Interim PHA chief imposes no-gifts policy for employees

At his first board meeting of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, Michael P. Kelly, the interim executive director, said Thursday his goal was to create "a culture of respect" at the beleaguered agency.

Kelly said he intends to establish clear policies on sexual harassment and ethics, create greater transparency and accountability, and bring the agency "back to basics" in providing housing for the city's poorest.

In one of his first acts since joining PHA five weeks ago, Kelly imposed a no-gifts policy for all employees, after the disclosure this week that his predecessor, Carl R. Greene, gave 20 senior staffers Tumi luggage that cost $796 apiece.

Thirteen staffers returned the bags Thursday, Kelly said, and two asked to buy them from PHA for a depreciated price of $644. The agency has sent letters to five former employees, asking them to return the luxury gifts.

The bags will be returned to Nordstrom, where they were purchased, or possibly sold on eBay, Kelly said.

Of such lavish use of public money by his predecessor, Kelly said, "The staff now gets it."

In outlining his agenda, Kelly, on loan to PHA from the New York City Housing Authority, said the agency would train employees about sexual harassment.

Greene was fired in September after the board discovered that he had secretly settled three sexual-harassment complaints for a total of $648,000. A former employee who filed a fourth complaint was found to have probable cause for her claims of harassment, according to a recent finding by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

Greene has denied harassing women and has sued the board over his firing.

Kelly has signaled he will quickly address areas at PHA in need of what he called "corrective action."

Among his priorities, he told the board, was rebuilding the agency's legal department and having in-house lawyers handle most cases instead of farming them out to law firms.

Kelly said he was also creating an auditing department that would report not only to the executive director, but also to the five-member board of commissioners. His goal, he said, is to "root out waste and abuse."

Greene, by contrast, had broad leeway to change the scope of construction projects and increase budgets without board approval.

Since Greene's firing, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has begun a forensic audit of the agency, and the FBI is working with the U.S. Attorney's Office in a wide-ranging investigation.

Kelly said HUD auditors were still in the fact-finding stage and had not given him a draft of their findings.

Also Thursday, Greene's attorney notified U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) that some material the senator had requested about PHA legal work was legally protected and should not be released.

Grassley, incoming ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked 20 law firms on Tuesday to provide details about their PHA work since 2003, including documentation of how much they were paid and written summaries of the work.

In his response, Greene's attorney, Clifford E. Haines, said he had asked all the firms to "be mindful of their duty of nondisclosure of privileged information about my client."

Haines, who received the same letter from Grassley, said he assumed the senator would "respect the rule of law, which contravenes some of the requests that you have made."

In an interview after faxing the letter to Grassley, Haines said that some invoices that law firms submit contain highly specific information and that not everything "is subject to public scrutiny."

Haines previously had invited Grassley to interview Greene. Grassley's office did not respond to that invitation or comment on Thursday's letter from Haines.

PHA has said it is working with the law firms, including Haines', to determine what can be released.