employees appear to have limited backgrounds for the jobs they have — the authority has declined to provide job descriptions — and former employees say their replacements lack qualifications.

The Schools Development Authority has had nearly $11 billion in construction under its management the past decade and was created after an earlier state operation charged with building public schools in the poorest parts of New Jersey wasted millions of dollars and ran out of money before finishing half of its planned projects.

The authority has said the new staff members are all "highly qualified." That includes Diaz, who had been on the job as acting director of human resources less than a month when the department sent an email to all of the roughly 230 employees of the authority concerning annual re-enrollment for benefits.

That email included attachments that, according to the letter, "inadvertently contained personally identifiable information" such as "name, Social Security number, age, date of birth" and more.

The letter said that "as soon as the inadvertent transmittal of confidential data was discovered," the authority recalled the email and deleted it, as well as the attachments, from all inboxes and authority-issued mobile devices. And administration official said the email was recalled 12 minutes later. Still, "some NJSDA employees opened the email and may have accessed, or even printed, the attachments," the letter said.

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Employees were asked to delete the email and attachments and "immediately destroy" all attachments that were printed. The authority also "strongly" advised affected employees to enroll in a credit monitoring program it offered.

"We sincerely apologize and regret any concern or inconvenience this incident may cause you," Diaz wrote in the letter.

Some time later, Diaz shed the "acting" title, and she is now the human resources director at a salary of $127,500, according to payroll records, the same amount her predecessor earned.

Diaz had come to the authority from the janitorial services company SBM in Edison, where she had been a field manager since 2010, her résumé says. SBM employees were represented by the Service Employees International Union, where Delgado-Polanco formerly worked.

Two other authority employees were hired by Delgado-Polanco from SBM, including Ana Alvarez, who works for Diaz in human resources, records show.

Another employee under Diaz is Jenna Arcila, the daughter-in-law of authority Deputy Chief of Staff Patricia Arcila Cabrera. Arcila Cabrera is friends with Delgado-Polanco and worked with her at the SEIU.

In a statement last month, authority spokesman Tony Bianchini said that Arcila Cabrera "does not supervise" Jenna Arcila "or otherwise have any control over the terms of her employment." Arcila is listed in payroll records as being paid $65,000 a year as a benefit administrator, which Bianchini called an entry-level position.

"Consistent with ethics requirements, Ms. Cabrera immediately disclosed her relationship to Ms. Arcila to the Human Resources, Ethics and Legal departments and completed the appropriate recusals," Bianchini said.

Rob Nixon, the authority board chairman, said in an interview Friday that "at a minimum it's sloppy" for the breach to have happened.

"It’s inconvenient," he said, adding that the authority took the necessary steps to try to rectify the accident. "But should it have happened? No. But I think they’re trying their best to make sure everyone involved is protected."