This is a classic example of slimy government drones paying off even slimier government drones with taxpayer money. These scumbags don’t give a crap, because it is your money. Carl Greene is about the biggest lowlife you can imagine. He is a walking sexual harrassment suit. All that is required to get a top job in Phila is that you be black. Fast Eddie Rendell stole this prize away from the Detroit Housing Authority even though he already had a sexual harrassment lawsuit pending in Detroit. Didn’t Eddie ever hear about checking references? This is the guy responsible for housing the free shit army in taxpayer subsidized low income housing estates like Mantua Square.
They paid this dirtbag $350,000 per year, which was more than the PA governor and Phila mayor made combined. Even though he made this kind of money, he defaulted on his mortgage. On July 27, 2010, Wells Fargo filed a foreclosure action in the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Court of Common Pleas, seeking to cure a default of $386,685 on a $400,000 mortgage for Mr. Greene’s condominium and primary residence which was valued at $615,035. Such residence located in Naval Square, a Toll Brothers condominium development on the site of the former Philadelphia Naval Asylum. The Philadelphia Inquirer further revealed that Greene also repaid over $52,000 in back taxes owed in 2010 to settle a lien placed against him by the Internal Revenue Service.
On August 19, 2010, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “Charges of sexual misconduct have shadowed Greene since his arrival in Philadelphia in 1998 from the Detroit Housing Commission. In his former job, a housing-agency auditor accused Greene of kissing, touching, and fondling her, and promising her a promotion if she “submitted to his demands.” Rendell, who as mayor at the time headed PHA, hired Greene and gave him a contract that ensured his job even if he lost the Michigan case. The case brought by Gertrude Faye Johnson was settled out of court on the eve of a trial”.
At PHA, at least two other cases of sexual harassment have been made against Greene. Melissa Shingles, a former senior management specialist at PHA, filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in 2004. The case was closed in 2006 after a settlement was reached between the sides.
John M. Elliott, an attorney for Elizabeth Helm, a 29-year-old employee of the authority (PHA), has charged Greene of “serial predatory sexual misconduct.” Elliott alleges that Greene promised her a promotion in her capacity as an interior designer and planner at PHA, if she submitted to his sexual advances. In a letter outlining Helm’s sexual-harassment complaint, Elliott wrote that Greene “insisted” that Helm meet him after work April 12, 2010 at the bar of the Prime Rib Restaurant at 1701 Locust St. to discuss PHA-related matters. Elliot calls her the “most recent victim” of Greene’s pattern of sexual harassment. Helm had worked at PHA for about a year. The night of the incident, Greene praised her work and said he was processing her promotion paperwork. He then made advances including “touching, grabbing, and groping her,”. Despite her insistence that he stop, Greene “continued to forcibly and physically pursue inappropriate and unwanted contact of an intimate nature.” Elliot states that Greene admitted to Helm that his contact was unwelcome, stating as he grabbed her, “I know that you don’t want to kiss me.” Helm filed a complaint April 30, and an investigation opened May 13. An out of court settlement of $250,000 was offered on August 24, 2010.
On August 25, 2010 the PHA board suspended Mr. Greene for 30 days, after receiving a subpoena for documents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office working with the FBI. The PHA said it would proceed with its own investigation into the latest sexual harassment claim (and the first three, claiming it had never been notified of their existence -due to technicalities in the settlements- which to its surprise exceeded $650000). HUD launched its own probe as well.
This guy is a slimy lowlife and Phila taxpayers just paid him $625,000, on top of the $4 million he was paid in salary and the hundreds of thousands paid out in sexual harrassment settlements.
Phila. Housing Authority, ex-director Greene settle for $625,000
Jennifer Lin and Mark Fazlollah, Inquirer Staff Writers
The deal was first announced as a tentative agreement by the agency’s interim executive director, Kelvin Jeremiah, at PHA’s monthly board meeting Friday. The sides then signed the agreement at 5 p.m.
Clifford Haines, an attorney for Greene, called the settlement “reasonable and fair.”
Jeremiah said the agreement was “the right decision” and noted that Greene originally sought $4 million.
“Mr. Greene was asking for $4 million, then $2.5 million, then $1.5 million,” Jeremiah said. “This was a hard-fought case.”
Greene sued PHA in federal court on the grounds that the agency had no cause to fire him and that it owed him $743,000 in lost income plus damages. The trial began Jan. 29 and included testimony from former Mayor John F. Street, PHA’s chairman from 2004 until 2011, as well as former Gov. Ed Rendell.
The trial was to resume Monday, but Haines said U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter would be notified of the settlement. He said he did not expect that the parties would need to appear in court.
Haines said testimony and the settlement went “a long way to restoring the integrity of Mr. Greene’s name.”
Greene was fired Sept. 23, 2010, on a 4-1 vote by PHA’s board after commissioners discovered that he had settled multiple sexual harassment complaints without telling them.
Three of the women who filed complaints against Greene and were paid settlements were set to testify.
John Elliott, an attorney for one, Elizabeth Helm, said Greene had engaged in “egregious misconduct and now apparently is being rewarded.”
“It’s a sad day for the taxpayers to have public funds spent in that manner,” he said.
In a statement, PHA said the settlement “closes a tenuous chapter in PHA’s history.”
PHA noted that the agreement ensures that Greene will be unable to pursue any further lawsuits against the agency or its former board.
However, the settlement does not protect Greene from “any claims, known or unknown . . . involving fraud, misappropriation of funds, or any criminal acts.”
Federal officials continue to investigate PHA’s activities during Greene’s tenure.
Originally, Greene’s lawsuit included claims that his civil rights were denied and that PHA’s board had defamed him. Buckwalter eliminated those claims, leaving only the question of whether PHA breached its contract agreement with Greene.
Under that pact, the agency could only fire Greene for cause if it could prove that his behavior caused material financial damage to the agency.
Street said he did not support the settlement.
“I stand by the action of the board in dismissing Mr. Greene for cause,” Street said in an e-mail. “The irony of Mr. Greene getting more money than any of the victims in this case is stunning.”
Street noted that Greene, who took the stand for one day, was not cross-examined and the women were not able to testify.
“This settlement sends the wrong message to every potential victim of sexual harassment as well as every potential perpetrator,” Street said.
PHA had spent more than $1 million on its defense and had exhausted the coverage provided by its insurer. That meant that with the start of the trial, the agency was paying for its lawyers out of its own budget.
Street, in an investigative report presented to the board, called Greene a “serial sexual harasser.”
The board dismissed Greene not only for the sexual harassment complaints and the way they were handled, but also said that he created a hostile work environment and abandoned his duties, and that his personal financial problems set a bad example for tenants. His behavior, it asserted, damaged PHA.
For the first time at the trial, Greene testified about the events leading up to his termination. Haines, his lawyer, said the current PHA leadership had done the right thing by reaching the agreement, but criticized Street and said his report to the board “was not an investigation at all.”
“It was the sole opinion of chair,” he said. “It was a mean-spirited, uncalled-for, personal attack that should not have happened.”
