By May, Keith Pettigrew had been the director of the DC Housing Authority for six months. But, phew, it felt like six years.
That’s coming from Pettigrew himself, according to a recording of a meeting he held in May with employees in DCHA’s Office of Financial Management to address some recent grousing.
Pettigrew, DCHA’s third director in as many years, has taken over for Brenda Donald, who left in 2023. Like the directors before him, Pettigrew is tasked with fixing an agency that has been dogged by internal turmoil, financial mismanagement, political interference, and conflicts of interest—not to mention the decrepit and, in some cases, dangerous living conditions in the public housing that it manages.
That’s more than enough to keep any agency head busy. But on that day in May, Pettigrew was focused on employees’ claims of a hostile work environment from their new bosses: CFO Heather Mueller and Director of Budget and Financial Reporting Isra Elkhazeen.
On the recording, which was shared with City Paper, Pettigrew reminded his finance employees that he’s a fair guy: He gave out bonuses “when I didn’t have to,” he said. He’s never denied anyone’s leave request, and he has yet to fire anyone (though he acknowledged that he considered it when he started back in November).
And as he addressed employees’ concerns, Pettigrew also gave them a taste of some of the unresolved issues that the previous administration left for him—specifically that three law enforcement offices are sniffing around the agency.
“The finance department has been under some scrutiny. Let’s be frank about it,” Pettigrew said on the recording. “I mean, I got the attorney general on my back, I got the OIG on my back, I even got the FBI on my back. OK? And now some of you guys have been here long enough to probably understand and know there may be some things that have been questionable. The goal is to get it right, straighten it up, and keep it moving forward.”
Pettigrew did not elaborate on why, exactly, the three law enforcement agencies are on his back. Spokespeople for the Office of the Inspector General and Office of the Attorney General for D.C. declined to comment. The FBI has not returned City Paper’s phone call.
But over the past several years, multiple audits and news reports have revealed plenty of potential fodder for law enforcement investigations. In August, for example, City Paper reported on allegations that DCHA’s then-head of contracting and procurement had inappropriate (and potentially illegal) interactions with the owner of JLT Trucking before the firm won a $4.5 million trash collection contract. Those are the sort of allegations that might interest the D.C. inspector general, which investigates cases of waste, fraud, and abuse.
The claims are also now part of a lawsuit filed by a competing trash collection company, F&L Construction. JLT Trucking has called the allegations “outrageous and unfounded,” and is asking a judge to dismiss the case on jurisdictional and procedural grounds.
Pettigrew, through a spokesperson, declined City Paper’s request for an interview, and DCHA’s director of public affairs and communication, Alison Burdo, declined to answer questions about the meeting in May. “DCHA does not comment on the agency’s internal conversations,” she writes via email.
But Pettigrew’s pep talk was not enough to assuage finance employees’ complaints. In June, the staff sent a letter to DCHA’s board of directors raising the same issues with Mueller and Elkhazeen and requesting an independent investigation.
“The harassment, intimidation, and workplace bullying we face has continued and is pervasive, involving biased decisions by Heather Mueller and biased decisions and aggressive behavior by Isra Elkhazeen,” the letter says. “This has hindered our ability to perform our duties effectively and without duress. We have made numerous attempts to communicate that such behavior is unwelcome and must cease, hoping to improve our workplace culture and morale, and the service we provide to DC residents. Unfortunately, our efforts have been in vain.”
The letter lays out some specifics, such as inconsistency in supervisory approval for paid time off. Multiple employees who spoke with City Paper on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation described how their requests to take “use it or lose it” leave were denied because they did not submit their requests by a certain date. But employees elsewhere in DCHA who submitted requests around the same time were approved, the employees claim.
Burdo also declined to comment on the letter or any other personnel matters.
The letter, which is signed “The Non-Management, Union, Non-salaried Staff,” also raises concerns about Mueller’s qualifications and claims that she is engaging with contractors who have questionable track records with DCHA.
“They have not conferred with OFM staff even when considering contracts with entities currently under FBI investigation,” the letter says without identifying the contractor. “Heather Mueller is signing contracts with less than savory contractors, further contributing to our sense of unease and distrust.”
A 2022 audit of DCHA conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as audits by the agency’s own internal auditor, identified three potentially problematic contracts. And by March 2023, At-Large Councilmember Robert White promised to ask the inspector general to investigate potential contracting issues at the agency.
Both audits found, for example, that DCHA’s agreement with the firm Verbosity—totaling payments of nearly $1 million between 2019 and 2022 for software to support the agency’s internal police department—violated procurement rules because it was awarded without a competitive bidding process (though DCHA disputes that finding).
DCHA records provided to City Paper indicate that, in June, Mueller certified a “funding request” for a two-year, $307,450 contract with Verbosity for an “officer patrol GPS tracking software system.” DCHA’s board of directors must approve contracts of $250,000 or more, and it has not yet approved the new agreement with Verbosity.
Burdo says the CFO’s request “occurs whenever DCHA is considering spending capital on certain financial expenditures,” but that the agency has not officially selected a vendor. The software is required as part of the terms of a settlement with the attorney general’s office aimed at improving safety at some public housing facilities.
Internal records indicate that DCHA has continued doing business with the other two firms identified in the audits—with one firm receiving payments as recently as September and the other as recently as June.
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DCHA’s VP of human resources Kimberly Graham replied to the finance employees’ letter on June 26, in part rejecting their concerns about a hostile work environment. “It is crucial to distinguish between firm or direct management, and harassment and bullying,” Graham writes in her letter.
She adds that DCHA supports Mueller and Elkhazeen’s leadership and changes “to ensure that the Office of Financial Management can correct the numerous financial issues that have been identified in DCHA’s audits and other internal and external reviews in recent years.”
The employees replied to Graham’s letter this month, expressing “profound disappointment with the dismissive and inadequate” response and reiterating their request for an independent investigation of their working conditions.
Countee Gilliam, the president of the union AFGE Local 2725, AFL-CIO, also filed an unfair labor practice complaint against DCHA this week. The complaint alleges that the agency is refusing to negotiate wage and salary increases for the employees out of retaliation for contacting the board of directors regarding employees’ concerns.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to negotiate something to make sure my members are free of the hostile working environment,” Gilliam says.
On the recording of the meeting back in May, Pettigrew laid out the stakes for himself and his finance employees:
“I got a lot of money I have to move around. I got a lot of things I gotta fix with all that money,” he said on the recording. “I need to know where it is and what it is, and how I’m going to utilize it. And more importantly, I need to know I got a crackerjack team in finance that’s making all this flow.
“You can file your grievance,” he continued, adding: The attorney general “would be right behind me saying, ‘Keith, thank you.’ Because he wanted me to move people.”
Pettigrew said on the recording that when he met with the AG, “He wanted to put it in receivership. I pushed back and said, ‘No. I don’t want a receivership right now. That’s why I’m here.’” (Under an administrative receivership, the executive staff and board of directors would be terminated, and HUD would appoint someone to take over the management of the agency. The measure is considered a last resort for agencies with persistent and intractable problems.) Through a spokesperson, Attorney General Brian Schwalb declined to comment.
“If you want to be a part of the team, you’re welcome,” Pettigrew said on the recording. “If you don’t, then go find something else to do and get out of the way. All we’re here to do is fix this place.”
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