Earlier problems for PHA chief emerge

Carl R. Greene's money woes did not start with the mortgage foreclosure on his South Philadelphia condominium, news of which surfaced this week.

Court records show the IRS filed a $52,000 lien in December against the executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, for non-PHA income earned from 2002 to 2006. He paid off the lien in March.

Other court documents indicate that the 53-year-old Greene has had more than personal financial issues.

In 2008, he was sued by a lawyer who said she was fired as PHA's top attorney because she would not "engage in any unethical practices."

The lawsuit, by New Jersey lawyer Maria Allen Phillips, described a strange and unsettling agency where she was not permitted to put anything in writing or have full access to actions pending against PHA. She came to believe that she was being kept in the dark about "secret cases" involving claims of "sexual harassment and wrongful termination" against Greene.

The suit was ultimately dismissed for "lack of prosecution," meaning she did not pursue it.

Attempts to reach Greene on Friday about the lien and the lawsuit were unsuccessful. Calls to the PHA management offices went directly to voice mail, and no one returned messages asking for Greene. Kirk Dorn, a public relations specialist who does contract work for the agency, said Greene had not responded to his calls either.

Greene has not spoken publicly since reporters discovered Thursday that Wells Fargo Bank had foreclosed on his $615,035 condominium in the Naval Square development in the city's Schuylkill section.

Greene is paid $306,370 as executive director of the PHA. He also received a $44,188 bonus last year.

According the Wells Fargo foreclosure suit, Greene had not paid his mortgage for five months, missing his first payment April 1. The missing payments totaled $7,295.89. Overall, he owes $386,685.22 on his mortgage.

Dorn on Thursday said Greene saw the matter as a "dispute with his mortgage company."

"It is unfortunate that the dispute is now public," Dorn said, "but he plans to deal with the matter in private."

Greene stopped paying his mortgage roughly at the time he was settling his dispute with the IRS, on March 17.

The lien was filed Dec. 28. According to the lien, Greene failed to pay $8,859.02 in taxes in 2002; $25,021.45 in 2003; $6,390.45 in 2005; and $12,479.44 in 2006.

The filing did not explain how the taxes were determined, but said the money owed fell under the category of "small business/self-employed."