Creation of Detroit office is focus of OSC inquiry

[maddezmom]

Creation of Detroit office is focus of OSC inquiry
By GREGG CARLSTROM
May 20, 2008
It’s a matter of debate whether the Office of Special Counsel’s Detroit field office, created in 2005, was an act of retaliation against whistleblowers — but current and former OSC employees say it has definitely been a drain on the agency’s resources.

The field office is the centerpiece of an investigation by the Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general. A dozen OSC employees had their jobs transferred to Detroit in 2005; all but two quit the agency, some leaving federal service altogether. They claim the relocation was an act of retaliation by Special Counsel Scott Bloch, after details of a controversial change in OSC’s policy on sexual orientation discrimination were leaked to the media.

Longtime OSC employees say it’s hard to view the relocation as anything other than retaliation, since many claim there was no need for a Midwest field office.

“I was amazed. The Midwest region was being handled out of our Dallas office,” said Travis Elliott, a former attorney at OSC who left the agency after being asked to relocate to Detroit. “We’d had maybe three cases in five years in Michigan. There was no caseload to support that kind of management decision.”

Elliott, who now works at the Homeland Security Department, said Bloch never explained why he chose Detroit.

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