In a matter of minutes on Tuesday, the city hall press corps heard the following seemingly contradictory claims about Gene Jones, beleaguered boss of the city’s housing company:

To the city’s ombudsman Fiona Crean, Jones is a bureaucrat who ran roughshod over foes, paid little attention to rules, if he knew them at all, and transformed Toronto Community Housing (TCH) from one of Canada’s top places to work to a place of turmoil and fear.

“This is a story of failed leadership from the top. It’s an alarming tale of some senior executives ignoring policy and running an organization as though it was their own personal fiefdom,” Crean said, delivering a scathing report on Jones’ management practices since he took over in June 2012.

She cited instances where Jones hired and fired workers improperly, gave pay raises without justification, kept poor records, and hired people who never applied for senior jobs even as he advertised for the vacancy.

Listening to Crean was Bonnie Booth, a social housing tenant for three decades, who says Jones has transformed the projects into proud homes.

“Mr. Jones is a man of steel with a heart of gold,” Booth told reporters. “He’s done a lot of good things. He gives the impression we are valued. He listens to us.”

In response, Councillor Paula Fletcher said Jones has been very visible at social housing sites and provided good out-front leadership; but his credibility dips precipitously when his loafers replace work boots.

“I hope the mayor didn’t give him the impression he didn’t have to follow the rules,” Fletcher said.

One can imagine the mayor did just that. Jones’ modus operandi is classic Ford: Don’t let process or rules or nuance get in the way of what you are convinced needs to be done.

That may work when you are playing with daddy’s company; it’s not acceptable when you run the city-owned housing company that is the largest landlord in the country — in charge of lodging for 58,500 households. And it won’t fly when that city has accountability officers like an ombudsman to turn over the rocks.

But there is another side — public opinion formed by a relentless campaign waged by the mayor who promotes the idea that social housing is ticking along since he installed Jones as head.

In fact, we have the incongruous reality of all-news television cameras following the mayor around as he makes daily trips to broken-down social housing buildings — as if, as mayor, he is not responsible for their condition.

The litany of incompetent practices is enough to sink Jones and send him back to Detroit, from whence he came. A person responsible for half the indiscretions Crean lists should be run out of town. But who knows anymore?

Bonnie the tenant expressed little concern about Crean’s fusses.

The current brass, led by Jones, ascended the housing department’s management mountain walking on the bodies of managers laid waste in the aftermath of an auditor’s report chronicling questionable spending.

Reporters often shy away from these stories of victims of such purges. The purged invariably cry foul and complain of ruthless new bosses who abuse their power and unfairly sweep out good workers.

If you are Rob Ford and his supporters and you don’t like social housing in the first place, you might be inclined to cheer Jones along — process be damned.

Like Bonnie, you don’t really care about Crean’s report — or you can convince yourself you don’t — so long as your guy appears to be cleaning house of the undesirables you’ve railed against for years.

All that is supposed to wither away when it is clear the new approach is actually costing taxpayers money.

One story Crean tells is of Jones and his executive assistant. Within weeks of taking his job, Jones promoted her to a new “management” level unique at TCHC. Despite the higher pay — akin to that of a manager — Jones also approved overtime, something managers did not get. Realizing this would push her salary above $100,000 and trigger a public disclosure that raises alarm, the VP for human resources voiced the concerns to Jones.

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We have managers who don’t make $100,000, the VP said. Jones dismissed him, saying he was “prepared to deal with it.”

Well, I guess, it’s time to face the music.