A veteran city Housing Authority plasterer claims he just wanted to help out a frustrated tenant waiting in vain for a ceiling repair.
Instead, Carlos Fonseca had to give up $8,128 in pay to settle charges brought by the city Conflict of Interest Board for demanding $100 to do the job.
In a Conflict of Interest Board settlement released Wednesday, Fonseca agreed to a 25-day suspension without pay.
Greg Floyd, president of Fonseca’s union, Teamsters Local 237, blasted NYCHA for targeting what he said was a well-meaning employee.
“Out of the goodness of his heart, he knew her apartment needed to be fixed,” Floyd said. “He really didn’t want to charge the woman any money.”
Fonseca’s dilemma is linked to NYCHA’s notorious backlog of repairs, which is now 80,000 but in late 2012, had reached a record 420,000 requests. Tenants routinely waited months and even years for basic repairs.
That November, Mott Haven Houses tenant Jacqueline Rodriguez, 63, told Fonseca she couldn’t get NYCHA managers to fix her collapsed bathroom ceiling.
Fonseca promised he’d do the job for an unspecified fee if NYCHA didn’t take care of it. He told her to call if nothing changed.
On April 5, 2013, she called. Surveying the damage, Fonseca offered to fix it for $50. Ten days later Rodriguez called again, and this time he wanted $100, saying he’d need a helper. They set an April 22 appointment.
Fonseca — who made $137,000 last year with overtime — later canceled.
NYCHA said the ceiling was fixed sometime in 2013, but Rodriguez said it didn’t happen until sometime last year. And, she said, the ceiling is collapsing again due to a water leak from above.
“They fixed it but it’s back the same way,” she said, noting that she requested a repair and made a Feb. 18 appointment. “Nobody showed up,” she said.
