Letter From Carmelo

GA received this today from HHA Director Carmelo Garcia.  

Here it is, copy-pasted in its entirety:

Hello Nancy and good morning,

first let me say thank you for the retraction and correction on the misinformation originally reported. I have always respected your opinions and never reacted to any antics or knocks, I always try to maintain high standards and the utmost professionalism. As I am not a hypocrit, the truth and respect for me is always the most important. I want to share with you some more facts so that you understand my role during an emergency and recognize what I did to help the city perform its emergency management tasks. I directed my HHA team to prepare for this Hurricane starting Thursday as we have our own emergency preparedness plan for our properties. Please understand that during a state of emergency the city OEM is in charge and is responsible to distribute information to all stakeholders whom are a part of their OEM plan which we are one of the annexes. This means that they would post notices in all our properties.  Also note that I oversee and manage 52 buildings with 6 scattered sites through out the city equaling 1353 units so sometimes I may be mid-town or uptown like fox hill checking on that building and its residents.  On Friday I was in communcation with Mayor Zimmer late at about 7:45pm going over the plan. I shared with her that I had not received the promised flyers that day and she was concerned. We agreed that in the morning they would get me the flyers and I volunteered to help by having my staff distribute them in the buildings especailly once it was noted mandatory that all 1st floor units should evacuate. I had spoken to Leo Pelligrini, Daniel Bryan and Councilman Mello who personally came to bring me the flyers at 400 Harrison st.  I told took the flyers and gave them to my maintenance people to go post. You can ask Daniel and Dave who will confirm this fact.

    The Mayor and I spoke again on Saturday as I recommended to her since we were concerned about the seniors who were dependent of oxygen tanks to send a uniformed police officer or representative from OEM to visit them and convince them to go to the shelter or hospital which we had 2 seniors go to the hospital and one to the shelter. As I was running through my checklist with my team on Staurday in preparation for Irene we have to perform over 25 steps for all those buildings when securing all mechanical rooms, deploying additonal sum pumps, clearing of rooftops for any potential flying articles/debris etc. I spoke with Joel Mestre on Saturday to review the plan regarding transportation and I didn't end my day till 10pm with my staff. On Sunday I was in the authority that morning over the assessment reports I received from my emergency resident persons for each building and its surrounding areas for instance I reported to the FD a 20ft branch that snapped on 6th st. I was walking in the flood on Harrison as residents along with myself were amazed. We had two back generators that the flooding tripped. We had unplugged all drain caps so the water wouldn't back up into the 1st floor units which worked effectively as we didn't have any back ups into the units. Immeidately the power was shut down by PSEG and we then decided to once again check on those senior/disabled persons identified for having a medical apparatus. Later we gave out water, ice and I was in contact with OEM and Mayor. I met up with Leo Pelligrini, spoke to Capt. fitzsimmons and asked if they could get us some more water and ice as there were folks who needed to maintain insulin chilled that suffered from diabetes.  As for Claire's misquote she failed to report my comment of "We distributed the information and gave them their option, "I can't force them to evacuate,". The Mayor was outstanding and ensured that these items would be delivered and they came through to help our residents, but understand that as the Executive Director my primary function is always like any other landlord to perform asset management as whatever I do extra to help the city or its residents is because I'm a caring, passionate public servant at heart. It is always an OEM function to provide governemnt services to its residents during any declared crisis or state of emergency. Also note that many residents did stock up.  I was very grateful for Joe Branco as you know who was amazing in helping me throughout the day as he donated all the ice. I'm know dealing with the aftermath of water damage and feel great about our recovery so thank you for listening and for doing the right thing. I appreciate it!