instead of following it's own rules and regulations, the USDA has hired a goon squad
to attack and destroy each person who stands up and says Hell No We Wont Take It Any More! It all boils down to snakes in the grass willing to steal and kill because they are greedy, and instead of doing the right thing, the goons are turned loose on innocent families to take away their rights of the pursuit of happiness, and the right to farm, and the right to pass our land to our heirs, that was passed from our fore fathers
-melissa s
From: LawrLCL@aol.com
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 22:19:12 -0400
Subject: the naacp ignoring the continued systemic discrimination at usda
To: hoshelton@naacpnet.org; bsimelton@aol.com
CC: floinc3@bellsouth.net; rncott1@aol.com; lesa@snowcrest.net; mccray.michael@gmail.com; ward.tj7@gmail.com; nofearcoalition@gmail.com; angusfarms@hotmail.com; jwagoner@fs.fed.us; robert@donnelly-house.net; elopez02@fs.fed.us; dhall02@fs.fed.us; featherhvn@yahoo.com; jmcfarland@fs.fed.us; thebevsmithshow@gmail.com; lawrlcl@aol.com
"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it". __Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends" -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Subj: Fwd: priority issues & concerns....farmers & usda employees17 april 2014mr. shelton & simelton:please read the below information regarding our priority issues & concerns.lawrence lucas
Subj: priority issues & concerns....farmers & usda employeesthe below are our "issues and concerns" discussed by the independent Black farmers and the usda coalition of minority employees with the naacp as late as 2011. we, ms. gilmore & mr. simelton carefully crafted the priorities, that are broken down into farmers and employee issues & concerns. pay close attention to the "priority issues". there is a list of 26 combined issues that is not in this listing below. that list i have not located as yet in my email system. i am still looking.let us not invent the wheel regarding these matters.lawrence lucas
From: LawrLCL@aol.com
Sent: 10/26/2011 10:37:25 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: coalition priority issue & 25 issues & concerns"October 3, 2011Black Farmer Priority Issues1. Settle the Administrative Complaints and court cases expeditiously.2. Statute of Limitations.3. Hold the USDA CR office accountable for the 180 day EEO process(Includes investigations and processing of cases).4. Design a program that is specific to minority farmers.5. Local State and County offices to be placed into Receivership.6. Implement Project Prime Road, a sustainability solar project for minority farmers. If it can work for minority farmers in North Carolina it can work for minority farmers throughout the country.USDA Employee Priority Issues1. Accelerated program to settle Title 7 complaints. All reprisal cases should be fast-tracked using the Glickman CRIT/CRAT model. Announce and initiate immediately.2. Settlement of Class Actions. Examples: Settle the Benton-Wilson Class Agents and associated cases that were dismissed; settle the Vercruysse Class; and settle any outstanding classes in USDA.3. Enforce USDA's regulations on accountability. Hold guilty parties accountable.4. Offer ADR to all employees with cases upon their request. Mediations will occur within 60 days.5. Conflict of interest cases to be processed outside USDA, i.e. use an outside contractor. Presently USDA has plans to process their own conflict of interest cases. Cease practice of USDA top officials purposely not processing conflict of interest cases to avoid accountability.6. Coalition to conduct civil rights training seminars in partnership with USDA, similar to the June 18-19, 1998 Race and Diversity in the Workplace seminar. One seminar will be held in California and one in Washington, DC.Joint Priority Issues1. Full implementation of CRIT/CRAT. Coalition paid to provide monitoring and oversight with authority from Office of the Secretary.2. Receivership.3. Ombudsman.4. Implement Jackson Lewis Report Recommendations.5. All Agency Civil Rights Directors should be under Office of Civil Rights, including budgets. FY 2009 or FY 2010 Budget, whichever is highest.6. Cease using high powered, K Street attorneys, OGC attorneys, and Staff attorneys to represent the Agency in pre-hearing/pre-court processes.7. OGC to discontinue their control of Civil Rights EEO and administrative processes for employees and farmers.8. Form a committee for implementation and oversight. Hire a minimum of two Coalition representatives.9. Implement all 25 Coalition Issues submitted to USDA on November======================================================================================
Begin forwarded message:
From: Benard Simelton <bsimelton@aol.com>
Date: February 11, 2013, 11:31:39 PM CST
To: Ferrell <floinc3@bellsouth.net>, Gilmore Dorcas <dgilmore@naacpnet.org>
Subject: Re: Black farmer contact info for teleconference Wednesday the 13th of Februa...Mr. Oden,Received an email from President Jealous and he is interested in meeting with the Black Farmers. His office needs to know where we would suggest a meeting. The following is what I suggest :
I think it will have more of an impact if we can have it at a farm in AL and afterwards have a press conference at the same location. A farm that shows where the fields are overgrown and run down implements setting idol and rusting because loans were not made to provide the funds to farm the land.Please let me know your input ASAP and I will provide back to President Jealous.Thanks,Benard
Sent From Benard's iPhoneThe suggested agenda is as follows:The Independent Black Farmers along with 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, as well as, individual cases 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. Also, all complaints with or without a finding, specifically all findings of discrimination.
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. Settle with the farmer based on the individual damages and no longer force the farmer to court to fight over damages. Therefore, saving the taxpayer a lot of dollars.
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. Also, implement the $8 million dollar Jackson-Lewis report and recommendations that Sec. Vilsack had commissioned.
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 and black farmers 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. However, all discriminating officials should be fired, i.e. Shirley Sherrod. 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 and IBF 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 and IBF 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 subjected 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 and farmers 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 and IBF recommends that the Office of Civil Rights be placed in "Receivership".
26. STOP THE SO CALLED INVESTIGATION, HARASSMENT, RETALIATION BY OGC, FBI, DOJ OF BLACK FARMERS WHO FILE A DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINT, ESPECIALLY, THOSE WITH A FINDING OF DISCRIMINATION! DEFINITELY ENJOIN USDA FROM HIRING DOJ, OGC AS DEFENSE COUNSEL FOR THE FELONIOUS USDA!
