Come back, Tumi: PHA tells workers to return those gift bags

Looking for luxury leather-trimmed Tumi luggage but can't afford the steep price tag?

Worry no more. The Philadelphia Housing Authority just might have a deal for you.

The agency that provides housing for the city's poor needs to unload 20 snazzy, used Tumi carry-on duffel bags. The bags typically retail for $995, but PHA bought them from Nordstrom at a bargain $796 each.

Former PHA Executive Director Carl R. Greene purchased the bags for $15,920 with taxpayer money in September 2009. Greene kept one bag for himself and gave the others to senior staffers as gifts. Greene gave them the bags to use for PHA's annual retreat in the Poconos.

Tuesday night, four days after the Daily News wrote about Greene's hoity-toity purchase, PHA Interim Executive Director Michael P. Kelly told the staffers in an e-mail that they must return the bags by noon today.

"The public was rightly outraged," Kelly said in the e-mail. "Frankly, I also found the expenditure outrageous.

"Please understand that I am not criticizing you for accepting this item, but I do want to make a statement that the gift was not an appropriate expenditure of PHA funds," he wrote. "Whatever money we get for the bags will go back in the agency's general fund."

Among those who received a bag: Dianne Rosenthal, assistant executive director of finance; Carolyn Carter, assistant executive director of operations; Shelley James, chief of staff; Richard Zappile, chief of PHA police; and Fred Pasour, general counsel.

Staffers who no longer work for PHA but received a bag will be sent a letter asking them to return it, said PHA spokeswoman Nichole Tillman.

PHA's Board of Commissioners fired Greene in September after learning that he secretly settled three sexual-harassment complaints against him. Greene denied the allegations.

PHA will attempt to return the bags to Nordstrom, Tillman said.

It's unclear if Nordstrom will accept the bags - the Townhouse Moorgate model, a wheeled, carry-on duffel - after more than a year of wear and tear.

Nordstrom has a reputation for ultra customer-friendly service.

But the company has no formal return policy, according to Nordstrom spokesman Colin Johnson.

"We do it on a case-by-case basis," Johnson said. "It's up to the store manager." PHA purchased the bags from Nordstrom in the King of Prussia Mall.

Scot Fontaine, a Philadelphia wardrobe stylist who owns a Tumi bag, said that while the luggage is known for longevity, he doubts that Nordstrom would give PHA a refund.

"If they were brand new and unopened, they would," he said. "But if it's been used for awhile, I doubt it."

Kelly told staffers that if they want to keep the bag, "we can determine a depreciated price for you to pay."

"Although the bags were a gift from the company, I want to also use this occasion to announce a general policy regarding employees accepting gifts: Effective immediately, PHA employees may not accept gifts of any value connected to their job," Kelly wrote.

Used Tumi Townhouse Moorgate duffels are hard to find on eBay and other bargain websites. A new one, but with "defects," is listed on eBay for $585.