Philadelphia Housing Authority is fiscally sound, reports audit firm hired by the agency

FORGET the public dollars spent on exotic belly dancers, designer Tumi luggage and filet mignon dinners at Poconos-area retreats.

Turns out, Carl Greene - the banished former executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority - ran a fiscally sound ship, according to an audit released yesterday.

"The authority is very healthy at the moment and they apparently have a lot of resources to do a lot of good things in this city, which they have been doing," said Gene Ristaino, an accountant with Isdaner & Company, an outside audit firm hired by PHA.

The rosy financial picture came at the first board meeting held by PHA since the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development took over the agency and forced the old board to step down. That board fired Greene last year after discovering that he had secretly settled three sexual-harassment complaints against him.

Estelle Richman, HUD's chief operating officer, has stepped in to oversee PHA as its lone board member.

"I'm the board for the Philadelphia Housing Authority," Richman said with a chuckle.

In detailing the Isdaner audit, Ristaino said PHA has done a good job of managing and growing its money and resources. The firm's accountants pulled a random sample of contracts, payroll records, invoices and client files. All appeared hunky-dory.

The audit didn't seem to square with recent findings and news reports of over-the-top spending by PHA under Greene, including nearly $16,000 for 20 Tumi bags and $1,200 for belly dancers to perform at a "diversity awareness" event.

Last week, HUD's Office of Inspector General released a blistering report that criticized millions of dollars spent by PHA on outside law firms. U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, who has been scrutinizing spending by public-housing agencies, said the federal report "sounds the alarm."

Yesterday, Greene's attorney, Clifford Haines, said Isdaner's findings come as no surprise. He suggested that the audit vindicates Greene.

"It raises serious questions about the fairness of the criticisms of both the HUD inspector general and Sen. Charles Grassley," Haines said.

HUD, which is independent of the Inspector General's Office, is conducting its own audit. Yesterday, Richman and Michael Kelly, PHA's interim executive director, said the HUD audit would be more comprehensive than the one done by Isdaner.