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Excessive-salaried New York Metropolis Housing Authority Chairman Gregory Russ is stepping down from his soft mid-six-figure place this week.
Russ, who earned between $414,000 and $430,000 yearly because the embattled NYCHA’s chairman and CEO, will announce his departure on Thursday, The Metropolis first reported.
Previously the head of the Minneapolis Housing Authority, Russ was tasked with rescuing the nation’s largest public housing authority from a monetary gap fueled by many years of mismanagement.
However he took the position whereas commuting from his Midwest house to his leased high-rise in Tribeca.
He earned properly over $400,000 per 12 months till final fall, when the fallout from an arsenic water scare at NYCHA housing developments spurred the federally monitored company to separate the chairman and CEO jobs.
In line with The Metropolis, Russ’ pay subsequently fell to a $258,000 – the identical as New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams and greater than Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $250,000.
Russ’ final day is reportedly scheduled for mid-February. Following his departure, the chairman position will transition to a part-time, volunteer publish.
“By having NYCHA’s chair be part-time, NYCHA’s governance displays the general public housing business norm of getting a part-time chair,” Alicka Ampry-Samuel, an administrator of the HUD workplace overseeing New York, informed The Metropolis.
The specifics of the change are “nonetheless beneath dialogue,” she mentioned.
Along with ameliorating NYCHA’s cash troubles, Russ was additionally confronted with cleansing up the messes left by his predecessors after an investigation by the Manhattan U.S. Lawyer revealed a historical past of mismanagement and laxity about unfit circumstances.
Former prosecutor Bart Schwartz, who additionally has been known as out for his excessive pay at taxpayer expense, was appointed monitor of the authority forward of Russ’s hiring, and a timeline for reforms and repairs was put in place.
However regardless of NYCHA’s valiant effort to take away lead paint from tens of 1000's of items and to improve air flow programs to forestall mould, Russ’s time period in the end lacked main progress.
Final spring, metropolis council members have been outraged to listen to that Schwartz had spent $32 million, however did not institute lots of the anticipated modified.
Thanks partly to a shortfall in lease assortment in the course of the pandemic, the NYCHA’s unresolved resident restore requests elevated from 582,000 to 681,000 final 12 months, The Metropolis mentioned.
An elevator restore sweep paid for by town additionally fell not on time. Over the vacations, 1000's of tenants have been stranded with out warmth and sizzling water.
Amid a spate of false begins, the first victory of Russ’s tenure was the official approval of a “preservation belief” that may transfer funding for 25,000 flats to Part 8 federal housing vouchers.
The shift will enable a belief helmed by the NYCHA to borrow tens of millions in restore funds through bond choices. The board that may oversee the belief’s actions can be fashioned later this 12 months.
New York Metropolis Corridor and the Division of Housing and City Improvement didn't instantly reply to The Publish’s request for a remark.
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