6 replies to this topic

[Doc Holiday]

Can anyone? JUST one Agent (not all 2000) represent that Mr. Melson has responded and attended to their legitimate concerns for ethical change in the Bureau and management ranks? Can someone please give us some hope that he meant what he said. I have seen and heard NO mechanism to "Speak up". There is no field rep or committees. The Ombuds Office is absolutey corrupted and puppets of dirty managers and counsel. He has refused our very public requests to talk about the real issues. Mr. Hoover is personally handling all grievances sent to the Director. From where we sit, it was a bunch of words and nothing more. We are out of options. We have attempted to openly and candidly draw Mr. Melson to the table. This is a law enforcement agency and WE are law enforcement. We are down to our last option Mr. Melson, can anybody donate CUATF two tin cans and some string? Yes Mr. Melson word are powerful. Are you paying attention? Apparently Mr. Holder and the OIG/OSC are.

[Doc Holiday]

Before you consider contacting the Ombudsmans Office for any consideration in some sort of dispute resolution, Read Billys response.These are his words and the bureaus Official position. Be clear that they are no longer compelled to be confidential or remain neutral. Nor do they report to the Director. Know this going in and live with the consequences.

[Thor God of Thunder]

The Ombudsman's office is a waste of time! I never use them. I will never use them. I would have mailed it directly to the Director's office and watch the sparks fly from there. The Ombudsman and EEO Office are employee complaint intelligence centers that provides Chief Counsel's Office with a preview of what is to come. Do not contact them, unless you are prepared to be exposed and retaliated against.


I would not be surprised if the Director was still unaware of your request as they lie to him and keep things from him. The Director should have communicated directly with you.

With regards to your EEO, have your attorney motion the Administrative Judge to sanction the Agency, if you have not done so already and should you not prevail...their delay in investigating and you not having the benefit of an official investigation report is appealable.

I hope this helps.

Keep up the good fight. Their defeat is only a matter of time. The reason they delay on the investigation is because they now know that your attorney and you may win or prevail. They are trying to think it through and see what new crap they can come up with to prevail. We should start a Congress letter writing campaign....

Mr. Hoover's response, although nicely written, was probably written by his girlfriend in Chief Counsel's Office. What is wrong with that picture???

He had the nerve to say respect?????? Mr. Hoover has had no respect for this agency and the employees of this agency in a long time.

In the words of George Lopez, "Esta loco...respect...esta loco!"

[VINCENT A CEFALU]

Mr. Melson and Mr. Hoover, JUST TO BE CLEAR. This posting has nothing to do with the grievance decision handed down by Billy Hoover but EVERYTHING to do with our leaders refusing to follow the rules they are charged with enforcing. To be crystal CLEAR, Ms. Ketels has facilitated multiple similar requests from ME in the past and YES I was represented by counsel at the time. Ms. Ketels could have denied my request without forwarding it to Chief counsel. There was nothing related in any way to my dispute and I was merely trying to "Speak up" as the Acting Director suggested in the ATF NEWS. The fact that Billy responded not only to the grievance addressed to him, but decided he would just reply for Mr. Melson as well. Not much sense in grieving ONE level above if its just going to be sent back down one level to be decided by the accused. CLEAR AND INDISPUTABLE VIOLATION OF THE GRIEVANCE ORDERS. In this case, Billy ignored his responsibility to respond within 30 days.I didn't write the order, they did. HAVE ANY OF YOU SUFFERED CRITICISMS FOR HAVING THAT N-FORCE REPORT SUBMITTED PAST THE 30 DAY REQUIREMENT? Have you ever had an untimely property report or judicial status mentioned in your evaluation? Exactly. These bosses come from the "DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO" SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT. They blatantly and with impunity disregard their own policies without consequence. Billy went on to state that my request did not express any concern to be handled by Ms. Ketels Office. This is false. My concern is that, EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO ME IN THIS INSTANCE, IS HAPPENING TO ALL OF YOU. Your requests and suggestions are not being held in confidentiality or with neutrality, they are being vetted by Chief counsels Office. Billy refers to Chief counsel not being able to contact me directly. This is true ONLY AS IT RELATES TO MY DISPUTE OF RECORD. CHIEF COUNSELS OFFICE SHOULDN'T HAVE EVEN BEEN INVOLVED IN THE OMBUDSMAN'S PROCESS. Mr. Melson and Mr. Hoover, you suggest that the open letter(which I requested be forwarded) asking that Mr. Melson communicate with the field before it is too late and offering means of doing so, may not have been written BY ME. BUT make no mistake, when you say there were no statements contained in it that are attributed to me, you are WRONG. THEY ARE ALL ATTRIBUTED TO ME, AND EVERY SPECIAL AGENT, AND EVERY INSPECTOR AND EVERY OTHER EMPLOYEE WHO DEMANDS ETHICAL CONDUCT FROM YOU. WE are ATF. All of us. Stop disregarding us.

[VINCENT A CEFALU]

I recently forwarded to the ATF Ombudsman (Marianne Kettels) an "open letter" that had been posted on this website. That letter offered suggestions about how ATF's senior management could genuinely close the currently enormous communications gap between them and our field personnel. I viewed the letter as direct, professional and constructive, and asked Ms. Kettels to forward it to Acting Director Ken Melson for review. After all, it was Melson who, in an bureau-wide posting, demanded that we "speak up". Furthermore, according to its stated charter, the Ombudsman office is a perfectly appropriate place to send such information.

However, Ms. Kettels forwarded the letter not to Director Melson as requested, but to the Chief Counsel's Office! That's right…constructive information sent in good faith to the Ombudsman was immediately provided to, and only to, the very pack of attack dog lawyers who are directly responsible for many of our current corruption and ethics problems. Kettels could have simply responded that she could not forward the information to the Director (for whatever strange reason), or have offered suggestions or alternatives. But no…she sent it to the Bureau's professional Hit Team, so they could swing into action and do what they do best (cover senior management ass by any means and at any cost).

The Chief Counsel's office then sent an email to my personal attorney stating that anything I wanted to forward to the Director had to go through them first. It should be noted that although I have several complaints pending against the Bureau, the open letter I forwarded to the Ombudsman office had absolutely nothing to do with any of that.

The ATF grievance procedure requires the grievant to file the complaint at one level above anybody who was involved in the complaint, but at the lowest level that has the authority to grant relief. Since the Ombudsman reports directly to Billy Hoover (according to their website), I filed a grievance addressed to Hoover, regarding the Ombudsman's extraordinary lack of neutrality and violation of compulsory confidentiality requirements. In accordance with standard ATF management policy, that grievance was simply ignored.

So, after the 30 day mandatory deadline for management's response expired, and once again in accordance with official ATF policy, I filed a second grievance at the next higher level (Ken Melson). Three days later, I received a combined response to both grievances from Billy Hoover. So much for the "chain of command" that management so often demands that we peon field people follow to the letter. In effect, Ken Melson ordered the very subject of the second grievance to handle the situation. Once again, things such as mandatory rules and procedures are only for the "little people".

Even more outrageous was Hoover's response to a legitimate formal grievance (see attached). I will shortly continue and explain why this entire outrageous situation is significant to each and every ATF employee, and why the Ombudsman has become nothing more than another weapon in ATF management's arsenal of corruption, abuse and "take no prisoners, kill the messenger" style of "leadership".

Attached Files

•  grieve121509.pdf   46.89KB   111 downloads
•  Hoover Grievance Response.pdf   69.49KB   141 downloads