Fired Philly housing chief reportedly seeks millions to settle lawsuit

Carl R. Greene, the fired Philadelphia Housing Authority executive director, is demanding about $4 million to settle his lawsuit against the agency's board, according to two sources familiar with the case.

Attorneys for the PHA board said they received the "demand letter" this week from Greene's attorney, Clifford E. Haines.

"It's obviously absurd, the idea that he would demand any money," said Richard A. Sprague, who is representing the PHA board members.

"I think the citizenry should be outraged at this," Sprague said. "There's not going to be any settlement."

The sources with firsthand knowledge of the case confirmed that Greene was demanding about $4 million but declined to provide the precise amount of his demand.

"It's millions," said a third person close to the case.

Asked in an e-mail to comment about Greene's demand, PHA Board Chairman John F. Street had one response: He wrote, "Ha Ha!" - 64 times in an e-mail.

The former mayor has vowed there would be no settlement with Greene and has said the board should consider a countersuit against the former director.

In an interview Thursday, Haines would not provide reporters with a copy of the demand letter but said it essentially was a call to "get this settled before there's more blood on the floor."

He said the letter suggested that if the case moved to the deposition stage, when he would question board members under oath, he could ask some embarrassing questions.

"I leave it to them to read between the lines," Haines said.

Haines spent much of the interview lashing out at Street for his public sacking of Greene and said it should have been handled as "a private matter."

"He's created this monster for an employee," Haines said. "He's thrown him under the bus and run him over."

"I don't care if your name is John Street or Jesus Christ, you don't do that to people," he added.

Haines said the board was unjustified in firing Greene under the contract - which he called the "tightest employment contract I've ever seen."

"Short of a crime against PHA, they can't terminate him," he said.

After allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against Greene in August, the board voted to place him on "administrative leave." A month later, he was fired after the board, led by Street, determined that he had failed to inform members of three sexual-harassment claims against him that had been settled for $648,000. A fourth, pending settlement had also been kept from the board.

Virginia Wilks, a resident leader for the Richard Allen and Gladys B. Jacobs public housing developments, called Greene's settlement demand "ludicrous."

"That's a disgrace," she said. "I hope they don't give him a red cent."

"Are they delusional?" asked John Elliott, a lawyer representing Elizabeth Helm in the pending complaint. Helm, a former PHA interior designer, alleges that Greene made sexual advances during a business dinner.

"It's mind-boggling, the audacity of that serial sexual harasser," Elliott said.

Greene sued the board Sept. 7 in federal court, arguing that commissioners violated his due-process rights and breached his employment contract with the housing authority. He has denied all of the sexual-harassment complaints filed against him.

Greene alleges in his lawsuit that Street defamed him and invaded his privacy and says the board, in its internal investigation, could not prove that he had committed a single impropriety.

Greene joined the housing authority in 1998. In 2007, Street renewed his contract based on Greene's strong performance. The contract could be terminated only due to acts demonstrably detrimental to PHA.

In addition to Street, the members being sued by Greene are City Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell; Debra L. Brady, wife of U.S. Rep. Bob Brady; AFL-CIO leader Patrick J. Eiding; and PHA resident leader Nellie W. Reynolds.

Blackwell is also represented by three lawyers from the firm of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads because she believed there had been a lack of due process.