Karen Heller: PHA needs a long-overdue airing out

So it appears to be all over for Carl R. Greene, except the payout.

Greene's polished attorney, Clifford E. Haines, made clear at the PHA board's public meeting Thursday that his client was "undergoing medical diagnosis and treatment." This was part of a defense for a full payout of two years' salary and benefits, pursuant to the contract.

The board stressed that members knew nothing about previous settlements of sexual-harassment claims, which would be in violation of Greene's contract and thereby void the need for a substantial severance.

Greene "could have built a billion houses, but if he sexually harassed one woman on his staff, he's gone," board chair and former Mayor John F. Street made clear.

But what's also clear, as Street cracked jokes, and Debra Brady chewed gum, and Jannie L. Blackwell chewed out the press, and PHA resident Nellie Reynolds waved her arms in the air, is that board members remained in the dark about how the PHA operated under Greene.

"Thirteen days ago this was among the very best housing authorities in the country," Street said, "but that was 13 days ago, and, boy, have things changed."

Which is nonsense.

What's changed is an avalanche of allegations and revelations by current and former employees emerging from the gulag of Greene's 12-year PHA tenure.

"People criticize him because they say the highway is littered with Carl Greene roadkill," Street said, "but every time I turn around, people are clapping and cheering and moving into new houses."

This is the Fumo Defense: Yeah, he's a creep, but he gets (expletive) done.

Unquestionably, Greene improved housing in Philadelphia. But he was an autocratic manager prone to abusive behavior, resulting in four sexual-harassment suits (not counting the Detroit one that was pending when Philadelphia hired him and that was resolved out of court two years later).

The board and tenant activists wrung their hands Thursday, worrying that, without Greene, public housing would revert to the bad old days.

Which is also garbage.

That's what oppressors do: make supporters believe that the system will fall apart without their leadership.

But the new houses still stand. The authority - its executive offices now a mausoleum filled with Greene photos - still functions. Under new management, PHA will not implode.

But who will clean house?

As allegations of financial shakedowns, a dubious charity, and a culture of fear and retribution mount, we know that Greene ran a housing authority of terror. Former employees who left the agency years ago remain so fearful of Greene's wrath that they won't give their names or leave phone numbers.

The feds are swarming upon Philadelphia, the U.S. Attorney's Office working with the FBI, as well as the Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general, yet the board ordered its own investigation, which is so Philadelphia.

Why have two crack government entities auditing the agency when you can make taxpayers fund a third?

I'm sure some city law firm somewhere has yet to profit from the various cases that have clogged PHA's drains during the last dozen years. (On Friday, Haines questioned the need for the board to have its own investigation of misconduct when the state Human Relations Commission and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are charged with that responsibility.)

Meanwhile, the PHA board needs serious renovations.

"I am baffled, like most Philadelphians, to learn of your contention that you, as board chairman, had no knowledge of the sexual-harassment cases brought against Mr. Greene," Nutter wrote Street on Wednesday. He suggested, "What's needed is the bright light of public scrutiny on an authority which, sadly, may be suffering from a lack of appropriate oversight."

To which Street countered, "He's just talking. He has to say something."

Oh, man. It is so on.

It's Street vs. Nutter the rematch, the Mashup on Market, the Thrilla in Phila.

Nutter needs to seize some control. The mayor appoints two board positions, those currently held by Blackwell and Street, who reappointed himself in May 2007 while he was still in office. His term ends in September 2011.

Blackwell's term expired in September 2008; she's still there. Where was Nutter? Though her commitment to the poor is consistent and laudable, Blackwell is not a reliable Nutter ally on Council. She often breaks with him on ethics reform, the central issue of his mayoral campaign. She was the sole Council holdout in the vote to blow up the odious Board of Revision of Taxes.

Controller Alan Butkovitz, who controls two PHA board positions, is also accountable for the weak oversight, especially as he's the city's top fiscal watchdog.

He reappointed Democratic boss Bob Brady's wife, Debra, in January, even though she routinely misses meetings, 11 of 15 from February 2009 through this June. In the Gee, Small World Department, Mrs. Brady's day job is working for Fumo ally and coconspirator Mitchell Rubin at Philadelphia Writ Service.

Butkovitz's other appointee is local AFL-CIO chief Patrick J. Eiding, whose union benefits from virtually all PHA construction and maintenance projects. Eiding missed six meetings during the same time frame. His membership is up this month.

"It's not good. I'm on the [city] Pension Board, and I'm at every single meeting," Butkovitz said last week.

Strong, tough board leadership is needed to secure an effective, principled manager.

If Nutter's the reform mayor he campaigned to be, and Butkovitz is the tough auditor he claims to be, they'd better take control and bring that "bright light of public scrutiny."

Now is the time to clean PHA's house.