August, 26 2010, 03:12pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Dylan Blaylock, Communications Director
202.457.0034, ext. 137,
dylanb@whistleblower.org
Judge Rules D.C. Whistleblower Law Retroactively Applies to Cases
D.C. Fire Department Whistleblower Case Opens Door for Previously Barred Claims
WASHINGTON
A decision by a Superior Court
Judge last week, involving the case of a whistleblower from the Washington, D.C.
Fire & Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) department, may help open the door
for a slew of whistleblower cases from current/former District employees to be
brought against the city.
Theresa Cusick served as FEMS General Counsel until
2007, when she informed an Assistant U.S. Attorney that a FEMS officer had a
conflict of interest in working with the Office of the U.S. Attorney (USA).
Cusick also blew the whistle to the D.C. Office of Inspector General (DC-OIG)
that Assistant D.C. Fire Chief Brain Lee illegally prohibited her from
communicating with either DC-OIG or USA regarding the officer under
investigation. (A full
background of Cusick's case appears below)
Cusick brought suit in September 2008 under the
District's Whistleblower Protection Act (DCWPA), seeking reinstatement to
her former position and damages. Recently, attorneys for the District sought
dismissal of the case claiming, in part, that Cusick violated D.C. Code SS12-309
by failing to timely notify the District of her whistleblower claim within six
months after the circumstances giving rise to her lawsuit.
However, recent amendments to the DCWPA,
effective March 2010, abolished this notice requirement after city lawmakers
recognized that the short time period for notification was a significant
impediment to whistleblowers. Last week, Senior Superior Court Judge Leonard
Braman held that the repeal of the notice requirement in the WPA should be applied retroactively.
"This is a great victory for D.C. employees who
have suffered retaliation for whistleblowing," stated GAP Senior Counsel
Richard Condit, a lawyer for Cusick. "This means that District employees
and their lawyers - who may have previously believed that the notice
requirement barred a claim under the DCWPA - should absolutely reconsider
whether the claim can be brought."
The Court summarized its analysis of the issue as
follows:
...the
Court is of the view that the statutory notice provision, section 12-309, was
repealed, that not only was it -- was the amendment a repealer of the previous
provision that made the statutory notice provision applicable to the
Whistleblower's Act but that the law of the District as declared in the
Montgomery case and cases cited in the Montgomery case [590 A.2d at 162], based
upon the legislative history of the amendment to the Whistleblower's Act as
stated in the committee report, based upon the Uniform Law Commissioner's Model
Statutory Construction Act, all of these authorities constrain the Court to apply the amendment
notwithstanding that this case was pending before the amendment. [emphasis added]
The transcript of the hearing, Cusick v. District of Columbia, Civil No.
08-6915 (MPA) can be
viewed here (the passage above appears on page 35).
Under Chief Dennis Rubin, FEMS has exhibited a pattern
of retaliation against fire department personnel. Retaliatory actions under the
Rubin administration include ordering a fire department captain to undergo a
psychological evaluation after she raised concerns regarding the management
practices of certain Fire and EMS high-ranking officials, the involuntary
reassignment of fire investigators who blew the whistle on Fire/EMS failures in
investigating the 2007 fire in Eastern Market, and the termination of a
firefighter following his testimony at a D.C. City Council hearing.
Background on Theresa Cusick
Theresa Cusick is a former senior attorney of the
District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General (OAG) who served as the
General Counsel of FEMS from June 1998 to June 2007. While serving as General
Counsel, Cusick blew the whistle to an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) that a
FEMS officer in the Fire Prevention Division was being investigated by the
DC-OIG for his alleged involved in a cheating scandal in the FEMS Training
Academy. She advised the
AUSA that this EMS officer should not be
involved in an unrelated criminal investigation involving a fire inspector in
the Fire Prevention Division. Her concern was that FEMS, or the Office of the
U.S. Attorney for the District of
Columbia, should not rely on the officer under
investigation until he was cleared of any involvement in the scandal.
Cusick also blew the whistle to the DC-OIG, the D.C.
OAG and to D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin that she was given an illegal order by
Assistant Fire Chief Brain Lee, prohibiting her from communicating with DC-OIG
and the AUSA regarding the officer under investigation. Subsequent to her
whistleblowing and upon request by Chief Rubin, the OAG removed Ms. Cusick from
her position as FEMS General Counsel. The controversy surrounding Chief
Rubin's request for Cusick's removal is revealed, in part, in sworn
deposition testimony given by Chief Rubin. A GAP
produced video of a portion of this deposition was released
earlier this year.
After her removal from FEMS, Cusick was given a
temporary position within the OAG with the promise from the Chief Deputy
Attorney General, Eugene Adams, that he would assist her in securing permanent
employment within the OAG. However, Cusick was never offered a permanent
position, ultimately ending her career as a senior attorney with OAG.
The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is a 30-year-old nonprofit public interest group that promotes government and corporate accountability by advancing occupational free speech, defending whistleblowers, and empowering citizen activists. We pursue this mission through our Nuclear Safety, International Reform, Corporate Accountability, Food & Drug Safety, and Federal Employee/National Security programs. GAP is the nation's leading whistleblower protection organization.
LATEST NEWS
'Everyone in the World Needs to See This': Footage Shows IDF Drone Killing Gazans
"There is no way they could have been considered combatants," said one writer and analyst. "This is unreal."
Mar 21, 2024
Adding to the mountain of evidence that Israel is engaged in a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera on Thursday aired footage of what the news outlet reported was an Israeli drone targeting four Palestinians in Khan Younis last month.
Those killed by the unmanned aerial vehicle in the rubble of the southern Gaza city appear to be unarmed teenagers or young men. According to a translation of the coverage, they were not identified in the reporting.
While Al Jazeera deemed footage "too graphic" to be included on its daily live blog covering the war, a clip of it quickly spread on social media, where critics of the Israel Defense Forces operation expressed outrage.
"OUTRAGEOUS even after months of outrages," declared Palestinian American political analyst Yousef Munayyer. "This video shows an Israeli military drone literally stalking four unarmed civilians posing no threat and eliminating them one after the other!!!"
Tariq Kenney-Shawa, Al-Shabaka's U.S. policy fellow, said: "This is among the worst footage I've seen. Not only were these boys clearly unarmed and present no threat whatsoever, but they were struck multiple times even after stumbling/crawling away. There is no way they could have been considered combatants. This is unreal."
Note: The following video contains graphic images.
Assal Rad, an author with a Ph.D. in Middle East history, said: "Have we ever seen so many war crimes take place right before our eyes? Any country still providing weapons and aid to Israel is complicit in these crimes."
Exiled American whistleblower Edward Snowden asserted that "everyone in the world needs to see this. Note that this footage permits no room for 'it was a mistake,' showing repeated, specifically targeted strikes on the unarmed and even wounded."
"The sort of behavior the ICJ explicitly forbid in the genocide ruling against Israel," added Snowden, referencing the International Court of Justice's preliminary order in January for an ongoing case led by South Africa.
Since the ruling, rights groups around the world have accused Israel of ignoring the ICJ order by continuing to bomb and starve people across Gaza. The mounting casualties—at least 31,988 killed and 74,188 wounded—have elevated demands for the U.S. government to end arms transfers to Israel.
The United States gives its Middle East ally $3.8 billion in annual military aid and since the Israeli assault was launched in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7, the Biden administration has sought $14.3 billion more while bypassing Congress to send more weapons. U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin face a genocide complicity case in federal court.
While the Biden administration has repeatedly vetoed and opposed cease-fire resolutions at the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly, Nate Evans, a spokesperson for Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., confirmed Thursday that the United States plans to unveil a new one on Friday.
The resolution will "unequivocally support ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at securing an immediate cease-fire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal, which would get hostages released and help enable a surge in humanitarian aid," Evans told Al Jazeera. "This resolution is an opportunity for the council to speak with one voice to support the diplomacy happening on the ground and pressure Hamas to accept the deal on the table."
Blinken said Thursday that "there's a clear consensus around a number of shared priorities. First, the need for an immediate, sustained cease-fire, with the release of hostages. That would create space to surge more humanitarian assistance, to relieve the suffering of many people, and to build something more enduring."
Keep ReadingShow Less
New CDC Data Reveals 'National Embarrassment' of For-Profit Healthcare
"Our leaders must act to kick insurance companies to the curb and enact Medicare for All now," said one advocate.
Mar 21, 2024
Single-payer advocates on Thursday pointed to new federal life expectancy data—which shows Americans live shorter lives than people in any other major most-developed nation—as the latest proof of the need to enact a Medicare for All-type universal healthcare program.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. life expectancy was 77.5 years in 2022, an increase of 1.1 years from the previous year. The leading U.S. causes of death in 2022 were heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, and Covid-19.
The 2022 figures reversed two consecutive years of declining U.S. life expectancy, largely due to Covid-19, which has killed nearly 1.2 million people in the country. However, U.S. life expectancy in 2022 was still below its pre-pandemic high of 78.8 years in 2019.
"Despite spending the most per capita on healthcare, we have a consistently lower life expectancy than our peers in comparably wealthy countries."
"While it is good news that U.S. life expectancy is finally rising again, it is important to remember that despite spending the most per capita on healthcare, we have a consistently lower life expectancy than our peers in comparably wealthy countries with universal healthcare," said Eagan Kemp, the healthcare policy advocate at Public Citizen.
The United States is the only developed nation in the world without guaranteed universal healthcare.
"We must keep making the point that profit-driven healthcare is not only worse for patients—it's a national embarrassment," Kemp added. "Our leaders must act to kick insurance companies to the curb and enact Medicare for All now."
One 2022 study found that more than 338,000 U.S. Covid-19 deaths could have been prevented if the country had a single-payer universal healthcare system like Medicare for All.
While opponents—including U.S. lawmakers who take substantial donations from the for-profit healthcare and insurance industry—often argue that Medicare for All would be too expensive, a 2020 Congressional Budget Office analysis found that such a program would save between $300 billion and $650 billion annually.
The same study found that approximately 68,000 people die each year in the United States because they lack access to healthcare.
Meanwhile, millions of American families face bankruptcy and financial ruin due to healthcare expenses, as the CEOs of 300 major U.S. healthcare companies made $4.5 billion in collective compensation in 2022.
The United States has the lowest life expectancy of any large rich country while spending far more on healthcare than comparable nations. Figures vary by source and year, but according to the 2023 edition of the CIA Factbook, the U.S. ranked 48th in worldwide life expectancy, while 2021 World Bank figures place the U.S. in 59th place globally, between Algeria and Panama.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) last year led more than 120 lawmakers in reintroducing bicameral Medicare for All legislation.
"There is a solution to this health crisis—a popular one that guarantees healthcare to every person as a human right and finally puts people over profits and care over corporations," Jayapal said at the time. "That solution is Medicare for All—everyone in, nobody out."
Keep ReadingShow Less
AOC, Sanders Renew Fight for Green New Deal for Public Housing
"Every American deserves to live in a safe, vibrant, and environmentally conscious community—including public housing residents," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Mar 21, 2024
Backed by dozens of progressive groups and congressional Democrats, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday reintroduced legislation designed to tackle both the affordable housing crisis and the climate emergency.
The New York Democrat and Vermont Independent are leading the renewed fight for the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, which would invest up to $234 billion over a decade into "weatherizing, electrifying, and modernizing our public housing so that it may serve as a model of efficiency, sustainability, and resiliency for the rest of the nation."
Ocasio-Cortez noted that "years of grassroots organizing on behalf of vulnerable Americans led to the creation of the first federal public housing units—but, for decades, the federal government has allowed our limited public housing stock to fall into disrepair."
"Residents are dealing with mold growth, lead-based paint hazards, lack of central cooling and heating, failing water infrastructure, and numerous other safety concerns," the congresswoman said. "It is beyond time for the federal government to take responsibility and pass legislation that offers comprehensive, public solutions."
"The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act will allow for an increase in public housing units, create an estimated 280,000 jobs, and invest up to $23 billion a year over 10 years for highly energy-efficient developments," she explained. "This will produce on-site renewable energy, expand workforce capacity, and focus on community development. Every American deserves to live in a safe, vibrant, and environmentally conscious community—including public housing residents. I am confident this legislation is how we make that a reality."
The jobs estimate comes from an analysis released Thursday by the Climate and Community Project and the Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative—which also found that the proposed upgrades to U.S. public housing stock would cut carbon emissions by 5.7 million metric tons, the equivalent of taking 1.26 million cars off the road each year.
"Public housing is an essential source of stable and affordable housing for 1.7 million Americans, and our research shows we are rapidly losing units to conversions, demolitions, and deterioration," said Kira McDonald of Climate and Community Project. "This legislation would constitute decisive action to stave this loss and transform living conditions for public housing residents. In so doing, it would improve residents' health, safety, help eliminate carbon emissions, and help build the new green industries we need to decarbonize."
As Ocasio-Cortez's office summarized, the bill would:
- Expand federal programs to provide residents with meaningful work investing in their communities, to own and operate resident businesses, to move toward financial independence, and to participate in the management of public housing;
- Expand resident councils so that public housing residents have a seat at the table for important decisions regarding their homes; and
- Replenish the public housing capital backlog and repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which limits the construction of new public housing developments.
The legislation would also create two grant programs for deep energy retrofits; community workforce development; upgrades to energy efficiency, building electrification, and water quality; community renewable energy generation; recycling; resiliency and sustainability; and climate adaptation and emergency disaster response.
As world leaders dragged their feet on climate action last year, declining to demand a global phaseout of planet-heating fossil fuels at the most recent United Nations climate conference, all life on Earth was forced to contend with record high temperatures. The United States alone saw 28 disasters that each caused at least $1 billion in damage, collectively costing at least $92.9 billion.
"In these difficult times, we must move forward boldly to address the systemic and existential crises facing us today and that includes urgently combating climate change and making sure every American has a safe and decent place to call home," Sanders said Thursday. "It is unacceptable that, on a single given night in America, over 650,000 people are homeless."
That record number comes from an annual report
released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in December. As Common Dreamsreported at the time, academics and advocates have long stressed that the formal figure only represents a faction of the people dealing with housing insecurity nationwide.
"It is unacceptable that, in the richest country in the history of the world, people are choosing between paying rent and putting food on the table," argued Sanders. "It is unacceptable that our nation's public housing is in a state of chronic disrepair and energy inefficiency after generations of government neglect. It is unacceptable that we have not done more to transform our energy systems, our communities, and our infrastructure away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. This legislation is a major step in the right direction, and I am proud to partner with Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez in introducing it today."
The rent is too damn high y'all.
It's time we pass transformative legislation like @RepAOC and @SenSanders' Green New Deal for Public Housing. Everyone deserves access to safe, clean, affordable housing without spending over 20% of their income on rent.
Let's get it done!! ✊🏿 pic.twitter.com/U9rO1yQY3G
— Congressman Jamaal Bowman (@RepBowman) March 21, 2024
Joining the pair in backing the bill are 55 other House Democrats and Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
Markey, who has
spearheaded the broader battle for a Green New Deal with Ocasio-Cortez, said that "in the five years since its introduction, Green New Deal advocacy has catapulted environmental justice to the top of the national agenda, helped deliver historic victories, and charted a course for a better future."
The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act is also endorsed by over 70 advocacy groups and labor unions, including the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, American Federation of Teachers, Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) Action, Movement for Black Lives, MoveOn, National Low Income Housing Coalition, Public Citizen, and Sunrise Movement.
"Our opponents use tactics like the Faircloth Amendment to defund our public housing. And then they point to our public housing and say, 'Look, it's not working.' That's what they do—but we're not confused," declared DaMareo Cooper, co-executive director of CPD Action.
"We're in another awakening right now. People have been through too much. They are tired. We are tired. Enough is enough," Cooper added. "We all know that it's impossible for you to think that a government in this day and age cannot create housing for everyone."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular