Nutter taps 9 for Philadelphia Housing Authority board

In a major step toward restoring local control of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, Mayor Nutter has submitted to City Council the names of nine candidates for the agency's Board of Commissioners.

Resolutions for each nominee, introduced Thursday by Council President Darrell L. Clarke, are likely to be voted on before Council's last session on Dec. 13.

Since March 2011, PHA has been under the control of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with only one commissioner, Estelle B. Richman.

One of the conditions for returning the federally funded agency to local control was strengthening how the authority is governed. Previously, PHA had five commissioners and, unlike other cities in the state, the office of the mayor only appointed two members.

The nominees are:

Joan Markman, the city's chief integrity officer.

Lynette Brown-Sow, vice president of marketing and communications for Community College of Philadelphia.

Nelson Diaz, a former city solicitor, Common Pleas Court judge, and general counsel for HUD.

Herbert Wetzel, former executive director of the Redevelopment Authority and now a housing expert for City Council.

The Rev. Leslie Callahan, pastor of St. Paul's Baptist Church in North Philadelphia.

The Rev. Bonnie Camarda, director of partnerships for the Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia.

Shellie Jackson, a PHA tenant who lives at the Hill Creek Apartments in the Northeast.

Vernell Tate, also a PHA resident and president of the tenant council at the Spring Garden Apartments.

Kenneth A. Murphy, a partner at the law firm Drinker Biddle.

The previous PHA board was pressured to resign after the 2010 firing of former Executive Director Carl R. Greene. HUD, which provides most of PHA's budget, believed that the previous board was too lax and that PHA lacked stringent checks and balances.

Under a law the General Assembly passed this year, the size of the board was expanded from five to nine, and the mayor's nominations were subject to Council approval.

Clarke noted that for the first time, Council has a say in the makeup of the PHA board.

"We are intimately involved in providing affordable housing for residents across the city, so it made sense for Council to have some involvement," he said. "We anticipate this will be a strong board."

Richman said she, too, had a lot of confidence in the nominees, particularly Markman. She said that if approved, the commissioners would need a few months to settle into their new roles, but that HUD hoped to return local control by next March.

Before that happens, however, there are some legal issues that have to be resolved, Richman said. HUD and its inspector general's office have determined that under Greene, PHA spent excessively on outside lawyers. The department and the Office of Inspector General are in the final process of determining how much the authority will have to repay the federal government, she said.

Kelvin Jeremiah, PHA interim executive director, also endorsed the selections. He said that over the last two years, the authority had enacted stronger internal controls, hired new management, bolstered its internal legal department, and created a new audit and compliance department.