Committee on Government Operations & Facilities, Public Roundtable, Robert White, Chairperson

good afternoon, I'm robert white, councilmember at large and Chairman Of the committee on government operations and committee on government operations and facilities.

It's friday, March 26, 2021 and

we're remotely via zoom platform. It's 12:06 P.M. And I'll calling to order this public roundtable of committee.

Today, we'll be reviewing two

proposed resolutions.

First, pr 24-08070, the monica palacio director of the office of human rights resolution director of office of human

rights resolution of 20212 and

pr 24-0086, chief administrative law judge of the office of administrative hearings margaret colleen currie confirmation

The office of human rights has

been inter call in self-governance. They were declared that the district of columbia should be a place free from discrimination for any reason other than that

of individual merit.

The office's mission has expanded over time.

Today, it enforces the dc human

rights act,. [Unintelligible] Employment, public accommodations and education, by

investigating and mediating

Monica palacio involvement began

in 2004 when then mayor williams

appointed her to the board of

human rights, a group that renders decision in certain

discrimination cases, then later

served as the office's director of language program.

they confirmed her appointment

as H.R. Director, a role she has had since last year.

The committee conducted

we heard from public witnesses

on various topics, including the

office arrest workload, had a

good conversation with director palacio. Today, I happy to hear about her

vision going forward, including

tackling the backlog of cases,

speeding up the timeline to investigations, and increase community engagement.

Our second resolution, pr 24-

24-0086 would appoint m colleen

currie as the law judge of the administrative hearings.

She brings significant administrative law experience to this role and has been chiefing

as acting chief since November of 2020.

Before that, she served as an

alj with oah since September of 2016.

During time time with oah, she

has adjudicated cases from

decisions from the druk public

schools, dcra, dpw, department of for higher vehicles, department of housing and

community development, office of risk management, department of employment services, and the office of the state

superintendent of education. Since 2018, judge currie has

been principal alj for employment matters and since February of 2020, she's served

as the principal alj for information technology matters.

Whier to joining oah, she served

as the magistrate junk with the

15th court in michigan from 2008 until 2016. In that role, she provided over

civil small claims hearings and formal traffic hearings and a variety of criminal matters.

She received her bachelors

degree from the university of michigan, then went on to the university of wisconsin law school.

As the committee considers judge currie's nomination, it's critical to understand how oah

and the role of the chief administrative law judge are,

particularly in this economic

and health crisis. As I mentioned last month during

our oversight hearing, whether

housing assistance, nutrition assistance, healthcare or employment assistance, the

office of administrative hearings often determines if our residents are getting the services and supports that they

are entitled ton that work has never been more important.

As leader of oah, the chief ALJs duties are broad and

cover a variety of duties,

including but not limited, to establishing training programs

for ALJs, developing and implementing rules for

procedures of cases, monitoring

the quality of adjudication, and developing performance standards

and a code of professional responsibilities. Faithfully setting up these

duties will set up the agency to fulfill the needs of district

residents, particularly during these difficult times.

I now want to turn to my colleague, councilmember christina henderson who I am pleased to have here with us today for any opening statement

>> thank you, chairperson white, and good afternoon to our

nominees as well to all who are listening.

I look forward to today's confirmation on two roles to ensure that the human rights of

our residents are protected, the

direct of office of administrative

ohr, and also theoffice of administrative hearings.

I'm also in another hearing that

begins in an hour, so I'll be in and out.

Of as I mentioned during our performance oversight hearing

early there month, I think it's imperative that we address the hate crimes that residents have faced in the district of columbia.

I also believe we should be

working to ensure that individuals have faith when

filing a case with oah

I hope we can learn more from interim director palacio in

terms of her plans to address

the case backlogs at at aoh and the delays in processing complaints. I look forward to discussing

what plans are in place to ensure this process is more efficient. Let's take a moment to consider the types of cases that comes through the office of human rights. These are victims which ranges

from cases of hate crime, sexual harassment, employees victim niced by employers, and all they want is a resolution.

When the cases are substantiated, claimants deserves the resolution they're

seeking and as quickly as possible. anything shortstop of that is a failure and should not be tolerated by our residents or by this count till. With that, I look forward to hearing from our public witnesses today about their

views on the nominees before us through those lense, and I look forward to hearing from both

nominees on their plans to move these particular issues forward.

Thank you, chairperson.

thank you very much, councilmember henderson. Before we start hearing

testimony, I want to lay out the ground rules for our witnesses. Everyone should have received a copy of the witness list yesterday. I'll call on those witnesses on

the list in the order on the list. When I do call your name, the

staff will promote you to a

witness so you can testify, promoting you to a panelist so you can testify. When you're promoted, you'll

drop out of the hearing momentarily, but you'll come

back in as a panest and at that time, you can un-mute yourself and turn on your video. Public witnesses will be

provided with four minutes to

testify, while each anacostia advisory neighborhood commissioner will be provided with five minutes to testify.

I'll now call up our first panel

First panel of witnesses is

nikki peele, amos jones, larry vargas, taylor chandler walker,

and hector torres. Ms. Peele, good to have you with us today, you can begin your testimony when you're ready.

>> thank you, I've timed my testimony but if I go over, please bear with me.

I'm nikki peele and today marks the fourth time in three years that I have presented testimony

about the systematic failures of

the dc office on human rights. Today, I will outline why the committee should oppose the

nomination of monica palacio as director. After year, public witnesses have come to this committee and testified about the many

problems at oah and the

director's inability or ability

to acknowledge the issue let alone fix them.

We do our civic duty.

We risk much by coming here to tell you the truth.

We expose OHAs failures while pleading with you for an intervention.

I hate reliving this trauma and

publicly every time I come here

At this point, I have spent more time going through OHRs process than the three years I

spent with the employer that I

filed the complaint again. I

against.I deserve people. The people behind the hundreds

of complaints left to languish

at ohr for years-s better.

Even ohr staff underwork and underpaid deserves better.

If I have any hope is that this committee is under new leadership. All already, questions are being

asked that was never asked said. That said, this committee and the council has a whole has failed dc residents.

Who is responsible for making sure that ohr has what they need

to be effective including the director responsible. Stop giving them new responsibilities when they're

unable to fulfill their current mandates. What agency director

could have a backlog in service stretching back three years, leave the position and seriously be considered for return to the same role? Let's imagine it took three

years or more for dpw to pick up trash.

Let's imagine it took otr three years or more to collect taxes. Let's imagine it took dc water

three years to get water out of the tap.

Despite the display of multicolored flags, snappy

slogans and big yellow words painted on a downtown street,

the people most vulnerable to civil rights violations don't

seem to warrant an effective ohr.

Until now, complainants haven't ranked enough to move this council to advocate for changes

needed to set a new social justice standard in the district, starting with a new leadership change in ohr.

When I first testified at this

performance oversight hearing in 20129, I look into the camera

and discouraged people to go to

Thee years later, was I wrong? Ms. Palacio has never reached out to me or my attorney regarding my experience at ohr or my case.

At best, all I've heard from

Ms. Palacio are vague excuses, sandwiched with giggles and

smiles directed at members of

this committee during of site hearings. Is that surprising? I present exhibit a.

A screenshot of a portion of

Ms. Palacio's testimony from March 5, 2021.

Note the comment in the right margin.

I, too, agree, Ms. Palacio with would not be happy to answer this committee's questions. While I was writing this testimony trying to find the words to inspire much needed

action, one word kept popping

into my mind. Disenjen wuses.

It states not candid or sincere,

typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does.

Of the problems at ohr are well-documented.

Few or any complaints complete the intake process within the

legally required 12 o 0 120 days. It's not the fault of complaints.

During the intake process, ohr

staff has discouraged complaints and have gone far to remove charges in a complaint. I would know because that happened to me.

The mediation office puts complaint nunts in a worse

position than before coming coming into ohr.

Settlement agreements always has

a deal to vacate a home in a

housing complaint or a job in a employment complaint.

I have personally witnessed

complainants sobbing in ohr's

lobby because they felt reviem miced

Nearly a third, a third of the

cases pending at ohr are over

three years old, rendering them

essentially useless, like my case. At least 47% of the cases that manage to make it to the human

rights commission take at least

another 15 months to resolve, and yet, the commission only meets once every two months.

As councilmember henderson so rightly asked, where is the

sense of urgency? I have another question.

Given the track record of

failures of ohr going back years, why is Ms. Palacio even considered qualified to serve as director again?

What's the definition of insanity? It's doing the same thing over

and over again and expecting a different result.

Not a single public witness has

been able to attest to any substantial and lasting improvements at ohr under

Ms. Palacio's leadership. Ms. Palacio resigned once before

in search of greener pastures.

The ohr directorship should not

a console ion surprise for a failed campaign.

It should reject her nomination.

In my own case, by far, the most

movement on my case and communication from ohr occurred

under acting director michelle

gomez, so I ask -- correction. I plea with this committee to

use this as an opportunity to do

Don't delayn't commit to turning this agency around starting with a imawfled and

qualified and experienced director.

anything less would be disengen with

thank you, Ms. Peele.

Next is larry -- is it vegas?

wonderful. Please, when you're ready, welcome.

Good afternoon, councilmember

and Chairman Robert white, citizens.

My name is larry vegas, I'm a resident of ward six in washington, D.C. I'm here today to share my

testimony as a dc resident, an

immigrant, a member of the lgbt

community, a udc graduate and three university degrees later, I'm still here because I love

dc, my home. Like many many others who ned

their countries because of

abuse, rampant violence, harassment, not a lot to protect

us and feeling like a second

class citizen, I was accepted

and embraced in this community.

Still a new place, new language,

new friends to make, but ready

to live a more fruitful life. I've been learning and getting

involved with the office of human rights seven years ago and I have seen first hand the work that the office of human rights

has done under the leadership of

human rights lawyer monica palacio. She and her staff got involved

when we brought forth about 45 claims of discrimination from

diverse immigrants who receive services at casa ruby. At that time, I wasn't an employee there.

Even though they all of the documentation to get dci Ds and other services, tv difficult

for them, because of language,

because of ability to be

understood, so ohr met with them. We learned about bringing our concerns to the table. We learned about taking the feelings out and putting the facts in. Little by little, everybody got

the services, their I.D.S and

they were all happy citizens of washington, D.C. Monica palacio got involved in that respect campaign. I saw the results of that

campaign to protect not only the

lgbt community, but more specifically, transgendered

women of color, some of who had

to practice survival sex work because nobody would employ them

and they did not pass.

When the office of human rights

executed that campaign, many others learned that they could

actually get a job, experience life without fear for their safety, and exercise their rights. Still, the ohr has received

hundreds of discrimination cases

related to sex, gender, or

sexual orientation so the work continues.

I plea, not only for making it formal for her to run the

agency, but also more funding

and more staff to deal with everyday discrimination that comes through the door. I learned from my grandparents and parents that we are here on this earth with a purpose inside

of ourselves, to help others.

I experienced the training that

ohr provided, the mediation

process, their resources that I

was given when I had a housing

issue myself, so I experienced it.

One of my professors at the counseling department at udc

reminded me that, I too, had rights.

I went from asking I have

rights, to whisper I have rights, to believe I have rights.

Once again, I am here much I was able to keep my home.

I'm in washington, D.C. And I'm

not only advocating but also

asking the council and the mayor

not only to confirm monica

palacio civil rights lawyer for

the office of human rights, but to increase the budget. Thank you very much.

thank you very much. Let me apologize to amos jones

who was second on our list and I

skipped you by accident.

Mr. Jones, if you're there, I'd seen you popped up, I want to

Amos jones, are you still there?

>> yes, I am, and I beg your pardon.

my apology. >> that's all right.

Thank you for your invitation to the public. Councilmember henderson and

Chairman White, good afternoon,

and other distinguished public servants. I'll be brief. My remarks have been submitted just this morning in writing for the record.

I appear today to help the council toward a sense of

possibilities that the dc office

of human rights has at this

particular moment in the history of our district and our country.

I offer my comments as a direct witness to scores of cases

brought before the office of human rights since I opened my

civil rights law practice,

serving victims in the district

from k street ten years ago and

Ms. Peele is a client of this firm. I have a perspective that is distinct, but related to Ms. Peele, and I have a

different vision in terms of my expectations going forward.

I am a former associate professor of law and civil rights activist and attorney

currently, and I have continuously sung with the praises of the dc human rights

act of 1977, who's enforcement

mandate is the responsibility of

ohr, and I've done that singling of praises sometimes on international stages. Why? Because our office of human

rights act with the act together are responsible for some of the

most positively civil rights enforcements practices in the history of the united states of

america and I know this because I've brought numerous cases and controversy before the office,

which is not without its flaws,

but have served all kinds of district residents. The successes of the ohr since

the '70s in both resolving cases through mediation and

formally charging even doing

respondents is unrivaled in the

country, and the relative

success of this office has its

roots in the former mayor marion

barry who signed the law into act, then later on as

councilmember in charge of site

of ohr, making sure that the

office was resourced to -- we

have a high charging rate in d.C.

That's a good thing for those concerned with discrimination of various forns.

Today, the ohr is supposed to be in a position of growth. There's new categories of

citizens protected by statutes and ordinances as the previous person testified.

Our city's population is growing

by leaps and bounds and this is exactly why at this moment, I

had to come forward to oppose the nomination of a backward

looking administrator who's negative impact on staff moral

and failure to artic plate a new

vision for a new legal landscape have self-evident.

One example of poor judge from

director palacio can be seen in

her dismissal of ohr's mediation head in 2016.

We had allily performing,

publicly performing public servant, georgia stewart who had been there for 49 years, and I

just won't belabor those points because I represent Ms. Stewart

in our own discrimination case in the dc circuit right now, but

there's a defamation case

against Ms. Palacio at the dc court of appeals where she's being exposed for her mismanagement and statements

made to get rid of a very highly

effective public servant. I don't think that this hard

working office deserves another

failed period of years under monica palacio.

I wish that I could come today

in support of a designee worthy of the council's vote in this

changed and improved landscape,

asian pacific islanders issues

and more, reentering citizens

and the discrimination to which now they May go to the ohr.

We need a bigger office with a

stronger advocate with creative vision who doesn't beat down her

own employees and staffers and professionals, who does not cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and

who takes this calling seriously.

Ms. Palacio, I honor some of her past contributions much she's a wonderful administrator with a great future mind her. The district residents deserves much, much better.

I beseech the council to vote against this nomination so that

we can move into the future

instead of back into the past. Thank you.

thank you very much for your testimony. Our next public witness is

taylor chandler walker. You can begin when you're ready.

>> hello and thank you all for opening this up to public witnesses.

I'm taylor chandler walker, I'm the transgender health

coordinator for us helping us

people into living, inc. In washington, D.C.

I'm also the operator of a dhs

grant project grant growth,

which affects youth 18-24 that

are homeless or at risk.

I met monica a few years back,

both who worked previously at

casa la ruby and helped with her campaign. The reason for the campaign was to do the great work that she

does, but at a bigger capacity,

and unfortunately, she didn't

win, but she's still a valuable

and viable asset to the office of human rights.

In recent years, black transgendered women have been murdered. The violence against them is

immense and I'm here to tell you

that monica palacio, unlike many

others in dc government, is a champion for lgbtq youth, as

specifically, to black women of

color that are trans,

non-gender, and non-binary and that's worth its weight in gold in a city coming off of an administration that did

everything to eradicate and

erase people like me.

Monica has continued her work

and the work that I'm privy to

has all been beneficial to the

community, to washington, D.C.,

to residents that have faced

horrendous hate crimes and violence.

You know, intentional attacks against entrance

trans women that are

forced into survival sex work,

they're the recipients of

undercover work by dc police. These are things that can't be

unnoticed and in no way do I discredit previous witnesses and the plight that they faced.

I believe that if we nitpicked anybody in dc government or in offices of human rights, we

would find things that aren't their best moments, but I would

like to believe when it comes to monica palacio, she has definitely put everything

forward to show she's a champion for all dc residents, not just the wants

ones that are socially acceptable.

I believe in her work, I support her.

Working in dc now since 2013,

both at the white house and on

the hill as a sign language

interpreter, as well as my work in civic engagement and

community outreach, I have had the opportunity to work with her

on several occasions and support

her in many of her thing,

especially in 2018, their campaign.

So I urge all of you to really

take a look at the good with monica palacio and know that

she's committed to making up for

any mistakes that might have been presented today.

I wish all of the witnesses the best outcomes in their cases, and I believe that monica palacio is the right person to

be at the head of the office of human rights.

for your testimony, and last

witness on this panel, hector

torres. >> >> good afternoon.

My name is hector j torres. I want to thank the committee

chair, councilmember white and councilmember henderson for allowing me this opportunity to

present testimony on behalf of

monica palacio as director of the office of human rights.

I am a district resident of ward

six for over 41 years and I have proactively been involved in supporting the needs of our community, serving on boards and

commissions during my residency,

including presently as

commissioner of the arts and humanities commission.

As board member of the carlos rosario international chart

every school, board member of destination dc and together with

my husband, we have raised funds

on behalf of the whitman-walker

clinic in the height of the aids pandemic, providing services in the community, as well as other communities of color.

I was also a hospitality executive in the city until the company was sold in 2018. My engagement with the community

has been constant, satisfying, and troubling.

I openly support her campaign

for her work, particularly in

the entrance and civil rights

aspects of our city.

I have known monica for over ten years. [Unintelligible]

By championing and creating legislation strengthening the rights and protections to make

this one of the most progressive cities for lgbtq communities in the country. The work of the transgender

community is very notable.

Personally, I have not had to

depend on ohr and respect those

who have some issues with the office in the past.

I have people known to me that the office of human rights. [Unintelligible]

Filed complaints dealing with termination -- unfair

termination against major

corporation and ohr has handled

objectively and faving the individual. Monica palacio has created awareness of the rights and protections of individuals with

training and personal appearances. Arguably, there are significant challenges in the operating of

any if not most public service offices, particularly under present conditions.

It is incumbent on this body to recognize that because of the present pandemic, there will be greater challenges as companies and organizations will be unable

to bring back the labor force

position in a way that is fair and equitable. I do believe that monica would

be suitable to do this work. I appeal to you to keep the

office strong so it can meet the growing needs of all of our citizens. I believe under the leadership of monica palacio, the office

can effectively meet these challenges. Monica has experience and background lends her to the

position that she is very competent lare

is a verycompetent lawyer who has dealt

with and of com barriers.

As every georgetown law school

graduate, she knows firsthand what. [Unintelligible]

To the advocacy of a what a fair, just, and is right. Thank you for allowing me the

time to come before you to lend

my support to your consideration

of confirming monica palacio as

director of the office of human rights for the district of columbia.

Thank you very much.

thank you very much. I want to thank everyone from

this panel of witnesses with

diverse perspectives on

Ms. Palacio's work and tenure in

the office of human rights.

Let me start with Ms. Peele and

Mr. Jones. Jones. Sew the council in

so the council in the last

budget year increases resources

for the office substantially,

adding -- let me get this right

right because details are important.

Added 24 employees to the agency

so they went from 49 to 73, and

a budget increase of 63%, which

this agency was not under the purview of my committee last

year, but this indicates to me

an agency that was falling behind in resources. We don't normally see an increase in resources that

substantial to any agency, so

Ms. Peele, let me first

recognize and acknowledge, he it is difficult to continue to come and testify about something that

has clearly been so harmful and

has affected you, as I think it

would affect anyone, and I am sorry that you've had to come so many times to make this testimony.

What is your assessment about --

I think the backlog and the amount of time it takes to

process case is just unacceptable.

We cannot see this as acceptable from any government agency.

What I would be curious about

you, Ms. Peele and you

Mr. Jones, is how much do you

believe is an administrative or

executive shortcoming versus a

historical lack of resources for the agency? >> thank you for those kind words.

I would say both are issues, but they're rooted in the director's office f I can address that about the funding, which I'm

glad the increased funding happened. That didn't happen in a vacuum.

I was apart of the coalition that lobbied the council for the increase that did not come from director palacio. Like I have said, I have

testified at three of these oversight hearings. That plea did not come from her.

That acknowledgment that there was shortcomings did not come from her.

That came from people like me

and the organizations that testify at testified at the last performance hearing and the performance hearing before that

and that and that and that.

We actively met with members of

the council to make that happen, okay.

To be honest, while I'm glad the money is there, I do not think

that the money under her purview

would be spent well because

again, at the core, these issues

did not happen in a vacuum.

And by the way, as people know,

I'm connected and know different things.

This is not just an issue of complaints from victims like

myself, other attorneys or other advocacy groups.

I know people who have work there'd and worked there, who

say this is a problem.

People have spoken to me about

the problem of Ms. Palacio's leadership. I'm being very direction when I say enough is enough.

It's time for a new start.

>> so for me, Councilman, and

thank you, it's because the funding of this mandate has

finally come to a sensible level that monica palacio should not return to be in charge. Herbert hoover could have gotten

a lot more tax revenue from his

citizens, but you still have home run better hoover.

it took a franklin roosevelt at

that moment to lift our country

from the depths which we had

been dragged into the

One case in point, you have

georgia stewart who is so effective, one of the top performers in the office, she

received a 10% salary increase seven months before she was

dismissed, and with 49 years of

institutional knowledge. That's just one example of poor management.

Then what do you have to do?

You have to train new people.

You have to blow the whistle.

Someone has provided video tape of her trying to explain

herself, which she had no justification of it.

The fact is that this is a problem.

Finally, the idea factor. Monica palacio doesn't have any ideas. The way the office should be run

is really to divide issue area expertise,

Investigating a sex trafficking transgender's plight is

different from a standard sexual harass many case or a race discrimination case, or a reentering felon case.

The office should be reorganized

to have efficiencies and sowbt matter experts in all of these groups, which at times seems to

be competing but it need not be that way.

You need a leader with a vision who understand is where we are now and what the possibilities are with the money and personnel coming in.

You can read the back section. Read the district government's

own briefs and these cases out

here to see the extend to which

Ms. Palacio is not the person for this at this time. I'm different from Ms. Peele on this.

There was a time for her.

I liked that she ran for council. Fine, but at this moment, it's time for a change.

>> if I could say, and I'll be quick, this position was

advertised at the end of January 2020.

It was open for over a year. We are in the district of columbia, you can't swing a dead

cat and not hit an attorney let alone a qualified civil rights attorney, so any attempts to

make it look like there was -- the job opening clearly was not real.

We went a year without a director. If one of hired then, we would

be in a better position now, so why are we still waiting?

Mr. Vegas, you had mentioned

that director palacio assisted 35 people with claims of discrimination and you were

mentioning I think getting identification cards.

Did the office for you and the 35 individuals that you

mentioned, did the office take

on active cases or did they is more of a case management issue, helping to move issue as long

with other agencies?

>> so some also had housing problems so they are divided because some were taken as a group for the I.D.S and paper

work that was needed but also

others where lived in rental places.

if they went and didn't look for formal or let's say they were

nor dplam buoyant or colorful or

so, then they were put like in apartments that were far away

from the doors, and floors

farther away from access to

things. The main issue with those 35

people were in dc with their paper work without the ability

to get I.D.S. They met with us and got all of

the testimonies and it took like three or four months because we need to learn it's not about screaming, shouting and

feelings, but we learned it's on that date about this opportunity.

So everybody got their I.D.S

and I myself have to say that even though I'm very private with my things, when I went there, they made sure that they had all of the facts, that they had all of the dates.

They gave me the resources. They empowered me to resolve

some of those issues and that's how I was able to actually

resolve them and that's why I

learned that not only do I have rights, but everybody that I work with.

I have worked with people who

come from incarceration with

youth and homelessness

situations, those are some of

the most disempowered people in

I apologize. What I'm trying to get a sense

of if you or any of the people who were with you had open cases, and if you could give me

an idea of how long it took to resolve an open case as opposed to assisting with an issue?

>> so that was an easy thing to

resolve because we actually went

and met at the office of the dmv

with the manager as well, and we presented the same information

that we gave to ohr, better distributed.

These are the dates, these are the services we weren't provided

and these were the reasons we

were given so we even offered to

provide training with the people working with them and in a matter of three to six months,

everybody had what they needed.

I have a few more questions of this panel, but let me turn to

my colleague, councilmember henderson. >> thank you, chairperson white and to all of the witnesses for testifying.

Ms. Peele, it's good to see you again. Thank you so much for your testimony. And to

and to everyone else.Chairperson white asked some of

my questions because I was interested in hearing for other

people whether or not you had a

case before ohr in term of what

your experience was there. I'll be brief and state this. One thing that is coming clear in terms of the testimony that

has been provided or something that I'm thinking about and I'll say it pueblo.

I think there's a difference between being a great advocate

and being a great manager, and I

think we have to be honest about

that in terms of the charge of

the agency and the responsibilities for which it

has been given recognizing over

time, it has been always been well-resourced, but I'm even

struggling with the idea that

that the agency has just gotten positions for the new program

and has not been filled yet, and understanding there was a hiring freeze. It's a question in terms of the

use of resources then is not to

diminish the advocacy point

because, Ms. Taylor, I heard you very clearly in terms of what you believe is strong advocacy

on the part of the trans community that has come from

Ms. Palacio and from the office. I'm just trying to sort of

grapple with the two situations

of like big case list, good advocated.

I need to know how we reconcile the two.

I want to thank you all for your

testimony and I don't have any

further questions, chairperson white.

thank you very much,

councilmember henderson.

The funny thing, when councilmember henderson goes before me, she usually ask the

questions I intend to ask so I'm

glad I went before her today

because it happens in almost every hearing we're in together. This is what I was trying to get to, what I mentioned before, what councilmember henderson highlighted, is the

administration of cases and the ability to administer the

agency, that's what I'm trying

to evaluate here and the infusion of significant resources and I appreciate you

putting on the record, Ms. Peele

yours and others efforts to get,

that speaks to an agency that is significantly under-resourced and what I'm trying to figure

out is how do we determine how much of the backlog, case

backlog we attribute to director palacio and how much we

attribute to a case that was --

seem sorry, an agency that was under-resourced. One thing I want to mention now because I don't want to forget and I'll mention this at the end of the hearing.

The record for this hearing open until April 9 ninth, so if others have testimony to help us sort

through this for better or for worse, it doesn't matter what

side you're on, on this nomination or the other nomination, I hope people will consider submitting testimony for the record because that will

help the committee sort through this. The council does not pick

nominees and I believe that we shouldn't because of preference

for anything minor and reject

the mayor's nominee because the mayor was elected to be the chief executive the city and I believe that's always his or her

prerogative, so I try to support

mayor's nominees, but that is

not an absolute so that is a challenge for this committee to sort through.

For other witnesses Mr. Torres, Ms. Walker, can either of you speak to any experience that

you've had or are aware of about case administration at the

office of human rights?

>> if I May, this was a

significant discrimination case

with regard to an unfair

dismissal, including involving sexual charges and discrimination and inappropriate

behavior of that sort, and my

partner and I referred to the office of human rights or advised them to use the office of human rights and the response

to that particular episode was response

that he was very satisfied with the way it was handled, number

one, and number two, the timing,

while I'm listening to it, it's

alien that it was handled professionally and expeditious here and the company involved in the case did come through. This was no opportunity for the job because he finally did not

want to go back because of what

he had suffered, but there was a

setlement that was appropriate based on contractual expectations and it was done within a period of -- it was

very reasonable in terms of time.

I really don't have personal

experiences of my own that I can

attest to, but I know in

support, I was vech very much aware

of the amount of, I would say

discussions that took place, the expeditious

expedition of that process, to

the orientation of services to

know what to do. Do.

Sometimes they -- [Unintelligible]

This adds on to a backlog I

would imagine because not every case can be resolved to the

satisfaction of everyone, or it could simply be a training issue. I don't know how much I've contributed to this, but my

experience with my friend that I

knew was very positive.

He sung the praises of ohr and

that's all I can transmit in good faith. in good heart. Thank you.

What I think is my final question, Mr. Jones, did you

mention that you have multiple

cases before ohr? >> yes.

I have approximately 20-25 cases

I've had 20-25 cases over the years, 11 pending so I have nothing but experience. I do think sometimes when complaint

complainants are represented by council and I warn people who

want to higher me for this is

sometimes it slows things down. People take more care.

I'm a very charitable attorney,

I don't mind if a person without a law degree makes a mistake,

but I do advice people it could take three years there. What's beautiful, the only reason the office works as well

as it does is that the statute

is innovative itself in that it requires mediation at a couple

of different points. Since georgia stewart left, it's

been a hot mess of mediation as

far as the cases I've been in

there, as far as their concerned tox look at cases I haven't

done, we see problems of resourcing and wasted money.

I'm different from Ms. Peele in my testimony. Ms. Peele has a position about resourcing and efficiency in

materials of working and the mechanics of the agency.

I have a fundamental problem embodied in the allegations of Ms. Palacio incompetent to handle anything at this point to move it in the right direction

with the new resources in the

new civil rights in our country. what that means for example, there were all of these udc

cases when udc law school was

suicide for discrimination for

not tenuring long-term professors.

The last one went eight years,

the city had to settle the case, u

udc was disgraced t should have

been handled years ago, years ago.

Yet, that city had to pay all

that money to on outside law

firm to lose the cases and

deface udc enter hribal.

U d c. Terribly. Ly. So I don't want to complain about the fact that these cases take three years, which they do,

which I actually recent.

That's their employment practice. At least here, we have the mediation parts, but I do know with the right leadership and

with a very diligent staff over

there at ohr, and with bigger

offices, bigger conference rooms can be the top because it's still the top in the country

believe it or not by par.

in terms of charging. The charge rate is very high

thanks to marion barry, but it's better than it seems because a

fair number of cases gets involved in mediation process

that is not mandatory in a lot of states. The state of north carolina, for example, doesn't even have a human rights commission, an administrator.

It's great and we're not to confuse the structure or the statute with any effectiveness

or lack of effectiveness.

let me ask you a clarifying question.

I'm trying to resolve the

concerns you raised about

director palacio with the

assertion that the timeline for closing case is relatively on par with human rights commissions across the country

sox why do you believe director

palacio is ineffective if not for the backlog?

>> it's from the refusal to continue with people who know

what they're doing, like georgia stewart, who was the top performer in management over there according to the data we have.

Her effectiveness was called into question because notwithstanding the fact that

there's a three-year expectation among those of news the field, she's an attorney herself.

She should know that this can go in a different way much faster.

The truth is the right kind of an administrator could have worked with that small budget

and gotten much better results.

Washington, D.C. Has a political mandate because it's a civil

rights city in terms of population.

You could far people more aggressively or charge people as

quickly as you dismiss these cases. There's a culture this that she created and that's why we have the tape from the whistleblower,

there's a culture she created that has cut the innovation, that has added a complacency with three-year delays.

We now have millennials as the largest part of the work understand in the city in the country. They don't have the patience for this kind of nonsense, but there's another problem. They don't have the money to go

right into court either, so we

have a new situation here where

the injustice happens to be magnified not with standing this three year expectation around the country. Washington is better than that. Ohr is better than that. The human rights act is the best

in the country, so I'm just very concerned and I like mayor bowser and I support her right

to designate these positions,

people for these positions, but on this one, I must respectfully disagree what mayor. I've never crossed her publicly

on anything, but on this one, I would like for her to go back to the applicant pool and find somebody better positioned with

more knowledge, better judgment and creativity.

What happens to a dysfunctional

family that wins the lottery?

Now you have divorce, bankruptcy, drug use and all of the money is gone. I don't want that to happen with

her coming back to ohr.

I appreciate t I want to thank the public witnesses

for taking the time to testify

on Ms. Palacio's appointment and nomination.

It is helpful, even when the

testimonies are desperate as they are today. I wanted to thank you for take

the time to give your input on this.

I'm now going to turn to our

first government witness today,

which is acting director, monica palacio. I'm going to give her a few

minutes to get on the screen. Director, in you're on, but you

have to un-mute and turn your camera. >> thank you.

I didn't realize I could do. That thank you.

Thank you for being here today. As you May know from our oversight hearing, it's the practice of this committee to all put government witnesses under oath.

I would ask you raise your right hand.

[Witness sworn in] >> I do.

thank you very much. You can begin your statement when you're ready. >> good afternoon, chairperson white, members of the council and council staff. I'm monica palacio, currently

acting director of the office of human rights and I'm very pleased to testify before you

today as mayor bowser's nominee

to become the confirmed director of office of human rights.

I want to thank mayor bowser for providing me with this opportunity to return and serve as director of the office.

My lifelong commitment to

improving access to justice, enforcing our civil rights and protecting our most vulnerable neighbor draws me again to public service.

Since coming to dc in the early 1990s, I've been deeply complitted to working to improving life for district residents as an advocate,

teacher, volunteer, coalition

builder, and most recently as a government executive for more than seven years.

I'm also very proud to return to serve side-to-side with my colleagues at the agency who

every day work hard and play a vital role in defending and protecting the civil rights in our city.

For 30 years, dc has been my

home and I proudly identify as

latina and a longtime dc resident.

My work in dc and career in public service bogan three decades ago as a student

attorney participating in georgetown's juvenile justice clinic. I represented young teens

charged with criminal offenses in court for one year.

Early on, I saw myself becoming

a public defender, but after

that one year, it became painfully clear to me that these

young people were in crisis and found themselves in front of a judge, primarily because not

one, but several safety nets and

systems had failed them and left them at risk. Food insecurity, high

unemployment, failing schools,

and violent crime were the real problems underlying the cases I saw in court. Then I decided to work on

systems change and root out racial equality in policies across the government that often

hurt black and brown communities and low income families the most.

For ten years, I went on to work with local organizations like

youth build, the marion barry

summer youth employment program.

The latin american youth center,

public out reach, sasha bruce,

new charter schools, and many

others to invest in youth leadership and youth violence prevention programs. I worked on comprehensive

community planning to fight violent crime, training young

leaders to find their voices as advocates, and conflict resiewses and race and identity programs. During this time, I also remained active locally, advocating for more investments in services for the latino

community and other immigrant populations. This work is what led me to serve as a commissioner on the

dc commission on human rights from 2004 till 2008. I joined the district government

as a manager in 2011, and for

two years, I served as the language access director under the auspices of the office of human rights.

During my tenure as that

manager, I grew the program, expanded training resources needed by over 30 different

agencies and created a new testing and compliance system by using a new report card and

score card template template. While language access continues to evolve and we're still working

working to meet the needs of all families and residents that need help, I'm confident with the

work I say I did in that role transformed language access

services and concretely improved

services to limited english and non-english proficient residents

across the city n 2013, I was

nominated by mayor vincent gray

to serve as ohr director and i

then had the honor to continue serving in the first and now the second bowser administrations.

What I appreciate so much about ohr is that you have the opportunity to work proactively

to teach people about their rights, work across the public and private sectors to enforce those rights, and also partner

with local and regional leaders to expand those rights as our understanding of the need for

greater protections evolves over time. I would now like to highlighted

some of my accomplishments as ohr director. I'll begin by stating that just

two years into my tenure, I set

a new course for the agency, by redirecting resources to investigations for training and

hiring more senior investigation

managers, and by rebuilding the mediation program and expanding the staff for our office of general counsel.

Since then, ohr's mandate and impact has grown and continues

to grow in terms of enforcement

authority, personnel and budget.

Starting in fy '14, my team and

I produced ground breaking education campaigns have been a

strong partner on issues such as

combating entrance phobia in the workplace, implementing dc's ban

the box law, and preventing and readdresses sexual harassment by playing a key role in the

implementation of the mayor's

We had resource for strawns to promote people with

disabilities, a nationally

recognized trans recampaign, the hashtag safe bathrooms campaign, and rights and protections for

women and pregnant workers.

some of ohr's pioneering access

to programs are work with

returning citizens, the anti-street harassment program,

the coordination of responses to hate and motivated crime, language access, and the citywide bullying prevention programs, all of which are

programs that the council has trusted ohr to enforce. I would also like to add that

racial equity and combating racism are central to ohr's mission. In addition to our core mandate

of investigating and resolving cases violating local and federal anti-discrimination

laws, my team has also responded to emerging issues pron actively

worked with our most vulnerable residents.

In 2015, we piloted a racial

equity training model and trained teams from dc public

schools, the department of parks and recreation, the department of youth and rehabilitation services, dc human resources, and the department of energy and

the environment to lead equity and inclusion workshops for their staff. Those teams then trained

hundreds of employees, managers

and parents on how to combat

racism and deescalated conflict.

In 2018 and 2019, my team and I also designed and led listening sessions

sessions with lgbtq leaders because violence against trans women was on the rise and

becoming even commonplace.

Last but not least, the ohr team

has reached out and working with returning citizens related to their rights when they come home

and their newly reinstatedded

voting rights, as well as much more. Mr. Chairman, the many

heartbreaking challenges in 2020 and 2021 have opened our eyes to

the true cost of racism bake into the founding of our country. I see ohr place an important role in protecting and preserving civil rights and also

taking a clear stand for racial equality. Through investigation in the

work plas or by serving a family who doesn't speak en establish, but needs access to legal services, or responding to hate

crimes aimed at terrorizing residents.

Ohr's work makes a significant

difference in the lives of dc residents.

Because so much of our work is confidential and not made

public, I want to share that

ohr's work has had an impact nationally. We enforce one of the most expansive list of protected categories in the country and

our laws, which go far beyond federal civil rights

protections, has inspired other jurisdictions.

For example, we have fined major corporations of violations of ban the box and when they changed those job applications

and their process, they stopped discriminating and have made changes nationwide, not just in the district.

Our work fighting for acceptance

and respect for transgendered workers through our employment testing project has also been

seen as a model for the nation. Mr. Chairman, I will close with this.

as a latina immigrant and a child of immigrant parents who

came to the U.S. From very humble means, I saw early in my

life how devastating poverty and racism could be. I had the chance to learn english and study because my parents worked hard and sacrificed everything to help me

go to clerk and eventually to achieve my dream of going to law school.

I bring to this work not only credentials and qualifications,

but I bring a sense of urgency, integrity, and a true passion to serve much my career in public service has been shaped by the

values of hard work, respect for

each person's inherent human dignity, and standing ready to fight side-to-side with those most vulnerable among us. As ohr director, I will once

again work tirelessly to lead the agency to the best of my abilities and I ask for your

vote of confidence and support. Thank you so much for your time

and attention today and I look forward to any questions you May

palacio, and to you and your team.

I do want to note by the record, we by rule of the committee and

now by rule of the council

requested pre hearing questions

answered and the testimony 48 hours in advance. We got the questions late last night. I did not and I'll take responsible for this, highlight

for the agency that we don't normally allow agencies to testify when we don't get testimonies 48 hours in advance. i'm going to say that was my

fault, but I want to make sure to say I think it's important to set expectations early because

it helps us in the future.

One thing from your resume and

again, I've not had the time

that I would have preferred to go through pre hearing

questions, so I May have follow-up questions later, but one thing from your resume that

I wanted to ask about, palacio and associates looks like it's

still active. Does this create a conflict of

interest outside business or

entity that -- I assume that you run and manage this? >> well, yes.

So basically, it's a sole business I have that I've done

consulting work over the last 25 years and periodically, I have

gotten contracts to facilitate a meeting or do some coaching of someone, and I make sure that

any contract -- I usually don't

do those contracts when I'm

employed, but because I was not employed with the district for

12 months, I reactivated my consulting work.

I make sure not to do business with entities in the district of columbia or doing business with

the district government.

Before I forget, can you or your

team send us a written copy of your statement from today? >> yes, sorry.

I thought it was submitted. I absolutely will.

thank you. I want to start with qualifications. The law requires that the director of the office of human rights had a drem

demonstrated background in human rights law,

but I also recognize that some leadership roles requires more executive functions than technical functions.

So, for instance, the current head of octo which falls now under our committee, I don't

believe the director had a technology background, she runs

a technology agency, but as I'm

learning in our oversight role, that's because that agency requires a great deal of

executive leadership rather than technical function.

Do you think it's important for

the director of ohr to have a background in human rights law or do you think that someone who is otherwise a strong executive could run the agency? >> right, thank you so much.

Well, I wanted to make that distinction very clearly.

So the dc human rights act is

named the human rights act, but

it's silly a civil rights law. It's an anti-discrimination

statute, much like any other civil rights laws in other jurisdictions, but I believe that the vision of the council

and then marion barry were to

send a clear message that this

law was to be as expansive as

possible, so we don't work under traditional international human rights doctrine.

I'm not an expert in that area, but I do know experts in that

area and what we have in respect is an office named the office of human rights, but it's actually a civil rights enforcement agency.

I would strongly contest that I don't have experience in civil rights enforcement because I've been doing this work for more than ten years just with the office, and the human rights

laws that we enforce are in fact

I appreciate that distinction.

I was asking less about your

experience with respect to human

rights law or any applicable

body of laws, and more to yowfer your as someone who led the agency for years, as the permanent director whether you believe any

civil or human rights law background specifically is

important for the director or whether the director of the

agency simply needs to have

strong executive dpungs?

>> oh, in that case, thank you

for fewing, Mr. Chairman.

Because I supervise a number of attorneys, and I appreciate that the council passed legislation to clarify that the director had

to be an active member of the dc

bar several years ago, I think

when you are in a supervisory

role, soup voicing the work of attorneys, it's important to be an attorney as well.

I think it can be difficult, but not impossible for someone who has great expertise in

management skills to supervise a team that's specifically investigating and enforcing and resolving cases under a civil

What surprised me of how

under-resourced we were back in 2012-2013. That was the first thing that surprised me. I think the second thing that surprised me is how few people

know about the office and the

services available, and I think what you see in term of increase

in cases and responsibilities of

the agency is because, you know, we worked very diligently during

my time as director to reach out to hundreds and hundreds and

hundreds of people through the new social media platforms, through campaigns, through talks

in neighborhoods and meetings

and trainings, to help them know about ohr.

So I think that is the second thing that surprised me the most because if you don't know your rights and you don't know that there's services to help you,

you certainly can't access those

rights and make them real.

the ohr certainly does

have broad jurisdiction and that

continues to grow. What was it, if any, what was the case backlog when you assumed the director role, I guess it would have been about seven years ago now?

>> so seven years ago, I'd have

to get those numbers numbers for for

you, there was a backlog, but I'd have to get those numbers back to you.

My staff and I have reviewed the additional background materials

in the nomination package from

the mayor, but for those watching at home; there any

experience prior to your role at ohr that you think would be important to highlight for your nomination hearing? >> well, I have talked about,

you know, I worked as a student attorney in superior court for a

year, I mentioned that, and I

went on to do several projects, mostly as a volunteer or board member with organizations that I

didn't even mention, like the --

in the early 1990s, I worked

with the washington lawyers committee on similar progresses

to go out into neighborhoods and conduct interviews with residents about the types of discrimination they were facing, so I spent several years doing

that work as a volume volunteer. Volunteer.

I went to work with a number of organizations and groups where

we advocated for the dc language act, so I was involved with the

committee that was responsible for submitting language and I

think the old statute was called

something like the bilingual education act, I can't remember it, it was about 20 years ago,

but we worked diligently to work

for the change and creation of the language access act.

I'd have to think back, but

there was opportunities I had to work with a number of organizations working on and thinking about civil rights in the district, so that's what I

brought to ohr back in 2012-2013.

last question for this round. What strategies do you and your

team use to stay informed about

developments in human rights law?

>> so there's a number of legal

associations like the dc bar,

the american bar association,

and employment lawyers

association that gives courses and multi-day courses to make sure that our attorneys, myself

and our team stay abreast of

updates and changes in the law. We're also very involved with

local organizations who come to us and say we're concerned about this case that has been decided and we feel like this might be

the impact, so we track closely

decisions by the dc court of

appeals. Often, our cases if they're appealed, they can go to the dc

court of appeals, then we get feedback from dc court of appeals.

Our chief judges and judges of

human rights attend conferences,

I myself attend conferences,

which are also primarily civil rights agencies in the united

states, so we do as much as possible to stay updated and

abreast of any changes and developments.

thank you. Let me turn it over to

councilmember henderson for a

10-minute round. >> thank you, chairperson white.

Good afternoon, director palacio. >> good afternoon.

>> I wanted to start with I think something you raised in your testimony and I guess even in the exchange that you had

with chairperson white around how the agency has changed and sort of doubled in size in the last six years or so.

Could you talk about how that growth has impacted the

operations of the agency?

>> absolutely. Between 2014 and 2017, ohr received a number of statutes

that gave enforcement authority,

but in some cases, the case was not funded.

In the case of the ban the box

law, that one statute, which had been strongly advocated for, for

many and, many years, when it finally came into effect, we saw

all of our case lowed double.

We might have gone from 800 initial complaints in a year to more than 2,000, more thon

double, and the number of cases in our inventory more than doubled.

The number of mediations conducted became bag looing

because we didn't have enough mediators.

It's hard to tell in some instances how much law will have

an impact on our caseload, but

in that one example, we didn't

receive nearly the funding that we needed to address a doubling in the volume of cases that we needed to process, so that was a

big turning point for the agency

and we immediately had to get

mediation crackers, we had to

pivot to supporting a team just

to work on those cases. It just wasn't enough. That's one example. Another example, in some cases, over five years, we might have

gotten two investigators, one investigators, three investigators, a lot of line staff, but no management positions. So what I realized several years

ago, we had created a bottleneck because we had a lot of frontline investigators and one manager, so what I've done to

address that issue is we began restructuring the agency in 2019

so we set up three teams, three managers, three pipelines for intake, and we assigned attorneys for each of those teams to move cases through the pipeline faster. Unfortunately, so that's a

structural issue. Unfortunately, do to the hiring freeze about a year ago, many of those positions were not filled and I have just started filling

those positions in the last

three months so what you have are very real challenges, in terms out not only waiting for

the funding of the positions, creating a restructuring plan,

then having a hiring freeze, and

now moving quickly to fill those positions.

>> I want to touch on something

you talked about, like ban the box legislation, but beyond that, I know there's legislation that comes to the council, they

want to add things to ohr, but

there's usually a fiscal impact process in material of

legislation being able to be

moved forward have you been involved in those conversations

with the chief financial officer, like how much is it going to cost for your agency to do this work?

Academic the restructuring

I think the restructuring plan sounds great. I'm wondering why there wasn't a waiver submitted during the mayor's hiring freeze, given everything that happened during

the pandemic, and particularly

with hospitality workers and tip waged workers, like this is one of the times when you need additional protections and supports because you May have some bad actors in terms of

employers who are taking

advantage of the fact of, you

know, the situation. If you want to keep your job, you'll take what I give you versions what you deserve or

what you have earned. Were there any conversations that happen inside this might have been when you weren't

there, around, you know, a waiver process?

This is where I view as like not

just an advocate for the issue, but the advocate for your agency in material of your ability to

do your charge. >> bees,

absolutely, and all of that

happened when I wasn't there. I left in January 2020 and returned a year later, so I

wasn't there for any of those conversations. >> okay.

>> I know that the interim

director, michelle garcia worked diligently and I'm sure if she could have, you know, fought for

and requested a waive, she would have. >> okay. I want to talk very briefly about backlogs. As I mentioned at the top, there's another hearing going on and I need to get to it.

You know, my understanding that

ohr began a new intake process in 2018 to ensure timely

processing of new cases for an

online system, right, because I

think -- was 2018 when you guys

got a new online system to track your cases? >> no. We didn't get a new online system. We started building a new case management system at the end of 2019. >> that's what -- okay, case management system. >> yes.

>> has this system been

>> it was started in late 2019 and again, I think the team that was assigned to get it done got

it about 80% there and then we hit the public health emergency.

Again, I wasn't there last year,

but we have reinitiated those conversations to get that case management system up and running and I believe the next step is

migration of data, and I am not

an I.T. Expert, but I do know that these systems, when they're

built from scratch, you have to

go through several versions of it until it's actually functioning well and I think we're in stage two. >> who is the agency partner in the upgrade? >> octo. >> how are you currently tracking your cases if not for this new system? >> well, we have a case

management system through quick

base, but it's out-of-dated, cumbersome and not effective, that's why two years ago, I started working towards building

a completely new case management system. >> I was trying to get to perhaps, correct me if I'm wrong, were you saying like a major cause in terms of the backlog is that you didn't have enough managers and so you have a bottleneck in the system.

Mediation takes time, investigation takes time, but in term of being able to swiftly move through a process, that was

>> yes, the increase in the volume of cases, then the structural backlog, but also coming through a period where we just didn't have the resources to higher all of

hire all of the people that we needed to close all of the

cases that needed to be closed.

the redynamics inter intersected and

we had to make sweeping structural changes.

>> I know when you left, you know the backlog when you walked out the door. >> I can get that to you.

>> in materials of a philosophical question.

When you came back in January

last year, was that backlog lower or higher when you left? >> I'd have to compare those

actual numbers. Numbers because last year

was not a regular year.

I think what -- what I have been studying, we saw a slight decrease in mediation settlements because businesses were going bankrupt and maybe going off the grid and couldn't

We've seen changes that are hard to account for, whether they're

the cause of cases going down or

cases not being mediated or settled, so I'm studying the dynamics of last year right now

and looking at our numbers.

We do have challenges in making

sure we manage expectations. Of the statute, and I have to present this so people

understand, the statute only

gives ohr less than six months

to and conduct intake, conduct mandatory mediation and then investigate a case, so just

intake and mediation can take 90 days, that leaves 90 days for

the rest of the process to be completed.

We're working really hard to ask our complainants to understand that we're hiring, we're working

to move the cases quickly, but the expectation, you know, needs to be managed as well. that mediation is one of the

most successful ways to resolve

a case and normally 50% of our

cases are resolved in mediation,

but then the rest of the process takes longer. >> Mr. Chairman, if you would

allow me one last question, then I'll be done.

I think you know, director

palacio, I think for me and perhaps for people who are listening in, I think the

biggest question is what do you

plan to do differently because

you've had, I would say goodness

of being able to stepped away

for a year and sort of reevaluate the situation.

I think for us, it's like, okay, now that you're coming back, how

do you plan to do things differently, given the time that you've had time to reflect on the years that were you there, then the challenge that is in front of you today? >> right.

So I think that what I am doing

differently is implementing implementing the changes that we started 16 months ago.

The 12 months from last March to now have been exceptional, but

we need to go back to filling

that new structure and we're

hiring more than a dozen people

into these positions, getting them ramped up and meet the needs of everyone with a case at the agency, but we couldn't do that with four or five investigators and one manager. We really needed to have these

three teams in place so that we

that we have a full compliment of 20-25 people working on the cases.

i need to work aggressively to

support our managers, meet that

goal, get the staff trained and get the cases moving.

thank you, director.

Thank you, Chairman Person white. >> thank you.

thank you, councilmember henderson, who

happened to be able to help me

mute out loud toddler in the background.

>> her car was cute.

thank you. I'm glad you don't hear it because it was also loud.

Director, if the council confirms your reappointment, what are your top goals over the

next two years? >> right. My top goals are tackling the

backlog and closing cases, and making sure that we have the

staff in place, strong management practices, and that May sound very boring to people, but you have to help people get

their work done so that they get their work done. You have to support them,

provide training and resources,

so tackling the backlog,

completing our restructuring plan, and also there are a

number of new responsibilities for

responsibilitiesfor ohr that I can't and wouldn't dream of putting to the side while we handle these other programs.

The fact is we need to move to

fill positions to do racial

equity training, to do the tipped washing workers program,

to continue our youth bullying prevention work, and a number of

other things that have also been -- and we're grateful to have been trusted with that work, so we also need to address those and keep those programs moving,

so those are my top three.

And in terms of tackling the

backlog, what's the backlog now?

Where do you expect it to be say

after one year and/or two years? >> right.

So there is no clear cut way --

I looked at all of my numbers

yesterday and we have approximately 659 cases in our inventory, that includes a

number of different kinds of cases.

So we have cases actively going through mediation, we have cases that have closed, but there's a request to reopen the case, there's a case moving through

the system, but there's a motion to dismiss.

There are cases that have been close

closed or are decided, then they go to a second round of

mediation, then there's cases that go to the commission.

I need to closely more analyze

the age of the cases that are actively in investigation that

are not affected by any of those other variables, then look at the cases to see how long they've been with us. So I'm working really hard to

get into those numbers.

Again, sounds really brother rheeing, but a case management

system that meets our needs -- you know, I would push three

buttons and have a report to you and anybody else in less than an

hour, but right now, we actually have to hand counted. We have to hand counted our

cases to get a really accurate

number and be able to say this

is the age of the case, this is how long it's been with us then is how old it is.

isn't currently documented

>> I'm sorry, which information? >> the age of

the age of the case or how many cases snuff. >> yes.

It's in a system with every case

that has ever been brought to the office. We have to go in and hand select the cases that are the most recent and active cases and that

is a very difficult task, which

we do periodically, but that

aside, every month, my managers will submitted the number of

cases in their inventory and we

do our best to estimate hough how

how longthe case has been with the

manager, versus intake versus investigation.

suggest that if you're appointment is approved, how would you suggest that the

committee and the public gauge

your work in meeting your first

goal of tackling the backlog?

>> well, I think that by the

time that we have our teams

fully staffed, you know, I have estimated with my team that our

goal is to close 150 to 200

cases between now and the end of September. Now, that assumes that every

party we contact responds, and everybody cooperates in the process and there's no big

delays, which can be a big

assumption, but I'm working

diligently with my team to

deliver 150 to 200 closures of cases between now and september 30th.

great. How likely is it that all of the party also respond and the variables that you mentioned

>> there's no way to know, Mr. Chairman.

In some cases, they're cooperative, gets the information to us and we can close the case.

Other cases, their lives are

hard and they need more time. They experience delays or

hardship and we try to be flexible understanding that

they've already brought us a difficult situation and we don't

want to become so rigid to not

give an extension or two to help

finish their investigation.

closes so to 200 cases, how many

cases does the agency -- so that's about six months between now and September.

How many cases does the agency

generally close in a 6-month period?

>> I think that varies.

historically. >> it varies because it depends

on how many cases we carryover from one year, one fiscal year to the next, and how many

intakes are many coping in.

Historically, between you know, October, November, we have an increase in new cases.

December and January, it goes down, and the number of

mediations, for example, decreased during the summer months because people don't want

to be stuck doing mediation, it

goes back up in September, so it really varies.

I understand the intakes May change and the number of people that do

mediation May change, but how does that affect the number of

cases that gets closed? >> for example, in mediation, mediation is mandatory, so you have to complete mediation before your case goes to the

next step, and in some cases, people May say, well, I can't make the original date. Can I come next month?

I need more time. I'm getting a new attorney.

I want to reschedule or the

attorney for the respondent needs to reschedule.

We try to give people one pass to reschedule and not more than

two because then the timeline for their case going through mediation is extended and then the timeline for their case to

go to investigation is extended.

do mediations happen outside of normal business hours

or only during normal business hours?

>> I think our team currently is very flexible.

I know we've had three or four mediations in one day that go

into the evening, but generally they're burring dishours and I have

during business hoursand I have haven't any strong requests to adopt those business hours, but I know my team are very happy to work with people

who needed off hours mediation.

So you mentioned a goal of closing 150 to 200 cases, but

gave the caveat that, that assumes everything will go smoothly and you acknowledge that most likely everything

won't go smoothly for 150 to 200

cases, and I asked how many cases you intend to close over the next two years.

So at this point, we don't have

any metrics by which to hold you

as the director or the agency

accountable, and whether we developed the metrics or you developed the metrics, I

wouldn't feel comfortable moving forward without some

understanding of how we evaluate

the work in progress of the

agency, so I would ask, we will give some thought to that, the committee will, but I would ask that you give some thought to it

as well because I do intend to

establish some type of blej bench mark so

benchmarks so that we can evaluate your expectations as

the nominee are inline with the

public's expectations and then are able to hold the agency accountable in a fair way, and

that's why I want to ask you for

your recommendations and how we

set these metrics, but we do have to set some sort of metrics

so that we know if the agency is improving, going backwards, standing still, particularly

with the infusion of significant

new staffing resources.

>> yes, I really look forward to

setting some of those metrics

and just for folks that are listening, you know, I also am

hold to key performance

indicators through the city administrator's office and those are recorded quarterly.

It's hard to measure some of the things we do. For example, mediation, we can

schedule mediations and we can handle them professionally and efficiently, but we have no

control over whether a party decides to accept a mediation

I'll do my best to get you

additional metrics to demonstrate that the team is working diligently, because we know they are, to close cases proip .

I appreciate that that's why the data is to important, because we might look

at data from mediation and see

changes from year-to-year or see consistencies, and say, there's a lot of people not making mediation dates. Maybe there's something wrong with the mediation dates.

The more that we really focus on data, I think the better we are

able to dig into all of these variables.

So I want to turn to the case processing during the performance oversight hearing a

few weeks ago, one major

recurring theme was public

frustration with processing discrimination cases. Given some time since that hearing, how would you respond

to the testimony and public

feedback raising concerns about

ohr's timelines on these cases? >> thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think we spent a good amount of time thinking about intake and talking about intake during

the oversight hearing. I've gone back to my team to

examine the numbers -- of the number of inn tame appointments scheduled every week, those are

where people can make appointments, how many

reschedule, how long it takes to

reschedule them, so my team is

working diligently, and I'm tracking the numbers every monday. i get a report from my team about those numbers from the previous week.

In some weeks, you schedule 18 appointments and 10 people don't

show up, so we reschedule them.

In some weeks we schedule 18

appointments and 128 people show 18 people show up, so there's some variables

there and we do our best to work around people's needs and their schedules, and the fact that we're doing those appointments by phone and by zoom I think makes it more accessible, but

again, we work quickly, very quickly to reschedule

individuals and help get those intake appointments done. Secondly, the next most

important step is once that

intake is conducted, if the

party doesn't have an attorney

representing them, our team drafts the charge and sends it back to the complainant and say here's the claims that we're

able to investigate and mediate

based on what you've told us. Sometimes people might say, but you didn't include this part of the story. There May not be an actionable claim there, so we work with the party to understand what can do in the charge, then the party

has to sign the charge and it

becomes a perfected charge, so that's another step in the process. I also want to note that we talked about the attorney drafted charges.

I went back to my team and we

realized that maybe through

because of the challenges of the

last 12 months, we needed to -- the attorney drafted charges are

still accepted by the agency, so

we simply did a pilot project i

think two years ago to see what

the guidelines were and how it would work.

We have always accepted attorney drafted charges.

What happens though is in the

interest of equity, if someone

has an attorney and submits a five-page charge and someone

doesn't have an attorney and submits a one-page charge, we

have to find a middle ground so that we're spending equal time

on both charges, and we have

created guidelines that say when an attorney drafts a charge,

please keep it to, I forget,

it's two pages, please make sure to include these pieces of information so that we can move you quickly through the process.

In some cases, the attorney will say, well, I don't want to rewrite the charge, this cost time and money, you have to take it as I submitted, and that's

where the tension can come in, but the attorney drafted charges project is still ongoing.

We have accept those charges and we are going to place a note on

our website and put it in our

next news letter so that the

public knows that those attorney drafted charges

charges have always been welcomed, and there's guideline to help the attorneys and ohr to

move through the process quickly.

so there's work from

within the agency to assist pro

se complainants with making sure that their complaints are legally sufficient, and there

are some variables on when people being able to attend or make their intake appointments.

Is the intake appointment issue a common one?

do people commonly Miss Their intake appointments? >> I think it's fairly consistent. I'm surprised that it's harder -- we used to do them in person, so I'm a little surprised that

we still have so many people missing appointments right now,

and I'm not exactly sure how to

make it even more accessible because before, people would come in person, take the time off from work, get to the office george to the appointment. So I'm trying to get to the bottom of that and figure out why people are still missing these appointments.

>> have you asked why?

Like have you considered surveying people who missed appointments to see if there's sort of a consistent reason or set of reasons?

>> I could ask our team to.

I don't speak to the parties,

but I could certainly ask our

team to try to ask what's the reason for missing the appointment, but sometimes people just leave a message and

say I need to reschedule, so I think we could try to mine some

more information from those missed appointments and try to figure out what's going on.

not for the point of just adding work, but there May

be -- I can't understand why people would Miss Virtual appointments either, but something is happening and maybe it's something that the agency is missing that May not be as visible from the government side, but there May be something

that we could do differently.

Similar vein, you spoke during the performance of sight

performance oversight

hearing, you spoke about unrealistic expectations with

regards to timelines and stated that the deadlines in the human

rights act are contributing to that issue. The committee has already sent

your office some written follow-up questions about what sorts of specific timelines would be better, but at a high level, can you talk about what are some of the timelines currently laid out in the law

and what are the impediments to meeting those timelines?

>> yes, Mr. Chairman.

So I've mentioned that the statute is more than 40 years

old and it's gone through a

number of, you know, amendments. So we started with maybe 15 protected traits. We're up to 20 protected traits son the statute is sort of a

living, breathing document, and there's regulations that govern

how we enforce and conduct business at the office of human rights.

So the number of days under the

statute is, I believe, approximately 160 days. It's written differently in

different places, but given 160

case is initiated, which we

define as an intake appointment,

from the time initiated to the closure of the case.

When I say unrealistic expectations, it's not that the public is wrong, because that's what the statute says.

But the reality is that the

agency has grown so dramatically, and it's a different agency than it was 35 years ago.

So the statute needs to grow and

adapt along with the reality,

the number of protected trades,

cases, so the public is very

right to say, well, under the

law you have to close your cases under this number of days.

But what we realize is operationalizing access to justice, the first few days for

the first phases of the work and

then you get to the investigation. An investigation, it's important

for the public to know this, an investigation is very thorough

witness review, document review,

and review of the law as applied

to the facts. That case file produces what we

call a letter of determination,

which is often 20 to 50 pages long. Why?

Ohr decisions have to contape the full record of the investigation. If and when someone wants to

appeal the case, they have to

take that record to D.C. Superior court. So it's different than the way other jurisdictions conduct the investigations.

So that level of work doesn't

take just -- and I think and my

general counsel is texting me

because she's listening, I think

the statute says 120 days.

So if we are moving as quickly

as possible to work within that 120-day statutory expectation, we're going to let everybody down because we have to do intake and mediation and we have to move to a full investigation. It has to have integrity, and

then it has to go to legal review. >> can investigations start

before the initial interview in some cases?

>> before the intake interview? >> yeah. >> no, Mr. Chairman.

In the intake interview, we're gathering the facts to establish

what are the claims that we need to investigate. So an investigation plan is

drawn up based on the information gathered during the intake interview. But of course that complainant will be interviewed again and

again during the course of the investigation. But that initial interview is

critical because it's the

roadmap for the investigation, and it identifies the charges to

be mediated in the mediation session.

>> you've expressed some optimism that between the newly

expanded staff and the implementation of the updated electronic case management system that the office will be

able to reduce its case

processing time this year.

Help us understand what your expectations are on the

performance changes for the agency as a result of this

increased staffing case

>> so my teams, when I returned

in January, the enforcement teams -- I'm sorry if people are

tired of hearing it, but it's a really exciting new structure where we have three teams that each conduct intake, each

conduct investigations, and then

each produce the recommended findings to the office of

general counsel for review. In the past there was only one

team doing all of that and a

terrible bottleneck was occurring. You'd see cases going through a loop and getting stuck. In order to reduce case

processing time and reduce inefficiency, we have these three teams that are now fog to

be fully staffed in the next hopefully 30 days because we've

already on boarded new

investigators and a new attorney adviser.

So my expectations are that the production of the teams will increase.

I can't tell you exactly a percentage, because I need to look at the inventory of each

team, the capacity of each team, how many new staff versus

trained staff but I do expect a significant increase in

productivity once all of our employees know what they are

doing, because hiring an investigator isn't the same as having an investigator that can close four cases a month.

When I talk about four cases,

four complete cases files, not a

dismissal or any other type of closure.

>> did you just say that you

don't know of the new employees coming in, you don't know what positions they will be in?

I said what position -- how quickly they will be in a

position to meet their production goals. >> okay. >> make employees bring more experience, some bring less and

need a chance to study the law,

learn our process, and hit the ground running. >> I see.

So the new employees will fall

into this restructuring that you

Prior to 2019 where I think you indicated to councilmember henderson you started working to restructure the agency, you had been at the helm of the agency for five or six years.

Why did it take so long to restructure?

>> well, I was giving some background there.

So in fy -- I believe the ban

the box law was passed in 2014

and became effective in 2015. >> I think that's right. >> is that correct?

I'm trying to remember exactly.

Roughly around 2015, that one

statute almost tripled the

number of cases coming to our office.

So we went from 800 inquiries to 2,000.

We went from one person filing

one case to people filing 50 or 60 cases because they said they

had applied to 50 or 60 jobs and

had seen an illegal question on

So it was in 2015 -- once we had to get through 2015, we had to

realize when these statutes are passed, it's hard to predict. Even though I might review a fiscal impact statement, when I

review a fiscal impact statement, I'm consulted but I

have no power and authority over

how much money is dedicated by

anyone to fund that fiscal impact statement.

I want to clarify for folks who think I don't ask for money. Believe me, I do.

The reason it wasn't until fy17,

we realized what it was going to take is less -- not just front

line staff but management staff and breaking up the work.

i tried by hiring an intake manager separately from the manager, that was not enough.

We realized we needed three investigations managers who all do the work.

So we've tried different models

since fy16 and fy17, and we kept growing. I think that I would say for the record that I've done everything I can with all the resources we

had to move it as swiftly as

possible to address the volume of cases that needed to move to

the agency in any given year. But sometimes I couldn't see

into the future and know that in

12 months our volume would double.

>> let me move quickly to a

couple questions about language access.

We've got at least prayerfully

of near constant pandemic response activities ahead of us,

and people still as we know need rapid access to public health information no matter what

language -- or languages they

speak fluently. After our discussion earlier

this month, you've gotten

details on -- I guess I should say have you gotten details on any further efforts from your language access team to help

stay on top of the public health updates? >> yes.

So our team has worked

diligently to inform the -- I think it's called a joint

information command or emergency

operations center. There are a number of bodies convened to respond to the public health emergency, so we

present recommendations and concerns and dialogue to say these are the needs that the community is telling us about.

Once a month, I host a phone call with immigrant justice

advocates to hear from them

directly what are the needs and concerns.

What I understand is that the mayor's press briefings, the

slide deck from those press briefings will now be translated I'm not sure into how many languages but they will be translated and made available

within a 24 to 24-hour period so

they go out to as many

individuals in different languages.

The press conferences are also going to be interpreted into different languages. I'm not sure of the mechanism yet but that's being worked out. I understand the department of

health has set up language

access resources at some of the

larger places doing testing and vaccinations.

I need to follow up to make sure that's working.

So my team has gone to those locations to see if the signage

is up in different languages to

talk to the staff to make sure

they know how to use language line resources. So we're partnering and working

to follow up on these changes but more are coming.

>> how do you evaluate those changes?

Let's take the example of signage. Your team goes out to see if

signs are up in other languages.

How do they determine and say,

yes, this meets language access law. >> well, if the sign in translated, I've seen pictures of the signs, so my team takes pictures of the signs.

We also have quality control checks. So for information that is

placed on websites, we pay individuals to go onto the

websites and make sure if it's in another language the language has integrity and can be

understood by our population in the district. We have quality control systems. Again, I wasn't here during a

large portion of last year so I know changes in responding to the emergency moved so quickly

that it was hard for people to keep up, but I think the

government is doing an excellent

job right now keeping up.

>> sorry, my dog is loud and I

was trying to mute it.

My recollection of language

access law says you don't have

to translate to the language but based on the percentage of the district's population. Will the public health emergency information you mentioned being

translated, will it be

translated into all legally required languages. >> you're right.

For each agency -- the

percentage of contact determines translation of documents.

We as a district identify the top ten languages.

We used to have those -- it used to be the top six, now it's the top ten.

I have to go back and find out how many languages have been

identified as the languages for translation of all this information.

I haven't been given that information yet.

>> when do you expect to have it?

>> I think when, you know, when -- I don't know.

I'd have to circle back myself

in the next few days, probably next week and ask for more information. But that was all just being figured out in the last two

>> on the issue of racial

equity, we have discussed the office's role in advancing racial equity.

You emphasize striving to apply racial equity analysis

throughout the office's activities. I know in previous conversations you mentioned you're planning to

look into specifics of the

office's plans to connect with community leaders in wards 7 and 8. Do you have any other ideas on

how the office can overcome any

racial gaps in your public

outreach or other activities?

>> well, we are hoping to work closely with the office -- chief

equity office that's going to be established.

We are constantly getting feed

back and requests from the

community about where these gaps might be.

We've gone to places --

locations of the united planning organization or different places. Our population doesn't know about ohr. So we, then, under regular conditions would good out and

hold a session with a class of

students or during a plenary session to give presentations

and let people know.

Right now I know my team is identifying a number of anc meetings where they can go and

present information, make it more accessible for anc commissioners, local

organizations that are trusted in the community and say, hey, ohr is here for you.

Here is information about them. This is their website.

We do human rights liaison trainings where we invite anyone in the district to sit through a

training to understand how ohr

works so they can go back and be an advocate with friends at school or colleagues at work or customers they serve.

So we have adapted those

trainings to be virtual, and we're hoping that that even might make it easier for some

folks to attend, not everybody.

Not everyone can have the time

or the resources to be on a zoom for four hours. But we are adapting as quickly

as possible to continue that

>> we had discussed that the previous hearing, the need to

stand with asian and

asian-american people in D.C.

Against racist abuse, especially

in the wake of wreck less and intentional scapegoating during the pandemic and even currently. Can you say whether or not we

have seen an uptick in

harassment or violence against

asians and asian americans in the district.

>> I have met with ben guzman,

head of asian island affairs.

I've spoken with members of mpd. Informally the hate crimes

response team is composed of mpd, mayor's office and village

affairs, ohr, dpw, and other agencies that might be mobilized

to address an incident of a hate crime.

Just for the record I want to be clear ohr doesn't investigate hate crimes.

Hate crimes are crimes that are

crimes that fall into a specific

category because they are motivated by bias, so we don't investigate those cases. What we do is track and respond

to the impact and fear caused in

communities because of hate crimes.

So as I said, I met with a panel, lieutenant hahn from mpd,

other members, other panelists,

and I have not gotten clear information yet if there's an

uptick but we do know there have

been incidents where a store

owner or where an individual is walking down the street and

there were harassing remarks,

racist remarks p and threatening behavior so we are looking at this very closely.

>> what is ohr's role in confronting new challenges like this, increased discrimination, hate, violence, against

particular racial or ethnic groups?

>> I think ohr can play an

important role as neutral but formal convener. So as you heard testimony

earlier, when we saw an increase in violence against women in color, I went out and met with

leaders across that community

over three days to hear what's happening, why are people not safe, what are the resources needed.

I was there with the office of

victims services and other agency's feedback.

We play a role as a safe

convener to talk about

anti-semitism, black racism,

white supremacy, islamophobia. We can play a role that way. We have a new position funded by the council to focus specifically on hate crime. That was work we took on because people called on us to do it but

we're really excited to have a position now dedicated to organizing and coordinating that work.

>> when you say neutral convener on issues like hate crimes, what

do you mean by neutral convener? >> in the sense that ohr protects the rights of all groups, all categories, all

individuals, all vulnerable

populations, we don't represent

just one constituency.

We create a space for all to be

heard so individuals also know

when they experience unlawful discrimination, there's resource through our agency. But that's not enough.

There's still other systems they

need for support, whether housing or employment services. We bring resources together to

try to address the needs of a

>> and wrapping up, the agency

has 24 new FTEs or employees for

people who don't speak government lingo. How many of those have been hired and what is the time line for getting all of those positions filled? >> right.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

So there were at least 24 new positions, but approximately

nine of those cannot be filled, because they are funded under

the universal paid leave act.

So I want to paint an accurate picture.

Almost a third of those positions cannot be filled because they are under the

universal paid leave act, which

means ohr cannot fill those positions under we have cases in

our inventory and need to

investigate those cases.

So going now to approximately 16 positions, we have filled, I

believe, six or seven of those

positions already, and we've on

boarded those new and we have posted for the next five, and I believe the last five are coming up soon.

So we're about a third of the

way through filling those positions. That's just since January.

What's the expected time line for filling them?

>> I want to fill them as

quickly as possible, but we have to post the positions, people

have to apply, they have to be

interviewed, they have to be screened and they have to accept an offer. So that process can take anywhere from four weeks to 12 weeks.

In some cases we might find an incredible candidate but they have to give four weeks notice

at their job before they leave, so there can be some delays. Again, I don't control all the variables but we move as quickly

as we can to on board the right candidates and fill the positions.

>> when will the last batch of

open positions be posted?

>> I believe they will be posted no later than mid April.

>> okay. The positions, I believe, were funded with full fiscal year.

What is the agency going to do

with that money that's unspent?

>> well, in government lingo,

those are called vacancy savings.

So some of that money, for

example, we need to hire a new

administrative law judge.

But for some reason that salary was budgeted very, very low. So we work with the budget team

to say, hey, can we shift, you know, x thousand dollars to that

salary so we hire the right

candidate to fill this position? Otherwise we're not going to be

able to fill the position at the salary that was put in the budget. That's just an example of

whether it was an administrative

error or somebody just decided that one position should have,

you know, a much lower salary, I don't know. That's what we do with some of

the vacancy savings. >> appreciate it.

Those are all the questions I have, director palacio.

I want to thank you for your

time today, thank your team as well. We will consider -- continue with the consideration of the nomination.

So thank you very much. >> thank you. >> at this time we are going to turn to our final government

witness for today, judge currie, from the office of

administrative hearings, and I want to give judge currie a

minute or so to get online. >> good afternoon, councilmember white.

>> good afternoon, judge currie. Thank you for being with us. as you probably recall from our oversight hearing, it is the practice of this committee to put all of our government witnesses under oath, so I would ask that you raise your right-hand.

Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the

testimony you are about to provide to the committee on government operations and facilities is the truth, the

whole truth, and nothing but the truth? >> I do. >> thank you very much.

You can begin your testimony

>> good afternoon, Chairman White, councilmember henderson, committee members and staff.

My name is colleen currie, and I am the acting chief administrative law judge for the office of administrative

hearings, as you mentioned also known as oeh. Enthusiastic very much for the opportunity to testify in

support of the resolution to confirm my appointment as administrative law judge. I would first like to thank mayor bowser to have the conferred in me to no, ma'am knit me to this position.

I also want to thank you, Chairman White to discuss my qualifications for the position and vision for oah. I'm excited to serve the district of columbia in this unique and challenging way.

I hope my experience and background, coupled with the letters of support from chief

judge joseph burke of the 15th

district court in ann arbor, michigan, staff legal services

also in ann arbor michigan and

director eugene adams, mayor's office legal counsel former

chief judge at oeh will assure you of my fitness for this position. By way of background, I earned

my undergraduate degree from the

university of michigan and my juris doctorate.

I moved from ann arbor, michigan, to district of

columbia in May who joined my husband who had recently accepted a new position here. Although I'm relatively new to the district, I have dedicated

my career to public service, and specifically to public service

and the administration of justice.

I believe my work experience demonstrates my dedication to public service and knowledge and

experience I can bring to the

position of chief. I represented students in legal

matters before the courts in ann arbor michigan. As judicial attorney worked for judge conners in the washington county circuit court, managing his docket, drafting opinions and working with court

administration and external resources to facilitate both access to justice and the efficiency of adjudication. As magistrate for the 15th district court, I worked for the

city of ann arbor. While adjudicating cases as magistrate, I managed the court

clerk's office, assisting in

evaluating and aupting

processes, advised court team on legal matters and coordinated

with external agencies to ensure

prompt, fair, and efficient service and to make improvements processes where possible to ensure the broadest possible access to the court. The commission on the selection and tenure of administrative law

judge appointed me as

administrative law judge at oah in September 2016.

In 2018, previous chief A.L.J. Adam m's appointed me over rental housing and school

matters during long-term abscess

In 2018, 2020 appointed me to

two concurrent positions those overseeing employment matters and information technology. I believe that this unique

experience will enable me to

effectively and efficiently

guide oah satisfying overarching goal of neutral, fair, efficient

and timely adjudication of matters before it. I am committed to doing so in a way that enables equal access to justice, is attuned to the

community we serve, carefully stewards the public resources in

trusted to us, and engages with our stakeholders. Meeting these goals is an

ongoing and evolving process.

Since the establishment of oah more than 15 years ago, we have

come a long way towards

providing our litigants in the

communities we serve the best service possible. Achieving overarching mandate

and mission, we must continue to evaluate and update whenever possible internal processes and

needs of oah staff and external

needs of litigants, sister agencies and stakeholders including D.C. Council and the mayor's office. Currently we are working on several projects that will

further our goals, including evaluating and updating our rules to align with current

legislation and sister agency's rules, updating our code of ethics to more closely align

with national standards while meeting the requirements of the

board of ethics and government accountability, creating e-filing portal within current case management to streamline

filing of cases and processing those cases, updating our website to provide more useful

information to litigants and oah customers, evaluating and updating our case management

system to increase the ability

to track data and improve the

ease of use in evaluating different options for publishing

our orders online and creating

processes to do so in order to increase transparency. In addition, the covid-19

pandemic and our experience with working almost completely

remotely for the last year have

given us an opportunity to find alternate methods to process and adjudicate our cases. I firmly believe we have learned

much from these experiences that can be and should be utilized in

the future because some of those alternative processes not only

increase our internal efficiencies but also have the potential to facilitate access to our hearings for individual

litigants and agencies. Throughout the more than four

years I've been alj with oah. I've worked comesly with staff,

other ALJs and senior management. I'm honored to serve with this dedicated group of individuals who have a rich diversity of experience and knowledge.

Through working with them, I

have come to understand

challenges facing oah and successes.

If confirmed I hope to draw on that knowledge and experience to continually improve our

performance, this is because

success of oah depends on the collective efforts of all of us who work there. Since November 2020 as acting chief alj I've had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with other agency

directors and senior staff,

including director of dcra, del

rio do, Dr. Robinson, Dr. Morris-hughes of does, associate chief financial officer garner

I've met twice with oah advisory committee. I welcome continued discussion toss understand and address what issues our customers and other agencies May have.

If confirmed, I hope to continue

working with those agencies and others toward the aim of providing the best service

possible to the residents of D.C.

I would also like to mention my commitment to shared goals of

promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

For me this has both an inward managing and external components. It means special attention to outreach to and consideration of diverse applicants for positions

at oah, promotion opportunities, and trainings on implicit poois as well as keen dedication to

identifying and eradicating barriers, special populations

have in interacting with oah and contesting government actions. We are continuously improving

our resource center, paying special attention to access

norms and considering how remote

hearings May promote inclusion and sometimes impair it and making sure all are served both during the pandemic and afterwards. In closing, let me say that I've

never been very comfortable talking about myself. Rather I do prefer to let what I do speak for me. If confirmed, I believe that my professional experience will be

a tremendous asset to oah and that I will bring to the

position of chief alj

adaptability, responsiveness, transparency, integrity and commitment to improving public confidence in district of columbia government by working to ensure that oah is an outstanding neutral and independent hearing panel that

provides fair, efficient, and transparent adjudication of the cases before it. I enthusiastically welcome privilege and opportunity to serve my community in this new way. Thank you for your time today. I am happy to answer any

questions you May have.

>> thank you very much, judge

So let me jump in with just sort of background on your path to

What made you decide to join oah

as an administrative law judge,

other than your move to the district of columbia?

>> well, actually, when I moved to -- when we were in the

process of moving to D.C., I had applied for the D.C. Bar and was

not a member before this time, and I knew that in order to practice in D.C. I had to be a member.

It took a long time for that to process, and I needed to get a job.

I came across the posting for

clerk of court for oah, which was an open position at the time.

I applied for that, because of my background with working with court clerks and obtained an interview. It was shortly after my interview for that position that

I was contacted and told there

were open alj positions and was requested to apply for that, which I did.

I was honored with an interview

and even further honored to be selected for the position.

>> that's an interesting and

wonderful course of events.

What attracted you to the role

of chief alj or alternatively

why do you believe you were

selected as acting chief.

>> well, sort of starting large

and going small oah plays impactful role in D.C.

Government by providing neutral, fair, efficient resolution of disputes. I'm passionate about public service and access to justice.

I really believe that my long

experience and background in the administrative -- in the administration of justice, as

well as actually adjudicating cases will allow me to really effectively and efficiently

guide oah to satisfying its mission. That's what attracted me to it.

I can't speak to the mayor's

decision about why dishid she decided to appoint me but I believe

firmly my background lends itself to this position.

I think I can help improve oah in this position more than by just being an alj. >> how long have you been the acting chief?

>> since November 8th, so about,

what is it, six months, five months.

>> time is so relative now.

In this time period it's like two years. What are some of the challenges

that you've seen in your time as acting chief judge?

>> well, considering it's all been during the pandemic, most of it has been trying to address

the needs of our litigants and

ensure we are handling our case

load as efficiently as possible in permitting as many people as

possible to participate in hearings. That was a huge challenge right

at the beginning of the pandemic when we were basically hearing

all our cases in person and had

to switch very quickly to remote hearings.

We've been working with that

process and improving it and

also improving all of our information to litigants as we go. I think that those have been

really the biggest challenges.

>> I was hoping the barking

Oah historically has seen make

challenges that May be

management challenges, personality challenges.

What is your view of where the

agency is now and what the major challenges are that you will

have to confront as chief alj if

>> I think the biggest

challenges for us in terms of

management are the fact we have

seen over the last many years a

continual increase in our case

load but not necessarily the corresponding increase in the

number of staff to address those.

And so not just the ALJs but staff overall keeps seeing an increase in their workload.

Now, I want to sort of put

brackets around that to say the

pandemic has sort of thrown a wrench in the works for everything. We were starting to address that. I think coming out of it, we

will be in as good a position as

we were, but that's not

necessarily as good a position as we could be.

So I think the biggest

managerial task is to figure how to district the work equitably

to make sure it's been done in a timely manner?

>> and what are your -- what

particular improvements to oah do you plan to focus on?

You laid some of these out in your testimony quite well. I appreciate it.

But you laid out several -- hold

up your testimony. You raised six goals. I like the goals but May be

difficult to focus on six at the same time. Are there one or two of these goals that you think are a

priority above the others?

I have three goals I think

really will help us with efficiencies and transparency.

the first is really implementing

the e-filing system.

I think that is going to have

broad impact both internally and externally.

It will allow electronically rather than coming in in person and filing a case. It will assist agencies and allow us to process cases much more efficiently instead of having to manually enter the

data, the data will be in our

case management system.

So our surrenders are in the process, planning phase right now of that. Another one is using that system

to increase transparency by publishing our orders as much as

possible and permitted by confidentiality rules online. That's something as you remember

from our oversight hearing, probably we had a long discussion about that and that's

something oah has been working and struggling with for many years. That's one of my top priorities.

That's one of the things I think

working with both octo as well

as with our vendor, we have a really good sort of structured

plan going forward with that that we should be able took work on. The other is looking internally and using what we've learned

from the pandemic in our remote

hearings to increase our operational efficiencies and provide more options for

litigants -- ways for litigants

to participate in hearings to

make it for more efficient for them. Those are my top priorities out of the six or seven. >> I appreciate those. one of the questions I was going to ask you next is your thoughts

on how to speed up case processing and make operations

more and more efficient. I think that what you just laid

out are the primary tools to doing that. Is that right?

>> and have you begun planning

for oah operations when the

pandemic comes to an end,

sorting through what types of changes or accommodations you've made as a result of the pandemic that will remain a permanent

part of the agency's operations which will cease?

>> we've started having those conversations.

We haven't made any real solid decisions yet about what pieces

of what we've learned would be most efficient for us.

I think a lot of that is because

as we're designing and implementing our e-filing system, a lot of what we've learned from the pandemic will sort of roll over into that.

So but we have started those conversations.

>> I appreciate that.

And yeah, I think many agencies,

hopefully all agencies, are

engaged in those conversations right now.

The chief administrative law judge appointed to a six-year

term with a maximum two terms. Are you committed to carrying out at least one full term? >> absolutely.

I love D.C. I don't want to leave.

>> I'm glad to hear that.

Do you have any opinions related

to the adequacy of a secure term

>> I have not developed any opinions about that. >> fair enough. To confirm for the record, and I

think you just said or strongly implied this, but I want to make sure it's on the record and clear, you are currently a

member in good standing of the

district of columbia bar?

>> yes, I am. >> one of your roles is to

oversee and administer assignment of ALJs to provide

over cases that oah hears. What does that process look like

for you in determining how you

assign particular judges to

particular case loads or dockets? >> I don't know if you remember from our oversight committee, I described that we have sort of

four clusters of judges that

deal with four different general cases. Weighing the number of case in the general amount of time it

takes for each of those case, if

there's an increase or need we reach out and try to redistribute the load. A perfect example of that is during the pandemic when we had such sa huge increase in the

number of unemployment insurance

cases and we borrowed judges from the other clusters to try to keep as efficient as possible. That's the sort of thing that goes on.

It's a continual weighing of our case load.

If we're getting new case types which cluster those, we'll go in

and how many judges we might need, communicating with the agency the cases originate from

to get a feeling for how many of who is there might be so we have an idea of that.

It's sort of an ongoing taking a

>> so in practice how does that look?

If a judge from one of the clusters leaves for whatever

reason and there's an opening,

the new judge is selected not by

you but by the -- I forget the name. >> the cost. >> do they look for someone with

experience and background in the

cluster for a vacancy or a competent judge alj and you try

to plug them in and rearrange

clusters to accommodate the new alj. How does that work?

>> I've only been a party to one

set of interviews for judges, so I can't speak specifically to what's going on. In that case we were looking at hiring four judges because we had several vacancies.

That was just which of the candidates were qualified to be an alj.

I worked internally with our principle judges. Each of the clusters had a principle judge, as well as the

new judges themselves to discuss

whether they might fit best, also considering some judges

like to move cluster to cluster

to learn new cases and get experience in different types of cases.

It's sort of a chess game of moving pieces around at the same time. >> okay.

Have you seen any need to change

the training or continuing education for ALJs?

>> I think we have a very robust

training program when an alj is

initially hired and also a

continuing training program that

is very robust. One of the I think so I would like to do personal hi is expand

it to the rest of the agency so staff are provided training opportunities.

There hasn't been as much of an emphasis on that as I would like. I think that will help us as well.

I don't see the need to make any changes.

I think it's important to follow

guidance from ohr, trainings

that will help us with the issues before us.

>> I apologize, I don't remember if we discussed this but it's

the type of thing I often ask about but I don't recall it from our performance oversight

hearing, there is a budget for continuing education and professional development for ALJs?

>> yes, there is. Please don't ask me what it is, because I don't know off the top of my head. >> I'm glad there is one.

That's the starting point.

As chief alj, how do you plan to

monitor the quality of

administrative adjudication and the effectiveness of the ALJs?

>> well, I certainly -- we as

you know have a collective bargaining agreement and there

is a process in the collective

bargaining agreement for evaluations, yearly evaluations of ALJs. I certainly intend to comply with that.

But I also think having an ongoing communication with all

of the judges about their work,

about their case load, watching

type of cases that come back from court of appeals, rental housing commission, compensation review board, which those are

our three appellate bodies, to

evaluate where we're going with things.

I think those are very important

ensuring we're providing the top

>> you've been at oah for five years. >> 4 1/2.

>> how is your time at oah

prepared you for this leadership role?

>> I think it's done a lot to prepare me for it.

As an alj I heard cases as you mentioned in your introduction

from a wide range of agencies.

I've worked in several of the different clusters. Especially in the last year being the principle over I.T.

And having to work very closely with the agency as we moved from in-person to remote hearings,

I've gotten to know a lot --

very intimately a lot of the

issues that are pressing on oah. I think that that has opened my eyes to a lot of the issues that

we need to see and really informed what I think are my top priorities.

I think people work in an agency have a better perspective, and I think that the hope from the

rank and file is always that

they will be a strong and

compassionate leader because of that experience.

I'm sure a lot of folks rooting for you.

Has your time as acting chief alj changed your perspective

about anything, the agency does

or the role of the chief alj?

>> I don't think it's

necessarily changed my idea,

except it's really informed it and developed it a little bit more.

I think I had a good handle on

what it was that the chief had to do, what obligations. But I think the last five months

have really helped me develop that and understand where sort

of the hot spots are and where

my attention needs to be spent.

>> very quickly, I want to just

touch on an important, albeit generally administrative matter,

which is conflicts of interest. Do you, or does your spouse,

hold any positions, board memberships, business relationships, or other

appointments that May create a conflict of interest in your

service as chief alj? >> no. >> is there anything else you'd like to share with us as we consider your appointment to become chief alj to the office of administrative hearings? >> nothing in particular. I'd just like to thank you for the opportunity to have this

discussion. As I've said, I'm very

passionate about public service

and about public service and the administration of justice.

I think oah is a fabulous organization.

We provide a real instrumental

and fundamental, impactful service, and I really am

passionate about making it the best is possible. >> I appreciate that. I do want to note for the record, and this will be in the written report, unless something

changes before the record

closes, the only testimony the committee that received for

judge currie have been positive

testimonies in support of her appointment.

So that is a good thing. It makes the hearing a little shorter and less eventful, which

is not a bad thing at all. Judge currie, I want to thank

you for the work you have done

and continue to do at oah.

I want to thank you for your time today. >> thank you very much, chair. It's been a pleasure.

It's nice to see you again. >> good to see you as well. Those are all the questions I

have for our witnesses today.

I do want to note that for

anyone who was unable to testify, written testimony is

encouraged and will be made part

of the official record and

testimony can be submitted in writing to the committee until friday April 9th when the record

for this hearing closes.

You can e-mail any testimony to

the committee on government

operations and facilities at

facilities@D.C. Council.Us. The business before this committee is concluded.

The time is now 2:54 P.M. And this hearing is adjourned.