NYC to Pay Aids Group in Settlement (criticized Giuliani, lost contracts)

[DeepModem Mom]

New York Times:
City to Pay AIDS Group in Settlement
By JIM DWYER
Published: May 27, 2005


The city has agreed to pay almost $5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Housing Works, an advocacy and housing organization a for people with AIDS that claimed it had lost government contracts as punishment for disparaging former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, his aides and their policies.

The payment, announced yesterday, 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.

The two sides had very different views of the settlement and the history it rested on.

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."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/27/nyregion/27settlement.html