Mayor Was Told of Greene Absences, Officials Maintain

Despite his professed surprise and his reprimand of a top aide for not telling him, Mayor Tom Bradley was personally warned at least twice of the extended absences from city housing board meetings of Chairman Alvin Greene, two Housing Authority officials said Wednesday.

Housing Authority Commissioner Dori Pye said she alerted Bradley to her concerns last summer after Greene had missed about four months of meetings of the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, which oversees public housing.

Leila Gonzalez-Correa, executive director of the Housing Authority, said she heard Deputy Mayor Grace Davis advise Bradley on Nov. 30 during a private meeting in the mayor’s office that Greene had failed to attend a commission hearing in six months.

“I know that she told the mayor,” Gonzalez-Correa said emphatically.

Bradley has denied having any knowledge of Greene’s attendance record before it was brought to his attention last week by the media. At that point, Bradley reacted swiftly by asking Greene to resign and by reprimanding Michael Gage, his chief of staff, for not being aware of the politically embarrassing problem. Bradley also dismissed Davis as his liaison to the Housing Authority for failing to notify him.

But Davis has insisted that she repeatedly told Bradley of Greene’s attendance problems. On Sunday, she said she kept the mayor informed in memos and meetings between June and November. Her account was corroborated Wednesday by Gonzalez-Correa, who said that during numerous discussions about Greene, Davis related that she had informed the mayor.

Bradley was not available Wednesday to comment on the new challenges to his account.

Gage stood by Bradley’s story that the mayor had not been informed of Greene’s absences. Bradley, according to Gage, contends Davis advised him that Greene wanted to change meeting dates because he would have difficulty attending future sessions, not that he had missed every meeting since May.

Gage said Wednesday that the statements by Pye and Gonzalez-Correa don’t “fit.” He said Pye “had related to the mayor that there were some absences on the part of Greene,” but she failed to indicate that they were continuous or stretched over a period of several months.

Attendance Records Compiled

The Times has also learned that in September the mayor’s office asked a Housing Authority secretary to compile attendance records for all commissioners for the previous three months. The secretary, Helen Nahom, could not recall the mayor’s aide who requested the records. But Nahom produced a copy of the document she sent to the mayor’s office on Sept. 14 showing that Greene had missed all six board meetings in June through August.

Gage said he also did not know who received the report in the mayor’s office.

“It did not come to me,” Gage said. “That is how the system is supposed to work. I don’t know who got them.”

On Tuesday, Gage sent memos directing secretaries to send him monthly attendance reports for each of the approximately 200 city commissioners and board members.

Two members of the City Council said the mix-up over Greene left them wondering about the mayor’s explanation.

“The fact that Grace Davis’ statements are validated . . . causes me to ask, ‘Who’s in charge up there?’ It tells me something about that operation,” Councilman Nate Holden said.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who is expected to oppose Bradley in next year’s mayoral election, said, “I think the mayor has a credibility problem. They haven’t told the truth on this one.”

Because of the conflicting accounts, it remains unclear whether Bradley demanded Greene’s resignation when he first learned of his absenteeism or waited until the issue received public attention and became a political liability.

Resignation Sought

Bradley has said that he first learned of the controversy on Dec. 5 when he was attending the National League of Cities meeting in Boston. He then directed his aides to immediately seek Greene’s resignation, but it took them several days to locate him.

On Monday, Greene met with Bradley and submitted his resignation. After the meeting, Bradley issued a letter praising Greene, who left through a side entrance to avoid facing reporters and television crews waiting outside Bradley’s office. At the time, Gage told reporters Greene had assured the mayor that he had kept in constant touch with Gonzalez-Correa and board members, even though he could not attend the twice-monthly meetings.

However, Gonzalez-Correa and Pye said they had little or no contact with Greene. Other board members failed to return phone calls.

In his letter to Greene, Bradley thanked the former chairman for his “profound contribution” to the Housing Authority and wrote that he regretted having to accept his resignation. The mayor added that he would consider reappointing Greene, a Pacific Palisades resident, to serve in another official capacity when his business activities no longer require him to frequently miss meetings.

Greene’s absences from scheduled gatherings adversely affected Housing Authority operations, Gonzalez-Correa said. As an example, she cited the collapse of a special task force organized by Greene to combat drug and gang activity in the city’s public housing projects. Greene and Bradley, along with top law enforcement and housing officials, met in the mayor’s office in March to discuss crime in the projects. At the time, Bradley said gang and drugs had become “epidemic” in some of the public housing communities.

Meeting Not Rescheduled

A second meeting scheduled for the mayor’s office in May was canceled at the last minute when Greene said he could not attend. The meeting was not rescheduled, and the group has failed to meet since.

“As a result, we don’t have a drug program,” said Gonzalez-Correa, a task force member.

Bradley attends so many meetings and sessions that he likely was unaware that the housing task force had disbanded, Gage said.

“There’s no reason for him to assume that people aren’t continuing . . . to do their jobs unless somebody tells him that they are not,” Gage said.

The mayor’s office announced Wednesday that Gary Squier, Bradley’s housing coordinator, was appointed to replace Davis as liaison to the Housing Authority.