INTRODUCTION

Ms. Delia L. Johnson, Co-Chair and Director, Office of Civil Rights at the International Broadcasting Bureau, thanked everyone for attending the meeting and asked Council members to introduce themselves.

INTERNATIONAL TRAINING ASSOCIATES

Crystal M. Williams, President and CEO of International Training Associates (ITA), gave a presentation on the various training programs that her company offered. Among these courses are the following: Unity through Diversity, Respectful Dialogue, Conflict Resolution, Micro Inequities and Macro Advantages in the Workplace, Paradigm Shifts Required for Organizational Change, and Equal Employment Opportunity. Ms. Williams can be reached at 301 390-0343, by fax at 301 390-2515, or by e-mail at ITA1@erols.com. For additional information about ITA, go to its website at http://www.ITA1.us.

462 REPORT

Linda Jackson, Director of the Complaints Adjudication Division and Acting Director of Federal Sector Programs, gave a presentation on the 462 Report – which agencies were required to submit to EEOC on October 31, 2005. Reflecting on the history of this report, Linda indicated that some of the improvements made to collect the complaints information online were the result of a 1999 GAO report.

Linda indicated that EEOC had added a computerized edit check feature this year to allow federal agencies to check their data before submitting it to their higher officials and EEOC. In addition, she explained that federal agencies had designated an agency administrator at the headquarters level who controlled the addition and deletion of data to their departmentwide and subelement 462 Reports. Thus, subelement preparers had to get the authorization of the headquarters agency administrator to change their subelement reports. Bonita White, Director, EEO Programs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, indicated that the latter control feature was exactly what federal agencies had asked EEOC to implement in the preparation of MD-715 reports.

A Council member asked if it was possible for EEOC to look into eliminating the 462 Report requirements that duplicated those that were collected in the No FEAR Act reports. Linda said that Congress could have asked EEOC before imposing the No FEAR Act requirements on federal agencies, but she was not aware that this conversation had taken place prior to the implementation of the Act. Therefore, EEOC could not tell federal agencies to ignore the requirements of a federal statute. In responding to a follow-up question by Jorge Ponce, Council Co-Chair, Linda stated that EEOC could look at the areas of overlap and decide if there were any alternative ways to collect data requirements in the No FEAR Act and Form 462 reporting.

MISCELLANOUS

Linda Jackson suggested that the Council could compile a list of vendors that offered MD-715 training. She stated that EEOC did not have the resources to conduct the training in FY 2006 at the level requested by agencies during the October 7, 2005 feedback session.

Jorge Ponce asked if it was possible to count the time to investigate EEO complaints from the moment that the Investigators received them, rather than from the filing of these complaints. Ronald Ballard, Assistant Director, Employment Complaints Resolution Staff (Title VII), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, indicated that the 1614 regulations required the time to be calculated from the filing of the complaints. Nevertheless, Linda suggested that agencies should review the time it takes at the different stages of the complaint process and conduct improvement reviews of the entire process to identify and eliminate bottlenecks.

Jorge Ponce stated that the EEOC Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, published in the Federal Register on October 31, 2005, included an item the dealt with the reform of the federal sector EEO complaint processing. Thus, Mr. Ponce asked Linda if EEOC had a specific timeframe to implement this recommendation. Linda stated that she was not aware that a decision had been made on this ongoing process.

Jorge Ponce told Linda that he was puzzled by several statements that the EEOC Chair had made at the November 9, 2005 hearing entitled “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: A Case for a Federal Employees Appeals Court” before the Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization. To see the entire transcript of the EEOC Chair’s remarks, click on the EEOC Chair Statement 05 file. The EEOC Chair indicated that a major problem is the time it currently takes to investigate and resolve a complaint. Thus, the Chair indicated that what was needed was a better model and a more flexible system, and, moreover, that it was essential that sufficient resources be devoted to those cases where it was likely that discrimination had occurred. The Chair referred to the Priority Charge Handling Procedures that were used in the private sector and that were designed to address charges using evidence and severity of allegations as guides. Mr. Ponce asked Linda if the EEOC Chair was criticizing federal agencies for providing the “Cadillac treatment” when investigating complaints of discrimination, instead of using a triage system to decide the treatment allocated to each complaint. Ronald Ballard agreed with Mr. Ponce’s interpretation of the EEOC Chair remarks, and added that the Chair had been ill-advised. Mr. Ballard indicated that rather than blaming federal agencies for the delays in complaint process, the EEOC Chair should look at her own backyard. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had twenty complaints in the investigative stage, while fifty were at EEOC waiting for a hearing. When Mr. Ballard called on EEOC to expedite the processing of the fifty complaints, the EEOC staff simply told him that Administrative Judges had been assigned to them. Era Marshall, Director of the Office of Equal Employment and Minority Affairs at the Smithsonian Institution, agreed with Mr. Ballard’s remarks. Linda Jackson agreed to submit these comments to Carlton Hadden, Director of the Office of Federal Operations.

Jorge Ponce introduced Gerald Lucas, Senior Advisor to the Civil Rights Director at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and praised the valuable service he had provided to the EEO community by agreeing to serve as the Chair of the Interagency Working Group (IWG) on MD-715. Mr. Ponce stated that those interested in joining IWG should contact Mr. Lucas at (202) 482-7432, or via e-mail at Glucas@doc.gov.

Mr. Lucas indicated that EEOC had received 178 recommendations from EEO Directors on how to improve MD-715, and approximately twenty were addressed at the November 22, 2005. Linda Jackson clarified that many of these recommendations dealt with common themes; ergo, the number that needed to be addressed was much lower than 178. Mr. Lucas referred to the November 18, 2005 letter that the IWG members had submitted to EEOC with just five issues. To view the November 18 letter, click on the IWG Letter file. Thus, he proposed that the EEOC staff should deal with these major five recommendations at the upcoming December 6, 2005. He said that the most important recommendation was the one dealing with the suspension of the next MD-715 reporting requirement to allow EEOC and OPM more time to mediate their differences. He said that the IWG, the Council, and the October 7, 2005 Feedback Group all had agreed that this was the most important recommendation. Linda Jackson asked if there was any difference between postponement and suspension, and Bonita White indicated that both terms were used interchangeably.

Delia Johnson announced that the Council’s Holiday function would be held on Tuesday, December 13, at the Odyssey Cruise Ship. For additional information, she asked Council members to call Jenessa Robinson at 202 619-5151.