Whistleblower Protection Blog : Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

The independent journalism website, truthout.org, is reporting that the Senate is set to "hotline" the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA), S. 372.  Hotlining is a procedure in which the Senate leaders agree that a bill is uncontroversial and they put the measure on the Senate floor to call for passage by unanimous consent.  If no Senator objects, then the measure passes the Senate.

That means it will only take one Senator to block unanimous consent and save current whistleblower rights from the poison pills contained in the Senate's current version of S. 372. These "poison pills" include repealing the current whistleblower protections for FBI employees, allowing the heads of intelligence agencies to fire whistleblowers with no due process at all, allowing intelligence agencies to conduct the fact findings in cases they do allow, and allowing for dismissal of whistleblower cases without a hearing. Follow this link for more information on S. 372. Follow this link to TAKE ACTION to call on your Senator to oppose S. 372 with the poison pills.

The full text of the truthout.org story follows in the continuation of this blog entry.

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The Village of North Syracuse, New York, has agreed to pay former police officer Michael Stassi $260,000 to settle his whistleblower retaliation lawsuit.  Stassi had to blow the whistle in 2005 on time card cheating by his superiors. Syracuse.com reports that former Sgt. Daniel Keefe plead guilty to having subordinates sign statements that Sgt. Keefe was working during times he was not working.  Former Capt. Michael Casey also plead guilty to official misconduct.  Former police chief David Wilkinson plead guilty to submitting false time sheets to North Syracuse, and a former employer.  The court ordered him to pay $3,760 in restitution. The news report does not detail what retaliation Stassi suffered, but thanks to the movie Serpico, one can easily imagine the hardships on a police officer who breaks the "code of silence." Stassi filed his retaliation case in 2008.  It was delayed after Wilkinson filed for bankruptcy protection. Now it is settled for a lot more than the fraudulent time sheets cost.  It is another example of how cover-ups can cost more than the initial crimes.  Retaliation claims can cost an employer a lot more than just addressing the issue a whistleblower raises.

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Today's Washington Post (Metro page B-1) reports on "a blunt assessment" of Washington DC's Metro transit administration.  Retired Metro manager David L. Gunn wrote the report.  Among other problems, it finds a "shoot the messenger" phenomenon "that discourages employees from raising safety concerns." The report is particularly sobering in light of last year's collision that killed nine people.  Metro has had other fatal accidents since then.

I know a fix for the "shoot the messenger" phenomenon. Any Metro manager, union official, or journalist could help.  One change could assure that safety issues are raised and addressed in the warm glow of pubic attention.  Every Metro train operator, bus driver, maintenance worker and manager needs to know that a recent federal law now protects them from retaliation when they raise safety concerns. 

Last October, I wrote here about how the Washington Post could report on the National Transit Systems Security Act of 2007 (NTSSA). NTSSA has given every transit system employee the right to put safety first, to bypass the chain of command, and to disobey unsafe or illegal orders. Under NTSSA, every Metro employee has legal protection if they choose to speak to a newspaper about safety concerns. They would be protected if they follow safety rules and run "late" as a result. Victims of retaliation need to know that they have only 180 days to file a complaint (some laws allow only 30 days).

I would be happy to speak to any group of Metro employees about their rights under NTSSA and how to enforce them.   Just call me, 202-342-6980, Ext. 112.

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Jane Turner had worked as a Special Agent for the FBI for twenty years.  She led efforts to force the FBI to provide protection for child sex crime victims on the North Dakota Indian Reservations. She also reported theft of evidence from the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  In retaliation for exposing FBI failures within its child crime program, Turner was removed from her position. She prevailed in a jury trial that redressed her bad performance reviews. Her whistleblower case is still pending with the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Today Jane Turner spoke with James Corbett of CorbettReport.com.Turner  spoke about the problems with the current Senate version of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA), S. 372. CorbettReport.com provides Open Source Intelligence News. Turner explains how Title VII of the Civil Rights Act allowed her to have a jury trial to challenge her retaliatory performance review. However, a special law for FBI employees provides for a special proceeding at the U.S. Department of Justice for her whistleblower claims. Turner explains how S. 372 would take away the right of FBI agents to make whistleblower complaints like hers. Turner calls on everyone to TAKE ACTION on S. 372 to counter the power of the FBI to block whistleblower rights. The 25-minute interview is available from CorbettReport.com in MP3 format.

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The Australian Law Reform Commission recommended that national security whistleblowers should face criminal sanctions only when their disclosures, "damage national security, interfere with an investigation and endanger someone's life or safety." The Commission also recommended that a new law create an offense of unauthorized disclosure only in these circumstances.

Today Australia's Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, tabled the recommendation in Parliament so that the government could review it.  The recommendation follows a 2005 disclosure by retired customs officer Allan Kessing about security breaches at Sydney Airport. Kessing was charged with disclosing information without due authorization. He made his disclosure to an opposition member of Parliament and it was published in a periodical two years later. The Herald Sun reports on the action in today's edition.

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What does Louis Brandeis' famous quote, "sunlight is the best of disinfectants," have to do with efforts to reform federal employee whistleblower protections? Well, if you have been following the legislative progress of S. 372, the so-called Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, through the Senate you would understand how perceptive Brandeis was about the positive effect of publicity.

In the back rooms of Senate offices, senate staffers have been working in secret to load up the Senate's whistleblower bill with numerous poison pills that do more to protect federal agencies and managers than to enhance federal employee whistleblower rights.

Press coverage yesterday by Politico and today by In These Times and last summer by the Washington Times sheds some light on the inner workings of the Senate and the influence of federal agencies, the FBI and the intelligence community to water down important whistleblower reforms.

The back room influence of federal managers and agencies has produced a Senate bill that is much weaker than the stronger House bill (H.R. 1507), co-sponsored by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA), that has strong bi-partisan support in the House and which was endorsed by President Obama during the campaign.

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FBI whistleblower Fred Whitehurst and an attorney for federal managers, Bill Bransford, spoke with Federal News Radio yesterday. They presented different sides of the argument about the Senate version of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA), S. 372. Whitehurst decried the bill saying it, "returns control of the process back to the very organization that is being exposed, and that's bizarre." Bransford supported the bill saying, "It was a very difficult problem that really was not capable of being fixed legislatively, but we tried. So you had this imperfect law, and, the result of it is, you get some really bad cases that come up before the federal circuit court of appeals . . .." Bransford said that he and the management-side Senior Executive Association (SEA) support S. 372.  I find this curious since Bransford testified last summer to a Senate Committee saying that he opposed letting federal employee whistleblowers bring cases to a jury.  Now he supports S. 372.  I conclude that S. 372 does not provide any meaningful hope that whistleblowers could actually get to a jury.  That is why the managers like it and the National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) does not. Federal News Radio is providing MP3 files of its interviews. The NWC is providing an Action Alert page for those who want to express a call for effective protection, not S. 372.

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FBI whistleblower Dr. Frederic Whitehurst issued a letter today strongly opposing the repeal of FBI whistleblower rights contained in the current Senate version of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (S. 372). This bill is currently being “hotlined” in the Senate, a process by which legislation can be passed by unanimous consent, without any formal debate or vote.

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Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center (NWC), spoke today with James Corbett of CorbettReport.com. Kohn spoke about the problems with the current Senate version of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA), S. 372. CorbettReport.com provide Open Source Intelligence News.  Kohn details ways in which the Senate version of WPEA would actually make it harder for whistleblowers to win protection from and remedies for retaliation. Kohn also explains how it will only take one Senator to block S. 372 from passing with unanimous consent in its present form. The interview is available from CorbettReport.com in MP3 format.

For more information about the problems with S. 372, visit this NWC page.

TAKE ACTION now by asking your Senator to block S. 274 from passing until the poison pills are fixed.

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Frank Palestro has been an officer of the New York Police Department for nine years.  Other officers thought well enough of Palestro to make him their union delegate. However, when he saw another officer telling subordinates to write summonses for traffic violations that they never witnessed, refusing to take complaints and tampering with a gun at the crime scene, he had to speak out. Palestro made three anonymous calls to report this corruption. Then, the logs of these calls mysteriously appeared on his locker at the stationhouse. Now Palestro has been ridiculed and victimized for exposing corruption within the department. "I was the [Patrolmen's Benevolent Association] delegate, and now I'm labeled a rat for doing what I was supposed to do," said Palestro. "This will stay with me for the rest of my career." The "code of silence" that uses social pressure to keep police officers from reporting crimes committed by other officers is still alive and well. The story reminds us of the brutal retaliation Officer Frank Serpico received in 1970 and 1971, as documented in the Sydney Lumet movie, Serpico. Palestro’s reputation has been scarred for standing up against corruption, a reprehensible reaction from the NYPD officers. Thank you to Gothamist.com for bringing this story to light.

Intern Quinn McCall contributed to this blog entry.

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