Philly Coercion & Extortion: 300 Employees Sue PHA & Director Carl Greene for Years of Forced “Donations” to Keep Their Jobs, Plus Secret Sexual Harassment Settlements May Cost PHA HUD Funds
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on September 16, 2010
Happier times, before the lawsuits... PHA executive director Carl Greene at Nellie Reynolds Gardens, a new living community in Philadelphia for residents over 55 | Photo credit: Philadelphia Business Journal
Per the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Housing Authority executive director Carl R. Greene is currently on a leave of absence for “stress-related issues.”
Reading about this arrogant thug’s despicable handiwork at the PHA — the self-proclaimed “biggest landlord in Pennsylvania” — “stress” is the least of Greene’s worries about now.
Reported by Philly.com, 300 sue PHA over years of forced ‘donations’:
For years, Philadelphia Housing Authority workers grumbled about coughing up their hard-earned cash toward what they considered a slush fund for their boss, Carl R. Greene.
Yesterday, about 300 former and current PHA employees joined forces to collectively proclaim: Enough.
They filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that Greene and his executive staff browbeat them to contribute money for gifts and parties to celebrate Greene. They also claimed that PHA supervisors forced them to donate roughly $2.50 a week from their paychecks to a fund that Greene dubbed the “Pennsylvania Institute of Affordable Housing Professionals.”
The fund’s purpose was to “provide education to the community,” according to a state corporate filing. But four times a year, Greene tapped into the fund to throw events that included excursions to a Bucks County fun zone and a barbecue cook-off.
PHA Board Chairman John Street stopped the payments earlier this month, but by then, some employees say they had surrendered thousands of dollars.
“I resented all the money I had to give,” said former PHA staffer Jenelle Scott, the only plaintiff named in the suit. “I had no choice . . . It was like bribery. I knew I’d lose my job if I didn’t do it, and I have a daughter.”
The lawsuit claims that the coerced weekly payroll deductions violated federal law and asks the feds to slap PHA with a whopping monetary fine: Up to $100,000 for each infraction, or roughly $30 million.
PHA spokeswoman Nichole Tillman declined comment last night, saying that the agency hasn’t been served with the complaint.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court by two former PHA attorneys, Michael Pileggi and L. Kenneth Chotiner, seeks to bar further cash solicitations or paycheck deductions from PHA employees. The suit also seeks unspecified monetary damages.
Besides Greene, the suit names Dianne Rosenthal, assistant executive director of finance and administration; Richard Zappile, PHA chief of police; former PHA spokesman and contractor Kirk Dorn, and Asia Coney, who runs Tenant Support Services Inc. (TSSI), a nonprofit PHA subsidiary.
The lawsuit claims that Greene, through Zappile, sought donations ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 from PHA vendors and contractors to TSSI. PHA officials have said the donations went toward a scholarship fund for students living in public housing. But the lawsuit alleges that the money paid for a “lavish” party celebrating Greene’s 10th anniversary as executive director.
Last month, PHA’s Board of Commissioners suspended Greene with pay after it learned that Greene had settled three sexual-harassment claims, totaling $648,000, without board approval. Greene is on leave, while he gets inpatient treatment for a stress-related condition.
From The Ledger, Philly housing worker: We had to pay to keep jobs:
PHILADELPHIA – Public housing workers in Philadelphia were forced to pay into a slush fund used to lobby for federal money and throw lavish parties for their boss or risk losing their jobs, a former assistant to the director charged in a lawsuit.
The potential class-action lawsuit is the latest problem for the embattled Philadelphia Housing Authority, already the subject of several federal investigations.
Long-celebrated executive director Carl Greene is on leave after the exposure of secret agreements the agency made to pay $900,000 to a string of female employees who accused him of sexual harassment.
Federal prosecutors, along with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, are reviewing the sex payments along with other spending and management practices under Greene.
The sprawling authority gets most of its $345 million budget from HUD.
Former Greene aide Jenelle Scott charged in her lawsuit Wednesday that about 300 employees were coerced to pay up to $130 a year each toward a slush fund to keep their jobs. Most did so through weekly payroll deductions of about $2.50.
Nearly $100,000 collected from 2006 through this year went to the nonprofit Pennsylvania Institute of Affordable Housing Professionals.
Greene’s unbridled corruption creates even more woes for PHA — sexual harassment complaints (and payoffs) have been raised against him, reported by Philadelphia Inquirer, PHA may have to repay HUD for harassment-claim payouts:
By secretly settling sexual-harassment complaints against its executive director, the Philadelphia Housing Authority runs the risk of having to repay the federal government for the money it paid out.
Under federal guidelines, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development must approve any settlement relating to sexual harassment, regardless of the amount, said spokeswoman Donna White.
The payments at the center of the PHA crisis – all made to women who filed complaints against Carl R. Greene – were carried out without the knowledge of the agency’s board and without informing HUD, which provides most of its funding.
White said she could not directly discuss PHA because of an ongoing HUD investigation. Speaking generally, however, White said settlements reached without HUD approval could be ruled “ineligible or unreasonable.”
If that were to occur, White said HUD could demand to be reimbursed for payouts.
In the three sexual-harassment cases that have been settled, PHA’s insurance company – Housing Authority Risk Retention Group – paid $401,000. The remaining $247,000 was covered directly by PHA, according to information in internal PHA documents obtained by The Inquirer. A fourth case, filed in April, is under settlement talks, and the agency has offered the woman $250,000.
Asked to comment, a spokeswoman for PHA, Nichole Tillman, insisted that the Housing Authority did not have to seek approval from HUD. She did not elaborate.
However, in an e-mail response to The Inquirer, John F. Street, PHA’s chairman, said he agreed that the authority could have to repay HUD.
Last year, PHA received $359 million in government grants – most of which came from the federal government. PHA also brought in $22 million for services and earned $14 million from investment income.
[...]
Greene, 53, has been suspended by PHA’s board, pending an internal investigation. In addition, auditors from HUD and investigators from the U.S. Attorney’s Office are examining the agency’s finances and operations.
Revelations about the sexual-harassment complaints against Greene came on the heels of disclosure of his personal financial problems.
In June, Greene’s bank foreclosed on his $615,000 townhouse at Naval Square, and the IRS placed a lien of $52,000 on his assets for taxes on unpaid income. Greene has since repaid the bank and IRS.
Before being suspended by the PHA board, Greene, who last year earned $306,370, had sought a leave of absence. He is being treated at a medical facility in Maryland for stress-related issues.
Grabbed this blurb from PHA’s website… looks like “sexual harassment” and “extortion” and “browbeating” were left out:
he Philadelphia Housing Authority, also known as PHA, is the biggest landlord in Pennsylvania.
We develop, acquire, lease and operate affordable housing for city residents with limited incomes.
Our funding comes primarily from the federal government. We also work in partnership with the city and state governments as well as private investors.
Although we are a public agency, we operate in many ways like a private property management company. We employ the best practices of the private real estate industry.
PHA was established in 1937 and is the nation’s fourth largest housing authority. We house about 81,000 people in the City of Philadelphia and we employ 1,150 people to deliver services to our clients. Our budget totals $347 million.
It’s our policy to serve our customers without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, having AIDS, physical handicap, or disability.
And for some employees, it was a living hell. Welcome to Philly.
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