IEC Journal

OSC Charges Two With Sending Politial Advocacy E-mails

An Office of Special Counsel press release describes misuse of e-mail charges against two federal employees, as follows:

One employee, while on duty, at work and using his official title, disseminated an e-mail that requested political contributions for then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama. The other employee, while at work and on duty, distributed an e-mail that encouraged recipients, including employees she managed, not to support then-Presidential candidate Obama.

Thanks to the ever-alert Mark Stone (registration required) for the tip.

Challenges for Office of Special Counsel

In a Government Executive article, former Special Counsel Elaine Kaplan outlines some of the challenges facing the Office of Special Counsel in the wake of the recent departure of Scott Bloch:

"We think that the next administration really should pay a lot of attention to the agency because it has the potential to do a lot of really good and important stuff," said Elaine Kaplan, who ran OSC from 1998 to 2003 and now serves as senior deputy general counsel of the National Treasury Employees Union. "And in spite of the fact that there have been a lot of problems there during the past five years and that there has been a lot of turmoil, I still think it's entirely possible that this place can be turned around."

That job won't be easy though, she said, noting that Bloch's successor "will have a lot of rebuilding to do."

More OGE Web Site Search Tips

Via an e-mail, OGE endorsed the search tip offered here last week, with OGE Program Analyst Paul Bergstrand going one step better. Paul noted the possibilty of saving even more time by creating a custom Google search engine for searching the OGE site. This eliminates the need to type in the "site:" prefix, and also allows the option of having government sites (like OGE) and non-profit sites to have search results appear without ads.

We have implemented Paul's suggestion by adding a link in the right margin entitled "Custom Search OGE Web Site." This is a Google Beta service (meaning they are still testing it). Let us know what kind of results you have, so we can decide whether to implement similar searching for IEC Journal.

Gov Exec Reviews Hatch Act, OSC

Government Executive magazine has an interesting overview (here & here) of the Hatch Act and the Office of Special Counsel, including many links to related articles.

G

Hill To Probe OSC

Government Executive has an article about a possible Hill investigation into controversies at the Office of Special Counsel, spurred most recently by harsh language in the OSC Deputy's resignation letter. The "Related Stories" box beside the article links to other stories providing background.

OSC Is Investigated

Gov Exec reports on an investigation of controversial Office of Special Counsel head Scott Bloch.

OSC Response to EPA Hatch Act Allegations

The Office of Special Counsel has concluded that the appearance of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. Johnson at a 2006 fundraising event for a candidate for U.S. Congress did not violate the Hatch Act.

OSC decided that Mr. Johnson was not personally responsible for the use of his official title in the e-mail used to distribute the invitation. Further, the EPA staff had not reviewed the list of the attendees, nor informed him of who would be attending the fundraiser, or where they were employed.

While there was no personal liability on the part of the EPA Administrator, OSC determined that there were deficiencies in EPA staff review processes, and recommended that EPA staff be aware of all parties and their roles in political events, including the attendees, and consider this information when advising on participation.

Bloch Defends OSC Performance

Office of Special Counsel Head Scott Bloch defended his agency's performance recently in a Federal Times op-ed piece. This includes some commentary on a public interest group that has been critical of him:

They do have bias and economic interest, in that they collect a substantial portion of their income from representing whistleblowers in legal proceedings. We act in the public interest based on law and fact, but outside advocacy groups can do what they want with impunity. We don’t blame employees for expressing dissatisfaction, but we expect lawyers and advocacy groups that hold themselves out as acting in the public interest to be more honest and responsible.

OSC Budget Request Criticized

Government Executive reports that the Office of Special Counsel request for additional funds to investigate alleged political briefings has run into criticism by the Government Accountability Project, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Project on Government Oversight.

OSC Examples

Looking for teaching examples? The Office of Special Counsel's Successful Case Summaries and Achievements sections have plenty.