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From: Capitol Hellway Media Company
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2023
To: FOIARequests <FOIARequests@dol.gov>, Integrity-Complaint <integrity-complaint@cigie.gov>, <OIGHotline@oig.dol.gov>, <flagg.thomas@dol.gov>
Cc: <Casework@rubio.senate.gov>, <yovi.alvarez@mail.house.gov>, <andrea.morales@mail.house.gov>, <ogis@nara.gov>
Subject: URGENT: Freedom of Information Act Request
The source of this important records request is the Office of the Chief Information Officer and Mr. Thomas Flagg at the U.S. Department of Labor.
To promote the efficiency of the government and preserve important records that contain evidence of egregious crimes committed by current federal employees and an ongoing conspiracy by senior executives at the U.S. Department of Labor including James Matthew Lewis OASAM WECO Director and the National Archives and Records Administration to conceal race discrimination against 8 black federal technology workers by tampering with or concealing official government records, we request a copy of the below two emails under the Freedom of Information Act or other statutes that allow citizen access to this information. The first email requested is dated September 2, 2015 and the second email is dated a few months later. Copies of each email are provided below. Since these emails contain specific evidence and allegations of high crimes by Aung Htein and others at the USDOL, and the fact that Seema Nanda and Brent Parton have been unresponsive to our repeated requests for documents that contain evidence of crimes, we also request that ANY INSTANCE (copy) of these emails including all emails forwarded, replied, etc. since 2015 that contain any of the text of these emails together or separately be provided as well to assist with a forensic examination by third parties to determine how this cover-up has been carried out, coordinated, and how many people at USDOL have turned a blind eye to crimes by senior officials in your agency. That includes this email request dated today, earlier this month, last month, and any other request for these emails made by any source containing these documents since 2015.
For the Integrity Committee: this foia request is provided to assist with your review of the DOL IG’s participation in discrimination and sanctioning retaliation.
Please let me know if you require any additional information to fulfill this FOIA request.
My contact information has not changed.
John Stuart Edwards
Capitol Hellway Media Company
Naples, Florida
— DOCUMENTS REQUESTED
— REQUEST #1 of 2
From: John S Edwards – ETA
Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2015
To: Renee Evans – ETA, Htein, Aung – ETA, Peter P Le – ETA
Subject: OOO today
Im taking sick leave today.
–END OF REQUEST #1
— REQUEST #2 of 2
From: Edwards, John S – ETA <Edwards.John.S@dol.gov>
To: Lopez, Betty – ASAM <Lopez.Betty@dol.gov>; Hall, Vanessa H – ASAM <Hall.Vanessa.H@DOL.GOV>
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2015
Subject: Re: Allegation of Harassing Conduct
To: Betty A. Lopez, Director, EEO Program / Office of the Administration and Management
This is my response to your memo dated November 17, 2015 concerning my allegations on October 13, 2015 to Vanessa Hall (member of your staff) of systemic discrimination by management officials Aung Htein, Lisa Lahrman, and Byron Zuidema against African American employees and reprisal.
I am very concerned by the omission of facts in your memo. It appears that you are turning a blind eye to discrimination at the Department of Labor and retaliation by senior managers at the Assistant Secretary level.
Please direct any future communications or correspondence on this matter from your office to my attorney, Peter Broida who is representing me in this case.
For the record (response to Harassment Nonacceptance Memo (J Edwards) 11.18.15):
Ms. Lopez, your memo dated November 17, 2015 states that you have carefully reviewed my allegations and determined that they will not be accepted for investigation by your office, however, your office did not follow-up with me, even after I made repeated attempts to contact you by email and phone. On Tuesday, November 3, 2015 9:20 PM you sent me an email that told me to remove your name and Vanessa Hall’s name from all emails that were providing documentation for everything your memo states did not take place. You also stated in your November 3, 2015 9:20 PM email that Vanessa Hall will contact me the next week (week of November 9-13) but she did not. As a result, you made no reasonable attempt to carefully review my allegations and your memo dated November 17, 2015 omitted important facts.
Here are the facts in response to the reasons stated in your memo for not accepting my allegations for investigation:
- Protected Category – Your conclusion is false. In my meeting with Vanessa Hall on October 13, 2015 (acknowledged by her email Tuesday, October 13, 2015 11:57 AM), I communicated the basis of my complaint as reprisal based on Vanessa Hall’s instructions. I further explained to Vanessa Hall during our meeting that we held in your offices on October 13, 2015 and in some subsequent documentation to Vanessa Hall and to you prior to your memo on November 17, 2015, how the alleged incidents had adversely impacted me based on my protected status – which is why Vanessa guided me – both verbally and in writing – to file a complaint with you and the CRC.Specifically, my concern when I met with Vanessa on October 13, 2015 was whether I have a responsibility as a senior management official to report the systemic discrimination that I described to her in detail – and she said yes – that I do have that responsibility, so I reported it. She also shared with me that in her entire work experience she never knew of a senior management official like me, who is white, that had the courage to stand up for the civil rights of African American employees and so she encouraged me to also file a complaint of reprisal with James Anderson to protect my civil rights because she said she believed that I was being retaliated against by Aung Htein, and that the senior management at the Department of Labor, once they became involved, would likely side with him as they always do, she said. Based on these facts, I reasonably believe that there was an omission of facts in your memo dated November 17, 2015 under protected category.
- Alleged Incidents – Your conclusion is false.I not only alleged a systemic pattern and practice of discrimination in my complaint to your office on October 13, 2015, butI also provided specific examples, evidence and names of the employees to Vanessa Hall in our meeting on October 13, 2015, and I summarized those complaints and evidence in a follow-up email to her on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 12:46 PM that she acknowledged receipt of in an email to me on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 1:01 PM. Those and subsequent email communications, up until you told me on Tuesday, November 3, 2015 9:20 PM in an email to remove you and Vanessa Hall from my emails describing the discrimination and ongoing retaliation, all provided substantial information and documentation about how ETA senior management officials are not hiring, promoting or retaining qualified African Americans.
Here is a summary again of the meeting I had with Vanessa Hall in person on October 13, 2015 (supported by subsequent emails you also received) and summarized in writing in a follow-up email to her on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 12:46 PM that she acknowledged receipt of in an email to me on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 1:01 PM that refute all the conclusions about alleged incidents in your memo dated November 17, 2015:
- I introduced myself to Vanessa Hall in our meeting on October 13, 2015 and explained that I served 20 years in the U.S. Marines (we discussed her experiences with DoD) and I retired as 30 percent disabled veteran. I told her that I had worked in the private sector from 1999 – 2012 before joining the federal government to serve my country again. I explained that I work in the ETA Office of Information Systems and Technology (OIST) as a GS15 Step 10 with 3.5 years federal service. I told her that I took a large pay cut to serve the government when I joined DHS as the lead modernization architect leading a large integrated project team to modernize E-Verify for comprehensive immigration reform in early 2012 and that after legislation stalled in late 2013 for immigration reform, I transferred to DOL as the Division Chief for Enterprise Solution Services in OIST. I explained at the time that I have been highly successful in my entire career spanning 35 years as a manager of people, and that my ratings have been exemplary and thatin May 2014 after only 7 months at DOL ETA OIST, I was promoted to be the Deputy Director of the entire office with direct supervisory responsibilities for approximately 50 federal staff and 100 contractors. I explained to Vanessa Hall that I was the only manager reporting to my boss, Aung Htein, a GS15 Director (he had one other GS12 admin direct report), and that he reported to another GS15 who also manages the HR department – Lisa Lahrman. I explained that Lisa Lahrman reports to a DAS (deputy assistant secretary) Byron Zuidema – a term employee who has long tenure in the ETA organization as SES with about one more year of service on a term appointment – and that he reports directly to the Assistant Secretary Portia Wu who I believe reports to the Secretary Perez.
- In the meeting on October 3, 2015 I explained alleged incidents to Vanessa Hall that from May 2014 onwards, Aung Htein and Lisa Lahrman did not provide the same quality of assignments and opportunities to the following African-American employees as those that were given to employees of other races: Dwayne Palmer, Florence Davidson, Thomas Flagg, Nat Brown, Kevin Jackson and that in October or November 2014, Aung Htein and Lisa Lahrman asked me to place Marlene Howze (GS-15), an African-American employee, on a performance improvement plan as soon as possible even though I, as her supervisor, strongly disagreed. I described in detail to Vanessa Hall how Aung Htein and Lisa Lahrman repeatedly asked me to come up with schemes to evaluate Ms. Howze on factors other than her actual performance in order to facilitate their obsessive desire to remove her from DOL and end her federal employment. I also described how Aung Htein and Lisa Lahrman concocted a trumped up investigation into Marlene Howze’s conduct and performance in the months preceding my appointment as Deputy Director in May 2014 through the summer of 2014, and how that investigation failed to create the outcome – to fire Ms. Howze – that they sought. During that time, Marlene Howze had been reporting directly to Aung Htein and they changed the reporting chain to me to shield Aung Htein and Lisa Lahrman’s motives. I told her I had documentation to prove this (see FINAL – Report – 10-16-2014 Howze).
- In our meeting on October 13, 2015, I also explained to Vanessa Hall how in July 2015, Aung Htein and Lisa Lahrman refused to allow the temporary promotion of Darryl McDaniel, a highly-regarded African-American GS-13 OIST employee, to GS-14 Supervisory IT Specialist position in the Employment and Training Administration (Job Announcement No. MS-15-ETA-OMAS-084) even though Mr. McDaniel was performing many of the duties of the higher-graded position. I told her I had documentation to prove this, and I also described in our meeting how these actions came even though Mr. McDaniel was already performing all aspects of the job – and had been doing so for most of the previous year, and that it was a critically important position for grants systems modernization. Mr. McDaniel scored highly for the position from HR, and he was the only person on the certificate of eligibles that Htein and Lahrman denied.
- Also in our meeting on October 13, 2015, I described to Vanessa Hall in detail how between July 2015 and the present, Ms. Lahrman has maintained DOL could not fill OIST vacancies, including the advertised Supervisory IT Specialist position for Mr. McDaniel (Job Announcement No. MS-15-ETA-OMAS-084), without having an agile reorganization plan in place and prior to bargaining with the union. I also described how Lisa Lahrman and Aung Htein nonetheless have filled several other OIST vacancies during this time period without either of these conditions being met.
- Finally, I described to Vanessa Hall how in September 2015, Aung Htein told Freddie Sconce, Director of IT Governance, to rate a subordinate employee, Antonian Liddell, at a very low level, far below what Mr. Sconce felt he deserved, so that OIST could terminate Mr. Liddell before the end of his probationary period and that Mr. Sconce had told me that he felt Mr. Liddell was performing his job satisfactorily.
To document that the above conversations took place I sent a written summary of the above complaints to Vanessa Hall with the names of the employees listed above on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 12:46 PM that she acknowledged in an email to me on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 1:01 PM. You also received these emails and complaints. Based on these facts, I reasonably believe that there was an omission of facts in your memo under alleged incidents.
- Retaliation – Your conclusion is false.You reference an email, dated September 3, 2015 from me to management (that I provided to you with my complaint on October 13, 2015), where I announced my decision to leave and asked management for a meeting, however the meeting with Byron Zuidema concerning that email did not occur until October 27, 2015, yet you state in your memo that this meeting preceded the filing of my complaint on October 13, 2015 – but it did not. You also state that you have become aware that my request for reassignment was granted by ETA on October 29, 2015 and I am no longer in the environment which I opposed – however that is not true either because I still report to Aung Htein who I accused of discrimination. Further, your memo omits the following facts from the meeting I had with Vanessa Hall in person on October 13, 2015 (supported by subsequent emails you also received) and summarized in writing in a follow-up email to her on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 12:46 PM that she acknowledged receipt in an email to me on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 1:01 PM.
Specifically, I reported to Vanessa Hall on October 13, 2015 that:
- On 9/1/15, Aung Htein came into my office and told me that I needed to stop “making noise” about Lisa Lahrman not wanting to hire GS13 Darryl McDaniel for the Grants GS14 position (that he applied for and was placed on the cert as the only qualified candidate) because he is black. I told him that was racist and he should stand up to her and the position was critical and that Darryl is the best qualified “in the world” for doing the job – and that he should be a GS15 not just a GS14 based on the work he is doing now compared to others, but Aung asked me if I would lie about it. I told him I could not do that, because to lie would not only hurt our mission but hurt our people.I told him that not hiring Darryl is discrimination. He said he didn’t care but if I could just wait a few months and stop making noise, there might be an org change where he could become an SES. Then Aung left my office.
- I further described to Vanessa Hall in our October 13, 2015 meeting that on 9/2/15, that I could not sleep at all the previous night and had to take a sick day on Wednesday September 2, 2015 because of what I was asked to do. I told her that I was still feeling very ill because of the pattern of discrimination I was seeing – and because I could not lie as Aung Htein asked me to and intentionally hurt the mission and the people. I also told Vanessa Hall that I felt (at that time) that the deputy assistant secretary Byron Zuidema had no idea what I had been asked to do so on 9/3/15, without stating why, I announced my intent to depart OIST in an email to Lisa Lahrman and Aung Htein and Byron Zuidema and offered my services to Byron Zuidema in other areas to mentor programs and regions on how to use enabling technologies by leveraging an investment that is being made now. I thought at the time that email would provoke a meeting when I returned from leave with Byron Zuidema that would allow me to privately discuss my discrimination concerns about Aung Htein and Lisa Lahrman since he was third level above in my chain of command and I had been instructed to only contact him if I had permission from Aung Htein and Lisa Lahrman – my first and second level supervisors – and because I had hoped to resolve this as a senior management official acting within my chain of command.
- I also explained to Vanessa Hall in our October 13, 2015 meeting that on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 2:37 PM, Aung emailed me a summary of the meeting where he began to retaliate against me by diminishing my supervisory responsibilities for making the complaint, and I described in detail to Vanessa Hall the meeting that took place after I met with Aung and received his email, with Lisa Lahrman on Thursday, September 17, 2015 10:00 AM-11:00 AM where I described to Lisa Lahrman in great detail for an hour the discrimination that took place and that I felt I was being retaliated against by Aung Htein. I told Lisa in that meeting my rationale for sending the September 3, 2015 email, that I wanted to stay in my current position in the ETA, and that I hoped we could work together as mature executives to resolve these issues in a professional manner. She said she would look into it and the meeting ended. We did not meet again until the meeting on October 27, 2015.
- Finally, you are already aware of the substantial documentation that I provided on Friday, October 30, 2015 2:01 PM about my reassignment that took place on November 1, 2015 where I was permanently removed from my Deputy Director position (supervising ~50 federal staff and ~100 contractors) and demoted to a non-managerial, non-supervisory, and non-bargaining position that did not exist before in retaliation for making the complaints described above. You also know that I received a rating of Effective in Leadership on my evaluation for filing the EEO complaint and you were informed by me about the advertisement to immediately to fill my position in order to intimidate the other employees (so they can see what happens to people who report discrimination) and adversely impact my ability to find another job commensurate with my skills and experience as a senior manager and Deputy Director. You replied to my Friday, October 30, 2015 2:01 PM email that Vanessa forwarded to you about my reassignment on Friday, October 30, 2015 5:08 PM to Vanessa Hall saying, “Please contact Mr. Edwards next week about this email to mgmt. and his allegation of reprisal. It appears he distributed his complaint to mgmt. and others. Why? Also, I thought you mentioned a request he sent to mgmt. to remove him from his position. This email traffic reads like a reassignment has been forced upon him rather than at his request. I’m confused.”
Based on all these facts and your memo dated November 17, 2015, it appears that you are turning a blind eye to discrimination at the Department of Labor and retaliation by senior managers at the Assistant Secretary level.
Please direct any future communications or correspondence on this matter from your office to my attorney, Peter Broida who is representing me in this case.
With all hope for God’s Intervention and Grace,
John Stuart Edwards
— End of REQUEST #2 of 2
— END OF DOCUMENTS REQUEST
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