A cardboard box of legal files seen in the arms of an FBI suit possibly uncovered a link between the recent raids of law offices and city agencies and a South Philadelphia public-housing project.
FBI agents hauled away 60 boxes of paperwork from the office of politically connected attorney Ronald A. White during a warranted search last Thursday night. Among those documents taken into federal custody were some labeled "Tasker Homes."
The Philadelphia Housing Authority is amid a $168-million redesign and reconstruction of the old 40-acre Tasker Homes housing project, near 31st and Tasker streets.
On Friday, federal agents presented a subpoena to PHA officials requesting they turn over files of at least 30 companies, banks and consultants with which the housing authority does business. White’s law firm was among them, said PHA spokesperson Kirk Dorn.
The housing authority is cooperating with the investigation, and Dorn said the FBI has been "extremely accommodating." PHA and FBI officials were expected to meet this week to work on a schedule to deliver the subpoenaed documents. Dorn predicted it could take as long as a month for PHA employees to compile the files, but added it could be done faster at the FBI’s beckoning.
Also subpoenaed were personal communication devices — such as BlackBerry e-mail transmitters — used by some of the agency’s officials. The feds have not asked to talk to PHA executive director Carl Greene yet, Dorn said.
"We presume that if the FBI wants to look at PHA’s files, that they would want to talk to the head man at the agency," Dorn said. "So if and when they make that request, it’s not going to surprise us."
PHA has hired White — one of Mayor John Street’s biggest fundraisers — on numerous occasions since 1999, Dorn said, and the agency’s file of contracts with the attorney is "voluminous." The FBI has not explained why it wants the White records or any of the other files, he added.
White is one of many attorneys the housing authority uses for various projects. In the case of Tasker Homes, Dorn said, White did the legal work for the bond issue PHA is using to the fund the project.
"We’re having to speculate, and since Ron White does work for us and works for the city, we’re presuming it’s all part of that same [investigation]," said Dorn.
But the connection ends there, he claimed.
PHA is a federally funded agency that operates independent of the city, Dorn said, adding no city funds are being spent on the Tasker Homes project. The funding came from private sources — mostly through the sale of bonds. This was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Office of Housing and Community Development, the agency in charge of locally distributing funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
But the housing agency’s board of commissioners does include two mayoral appointees –Street’s chief of staff, Joyce Wilkerson, and Third District Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. Two more members were appointed by City Controller Jonathan Saidel — Debra Brady (wife of U.S. Rep. Bob Brady) and AFL-CIO president Patrick Eiding. Those four members elected a fifth member, Nellie Reynolds.
Board members must approve all PHA contracts, including those with White, and the general contractor, Keating Building Corp., which is managing the work at Tasker Homes, Dorn said.
Keating, based in Center City, is a mid-level contributor to Mayor Street. Since 2000, the company has given $15,250 to his campaign, including a $10,000 donation by CEO Daniel J. Keating 3d made in June 2000.
While the scope of the FBI’s corruption investigation into the city’s administration remains unclear, many have speculated it involves the city’s "pay to play" policy of awarding contracts — meaning the city favors doing business with companies that have fattened Street’s campaign kitty.
Dorn immediately denied that such practices govern PHA.
"I can say unequivocally it has no effect whatsoever," he said. "Our selection of contractors at Tasker is done through a bidding process. Unlike the city, we don’t have no-bid contracts here."
The bid process is federally mandated, explained Dorn. PHA does not require its contractors to hire subcontractors using similar methods.
Demolition of the old Tasker Homes began a year ago. The former 1,000-unit public-housing project is one of several PHA properties undergoing extensive reconstruction.
The goal is to create a mixed-income neighborhood that is incorporated into the surrounding Grays Ferry community. For 63 years, Tasker had been isolated, not only by economics but also by the layout of the streets serving the development, which were not contiguous with the roads in the area.
The first phase of construction includes 245 houses, all of which will become rental units occupied by former residents displaced by the construction. Other homes to be built in two subsequent phases will be for homeownership and will be sold at market-rate prices.
PHA officials are calling the redevelopment the "jewel of the PHA portfolio." Construction is scheduled to be completed by December 2006.
