Former aide to Carl Greene says he was forced out for warnings on spending

A former aide to fired Philadelphia Housing Authority Executive Director Carl R. Greene alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday that he was effectively forced out of his job for warning of improper spending on political and lobbying activity.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court focuses new attention on two PHA-funded nonprofits already under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Greene's former executive assistant, Vincent Morris, alleges that his boss reacted with "rage" to his warnings that the spending appeared to violate federal rules and alleges Greene threatened to demote him and cut his pay, which "ultimately forced his resignation."

PHA's annual budget of about $347 million comes almost entirely from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and there are strict rules governing how the money can be used.

In his suit, Morris contends that the retaliation for his warnings violated his right to free speech, and that his punishment for bringing wrongdoing to the attention of his superiors was a violation of Pennsylvania's whistleblower protection law. He seeks more than $100,000 in damages from PHA, Greene, and other agency executives.

A spokeswoman for PHA, Nichole Tillman, said the agency would not comment until it was formally served with notice of the court action.

The lawsuit contends that Greene failed to notify HUD that PHA was using federal money to lobby Congress, "despite the fact" that one nonprofit it gave money to, the Pennsylvania Institute of Affordable Housing Professionals, said in writing that its money was partly for "lobbying and political expenditures."

A second nonprofit, Tenant Support Services Inc. (TSSI), paid postage for almost "11,000 letters to the U.S. Senate" and for a bus trip by PHA residents to protest federal budget cuts, the suit said. Greene is on the TSSI board, and the agency receives about $450,000 a year from the authority.

"Morris' complaints about these expenditures were met with rage and retaliation" by Greene, the suit alleges.

In an interview Thursday, Morris said he started working at PHA in 1999 but quit in April after Greene threatened to slash his pay by a third.

"I was being demoted and reduced in salary, and it was going to change my pension," Morris said. His lawyers said his salary of about $100,000 a year would have been reduced by $30,000 if he had not resigned.

Morris said his relationship with Greene exploded when he raised concerns about the accuracy of an audit of TSSI's spending.

"I was very concerned that there was no way to track money through TSSI," he said.

Morris is represented by Michael Pileggi and L. Kenneth Chotiner, two former PHA attorneys who sued the agency after they were fired several years ago. In recent weeks they have filed four lawsuits on behalf of current or former PHA employees.

Greene was fired from the agency last month for secretly settling three sexual-harassment complaints against him. A fourth is pending.

His attorney, Clifford E. Haines, said in an e-mail that he had not been served with a copy of the lawsuit. "I can't comment on any lawsuit I know nothing about," he wrote.

He suggested the PHA board had some responsibility, asking, "Are these issues that were brought to the board's attention?"

The affordable housing institute was established in 2006, run by PHA executives, and funded with money from PHA's nonunion employees and private-sector landlords. About $300,000 remains in the nonprofit's account.

White-collar professionals at the agency were asked to contribute to the nonprofit $2.10 a week, deducted from their paychecks. Those deductions were halted in August.

Employees were told that although their contributions were going to a nonprofit, only half the amount was deductible from federal income taxes because the other 50 percent was "allocated for lobbying expenses and constitute nondeductible contributions for federal income-tax purposes."

Kirk Dorn, a former PHA spokesman, has said lobbying money was never spent and remains in a fund at the agency.

The deductions were unpopular, and some PHA employees said they felt pushed to contribute despite the supposed voluntary nature of the program.

Morris said that during his 11 years with the housing agency, a number of issues concerned him.

"Things were unethical and borderline criminal," he alleged.

He was the PHA employee assigned to work with TSSI, which was run by public-housing tenant leader and Greene ally Asia Coney, who was paid $102,000 a year.

Morris contends Coney required him to serve as treasurer of a political action committee she operated called Equity PAC, which since 2005 has received about $132,000 from a variety of city political candidates. The money was used for get-out-the vote activities on election days, but since 2006 has failed to account for more than $100,000.

Morris said that was because he refused to sign the PAC's state-required expenditure reports.

"He reviewed its books and records and found discrepancies . . . [and] refused to sign the PAC's state filings that others had prepared for his signature," the lawsuit says.

The Inquirer reported on Sunday that since 2005, Equity PAC has received contributions from prominent politicians that were used for "street money" to pay people to get out the vote.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has subpoenaed TSSI's records, including all e-mails from Coney, as part of a probe of the authority. It has also sought records of the professional housing institute.

Though Equity PAC registered with the state in 2005, it has filed only one report in Harrisburg, accounting for the $22,000 it received in 2005.

The registered address of Equity PAC is a PHA building at 1401 W. York St. in North Philadelphia that also houses a tenant organization that Coney leads.