Anyone surprised that Gordon is denying any allegations or corruption or mismanagement? Or that he is blaming Grimaldi? Saying that one of the parties who is actually heard on the tape is “misinformed”.
Unfortunately, we have not been able to listen to the full recording(s) provided to
WDEL, but just snippets that purport to tell the full story. These select snippets seem
to suggest that a contract employee had accessed a confidential mailing list and used it
to make a call on behalf of his wife, who was running for office. This is untrue. In reality, on August 13, 2015, a person enrolled in our Section 8 housing program called to protest several violations for which the client had been cited. During this call, the client mentioned that the housing inspector had called the client earlier and asked the client to vote for his wife. This individual did not make a complaint. This alleged request by the housing inspector was said to have happened prior to the November 2014 election, about nine months prior to the August 13, 2015, phone call. This comment was forwarded up the chain of command to Dave Grimaldi, chief administrative officer (CAO) at that time.
Got that? Someone calling with a number of complaints also complained about being asked for a vote for his wife. The individual did not make a complaint. This sounds like they are hanging this out on a formality — that somehow this person did not fill out a form and sign it or something. One wonders if the other complaints this person called with were similarly dismissed as not making a complaint. Even though everyone agrees the person called with a, you know, COMPLAINT. Then (I have to ask), if there was not a COMPLAINT by this person, how was it that this even came to the attention of Tom Gordon and Dave Grimaldi? It came to their attention enough for Gordon to provide an instruction to fire the guy — an instruction that was revised to second changes one it was known he was married to a Senator key to Gordon’s budget needs.
The initial information provided to Dave Grimaldi was that the employee had admitted
to this conduct, later learned to be inaccurate. An internal investigation by the Department of Community Services revealed upon interviewing the employee that he did not download any files or make any phone calls to the client. There was no evidence that any files were downloaded.
Convenient. And of course an investigation that consists of asking the employee if he or she did it looks like a wink and a nod from here. Even if employee activity in a database was tracked, an inspector for these properties wouldn’t have to perform a specialty download — he probably has as much info as he needs from day to day activity over time. Even odder is that Grimaldi didn’t know about the outcome of this investigation.
None of it passes the smell test, really. Which is why I am really hoping the US Attorney jumps in to take a look. Section 8 records are the Feds jurisdiction and they are the only ones who are going to have any credibility in looking at this mess. Because it is for certain that Tom Gordon should not be in the business of investigating himself.