Carmelo Sitting on HHA Bids

The original Vision 20-20 Plan prior to it's re-design under the Reform-majority HHA. Scale and density of the proposed project have been reduced.

Insubordination?  Dereliction of duty?  Or something more sinister:

You don't know what I'm talking about?

Here's an excerpt from yesterday's press release by HHA Chairman Jake Stuiver to HHA Executive Director Carmelo Garcia:

HHA CHAIRMAN STUIVER CALLS ON DIRECTOR GARCIA TO RELEASE

GENERAL-COUNSEL BIDS TO BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Hoboken Housing Authority Chairman Jake Stuiver is calling on HHA Executive Director Carmelo Garcia to release all received submissions to the RFQ for the Board of Commissioners’ general-counsel contract to all members of the board by the end of business today. The bid deadline was 11 a.m. today.

Chairman Stuiver has requested numerous times over the past month that each member of the Board of Commissioners receive copies of all RFQ responses by 5 p.m. today, giving Director Garcia and his staff ample time after the 11 a.m. deadline to get all submissions copied and distributed. Compliance with this request would allow each Commissioner one full weekend and most of next week to review the responses thoroughly and responsibly in time for the special meeting of Thursday, February 7, when a selection is expected to be nominated and voted on.

The Chairman e-mailed a reminder of this request to the Director on Thursday, January 31, and received no response until 10:39 a.m. today, in which Director Garcia stated he was not feeling well and intended to take the rest of the day as sick time, making it impossible for the responses to be opened and distributed until Monday. Chairman Stuiver responded that this position is unacceptable.

WOW!  

Unless Carmelo contracted Ebola, Cholera, Smallpox, Bubonic Plague- or a combination thereof- that  Ebo-Buboni-Choler-Pox Plague, there is no excuse for HHA Executive Director Gacia not to have issued the bids to the Commissioners.  NONE.

Was Carmelo too weak to dial The Office at 306 Washington Street (tel: 201-222-5555) to have the bids picked up, copied and hand-delivered by them?

Anyone working in the private sector is shaking their head in disbelief right now.

Private sector peeps: does your boss give a shit if you "feel sick" on the day of a deadline when you've been sitting on stuff you should have done weeks ago?  No, you get your sickness-riddled ass to the office, do what you're supposed to then go home and yell at your family.

Would you EVER think of calling your boss and saying "I can't do xyz because I don't feel well"?

If you DID what would the consequences be?  Tell them, Don.



Exactly.

Then why should it be any different for the Executive Director of a multimillion dollar federal housing program?

GA doesn't believe the "dog ate my homework" stuff cuts it when you are the 'Top Banana' at Hoboken's HHA.  It is a huge job.

Look at how much the Executive Director administrates, per the HHA's website:

The HHA manages 1,353 units of public housing in 28 properties at six locations across the city. The main campus of the HHA is 17 acres and contains 806 public housing units. It is home to Andrew Jackson Gardens, multi-family housing constructed in 1952. This group of 11 three-story garden apartments and eight seven-story high-rises is home to 598 families. The main campus also features Harrison Gardens, multi-family housing constructed in 1952 and comprised of four 10-story H-plan high-rise buildings with a total of 208 apartments.

The Hoboken Housing Authority also manages Columbus Gardens, 97 units; Fox Hill Gardens, 200 units; James Monroe Gardens, 125 units; and John Adams Gardens, 125 units. The HHA also administers 326 affordable rental units through leased housing contracts with private owners using tenant based-vouchers known as Housing Assistance Payments.

That is an an awful lot for one person to handle, don't you think?   

Especially when something as critical as bid-reviews for a new attorney are sidelined because one man has the sniffles.  Or a head-ache.  Or a bad case of I-don't-wanna-fair-bidding-process.

GA is thinking that the Deputy Executive Director should be a full-time position- not a part-time one.  Seriously.

In the meantime, elections have consequences.  Time for the Old Guard to GROW UP.

Enough with the dopey law suits and childish insubordination.  Face the music.  Change  has come to the HHA.

Thanks, Jake and the other HHA Commissioners who are facing heat for doing the right thing.