Written by
My name is Robin Pugh-Perry and I am a 53 year old black woman. After 30 years, I am in the fight of and for my life. Like a modern day “David”, I am up against the “Goliath” known as the City of New York Human Resources Administration (HRA) which has a staff of over 16,000. An employee of the agency’s IT arm, Management Information Systems (MIS), I am the victim of a long-term and ongoing campaign of retaliatory harassment that is rooted in the ongoing corruption, deep-seated racism, and sense of entitlement of managers at (MIS)where there is no viable mechanism for oversight.
My plight began in 1994 and has everything to do with the fact that I am a black woman as well as my affiliation with the David Dinkins administration. HRA’s Management Information Systems is, and has always been a bastion of white privilege and entitlement in the historically and predominantly white and male computer industry. In a series of firsts, 1990 brought New York City’s first black mayor, first black female commissioner of HRA, the first black head of MIS, and myself as the first black female IT liaison to any commissioner. A rising star up to that point, my career was effectively over after Dinkins and his appointees stepped down in 1993. I was subsequently given the position of Director of MIS Inventory Systems in 1994. Just a few months later, after reporting massive problems with the inventory and making recommendations to correct same via my own internal audit and analysis, MIS management stripped me of the position. I developed an inventory tracking system that was never used. I filed an internal EEO complaint and was thereafter blackballed while MIS management misrepresented the true status of the agency’s multimillion dollar inventory on each audit since 1996.
Managers at the City of New York Human Resources have worked with political partners, including the EEOC and District Council 37, to suppress the damning evidence found in my EEO complaints, including her my EEOC complaint which was initiated in part because I was brought under investigation for alleged acts of official misconduct. Placing an employee under investigation is a favored tactic of employers who retaliate against whistle blowers.
I was subsequently denied a written explanation and final disposition of the charges against me. The error laden right-to-sue letter I received from the EEOC in 2007 upon the dismissal of my 2006 complaint led to the recent June 2009 dismissal of my EDNY court case. I currently have a case pending in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
I am also currently awaiting a response from my September 2009 letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder requesting a new right-to-sue letter based on the EEOC mishandling of her 2006 complaint and the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the many civil rights and civil liberties violations I have have endured to date. I was dropped from payroll on April 2, 2009 – the same day I was to have undergone reconstructive ankle surgery and am currently without income and prescription benefits while my union, District Council 37, the administrator of my prescription benefits plan, refuses to file a grievance on her behalf.
HRA Political and Racist Response to the Dinkins Administration - Details:
-- the discrimination I was subjected to was HRA/MIS’ political and racist response to the Dinkins administration, the first black female HRA Commissioner and chief of staff, the first black CIO of HRA/MIS and me as the first black female IT liaison to a sitting commissioner
HRA Retaliatory Harassment begins for my “working while black”
-- I was set up to fail as Director of HRA/MIS Inventory Systems
-- this set up was a known tactic used by government agency management to harass employees identified as whistle blowers
-- my in-house 1996 HRA/EEO complaint contained damning evidence proving massive corruption re: the agency’s multimillion dollar computer inventory and associated contracts
-- my in-house 1996 HRA/EEO complaint was squashed at very high levels
-- my EEO complaint was subsequently suppressed via its removal from my personnel folder
HRA Profiles and Retaliates Against Me As Whistle blower
-- between 1994 and present day I have been identified and retaliated against as a whistle blower and that the basis of that harassment is racial because I was played into this position. If MIS management was dirty prior to my taking over as Director of Inventory, which it was, then why would they send me in to investigate and uncover their dirt if not to defame, diminish and to smear me with that knowledge
-- this retaliatory harassment, including my positioning as Director of Inventory was a predetermined course of action as documented in the POGO Whistle blower’s Manual as well as other sources. I call it the Employer’s Retaliatory Harassment Kit.
-- this predetermined course of action could take, and in my case, has taken years to complete
-- being brought under investigation for alleged acts of official misconduct for the purpose of bringing me up on criminal charges was HRA’s ultimate goal
-- the City of New York already uses these tactics of retaliatory harassment against Department of Education School Teachers as evidenced in the class action lawsuit against the city by Teachers 4 Justice Now! After identifying those teachers deemed as troublemakers, they house them in retention rooms known as rubber rooms while their Special Investigations Unit generates corporal or sexual charges against the teachers
-- HRA/Special Investigations has so far suppressed the true nature of the charges against me by denying me a written explanation/final disposition of those 2006 charges
District Council 37’s Breach of Duty
-- District Council 37 intentionally neglected to advise me of my rights re: the 2006 investigation
-- District Council 37 neglected to file grievances for the multiple contract violations as enacted by HRA management in conjunction with my 2006 EEOC complaint
EEOC Handling of March 2006 Charge #520-2006-01362
The EEOC intentionally mishandled my 2006 complaint, charge #520-2006-01362 by
-- never advising me of my rights, assigning a counselor, or interviewing me
-- taking approx 15 months to conclude their handling when the deadline is 120 days
-- intentionally misstating my allegations in their June 2007 dismissal letter
-- refusing to provide a revised and corrected dismissal letter
-- writing their June 2007 dismissal letter in such a way as to deny the existence of the April 2006 voice mail which I played at the May 2006 investigation interview
The April 2006 voice mail was suppressed because it established connections between my home life and the job which I had consistently alleged as early as March 2006 to the EEOC, District Council 37, and HRA Special Investigations. The fact that it exists at all goes to show just how deeply HRA management sought to make sure not only that I never again “forgot my place” as a negro in their world, they made sure that nobody else ever did either.
I have been made out to be the "Enemy of the State" when in fact is, the enemy is the state and the roll call of those involved or having knowledge of the particulars of the situation reads like a who's who in politics from the local to the federal level. The stress of all of this is overwhelming. My health is suffering and my ability to maintain my independence, and indeed my very life, is at stake. Please share my story with others. There must be a public outcry against this abuse of power for me. If not, it will be all the more easy for it to happen to you.
Actual copies of the paperwork are posted on my Wordpress blog, Integral Talk.