No-fire fury over NYCHA’s orgies
Wild, drunken orgies at work would get most people fired — but not at NYCHA.
The workers allegedly involved in on-the-clock sex parties at the Throggs Neck Houses apparently haven’t even been suspended, and angry lawmakers can’t get basic information about the scandal from the agency.
“The NYPD can suspend officers, why can’t NYCHA suspend employees?” said Councilman Ritchie Torres, who grew up in the Bronx complex and whose mother and grandmother still call it home. “If you’re engaged in misconduct, you should be disciplined. Reassignment is no substitute for disciplinary action.”
Instead of sending the workers accused of participating in the romps home without pay, New York City Housing Authority general manager Vito Mustaciuolo reassigned the entire development’s workforce to other NYCHA complexes.
That decision drew fire from another councilman, who represents the district containing the development, as well as from residents.
“If there are workers facing credible sexual abuse and harassment allegations, they should not be transferred to another development during the investigation,” said Councilman Mark Gjonaj (D-Bronx).
“It is inappropriate to ask ten- ants at another development to accept having a credibly accused harasser work around their homes and family.”
One longtime Throggs Neck resident said she heard workers partying late into the night in one office.
“You know how many times they woke me and my kids up?” said Dianne Jenkins, 48.
“With the music all loud, talking all loud. They were here all the time, Saturday, Sunday mornings,” she added.
“I just thought they were making OT, but I noticed nothing ever got done.”
Another resident raged about NYCHA’s not firing the alleged offenders.
“Most bosses, when they identify the bad apples, they throw them out. But this being NYCHA, what did they do? They assigned them to new lo- cations,” fumed Rafaella Estremera, 59.
She added, “What kind of lesson does that teach? That if you throw orgy parties on public property, you’re free to continue working and collect benefits, with maybe just a longer commute to work.”
NYCHA’s employee handbook calls for “due process” and “progressive discipline” — but nobody can say how long that will take or why the Housing Authority hasn’t exercised its power to suspend the employees without pay while the investigation is ongoing.
A spokeswoman for the embattled agency declined to comment when asked if the workers had been suspended, citing the ongoing investigation.
Teamsters Local 237, which represents most of NYCHA’s workforce, declined to comment.
Both Gjonaj and Torres said that NYCHA has completely left them — and the entire City Council — out of the loop about the explosive allegations.
“There is no transparency,” said Torres, who chairs the council’s Investigations Committee. “How do you reassign staff at the whole development without looping in local elected officials — and then fail to mention the circumstances under which the reassignment took place.”