Winds of Newark Housing Authority: Now That's Family Values

[5Reasons]

I, Mr. 5 Reasons, am out here trudging through the allies and shaking down my sources in order to bring you the best inside information on Newark politics. I believe that you, the great residents of Newark, need to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Sadly, I’ve learned one bitter lesson – the truth may not “set you free.”

Today is a special “family day” feature. Now I love my family and there are many things I would do for them; however, there are some things that I wouldn’t do – like hire them at my job. Then again, I stand outside of Dunkin Donuts all day long begging for nickels, so it’s not like I’m in any position to hire anyone.

Harold, however, is in position to hire, fire, promote, demote and do just about anything else he wants. This power wouldn’t be a problem if these decisions were based on competency, education – you know, professional standards. But too often in Newark, your ability to be promoted ranges from your alacrity for picking the winning sides in political battles to the good old fashion casting couch.

The Newark Housing Authority is currently preparing to layoff nearly 100 people and yet, somehow, NONE of the family members of Lucas or the commissioners were let go. Now it is a natural conflict of interest to have ANY family member working in your organization, especially one that’s faced with downsizing issues. But that didn’t bother the Lavishing one, as he has at least SIX KNOWN family members that work for the NHA. Let’s do a quick review……

 Emma Lucas, his wife, works as a building service manager. My sources tell me that she spearheaded the efforts to redecorate 500 Broad.

 Martin Lucas, the son, works in affirmative action. There’s some ironic and yet, appropriate about a legacy being in affirmative action.

 Sonja Lucas, daughter, works in the budget office.

 Kelly Lucas, another daughter (breaking news on her in future posts)

 Joyce Joseph, the sister in law, works in security.

 Jameel Jeffries, nephew, works in the mail room.

All told, the Lucas’s earn more than $750,000 in salaries, benefits and in kind services from access to free cars, free trips, golf outings, home appliances and other items that are paid for by the NHA.

But the nepotism doesn’t end there. The Commissioners, who are charged with being a checks and balance on the NHA, also have family members on the dole. This is a conflict of interest and yet the beat goes on. As you would have figured, NONE of the commissioners’ family members were laid off. Let’s do a quick review……

Commissioner Smith, who was to head up Sharpe’s water optimization plan making a whopping $200,000 has two family members on the dole.

 Danny Smith is a help desk coordinator.

 Inez Smith is an occupancy manager.

Commissioner Lionel Robinson also has several family members on the dole. Robinson, for those that don’t know, is also president of the Sharpe James Civic Association.

 Tammy Sykes, niece, works as a section 8 coordinator.

 Jerome Sykes, nephew, works in building maintenance
.
 Valerie Mason, niece, also works in maintenance.

Commissioner and Councilman Donald Bradley also has family members in the NHA.

Is this any way to run a public organization? How can you possibly do what’s right when you have so many natural conflicts of interest? And let’s be clear – Mr. 5 Reasons hasn’t even gotten into the cronies, girlfriends et al that have managed to avoid the downsizing.


In the next Winds column, we are going to look at the multiple trips to Paris by Mrs. Lavishing and Lucas’s daughter on the NHA’s dollar. To Mrs. Lavishing, the words “Paris Hilton” have a very different meaning than to your average Newarker. However, you will find out how many days they stayed. What places they went to. What airplane they took. And, you will find out THE TOTAL BILL for their adventure in Paree - from crack heads to croissants, a tale of two worlds with the Lucas’s and the Newark Housing Authority.

Have informants really made copies of certain forms? Are they amazed at the NHA’s carelessness? What other plans do they have?

Also, Mr. 5 Reasons is asking, in fact, BEGGING, the Newark Housing Authority to tell the truth about former Legal Corporation Counsel Frank Armour. Why was he allowed to resign? The story is so sorted and sick that even Mr. 5 Reasons doesn’t want to mention it; however, I am hoping that someone else will and relieve me of the burden.

As a mentor of mine one said, “Confession is good for the soul and bad for the machine.” If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to contact me at mr5reasons@yahoo.com.

You must stay tuned.

[bqribs]

If you look at the numbers over a 1,000 people have read messages here.

The big problem is why don't you speak out. Make up a fake user id and password, than speak your mind.


Latest I heard was the NHA layoff might be postponed, oh how can people believe such BS. The latest rumor will shut up some vocal people, simply because they want their job back. The problem will not go away. A few years ago there were rumors about privatizing the NHA, maybe that might be the best thing.

[Rock03]

I can tell you a lot about the NHA. The layoffs already took place. They changed the last day to this past Friday.

[bqribs]

Hey Rock03, Myself and probably many others would like to know what is the real deal at NHA.

[Miss Tam-Tam]

Hey Rock03, Myself and probably many others would like to know what is the real deal at NHA.

Well, thanks to the New York Times, part of the "real deal" has been disclosed. A black eye goes to the Star-Ledger for their utter lack of even a hint of investigational reporting on issues pivotal to the people of our community. Here's the Times' report:

<<September 15, 2004
Amid Job Cuts, Housing Chief Added Luxuries
By DAMIEN CAVE, The New York Times

When the Newark Housing Authority announced that it would lay off 99 employees this month, Harold Lucas, the agency's executive director, blamed the federal government for cutting the agency's subsidy by 10 percent over the past three years.

"We were able to hold off on the layoffs for two years and we boiled it down to the bare minimum, but we're down to nothing," Mr. Lucas said in an interview with The Star-Ledger, published on Sept. 3. "Now it's people."

Yet in the past 18 months, the agency - which handles housing for 32,000 residents - has spent more than $400,000 for new cubicles, carpets and other renovations to offices and conference rooms at the authority's six-story headquarters on Broad Street, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with employees and vendors.

The purchases included a $2,850, 42-inch plasma television that was installed in Mr. Lucas's office in early July, a new $215 vanity for Mr. Lucas's private bathroom and more than $14,000 worth of other audio-visual equipment - from projectors to wireless microphones and televisions - for the headquarters building, according to agency invoices and interviews with employees and vendors.

The authority also spent more than $42,000 on two new sedan cars, bought in July and August and driven by top officials. One of the cars, a black Mercury Marquis, has leather seats. The cars are at a parking lot next to the headquarters building.

The agency also paid $25,000 on June 25 to a nonprofit youth services organization run by Mr. Lucas's daughter, Kelley Lucas Barnhardt. The organization assists with the agency's annual beauty pageant for young female residents, an event held each summer.

Mr. Lucas is listed in documents as the registered agent for the firm, Kelstar Rising Inc., meaning that he is the group's lawyer. Hiring the firm of a relative could be a violation of federal regulations, according to lawyers familiar with the rules, and appears to violate Newark's procurement policy.

At the same time, the Housing Authority failed to apply for federal funds that would supplement its budget for Section 8 housing, the federal rent subsidy program, according to federal housing officials. Several other housing authorities in New Jersey, with fewer Section 8 apartments, received as much as $515,000 in federal aid to increase rent subsidies, and New York City received $52 million in extra aid.

Mr. Lucas, who served as executive director from 1992 to 1998 and returned to the post in 2002 after a stint as an assistant secretary in the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton, did not return calls for comment. Mr. Lucas's aides said he was on vacation.

However, during an interview yesterday, Mayor Sharpe James reached him by telephone from a conference room in City Hall and placed him on speaker phone in the presence of this reporter. During the call, Mr. Lucas remained silent when asked to respond to questions about agency spending. Later, he did not return two messages left at the Newark Housing Authority and three follow-up phone calls made to his home.

Mr. Lucas reports to the Newark Housing Authority Commission, a board whose members are appointed by Mayor James. His salary is $190,355, which is nearly $30,000 more than what Mr. James earns as mayor, and about $20,000 more than that of the executive director of the New York City Housing Authority, which provides housing services for more than 10 times the number of tenants as Newark.

Calls to two of the housing commissioners, Zinnerford Smith, the chairman, and Fran Adubato were not returned. Harry Robinson, the authority's spokesman, referred all calls to Mr. Lucas.

Mayor James, who has worked closely with Mr. Lucas since the 1980's, when they both started their careers in city government, said that blame for the staffing cuts lay with the White House.

"I would hope that the focus would be on the Bush administration, as opposed to local people fighting over the crumbs that the federal government is offering us," he said.

But Mr. James also said that Mr. Lucas has created a "special challenge" for himself by launching renovations during austere times, and by accepting a $190,000 salary.

"We've reached a crisis era," Mr. James said, referring to several complaints that he has heard recently from residents about the quality of Newark's public housing. "Mr. Lucas must prove that he's worthy of his salary."

The layoffs this month brought to the surface complaints that many tenants and employees have had with the agency, which manages 8,230 public housing units, along with 5,348 units of housing that are subsidized by Section 8 vouchers. Many of the buildings are new low-rise complexes built to replace high-rises that were demolished in the 1990's.

The agency's total budget is about $70 million. Federal housing officials have been providing an operating subsidy of $42.6 million, with a proposed reduction next year to $40.8 million - a cut that is less than the 10 percent that Mr. Lucas said justified the layoffs, according to the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, a 30-member group that works closely with federal officials on housing budgets.

The agency in Newark had about 1,000 employees. Those who were laid off came from all departments, including maintenance, security and headquarters.

About 25 current and former employees, along with residents and their family members, marched outside the housing authority's headquarters last Thursday to protest the layoffs.

Tomasa Sereno, 83, one of several senior citizens from Hyatt Court, a three-story public complex that is more than 40 years old, said at the rally that her main concern is security. The area surrounding the buildings in the East Ward - near two other public-housing projects - is a notorious hot spot for drug dealers and prostitutes.

"Now," she said in Spanish, referring to the layoff of security personnel, "I'm afraid that the doors will be open to anyone who wants to come in. We won't be safe."

Crime remains a concern of many tenants. Despite the suburban town-house appearance of the newest housing stock, many of Newark's public complexes are still pocked with trouble. One of the four police officers shot here this year while on duty was injured at a public-housing complex. On Sept. 7, a 26-year-old man, Kenneth Dandridge, was found dead in the parking lot of Pennington Court, a Newark Housing Authority development in the East Ward.

City Councilor Luis Quintana, a former opponent of Mr. James in one of the mayor's five re-election bids, said that his office receives complaints daily about conditions in Newark public housing, including clogged pipes and filthy hallways.

"We want them to stop the luxury spending," Mr. Quintana said in an interview at the rally. "We want to see accountability."

Mr. Quintana was joined on Thursday by Jermaine James, a senior adviser to Cory Booker, who ran against Mr. James in the last election. Politics was clearly in the air; Mayor James faces re-election in 2006. >>

[Continued on following post.]

[Miss Tam-Tam]

<<But the picketing employees said they were concerned about the way the agency was being run, and were angry that Mr. Lucas resorted to layoffs.

Nelson Nieves, 47, who was laid off from the public information office, said the agency's spending did not bother him at first. He said it seemed to suggest that the authority was flush with cash. But when the layoff letter arrived on Aug. 11, he could hardly breathe because of the shock, he said.

"I was like whoa, what the hell is this," he said in an interview. "You're laying off people, but you're buying all this equipment? Harold Lucas just said that he wanted it all new because it was his office, his suite."

Mr. Nieves and other employees were also unhappy with how the laid-off people were chosen. They pointed out that several of Mr. Lucas's direct family members work for the authority. Documents confirmed this.

Mr. Lucas's wife, Emma Lucas, was hired on April 3, 2000, as a building services manager; she earns an annual salary of $61,800. His son, Martin Lucas, was hired in 2002 and earns $34,985, according to internal documents. Mr. Lucas's daughter-in-law and Martin Lucas's wife, Sonji Lucas, was hired in 1992 and earns $49,083.

None of Mr. Lucas's relatives were laid off - even though they all arrived, for example, after Levern Scott, a repairman who said that he spent 13 years "busting his hump," only to see a pink slip.

The letter sent to Mr. Nieves said that they were being let go "for reasons of economy and efficiency." The authority's contract with the Service Employees International Union, which represents about half the laid-off employees, requires that seniority be the determining factor in layoffs. But employees throughout the company report that seniority was disregarded.

"Someone in my department has 15 years of experience and I have six, but I'm still here," said Amy Lebrón, 28, a clerk in the inventory department. "How's that for seniority?"

Mr. Nieves said he was probably laid off because, when he was on the school board several years ago, he voted in favor of a candidate for superintendent who was opposed by Mayor James.

The S.E.I.U. Local 617 has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board over the way the layoffs were carried out, and requested an injunction in state court to get the employees reinstated. But in a statement, Rahaman Muhammad, president of the union, blamed President Bush for the agency's budget woes and labeled the rally an example of "political maneuvering."

Employees and public-housing residents also blamed the White House for the cuts. But many said they believed Mr. Lucas should be challenged about the agency's spending.

"He claims it's based on economics and efficiency,'' Mr. Nieves said. "If that's the case, how can you justify the renovations and the cars?''>>

[ProSouth]

I see this becoming a much larger issue for the vacationing Lucas.

[5Reasons]

Trust me - there's a lot more. I just don't want to drown out others that are going to start writing on it. For example, I know that Harold spent some $135 or 3 SATIN brass waste baskets. (But more of this later)

There's a group of informants in there that have a lot of copies of stuff.

Also www.politicsnj.com has this article referenced on their page.

[bqribs]

Yeah, this is starting to get real interesting. Imagine the NYTimes picking up this story!

Mr5Reasons, You warned your readers about Kelly Lucas in your family post!

" Kelly Lucas, another daughter (breaking news on her in future posts)"

[Miss Tam-Tam]

By the way, this is not to diminish or excuse the obscene spending by Mr. Lucas or the blatant nepotism at the NHA, but the cutback of Federal funding for domestic programs by the Bush Administration is going to become an important issue. If you think things are tight now, wait until Dubya gets back into the saddle for four more years. I could be wrong, but I don't see Kerry winning the Presidency. State and municipal governments are hurting across America and those who rely heavily on Federal monies are really going to have to bite the bullet. The sorry thing about the Lucas situation is that it gives the Feds an excuse to cut back on the funding for the NHA even more, especially after the revelation that NHA failed to apply for Section 8 funding that was available. :(

[counterattack]

Finally there is someone one this board that reads beyond gossip and talks about the root of the problem.

Bottom line is it does not matter how many of Lucas family is on the payroll the feds control the budget and we all know who's hands that is in. everyone better start looking for new employment if Dubya gets back in office including Harold's family, by the way anyone else notice how the Mayor gave him up quick other than me.

[rice2006]

And that is the true sin in all of this. Obviously, the real money problem is the fact that Bush has cut aid to vital government agencies and services to finance that BS tax cut for the rich (that he wants to make permanent, ya'll).

But it makes it so much harder to argue for more monies when our local NHA is wasting the money it CURRENTLY receives. We know that folks are racist and prejudiced towards cities and aid for initiatives there. But we give those that harbor these feelings concrete and factual reasons to deprive us all of what should come to us.

Just like the Newark school board's outlandish spending pre-1995 gave the state the rationale to take over our school system. And just like this fat city council, that other cities at national city elected official conventions point to as having it the best (a Seattle city council staffer tells me that every year upon his return from NLC confabs) asking the federal government for more dollars.

Of course we need and deserve the resources for a variety of reasons. But we keep shooting ourselves in the foot, but not belt tightening at home first and living on at least a budget of austerity for high end salaries and conduct, if only as a symbol that you are sharing the pain of your fellow workers.

[Doofus1]

My only point would be that the NHA has no standing to complain about cuts (a) when the NHA fails to even apply for what it deserves or (b) has spending practices that border on the criminal. The NHA needs to get its own house in order before complaining about someone elses.

Ron, while I agree that tax cuts should not come at the expense of legitimate, well-run social programs, the tax cut also impacts the middle class--particularly in NJ, where salaries are high and the cost of living higher. They don't deserve one either?

[ProSouth]

Listen, eventhough Bush cuts may be an issue at the NHA, bringing it up while talking about Harold Lucas' typical financial ignorance is nothing but spin. Good thing though, even if he fired his relatives now his ignorance will look blatantly obvious. My question is where was the oversight of NHA from the administration??

[bqribs]

Here is the link.

Newark Star Ledger 9/16/04

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1095311567104730.xml?starledger?nnj

[Miss Tam-Tam]

Harold Lucas will hold a press conference on Monday, September 20, 2004. An Associated Press reporter was unable to gain entrance into the NHA executive office on Thursday. AP story below:

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1095383342102590.xml&storylist=jersey

[bqribs]

NY Times 9/17/04

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/17/nyregion/17hud.html

[ProSouth]

Best quote of the Star Ledger article:

Council President Donald Bradley, also a member of the board of housing authority commissioners, said he doesn't remember the renovation costs.

"I'm a senior citizen. I have senior moments. Off the top of my head, I can't recall everything," he said.

Incredible......

[John Sharpe James, J.D.]

:eek:

[bqribs]

Isn't that quote comical. It will probably go down in history as the quote of the year!

[bqribs]

Does anyone know the time and place of the News Conference? I would like to attend, I could use a good laugh.

[bqribs]

METROPOLITAN DESK | September 2, 2004, Thursday

U.S. Restores Much of Cuts In Housing Aid

By DAVID W. CHEN (NYT) words
Late Edition - Final , Section B , Page 1 , Column 5

Correction Appended

DISPLAYING FIRST 50 OF WORDS - Saying that they had averted a major housing crisis, New York City officials announced yesterday that the federal government had agreed to restore almost all the $55 million that had been scheduled to be cut under a recent regulatory change affecting the government's main housing program for the ... At...