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Subj: Fwd: CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY: LUCAS & DONNELLY, MAY 14, 2008
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Subj: CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY: LUCAS & DONNELLY, MAY 14, 2008TESTIMONY OF LAWRENCE LUCAS
&LESA DONNELLYUSDA COALITION OF MINORITY EMPLOYEESCOMMITTEE OF OVERSIGHT & COVERNMENT REFORMEDOLPHUS TOWNS, CHAIRMANMAY 14, 2008Mr. Lucas. First I would like to thank you and the
committee for taking on this very daunting task of getting to
the truth about really what goes on at USDA.
I would like to thank you for allowing me, president of the
USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, to come and speak about
the abuses, the intimidation, the racism and sexism that has
been going on at USDA much longer than we expected.
I wasn't invited to the fairness hearing, and I said before
Judge Freeman, this Pigford settlement is absent of
accountability. There is nothing in this settlement that will
promise farmers that they will not be discriminated in the
future. I was right then, and I am right now.
Other Senators have taken on this task, such as Senator
Grassley, Senator Luger, and Senator Harkin.
This long struggle with USDA is a culture of racism,
sexism, intimidation, and other abuses of an out-of-control
agency in which their Civil Rights office is dysfunctional in
processing and administration of individual complaints of
employees as well as farmers.
I come to you today after experiencing and being part of a
tribunal with Congresswoman Jackson Lee. During the 2-days, we
heard riveting testimony from farmers, from employees about the
abuse that they have suffered at the hands of USDA.
I am sorry to say that John Boyd and many of us sitting at
this table were elated that we found out that we finally got an
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. I must say today to you
that Civil Rights at USDA is worse now than it was when we
first thought in 2003 that we had an Assistant Secretary that
was going to do something about this problem.
The CRAT and CRIT reports, one of the most scathing reports
about an agency--and, by the way, they investigated themselves
under the Glickman administration. The Democrats did a fair job
of getting to that, but if you take a look around, the first
thing that this administration did with the new Assistant
Secretary, their leadership--and I am talking about leadership
that is still there in the Department of Agriculture to this
day--they made sure that the CRAT and CRIT reports were taken
down from their Web site. You cannot find one CRAT or CRIT
report in the office, because we tried to get it and we tried
to also get them to adhere to the recommendations of that
report.
I am sorry to say, Mr. Chairman, this Department is out of
control. They express their zeal and their gall and their
arrogance when they decided to boot out the Office of General
Counsel, who came to investigate and audit some of the problems
that we have been saying, John Boyd and many of us at this
table and other advocates and lawyers for farmers and employees
for so many years how dysfunctional that office is.
I think what happened was, they found out through their own
channel--the way I find out information--that they realize that
the employees were equally as fed up as the advocates. We, as
well, have been telling the Congress and many others. So, they
decided that they were going to shut down, and the Office of
General Counsel at USDA, who will tell you years ago under J.
Michael Kelly--who is still there today--he will tell you for
years after we settled the Pigford case, there has been no
discrimination against the Black farmers. And, we have settled
these cases at a tune of almost $1 billion, but this is the
kind of leadership and interference by the Office of General
Counsel that has an iron hold when it comes to processing.
I have been sitting trying to resolve an individual
complaint in the ADR stage. They take their OGC attorneys to
fight little people, so I know what they are doing when they
are trying to fight farmers.
The Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights today and
yesterday have done a poor job and has been very disappointing.
I think there are some things that you need to know.
The Office of Civil Rights said that they were tracking the
complaint systems, the complaints of employees and farmers. I
have been telling USDA and the Office of Civil Rights, but they
stopped talking to us, because we weren't telling them what
they wanted to know. But, we have been telling the Office of
the Secretary that in the complaint system that they tell you
is working all right, the numbers don't jive.
Mr. Towns. Mr. Lucas, could you sum up?
Mr. Lucas. OK. In summary, what I would like to see from
this committee is to hopefully put together an advisory
committee and put the USDA Office of Civil Rights in
receivership and appointment a board of five people, one from
the Agriculture Committee, one from the House Agriculture
Committee, one from the Agriculture, one representing farmers,
and one representing employees, because USDA cannot police
itself.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lucas follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Towns. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony.
Lesa Donnelly.
STATEMENT OF LESA DONNELLY
Ms. Donnelly. Mr. Chairman, thank you for allowing me to
speak here today.
I would like to place on the record six declarations from
Forest Service employees from across the Nation.
Mr. Towns. Without objection.
Ms. Donnelly. Thank you.
I worked for the USDA Forest Service for almost 25 years,
from 1978 to 2002. In 1995, I filed a class action lawsuit on
behalf of 6,000 Forest Service women in California, known as
the Donnelly v. Glickman. It resulted in a Consent Decree to
deal with issues of sexual harassment, hostile work
environment, and reprisal. Prior to that lawsuit, there was a
lawsuit called Bernardi that went from approximately 1971
through 1994. Region Five California had been, through 2006, in
Federal court monitored oversight on gender discrimination
issues for 30 years through 2006. Still, women are sexually
assaulted, threatened, and harassed to this day.
As a lay advocate, I currently represent employees of
California across the Nation. They are victims of sexual
assault, physical assault, sexual harassment, gender, racial,
and disability discrimination, and a lot of reprisal.
For years and years, I have tried to work cooperatively
with the Forest Service and USDA leadership, from the
Secretary's office to the Chief's office to the regional
offices, and it has been to no avail. They refuse to work with
us. We could be a long way ahead in preventing and eliminating
these abuses of employees if they would just come to the table
and try to work with us, but they won't.
They not only refuse to communicate; they ignore acts
against employees that are so egregious that you would think
they would have no conscience at all or humanity.
As an example, I would like to bring forward the situation
in 2005 in which I had a meeting with Under Secretary Mark Ray
and tried to discuss the rape of a young female fire fighter in
southern California, and Mr. Ray advised me that he and the
USDA were not concerned about the incident, that it was merely
a police matter. The woman had been complaining of sexual
harassment for months prior to that and it ended in a rape.
In 2005 another female fire fighter was sexually assaulted
in Sacramento. When we spoke to Assistant Secretary for Civil
Rights, Vernon Parker, he callously replied that it was not
rape, because there was no penis penetration. The woman had
been penetrated by the man's hand. He said it in a very callous
manner. When the Monitor tried to speak with him more about it,
he just dismissed it. He would not discuss it at all.
The callous and insensitive ways that USDA and Forest
Service management have dealt with these issues show a lack of
concern, a total inhumanity toward these victimized employees.
They highlight the agency's failure to address violations of
law, policy, and procedure.
Today, we have here with us Christine Levitop, who flew out
from California. She was sexually assaulted in 2004 and, as of
this day in 2008, she is still being retaliated against for
reporting that. The regional offices and Washington offices
will not take any action to stop this ongoing harassment and
reprisal. There are numerous cases that I could speak about,
but we don't have time for that here, numerous cases.
Workplace violence is a very serious issue in USDA Forest
Service and very problematic in Region Five California. They
don't follow regulations and policies.
I would like to bring to your attention a recent situation
where a White male supervisor threatened an African American
female subordinate with a gun. Management did not follow
procedures properly. The two women still fear for their lives,
and there still could be dire consequences from the agency not
dealing with it.
I would like to state that something has to be done. I
think we need congressional oversight. I would like to
emphasize that we need a panel, an independent advisory panel
to deal with this, to deal with the reprisal which is rampant.
And, I agree with Mr. Lucas, I would like to emphasize that
USDA needs to be placed into receivership until something can
be done for them to start dealing with issues of harassment,
discrimination, workplace violence, and sexual assault have no
place in the Government. Someone is going to be killed, sir,
unless something is done about this.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Donnelly follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Towns. Let me thank all of you for your testimony, of
course.
At this time, I would just like to raise a few questions.
You mentioned this retaliation. I am concerned about that,
because it means that workers can't come forward to share,
because they are afraid that they might be retaliated against.
That, to me, is very, very disturbing. I think that it doesn't
strengthen the agency when you behave and operate in that
fashion. If a person comes forward with information, or even a
strong suggestion, it appears that something negative might
happen to them.
Is this a recent thing, or has this been going on all
along, Mr. Lucas?
Mr. Lucas. What I have to offer is that the USDA Office of
Civil Rights is not a leader in this regard. It has been going
on throughout the Department for a long time. They have gotten
to a point where if an employee speaks up and wants to improve
the system or tell about the problems of the system, they are
the people who are fired; they are the people who are put on
discharge. We have had almost the loss of the life of an
employee because of the oppression, and the Office of Civil
Rights, itself, has over 30 or 40 complaints filed against its
former Director of Civil Rights. So, this is a problem that is
endemic, this reprisal and intimidation to control the kind of
information that can come to this committee and to the American
public. They are just as much a part of the problem, and they
are not part of the solution in this regard.
Mr. Towns. Thank you, Mr. Lucas.
