Council Meeting

Held Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Host: Ms. Delia Johnson

Introduction

Ms. Delia L. Johnson, Co-Chair and Director, Office of Civil Rights for International Broadcasting Bureau, opened the meeting with a few remarks and then asked the attendees to give their names, agencies, and positions.

Announcements

Mr. Ponce, Co-Chair, indicated that the First Annual Federal Hispanic Career Advancement Summit would be held on October 1, 2008, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA. Although registration was full, the Summit steering committee promised to make available all presentations shortly at http://www.federalhispanicsummit.org.

Mr. Ponce announced that the President will sign the ADA Amendments Act on September 25, 2008, and that it will become effective on January 1, 2009. The ADA Amendments Act specifically targets two Supreme Court decisions -- the 1999 decision in Sutton v. United Airlines Inc., which limited the ADA's protection for employees and job applicants whose disabilities could be mitigated by measures such as medication, treatment, or assistive devices, and the 2002 decision in Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Ky, Inc. v. Williams, which narrowed the standard for individuals to be considered substantially limited by their disability.

Carlton Hadden

Delia Johnson introduced guest speaker Carlton Hadden, Director of the EEOC Office of Federal Operations.

Mr. Hadden proceeded to give an EEO update. Following is a list of the items that he discussed.

Applicant-flow form

Mr. Hadden indicated that the final notice of submission of this form to the Office of Management and Budget should be published in the Federal Register shortly. [It was published on October 1, 2008]. He emphasized that this form would be voluntary for agencies.

A Council member noted that OPM had a different perspective on the collection of applicant information. He asked whether EEOC had coordinated this form with the Office of Personnel Management. Mr. Hadden responded that he understood that OPM’s perspective regarding the collection of applicant information differed from EEOC’s policy. He stated that he could not speak on behalf of OPM regarding its differing perspective and that OPM would be the appropriate entity to address that. Notwithstanding, Mr. Hadden noted that collection of applicant tracking information was mandated by the unanimous approval by EEOC Commissioners of MD-715.

He noted that several agencies currently collect applicant information via their own OMB-approved form. He stated that EEOC had agreed to develop the form as an option for those agencies that had not developed an approved OMB form. He further stated that only a handful of federal agencies had an issue regarding whether to collect this data from applicants. He said he was willing to talk to these agencies offline where this was still an issue.

EHRI

Mr. Hadden stated that he had attended a meeting, organized and hosted by Mr. Ponce on July 16, 2008, at the U.S. Department of Commerce, to discuss the generation of the thirty-four tables required by MD-715 through the OPM’s Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) system. Representatives from OPM, EEOC, Army, and the Council Executive Board attended this meeting. Mr. Hadden stated that he was waiting to hear back on the status of the deliverables from this meeting.

Mr. Ponce indicated that he had heard that OPM had accomplished two of the three action times -- preparing a 1-page document in plain English documenting the OPM goals for this initiative and a statement of needs. The only pending action item was for the Army representatives to contact OPM regarding the feasibility of using its software to generate the MD-715 tables. As background, Mr. Ponce explained that the EHRI Director had concluded that the Army’s system was the best one that he’d looked at. One of features of the Army’s MD-715 system that he liked best was the creation of dashboards that allowed the viewing of selective data by multiple users. While the data elements are present in the database, users can tailor the statistical information that they wanted to see regularly -- rather than annually when it was time to prepare the MD-715 report. This feature allowed stakeholders at agencies to assess and adjust diversity goals throughout the year.

Mr. Ponce said that he had been copied on an e-mail recently from Army to OPM regarding the pending action time -- whether Army would allow OPM to use its software for the EHRI project. Since Mr. Hadden stated that he had not been copied on this e-mail, Mr. Ponce promised to contact all the participants who attended the July 16, 2008 meeting to ask permission from the Army officials to release the content of this latest e-mail -- in the interest of transparency.

Electronic Files

Mr. Hadden urged agencies interested in digital files, not to wait for the Notice of Proposed Rule Making to be finalized to start submitting their appeal records and complaint files to EEOC electronically. He asked Council members to submit their questions to Dann Detterman at dann.detterman@eeoc.gov.

EPCA (EEO Performance Compliance Assessment)

Mr. Hadden gave a short history of EPCA. Back when the MD-715 was issued in 2003, EEOC had announced that EPCA was going to be the scorecard used to measure how well federal agencies were implementing the attributes of a model EEO program under MD-715. However, EEOC’s then Chair did not want to call EPCA a scorecard because of concerns that it would be confused with other federal government scorecards developed by OMB and OPM. In any event, Mr. Hadden noted that his staff had been working and developing EPCA for quite some time. He noted that the Department of Transportation had been using an internal scorecard under MD 715, and that EEOC had conferred with the EEO Director there as it developed its scorecard. He stated that the draft that he would be sending out was different than the more advanced one used by Transportation.

He stated that those EEO Directors who were profiled in the EEOC’s Annual Report on the Federal Work Force would receive an e-mail from him with the information that would be included on the EPCA report -- which would be publicly shared on the EEOC website. He explained that federal agencies that were profiled in the Annual Report on the Federal Work Force would be the ones provided a draft EPCA report. He said that the draft EPCA would contain workforce data on the agency’s workforce demographics (especially the progression data for the GS-14, GS-15, and SES), an overall raw score for selected MD 715 elements, and selective feedback from the OPM’s Federal Human Capital Survey (FHCS) on how employees viewed their agencies. Agencies will have one week to submit their comments to OFO.

A Council member asked whether EPCA was similar to an EEOC audit. Mr. Hadden responded that EPCA was more generic; it was not as detailed as an EEOC program evaluation audit. He noted that during the recent EEOC EXCEL Conference, there had been a suggestion that EEOC post on its website the results from EEOC program evaluations -- similar to the posting of GAO reports. Mr. Hadden noted that this suggestion flowed from concern that the current practice of sending these reports to agency heads was not sufficient.

Announcements

Mr. Hadden announced that the EEO Directors meeting will take place on Tuesday, October 21, 2008, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, at the ATF building -- which is across the future EEOC location. The main agenda item will be a discussion of the feedback received from the last EXCEL conference. He indicated that EEOC had collected a limited number of surveys for the overall 2008 EXCEL conference. Thus, he said that he would provide the Council with the survey with the hope that it could seek feedback from its members on the overall conference results. Mr. Ponce indicated that this would be a daunting task, after considering that there were over 1,000 attendees at this year’s EXCEL conference -- as a result of focusing on Hispanic issues.

He also announced that EEOC will host a public meeting on Thursday, October 23, 2008, on the work of the Hispanic Work Group -- including the issuance of a report. Mr. Ponce inquired on whether the Hispanic Work Group would be issuing its report prior to the Asian American/Pacific Islander Work Group issuing its own, and Mr. Hadden responded that he was not sure as to the schedule of publication of the reports -- but noted that both Work Groups were working diligently to ensure that the Reports would be issued in a timely manner.

Mr. Hadden was asked about the impact of the upcoming presidential election. He stated that regardless of who won the upcoming presidential race, there would likely be major changes in EEO/civil rights, given the likelihood of history being made with either the first woman as Vice-President or the first bi-racial President being elected.

MD-715 Reports and Feedback Letters

Mr. Hadden stated that 77% of federal agencies had submitted their FY-07 MD-715 reports. He indicated that OFO had not sent feedback letters to some federal agencies. A good rule of thumb was that if your agency has not received a feedback letter for the FY06 MD-715 report, your agency will get one in FY-09. Mr. Hadden noted that the while delay was related to resource limitations, EEOC was hopeful that the feedback would be provided in a more timely fashion in FY ’09.

Mr. Hadden cautioned federal agencies that the MD-715 feedback should not be an annual exercise. Instead, he urged them to analyze their workforce demographics throughout the year. He mentioned that the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia held a hearing on Sept. 16, 2008, on the diversity at legislative branch agencies, and highlighted the fact that these agencies looked at MD-715 and MD-110 for guidance for their EEO/Diversity programs.

Additional Questions

A Council member expressed frustration at federal agencies for not being more aggressive in pursuing corrective action against management officials in findings of discrimination. Mr. Ponce indicated that he was aware of a memorandum of understanding whereby EEOC could refer findings of discrimination to the Office of Special Counsel for possible corrective action. Thus, he asked Mr. Hadden how often EEOC had taken advantage of this MOU. Mr. Hadden responded that it was a very low number - EEOC had made referrals under the MOU a limited number of times – approximately four times.

Mr. Hadden stated that EEOC realized that this was problematic and began working to revise the MOU, so as to improve the use of the options provided by referring matters to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). He stated that EEOC had begun meeting and working with OSC staff and drafted an enhanced MOU which would expand the options for referring matters to OSC. However, Mr. Hadden noted that an intervening event had occurred with the appointment of a new Special Counsel. He stated that the new Special Counsel had focused on and pursued different policy initiatives. EEOC had opted to hold further work on the draft MOU in abeyance. He noted he understood that the term of the Special Counsel was ending shortly and that it was a good time to renew EEOC’s staff development of the draft and to revisit this once a new Special Counsel was in place.

Ms. Johnson asked what did EEOC intend to do with the 23% federal agencies that had not submitted their MD-715 reports for FY-07. Milton Belardo, Chair of the National Council of Hispanic Employment Program Managers, responded that EEOC could probably forward their names to the Office of Special Counsel for possible corrective action. Mr. Hadden indicated that EEOC would review each situation and could also schedule program evaluations to these agencies shortly.

PERCEVD

Mr. Crenshaw, from DESTIN Enterprises, LLC, gave a presentation on PERCEVD (Preparing Employers to Reintegrate Combat Exposed Veterans with Disabilities) – developed in cooperation with former Walter Reed psychiatrist Dr. Cynthia J. Washington . For additional information on this program, go to http://www.destinenterprises.com/.

Careers in Transition

Indigo Triplett Johnson gave a presentation on the various programs that Careers in Transition offered. She said that her company offered training courses to organizations faced with hiring, retaining, and motivating employees. She discussed her latest book, “Playing by the Unwritten Rules; Moving from the Middle to the Top” – which offered suggestions and guidance to professionals who were unable to attain true career success despite their best efforts. To get more information about the services of Careers in Transition, call 770 414-1026.

**********************************************************************************************************************************************

Minutes9.98 contains the minutes for the September 22, 1998 meeting. (John Palguta, MSPB, discussed the Outstanding Scholar Program)

Minutes11.98 contains the minutes for the November 19, 1998 meeting. (Andrew Strojny, U.S. Dept. of Justice on Title VI)

Minutes1.99 contains the minutes for the January 20, 1999 meeting. (Discussion on the proposed 1614 regulations)

Minutes3-99 contains the minutes for the March 25, 1999 meeting. (Wilett Burton and Karen Freeman, Vice President Gore’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government; Council Recognizes Kathy Gause)

Minutes4.99 contains the minutes for the April 20, 1999 meeting. (Chris Kuczynski and Carol Miaskoff, EEOC, addressed reasonable accommodation issues for persons with disabilities)

Minutes699 contains the minutes for the June 4, 1999 meeting.  (Miscellaneous)

Minut6-30 contains the minutes for the June 30, 1999 meeting. (Carlton Hadden, OFO Director)

Minutes799 contains the minutes for the July 16, 1999 meeting. (Miscellaneous)

Minutes999 contains the minutes for the September 22, 1999 meeting. (Miscellaneous)

Minutes1099 contains the minutes for the October 20, 1999 meeting. (U.S. Postal Service Mediation Program: REDRESS)

Minutes1199 contains the minutes for the November 16, 1999 meeting. (Henry Romero, OPM – Classification of EEO jobs)

Minutes124 contains the minutes for the January 24, 2000 meeting. (Classification of EEO jobs; Armando Rodriguez, OPM – Outstanding Scholar Program)

Minutes200 contains the minutes of the February 28, 2000 meeting. (Update on the National Partnership for Reinventing Government/ EEOC Interagency Federal EEO Task Force)

Minutes300 contains the minutes of the March 27, 2000 meeting.  (Update on the National Partnership for Reinventing Government/ EEOC Interagency Federal EEO Task Force)

Minutes400 contains the minutes of the April 19, 2000 meeting. (National Science Foundation Diversity Initiative)

Minutes500 contains the minutes of the May 25, 2000 meeting. (Miscellaneous)

Minutes600 contains the minutes for the June 28, 2000 meeting. (Miscellaneous)

Minutes700 contains the minutes for the July 20, 2000 meeting. (Ponce receives the Secretary of the Treasury Award; Charles Fowler III – IRS EEO Office Modernization Initiative)

Minutes900 contains the minutes for the September 20, 2000 meeting. (Miscellaneous)

Minutes100 contains the minutes for the October 31, 2000 meeting. (Adalberto Bernal – Navy ADR Program)

Minutes101 contains the minutes for the January 30, 2001 meeting. (Miscellaneous; Council Recognizes Luther Santiful)

Minutes 301 contains the minutes for the March 16, 2001 meeting. (Miscellaneous)

Minutes 401 contains the minutes for the April 24, 2001 meeting. (Miscellaneous)

Minutes 501 contains the minutes for the May 22, 2001 meeting. (Miscellaneous)

Minutes601-2 contains the minutes for the June 19, 2001 meeting. (Sharon Rennert, EEOC, Office of Legal Counsel – Reasonable Accommodation Procedures)

Minutes701 contains the minutes for the July 24, 2001 meeting. (Dinah Cohen, CAP)

Minutes901 contains the minutes for the September 14, 2001 meeting. (EEOC Chair Cari Dominguez)

Minutes1001 contains the minutes for the October 30, 2001 meeting. (EEOC OFO Director Carlton Hadden)

Minutes302 contains the minutes for the March 19, 2002 meeting. (Council Report on the Reporting Authority of EEO Directors)

Minutes502 contains the minutes for the May 22, 2002 meeting. (Multiple Attorneys – Improving the Federal Sector Complaints Process)

Minutes902 contains the minutes for the September 24, 2002 meeting. (Don Names, EEOC – ADR)

Minutes 103 contains the minutes for the January 28, 2003 meeting. (Miscellaneous)

Minutes 503 contains the minutes for the May 20, 2003 meeting. (Gary Gilbert, Esq. – Compensatory Damages)

Minutes 603 contains the minutes for the June 17, 2003 meeting. (Joe Riddle, SES Learning Center, OPM – OPM’s New SES Development Program)

Minutes 703 contains the minutes for the July 22, 2003 meeting (Fair Credit Reporting Act). (Christopher Keller, FTC -- Fair Credit Reporting Act)

Minutes 903 contains the minutes for the September 23, 2003 meeting. (Mona Papillon, EEOC Office of Legal Counsel -- Title III of the No FEAR Act)

Minutes 104 contains the minutes for the January 21, 2004 meeting. (Title III of the No FEAR Act and OGC Interference Survey)

Minutes 204 contains the minutes for the February 25, 2004 meeting. (Julie Ferguson Queen, OPM -- Title II of the No FEAR Act)

Minutes 404 contains the minutes for the April 20, 2004 meeting. (Leroy Warren, NAACP)

Minutes 504 contains the minutes for the May 25, 2004 meeting. (Douglas Gallegos, EEOC -- MD-715)

Minutes 604 contains the minutes for the June 22, 2004 meeting. (Miscellaneous)

Minutes 704 contains the minutes for the July 27, 2004 meeting. (EEOC Commissioner Ishimaru)

Minutes 1004 contains the minutes for the October 26, 2004 meeting. (MicroPact)

Minutes 205 contains the minutes for the February 23, 2005 meeting. (George Nesterczuk – National Security Personnel System; Tonya Odom and Andrew Culbertson, EEOC AJs – expediting hearing requests)

Minutes 305 contains the minutes for the March 29, 2005 meeting. (MD-715)

Minutes 405 contains the minutes for the April 26, 2005 meeting. (MD-715)

Minutes 505 contains the minutes for the May 25, 2005 meeting. (EEOC Presentation & Title VI/IX Association)

Minutes 605 contains the minutes for the June 28, 2005 meeting. (ADA-ABA Guidelines)

Minutes 705 contains the minutes for the July 26, 2005 meeting. (EEOC Customer Service Survey)

Minutes 1005 contains the minutes for the October 26, 2005 meeting. (MD-715 Reports, Gerald Lucas, IWG)

Minutes 1105 contains the minutes for the November 30, 2005 meeting (IWG)

Minutes 206 contains the minutes for the February 22, 2006 meeting (EEO Survey, and the EEOC/IWG meeting)

Minutes 306 contains the minutes for the March 21, 2006 meeting. (Title VI and LEP presentations)

Minutes 406 contains the minutes for the April 26, 2006 meeting. (EEOC Vice Chair Naomi C. Earp)

Minutes 606 contains the minutes for the June 27, 2006 meeting (GAO Report on the lack of EEOC and OPM cooperation)

Minutes 906 contains the minutes for the September 26, 2006 meeting (HHS Hispanic Employment Initiative)

Minutes 1006 contains the minutes for the October 31, 2006 meeting (GAO Report on Hispanic Underrepresentation)

Minutes 1106 contains the minutes of the November 28, 2006 meeting (Virginia Andreu-Rosario discussed the EEOC Task Force on Hispanics)

Minutes 107 contains the minutes of the January 30, 2007 meeting (John Salamone, CHCO Council, EEOC Commissioner Christine Griffin, & draft applicant form)

Minutes 207 contains the minutes of the February 27, 2007 meeting (Steve Nelson, MSPB, Causes and Cures of Under-Representation)

Minutes 307 contains the minutes of the March 27, 2007 meeting (April Harris, OPM’s Attracting Talent Presentation)

Minutes 407 contains the minutes of the April 24, 2007 meeting (Contract Employees & Challenges of MD-715 Reports)

Minutes 507 contains the minutes of the May 30, 2007 meeting (Carlton Hadden, OFO Director)

Minutes 607 contains the minutes of the June 26, 2007 meeting (ADR Survey; Destin Enterprises, LLC; JDG Associates, Inc.; Contract Employees)

Minutes 707 contains the minutes of the Sept. 15, 2007 meeting (William Gil – HACU and HNIP)

Minutes 1007 contains the minutes of the October 23, 2007 meeting (EEOC Commissioner Stuart Ishimaru)

Minutes 1107 contains the minutes of the November 27, 2007 meeting (Matthew Perry -- EHRI Presentation)

Minutes 108 contains the minutes of the January 29, 2008 meeting (Congressman Danny K. Davis)

Minutes 208 contains the minutes of the February 27, 2008 meeting (EEOC Supervisory AJ Kokenge and Thadius Sale)

Minutes 308 contains the minutes of the March 26, 2008 meeting (applicant-flow; No Fear regulations; Matthew Fogg)

Minutes 408 contains the minutes of the April 30, 2008 meeting (EHRI Update)

Minutes 508 contains the minutes of the May 27, 2008 meeting (HSI lists and EEOC’s AAPI Work Group)

Minutes 908 contains the minutes of the September 23, 2008 meeting (Carlton Hadden provides EEO Update)