In Harrisburg, Street, Nutter testify about PHA scandal

HARRISBURG - The two men sat on opposite sides of the carpeted hearing room, each with his own entourage, and studiously avoided eye contact.

And when it came time to testify Thursday before the state House Urban Affairs Committee, Mayor Nutter and former Mayor John F. Street - longtime rivals - staked out polar-opposite positions on whether the board of the Philadelphia Housing Authority deserves much of the blame for the scandal that has engulfed it and brought down its executive director, Carl R. Greene.

Nutter, in a measured yet firm tone, asserted that the board - chaired by Street - had given Greene "at every turn a free hand to do as he wished, when he wished." He advocated changing the board's structure to give the mayor the power to appoint the majority of its members.

Street, dramatic and animated, countered that such a change would not have prevented the problems plaguing the authority. Greene was fired last month following revelations that the agency had settled three sexual-harassment complaints against him without informing the board.

"The problems that bring us here today are, by and large, Carl Greene's personal problems," Street told the committee. "They happened because Carl Greene deliberately, intentionally decided to violate board policy" on settling lawsuits.

Not that Nutter heard a word of it. The mayor - whom Street recently derided in an Inquirer interview as "not a black mayor . . . just a mayor with dark skin" - left the hearing before Street began talking.

Rep. Curtis Thomas (D., Phila.), who chairs the committee, held Thursday's hearing with the announced purpose of reviewing the state's housing authority law, which was enacted in 1937 and created housing authorities across the state, including Philadelphia's. Any revisions would have to wait until the legislature's next session, which begins in January.

Even so, Street and Nutter's testimony zeroed in on whether the structure of Philadelphia's board, established under that 73-year-old law, needs an overhaul.

Two of five PHA board members are appointed by the mayor and two by the city controller. The fifth member is a tenant representative elected by the other four.

Nutter argued Thursday that the division of the four appointments between him and the city controller leaves ultimate board authority ambiguous.

He also said Philadelphia's board structure does not exist anywhere else in Pennsylvania, or any other major American city. Erie, Reading, York, and Harrisburg all have boards chosen by the mayor and confirmed by the city council, he said.

"What we're left with today is the legal relic of an entity that is virtually like no other," Nutter said.

Nutter also recommended other changes at the authority, including reviving the post of inspector general. He said that the authority had not had this watchdog position since 2009 - and that the person who held the position for a decade before that had been handpicked by Greene.

Gov. Rendell, through a spokesman, has said he would favor the mayor having four of the five appointments, with the fifth still being the tenant representative elected by the other four.

Street, acknowledging that some changes were needed, insisted that "the Philadelphia Housing Authority isn't as broken as you might think."

"This board rejects the idea that lack of oversight had anything to do with Carl Greene's aberrant behavior," said Street.

He added: "Do I think that this authority needs some reform? Yes. . . . Do I believe that changing the format and deciding who puts the chairs on the deck is going to make a difference? No."