PHA moves toward settling sexual-harassment complaint against former head Carl R. Greene

The Philadelphia Housing Authority is moving toward settling a fourth sexual-harassment complaint against former Executive Director Carl R. Greene for $500,000 - twice what it was offering a year ago.

If Elizabeth Helm, who complained of a series of unwanted advances, accepts the offer, it would push the amount PHA has paid to deal with allegations of sexual harassment against Greene to nearly $1.2 million.

The allegations by Helm, a former interior designer at the agency, blew the lid off PHA, exposing a culture of fear, abuse, and secrecy at the agency Greene had led since 1998.

Just weeks after details of her complaint became public, Greene was fired last September when PHA's board learned that the agency had secretly paid $648,000 to settle three other complaints against him. Former Mayor John F. Street, who was PHA's board chairman until last March, called Greene a "serial" sexual harasser.

The PHA offered to settle Helm's complaint in August for $250,000, but Helm refused because the deal included a confidentiality clause like the three secret settlements. Two of those complaints were filed against Greene in 2004 and a third in 2008.

"It was another instrument of intimidation," said her lawyer, John M. Elliott. "They wanted to set a trap: We'll pay you X dollars, but you have to keep this confidential."

"But this is the public's business," Elliott said. "And it will be done in public."

Clifford Haines, an attorney for Greene, said he only learned on Monday of the possible settlement, spelled out in a draft resolution for the PHA board. He said he had not been consulted.

"If your figure is correct," he said, "they are paying 100 percent more than they agreed to a year ago. I can't imagine what would justify that."

Greene is suing the authority in federal court, contending he was denied his right to defend his reputation before the board.

Helm, 30, said Greene had previously made offensive remarks to her, but on April 12, 2010, she alleged, he made physical advances, "touching, grabbing, and groping her" during a dinner. He pressured her to attend, she said, ostensibly to discuss a potential promotion.

After that, she sought a leave, and on April 21, Elliott sent a letter to PHA's five commissioners as well as to Mayor Nutter and Gov. Ed Rendell. It described the dinner incident and a hostile workplace where Greene, 54, intimidated employees while the board looked the other way.