Re: USDA Coalition Again Request Meeting with Secretary Vilsack and Top Staff

On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 11:36 PM, <LawrLCL@aol.com> wrote:

here it  is again.

Subj: USDA Coalition Again Request Meeting with Secretary Vilsack and Top Staff

July 21, 2011

 

Meeting with Under and Assistant Secretaries

 

Dr. Leonard:

The Coalition would be pleased to meet with the USDA leadership During the week of July 25, We prefer the 27th or the 28th . We request the following to be present at this upcoming meeting:

Secretary Tom Vilsack
Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan
Chief of Staff, Krysta Harden
Under Secretary Kathy Woktecki
Under Secretary Ed Avalos
Under Secretary Harris Sherman

This meeting will address the pressing matters in their respective mission areas. It our belief that those who will be participating at our  meeting would be prepared to implement our recommendations and solutions.   

It is our expectation that this meeting results in actions being implemented and not a meeting to meet. This way we insure that we are moving forward. The twenty-five points of concern below were provided on Novermber 10, 2010 that have never been addressed by Secretary Vilsack. This is  primary focus of our  meeting. If there are any planned presentations by USDA officials we would like that done at anther place and time. We will defer on meeting with other USDA officials until a later date.  Since the Coalition has requested the upcoming meeting, then we will take the lead on presenting our issues so as to make the best use of our ninety minutes that have been designated for this meeting. Also, our request to accommodate the video conferencing tie in for Ms. Lesa Donnelly, to assure her participation in this meeting is still needed. She will be participating in the meeting from California.

 

 

Ron Cotton,
Senior Advisor, USDA Coalition 

=================================================================================================

November 10, 2010

 

TO: Secretary Tom Vilsack and Staff

SUBJECT: Issues and Solutions Regarding USDA Civil Rights

 

The USDA Coalition of Minority Employees has on numerous occasions requested to meet with Secretary Vilsack concerning violations of USDA employees' and minority farmers civil rights by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Only once during his first few months on the job did he agreed to meet with the Coalition. His staff on occasion has met with the Coalition:

Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary; Karen Ross, Chief of Staff; Joe Leonard, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights; Harris Sherman, Under Secretary for Natural Resources; Edward Avalos; Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs; Steve Silverman, Deputy General Counsel; Tom Tidwell, Chief, Forest Service.

Yet, significant and systemic civil rights violations continue at USDA; the issues require the Secretary's immediate attention. The Secretary is responsible for the Department's civil rights violations and abuses.

The Coalition has identified significant problems and proposes solutions for the following issues:

1. Failure to process civil rights complaints. Institute immediately a Departmental program to resolve/reduce the backlog of complaints for both employees and minority farmers, especially, Black farmers.

2. Implement programs that have already been successful. Use the Glickman/Clinton administration model to resolve complaints and implement the remaining recommendations from the Civil Rights Action Team (CRAT) and the Civil Rights Implementation Team (CRIT) Reports.

3. Make the CRAT & CRIT Reports an immediate priority for implementation throughout USDA & all of its agencies. Place each of these reports back on the USDA website. Require each agency to develop an internal resolution program (utilizing a USDA prescribed process) for mediating all cases in the administrative process. This process should be offered to all employees having outstanding cases.

4. Immediately begin final negotiations to settle remaining class actions. Specifically, the Herron African American, Wilson/Benton class and resolve all remaining cases in Spencer.

5. Reinstate and process minority farmers, especially Black farmers, administrative complaints that were allowed to lapse during the ten years of the Bush and Obama Administrations.

6. Investigate farmers' complaints. When a final decision is reached concerning allegations, send the farmers a letter to inform them of the decision made concerning the complaint.

7. Fully implement recommendations in GAO Report of 2008 that contain remedies and viable options to address management deficiencies in the USDA Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.

8. Implement all issues and concerns in Senator Chuck Grassley's June 15, 2010, letter to Senator Blanche Lincoln, Chairperson Senate Agriculture Committee.

9. Enforce USDA's regulations on accountability. Hold management officials and employees accountable for discrimination. Include a civil rights critical element in performance evaluations for officials, managers and supervisors.

10. Require the USDA Office of Civil Rights to work in cooperation and partnership with the Coalition of Minority Employees to improve civil rights, workforce diversity, and recruitment agency-wide. Joe Leonard, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, has undermined progress and cooperation between the Office of Civil Rights and the Coalition. Only in a recent meeting with the Secretary's top staff, has he shown a desire to meet with the Coalition.

11. Report and process all reprisal complaints expeditiously via the USDA Office of Civil Rights so that employees do not languish and suffer in an abusive environment. The process is already in place; USDA should follow existing policies. Claims and documentation of reprisal should be maintained, documented and reported by the USDA Office of Civil Rights.

12. The USDA Office of Civil Rights has failed in its management responsibilities to conduct proper civil rights oversight and compliance reviews of all its agencies. This is a requirement that must be corrected.

13. No USDA employee should be forced to resign or retire as a condition for settling a complaint. The Secretary should take immediate action to prevent this double discrimination from continuing. This is a direct violation of Title VII.

14. Settle the long standing Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) case of a Black female employee that was called the "N" word, "MF", "You People" and other abuses. Top Obama officials at USDA refused to settle this egregious case. Also, settle another NRCS employee case who was wrongly discriminated against, now deceased.

15. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Ames, Iowa laboratories has a long

history of racial epithets and hostile work environment that includes: reprisal, intimidation and bullying. There is no evidence that has been shared with the Coalition that top and lower management officials at those laboratories are being held accountable, for past and present abuses.

16. The USDA tracking system and reporting process is an abysmal failure. Senator Grassley has said "A statutory mandate to publish reports on the participation of minority farmers and ranchers in USDA programs but those reports are riddled with unreliable data." The Coalition can only assume that the same applies to employment and record keeping as well since there are no published reports. This is not the civil rights transparency promised by the Secretary.

17. Implement the GAO and 2008 Farm Bill Recommendation to hire an "Ombudsman".

18. Apologize to the five Black women, in the USDA Office of Civil Rights who were falsely accused of wrong doing and subject to a humiliating investigation. This is a clear case of abuse of power. Even though their stories did not make national news, these women deserve to be accorded the same level of justice afforded Shirley Sherrod.

19. USDA Office of Civil Rights must publish accurate civil rights reports and data which are treated as confidential or classified. We need more accountability and transparency.

20. The USDA Forest Service remains the most abusive and discriminatory agency in all of USDA. The claims predominantly from women include: hostile work environment, reprisal, intimidation, sexual harassment, bullying and other abuses. Few officials are being held accountable. Priority should be placed on resolving cases in Forest Service Region 5.

21. The USDA Forest Service during recent years paid out 4.2 million taxpayer dollars to one contract attorney to battle employees in ADR/mediation process. This money is better spent improving the working conditions of employees instead of saving the jobs of some civil rights abusers.

22. Process for employee complaints (including ADR and Mediation) should be handled expeditiously. There are too many instances where resolving officials have not shown up; came without the authority to settle; declined to sign the negotiated agreement; came in bad faith; or refused the employee the right to a representative of their choosing. These intentional violations of civil rights regulations undermine the integrity and the intent of the process and further violate the employees' rights.

23. Reinstate the USDA diversity recruitment programs at Iowa State University (Ames) and California Polytechnic University (Pomona).

24. Hire employees in the Office of Civil Rights who know Title VI and VII. Top management for USDA civil rights are not knowledgeable of the laws and the cases that interpret these and other civil rights statutes.

25. The Coalition has seen the Obama administration continue the abuses in the Office of Civil Rights. Unless there is an honest attempt to address these civil rights abuses, the Coalition recommends that the Office of Civil Rights be placed in "Receivership".

It is imperative that we meet with you to assist in identifying and eliminating the underlying causes of discrimination throughout USDA. Working together we can assist in putting together a plan for preventing future individual and class complaints.

Thank you.

//s//

Lawrence Lucas, President

USDA Coalition of Minority Employees

Phone: 856/ 910-2399

Webpage: www.agcoaliton.org

Cc: Coalition Representatives Nation-wide