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Suit calls S.F. housing head bully, racist
[SF Gate] The San Francisco Housing Authority, which runs more than 6,000 units of public housing for the city's poor, is headed by an executive director who discriminates against white employees in favor of African Americans and regularly employs offensive, outlandish language and behavior in the workplace, according to a lawsuit filed by the agency's own lawyer.The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by the agency's assistant general counsel, Tim Larsen, paints executive director Henry Alvarez as a mercurial bully - a description echoed in interviews with The Chronicle by several others who have had close contact with Alvarez since his arrival at the Housing Authority in 2008. Alvarez was recruited by Mayor Ed Lee, who was the city administrator at the time, from the Housing Authority in San Antonio to lead an agency that has had a series of leaders ousted or scrutinized. During Alvarez's tenure, the agency's federal scorecard has gotten worse, and housing advocates say Alvarez's leadership hurts those who need housing the most. Lee defended Alvarez, though he was unaware that the director was being sued or of the complaints others have lodged against him. The mayor said that Alvarez has "one of the toughest jobs" in the city, and that he stands by his choice. "I don't get into personnel matters," Lee said. "But I am familiar with every Housing Authority (director) being called a bully. I've been called a bully, and I don't think I am." Larsen, who is white, has worked at the Housing Authority for eight years and says that he was repeatedly passed over for promotions and plum assignments in favor of African American employees. Alvarez is African American, and according to Larsen's lawsuit, screamed at Larsen daily; gave him menial jobs such as organizing recycling; and told him to "stop being so Anglo," that he "did not have enough kink in his hair," and that "if you had more melatonin in your skin, I could make you my deputy." Posted by: Fred 2012-12-03 |
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