WHISTLE AWARDS

Human Faces behind Agency Discrimination and Lack of No FEAR Enforcement

Race:  Black Farmers represented by Thomas Burrell and John Boyd

In 1910, according to the United States Census Bureau, forty-five years after slavery, African Americans owned approximately 16 million acres of land.  Today, it is estimated that African-Americans own less than 2 million acres of that original 16 million acres. In 1997, the USDA finally admitted to both Congress and the federal courts—what black farmers had been asserting, through public outcry, for decades—that it discriminated against black farmers in farm loan and subsidy programs and that it had been engaged in a systematic, discriminatory effort to expropriate the land of Black Farmers, land that had been acquired by their slave ancestors after Emancipation. The USDA developed a sophisticated, race-based system of intentional discrimination that encouraged government officials to discriminate against black farmers by obstructing, then denying the efforts of Black Farmers to obtain loans and other programmatic assistance necessary to farm successfully.  Alternatively, the USDA assisted white farmers to prosper and profit though the very same loans and programmatic assistance denied to black farmers.

Thomas Burrell and John Boyd were both key participants in this historical victory of bringing Secretary Glickman to the negotiating table. However, from the very beginning, Burrell has objected and continues to object to the fact that the Black farmers, to whom the Consent Decree was supposed to bring relief, were not included in those negotiations. The results being a severely flawed document that failed to hold the USDA accountable, while netting attorneys millions of taxpayers' dollars and leaving many black farmers penniless. These procedural defects have intentionally caused the relief and dispensation of relief from the lawsuit settlement to the black farmers to be as discriminatory as the original egregious practice of discrimination against black farmers that the very lawsuit was filed to remedy.

Color:  Matthew Fogg – Department of Justice

In 1991, United States Marshals Service (USMS), Supervisory Inspector Matthew Fogg confronted two of 'Americas Most Wanted' fugitives, heavily armed and ready to kill. When Fogg turned and looked for his Caucasian colleagues to help him in the planned arrest, they had conveniently left, intentionally placing Fogg and the lives of his remaining back-up in grave danger. This overt act and additional similar acts of racial insubordination in the USMS, supervised by the US Department of Justice, would later culminate in a $4 Million Landmark Civil Rights verdict and Judgment in favor of Chief Fogg.

In July 1999, US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson wrote; "The jury obviously inferred from the endemic atmosphere of racial disharmony and mistrust within the United States Marshals Service that all explanations were suspect and that occult racism was more likely the reason than any other for Fogg's misadventures in the Marshals Service hierarchy"   Ironically, six years after a Federal Jury and US Court of Appeals has ordered him set free from the remnants of slavery, the USMS boldly exploits its ‘Jim Crow’ justice and refuses to make Chief Fogg whole, as he continues to fight against the crime and racial injustice on behalf of others.

Sex:  Cathy Harris – US Customs Service

Cathy gained extensive knowledge as a 25-year federal career professional, including 18 years in the U.S. Customs Service.  She is an astute Senior Customs Inspector, Military Veteran, Published Author, Freelance Writer, Lecturer and Discrimination Consultant.

In 1998, Cathy became a Federal Whistleblower.  She exposed the blatant bigotry and racism enforced in U.S. Customs Service.  Cathy bravely reported the denigration inflicted against African-American and Hispanic travelers especially African-American women, to the American public and Congress.  She vividly described the violations carried out by corrupt Customs officials such as the demoralizing pat-downs and strip searches, intrusive cavity searches, improper detentions, monitored defecation and targeted intimidation by drug-sniffing dogs.  Even under hostile and harsh retaliation, Cathy persevered. 

Governmental reports and investigations by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Senate and the media validated Cathy's allegations.  As a result of her bravery, new legislation and enhanced reform has been introduced to protect the American public:
* Civil Rights for International Travelers Act - H.R. 1996
* Reasonable Search Standards Act - S. 799
She is also one of the main whistleblowers who is diligently working to adopt the "Whistleblower Protection Act Amendment - H.R. 2588 & S. 995."

Disability/Age -  Carin Memmer - US Environmental Protection Agency

In compliance with Executive Order 13164, the EPA Intern Program actively recruits candidates with certified disabilities. As a result, in 2001 Carin Memmer over the age of forty was hired by the EPA with a known severe "targeted" disability of legal blindness. Under the Rehabilitation Act, federal agencies are to provide appropriate access technology, which makes it possible for employees with disabilities to perform their jobs. For eleven months, the EPA failed to provide a computer with enough memory to run Zoomtext, a well known software application which reads documents, enlarges print et cetera. The majority of her assignments required the use of a computer. Without Zoomtext, Carin Memmer was forced to use a very heavy Designs for Vision ocular prosthetic system with telescopes through which she could see only one or two words at a time on the computer screen, as she tilted her head backwards risking a neck injury and causing her to suffer. This ocular prosthetic system was not prescribed for computer work. After eleven months EPA, (which did not provide a computer capable of running Zoomtext, without an individual assessment, without reassignment all required by law)  terminated her employment.

Whistleblower - Richard J. Levernier (recently featured in Vanity Fair and 60 Minutes)

Richard Levernier is a nuclear security specialist who has worked for the US Department of Energy (DOE) for 25 years.  In June 2000 Levernier sent an unclassified DOE Office of the Inspector General Report to a newspaper that disclosed DOE and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) had inflated security ratings for two years and pressured inspectors to overlook serious problems; failed to investigate cheating on critical performance tests; and then destroyed inspection records attempting to cover-up the inflated rating.

When DOE learned of Levenier’s actions they unlawfully reassigned him to administrative duties and stripped him of his security clearance.  Levernier filed a Whistleblower Disclosure and Reprisal Complaint with the US Office of Special Counsel (OSC).  Levernier was ultimately vindicated by OSC and his Whistleblower Disclosure sent to the Secretary of Energy for investigation.  Despite his legal vindication, Levernier’s security clearance was never reinstated because of a judicially-created loophole in the Whistleblower Protection Act and his 25 year security career is ruined.

Whistleblower - Robert J. Martin,   US Environmental Protection Agency

Robert J. Martin served as the National Ombudsman for the United States Environmental Protection Agency for nearly ten years.  An enrolled member of the Makah Nation in the State of Washington and a descendent of its traditional Chief (His Grandfather), Mr. Martin served the three Administrations of President George HW Bush, President William Jefferson Clinton and President George W. Bush.  He was the Agency's expert on the hazardous and solid waste laws and the designated independent intermediary between the Agency and American citizens. 

His independent Ombudsman position was eliminated by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman in 2002.  Following a court battle to preserve his ability to speak directly with Congress, the press and the American people, and while he was away in New York City on official travel testifying to the New York legislature about his recommendations for helping the people of New York in the environmental aftermath of the World Trade Center collapse; his office was entered by two dozen agents of the EPA Inspector General and his files confiscated, locks changed and independent position description eliminated. Immediately after a court-issued temporary restraining order was lifted, the EPA Administrator abolished his independent office and subsumed it into the Office of Inspector General, which isn't structured for mediation or citizen service and was the target of an ongoing corruption investigation by the Ombudsman's office for obstruction of justice. Martin's new duties would have been to answer the hotline phone

Rather than compromise the integrity of his independent function and what it meant to the American people it served such as those at Ground Zero, Martin resigned on Earth Day of 2002.  He determined that the "one voice" the Administration told the Court he had to align with was not a voice that continued to serve the citizens of the United States.  He lives and works today as an independent author and lecturer in Tallahassee, Florida where he continues to help communities with environmental needs.