PHA suspends 4 high-ranking execs appointed by Greene

The times they are a-changin' at the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

Last night, unexpectedly, four high-ranking appointees of banished former Executive Director Carl Greene were suspended.

The four bigwigs - Carolyn Carter, assistant executive director of operations; Dianne Rosenthal, assistant executive director of finance and administration; Linda Staley, executive general manager of partnership resource development, and Fred Pasour, acting general counsel - will collect their six-figure salaries while suspended, but they are not permitted on PHA property, according to three PHA sources.

Michael Kelly, PHA interim executive director, did not return a call from the Daily News.

"I can confirm that Michael Kelly has placed four executives on paid leave. PHA values the privacy of our employees and will not be providing the names of these individuals," spokeswoman Nichole Tillman wrote in an e-mail.

Tillman declined to explain Kelly's reason for removing the four. The Daily News could not locate home phone numbers for Carter and Pasour. Staley did not return a phone message. Rosenthal hung up on this reporter.

Nellie Reynolds, a PHA board member, said she was taken aback by the development.

"I haven't gotten a complete story on it. I heard tonight that something happened to them," Reynolds said. "It made me really nervous. It's so sudden. It just kind of unnerved me. . . . I'm sure this is just the beginning."

Former Mayor John Street, who heads PHA's board, declined to comment.

The shake-up comes amid allegations of runaway spending on legal fees to outside law firms. From 2007 to mid-2010, PHA paid $33 million to 15 Philadelphia firms, including $9 million to Ballard Spahr, the firm that former Gov. Ed Rendell recently rejoined.

Four federal agencies - the FBI, U.S. Attorney's Office, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and HUD's Office of Inspector General - have launched investigations that focus on PHA spending under Greene.

The board fired Greene last September after discovering that he secretly settled three sexual-harassment complaints against him for $648,000. He also authorized Pasour to settle a fourth claim against him for $200,000. One of the four women had reported her sex-harassment claim to Carter. Carter and Pasour dismissed her claim, according to a Sept. 23 report issued by PHA's board.

Kelly, who took the helm of the battered agency two months ago, has pledged to usher in an era of fiscal accountability. Yesterday, he replaced Pasour with Helen Ferris as acting general counsel. Kelly also named Janea Jordan as the acting director of PHA's Audit and Compliance Unit.

Kelly wants to cut spending dramatically on outside legal fees and have most of the work done by in-house legal staff.

HUD has told PHA that it would not provide money for future legal services until the agency explains past payments to outside counsel, the Inquirer reported this week. HUD spokesman Jereon Brown has characterized PHA's bills for outside legal services "excessive," far above what other major housing authorities spend.