The current
Brouhaha over Alfonso Jackson's illegal refusal to award HUD contracts to groups who criticize Bush, echos the New York City battles in 1997 (and
again in 1999) between Mayor Giuliani and
Housing Works, a local AIDS-activist group. This was also a
denial of HUD funds to a group critical of the administration in charge. But in
this case, the HUD secretary, Andrew Cuomo, stepped in to ensure fairness:
It began when citywide fears about the homeless were high. Two non-profit agencies, Housing Works and the Coalition for the Homeless, were among the most outspoken opponents of Mayor Giuliani's plan to "clean up the streets," and put the homeless to work. They soon found themselves kicked to the back of the line of programs seeking federal funds.
Housing Works sued. The federal judge hearing the case decided that the Giuliani administration had indeed retaliated against the agency. In response to this ruling, HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo rescinded control of federal funds for the homeless, some 60 million dollars, from the city in order to distribute them directly from the federal level.
When I used to work in NYC, employed at another nonprofit that received HUD funds, the local HUD office and the city would compile a list of local groups that would receive grants, on specific program lines (such as their "Continuum of Care" programs, that offered contracts ranging from public benefit outreach, to running family shelters).
Based on the allocations on the federal level, the groups would be funded in the order that they were placed on this magic list. In 1997 and 1999, Housing Works was given a low number.
Housing Works argued they were punished because they vocally criticized how Giuliani mistreated poor people with AIDS. The city countered that Housing Works suffered from "mismanagement".
If you ask anyone who lived/worked in NYC in the late 90s, they'll tell you that Giuliani certainly played hardball with his critics.
In any case, NYC settled and paid Housing Works a settlement of $4.8 million in 2005. See below:
The payment, is by far the largest in a series of settlements made with a variety of groups and people, including a limousine driver, a police inspector and a jail warden, who have said that senior officials in the Giuliani administration illegally retaliated against them for criticism. Yesterday's settlement, of $4.8 million in damages, interest and lawyers' fees, brings the current costs of such lawsuits to about $7 million.
Charles King, the executive director of Housing Works, said the settlement represented a vindication of the group's advocacy work and a repudiation of Mr. Giuliani.
"I'm not sure people appreciate how much the Giuliani administration attempted to silence dissenting voices, in particular in communities that relied on city funds to service needy people," Mr. King said. "I think Housing Works was used as an example to let other organizations know what would happen to them if they advocated on behalf of their clients."
Mr. Giuliani would not comment, his spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel, said.
[snip]
In its legal filings, Housing Works argued that the mismanagement charges were overstated and were a pretext used by the Giuliani administration to end its contracts.
Fran Reiter, a former deputy mayor who oversaw many AIDS programs for Mr. Giuliani, said that she understood that the city would have strategic reasons for settling, but that Housing Works did not deserve the money.
[snip]
Housing Works and its leaders were among the earliest and loudest critics of Mr. Giuliani, who took office in January 1994. They said his plans to consolidate the city's main AIDS agency would cause fatal hardship, and that his welfare policies fell with special cruelty on people with the disease. It filed lawsuits, tried to shout him down at speeches, and led protests where Mr. Giuliani's policies were characterized as "murder." In October 1997, after an unflattering audit and an inquiry by the Department of Investigation, the group lost its city funding.
Records turned over during the litigation included a note taken by a city official at a meeting to discuss AIDS services that read, "Housing Works (Fran hates them)."
Ms. Reiter had left government by the time that Housing Works lost its city contracts, but insisted that there was no attempt to go after the group.
She said that the city administration had found mismanagement, and that the group had not corrected it. "Withdrawing those contracts was absolutely the right thing to do, given the government's fiduciary responsibility," Ms. Reiter said.
Mr. Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, the lawyer for Housing Works, said that was a sham argument. The city had twice audited Housing Works books during a period when its procedures were slack, he said. "We had a cash flow crisis," he said. But investigations during the lawsuit showed that its problems were no worse than other, quieter groups that did not lose their public financing, he said.
The city also seemed to take special pains to isolate Mr. Giuliani from the sizable financial settlement, Mr. Brinckerhoff said. As a condition of the settlement, the city required Housing Works to file a separate document dismissing its claims against Mr. Giuliani and other former officials, he said.
While it is standard practice for the city to indemnify its employees in such lawsuits, he said, it usually includes them in the general financial settlement. Mr. Brinckerhoff said he had never before seen the city require a special document dismissing the claims against individual defendants. Mr. Kahn, the city litigator who handled the negotiations, declined to discuss that aspect of the case.