PHA’s Greene fired; attorney claims ‘vendetta’

The Philadelphia Housing Authority board voted 4-1 to immediately fire the agency's executive director, Carl R. Greene, for allegedly engaging with subordinates in a conspiracy to conceal four sexual-harassment claims.

The charges were outlined a document that characterized Greene "a serial sexual harasser" who repeatedly preyed on women.

The only vote against the firing was cast by City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who has been a staunch Greene supporter.

The cases date to 2001, and were part of a pattern in which Greene allegedly would offer women raises and promotions but let them know they could only advance if they had sex with him.

Board Chairman John F. Street, the former mayor, had repeatedly insisted that Greene should be terminated if it could be proven that he was guilty of even one case of sexual harassment and the board had not been informed of it.

Street praised Greene's work as a director but added: "He's a flawed genius, he is like a great athlete with a drug problem, he is like the Tiger Woods of public housing.

"He has fundamental character flaw that will forever obscure his work as the greatest executive in the history of the Philadelphia housing authority," Street said.

The document presented to the board identified women who had alleged Greene made inappropriate comments about their private lives, called them at all hours, and pressured them to spend more time with him after work.

Earlier Thursday, an attorney for Greene accused former Mayor John F. Street of waging a "vendetta" against Greene and said he will complain to the state's bar disciplinary board.

Clifford E. Haines said Street, chairman of the PHA board, had no authority to conduct a "public" investigation into charges that Greene sexually harassed women employed at the agency.

A report submitted today to the PHA board by Street said Greene should be terminated immediately for engaging with subordinates in a conspiracy to conceal four sexual-harassment settlements.

Haines attacked the report's findings.

Greene was never asked for his version of events, said Haines, and added that Street did not have the "authority" to investigate Greene and release the results.

"The resolution of those disputes are in a courtroom . . . they do not belong on a street corner, " he said, referring to a lawsuit he has filed on Greene's behalf.

"Doing it in a public fashion is not appropriate," and violates Street's ethical responsibilities as an attorney, said Haines.

"He can't hold a license to practice law and act the way he is acting."

"I intended to notify the disciplinary board that his behavior should be reviewed."

Haines also said Greene is now being treated in on an outpatient basis, but said he could not provide any other details of Greene's medical condition. Greene was suspended from his job last month pending the outcome of the investigation.

The 12-page document called Greene "a serial sexual harasser" who "mentally tortured, physically assaulted, and professionally damaged" four female employees.

It described a "modus operandi" in which Greene would pick a target, change her job so that it brought her in close professional and/or physical contact with him, then insist on going out socially "under the guise of discussing work with her."

He would then offer raises and promotions, the report states, "then explicitly maintain that the only way that the subject of his unwanted attention could obtain said raise and promotion was to have sex with him."