PHA workers shout for more change

At first, the meeting felt like a tent revival with former Mayor John Street at the pulpit, bellowing that this was a new day for the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

It quickly morphed into a raucous bitch session as workers booed Street and called for the toppling of PHA's top management and its board.

"We need new clean fresh troops," one PHA manager shouted into a microphone, evoking laughter and applause from the more than 1,000 workers who attended yesterday's mandatory staff meeting at the Convention Center.

Her comment came after Street tried to assure workers that the agency would emerge better than ever post-Carl R. Greene. The board fired Greene last week, after learning that the longtime executive director had secretly settled three sexual-harassment claims against him.

Street told employees that they were in good hands with three top managers: Dianne Rosenthal, assistant executive director of finance and administration; Carolyn Carter, assistant executive director of operations; and Shelley James, chief of staff.

The response was lukewarm, at best, with just a smattering of faint claps - perhaps because Street said in a recent report that some managers were well aware of the claims against Greene.

According to the report, former employee Moneke Thomas first reported her harassment claims against Greene to Carter, who shared an "intimate relationship" with Greene. Carter "thought they were engaged," according to the report.

And James wrote the letter firing attorney Mark Foley after Foley insisted that Thomas' charge against Greene and the settlement of the case be brought before the board.

PHA workers were not shy about their frustrations. They told the board that they were mad about everything, including a pension rollback, having to work without a contract, late overtime pay and vindictive supervisors.

"Everybody is getting money. But you know who is not getting the money?" bellowed PHA foreman Dwayne Doram. "It is not the ladies and the men right here who worked under the roaches and the rats, and all that old bad trash. . . . We want to know why you won't take care of the real workers of PHA."

"You can always tell when somebody is speaking from the heart," Street said. "This is the kind of stuff that we need to hear."

One by one, board members tried to tell workers that things would turn around. Board member Debra Brady, a businesswoman and wife of U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, the city's Democratic chief, apologized for arriving late, saying she couldn't find parking.

"I am and have been speechless about everything that we are learning," she told the crowd. "I can't even believe that you people were made to work under such horrific conditions."

There were snickers and sneers from the audience and she quickly left the podium.

Street tried to garner support and empathy when he told workers that he still wakes up in the middle of the night asking himself, "How could I not know?" about all the allegations against Greene.

At that point, one worker stormed out. "Who does he think we are, stupid?" he asked. "It's bulls---. He knew. Everyone else knew. We knew he knew."