It's a downward spiral for America's worst HUD Secretary, ever:
After Philadelphia's housing director refused a demand by President Bush's housing secretary to transfer a piece of city property to a business friend, two top political appointees at the department exchanged e-mails discussing the pain they could cause the Philadelphia director.
"Would you like me to make his life less happy? If so, how?" Orlando J. Cabrera, then-assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wrote about Philadelphia housing director Carl R. Greene.
"Take away all of his Federal dollars?" responded Kim Kendrick, an assistant secretary who oversaw accessible housing. She typed symbols for a smiley-face, ":-D," at the end of her January 2007 note.
Cabrera wrote back a few minutes later: "Let me look into that possibility."
The e-mails, obtained by The Washington Post, came to light as a result of a lawsuit provoked by HUD's decision last September to strip the Philadelphia Housing Authority of as much as $50 million in federal funds. In December, it declared the agency in violation of rules that underpin its ability to decide precisely how it will spend federal housing funds. Kendrick was the official who formally notified the authority that she had found it in violation.
HUD has argued publicly that this decision was not related to the demands by HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson that Greene turn over a $2 million vacant city lot to Kenny Gamble, a friend of Jackson's. HUD officials have said that Greene was not punished for his defiance.
Uh huh. In the real world, we call that bullshit.
On the date these e-mails were sent, HUD notified the housing authority that it had been found in violation of rules requiring that 5 percent of housing be accessible to disabled residents. The department later argued that because the authority refused to acknowledge it was in violation and to agree to a specific remedy, it was in violation of a broader agreement that put $50 million in federal funding in jeopardy.
This week, Greene sent copies of the e-mails to Sens. Arlen Specter (R) and Robert P. Casey Jr. (D) of Pennsylvania. Greene called the e-mails evidence of HUD's retribution for his refusal to give public property to Gamble. He urged the senators to demand that Jackson and his deputies explain their motives. Jackson is set to testify about HUD matters today before the Senate Banking Committee.
Casey said that he has "serious questions" about the e-mails and that "80,00 low-income Philadelphians deserve answers."
"This is the kind of stuff you read about in novels, not what you expect from government officials," Greene said in an interview. "It would appear they would carry out a vendetta against me even if it means damage to an entire city."
You can't make this stuff up. 80,000 poor people in a large American city are victims of one greedy, slimy, oily crony--and his name is Alphonso Jackson. He should never, ever be allowed to serve in a position of public trust again. He should never, ever get another chance to strip clean the dignity of his office and run a Federal agency like it's the back room of a precinct house in a corrupt, podunk town. Run him out of town on a rail, and and put him down as another example of why you ask serious, detailed questions in a confirmation hearing. As in, what are your qualifications and if you don't have any, please have the decency to withdraw your nomination.
I could sit here, sunup to sundown, and I could write thirty posts a day and, of course, my big sister Blue Girl would lap me and do 61 herself, and we couldn't even scratch the surface when it comes to accurately and thoroughly detailing the lawlessness and the petty, small-minded greed that we see from this Administration.
h/t to Shortstop. THIS story deserved its own post.
No comments:
Post a Comment