A Club…Addendum 2 – FOIA, FOIA, FOIA, on and on...

Greetings:

Yeah, an update on my FOIA request. You may recall that when I received the final findings back in March the information was embarrassingly slight. Kind of made me wonder the worth of the Freedom of Information Act – must not be that big of a deal when the people generating the information may have a vested interest in not being too forthcoming. Nonetheless, it took me awhile to consider the lack of information and get over another bout of depression regarding the whole damned thing. Fortunately, it was just at the time of my appointment at the university here in Vlora and the holiday to Amsterdam – staying busy is always good and Amsterdam with Mitesh was a great distraction.

I finally got around to the appeal and sent this letter off to an Associate Director of the Peace Corps last April. A bunch of stuff you already know. Now, at the time of this communication I noted a spike in blog traffic – I thought it would be great if someone back in DC took the time to get some sense of the story. So, maybe I can spark some additional action by making all of this public. Here’s the letter:

April 28, 2016                           VIA Email

Alan C. Price, Associate Director – Management, Peace Corps                               

1111 20th Street NW

Washington, DC 20526.

Re: Freedom of Information Act Appeal: FOIA/PA 15-0247

Dear Director Price:

This email represents my formal appeal of the findings regarding my FOIA request (September 02, 2015) for information pertaining to my Peace Corps service in Albania (March – August 2015). I have attached the letter my attorney received at the time of the final document receipt. The letter itemizes the material we requested.

During my Pre-Service Training I was the subject of malicious gossip resulting in a sexual harassment complaint in August 2015; on August 10, 2015 I responded to this complaint in rather lengthy letter (attached) to Earl Wall, the Country Director. He investigated the complaint and determined it was groundless. He informed me that he submitted his findings to the Peace Corps DC office – this was on August 17, 2015.

Hardly recovering from that experience, on August 19, 2015 I received an email from Lateefah Burgess, Peace Corps Placement Director, with a “Notice of Consideration of Administrative Separation.”

The substance of the notice was that I failed to include on my Peace Corps application of January 2014 two “charges.” Both of which I would not have had any qualms including or responding to had I thought about it or had I been asked to address: One was a theft charge which was dismissed because of stolen identity; the second was a thirteen-year-old DUI, which, because the breathalyzer was well below the state limits, I was informed by my Florida attorney (I was living in Utah) that the charge would be reduced to littering/reckless driving (the latter was not true but it was cheaper than flying back for a hearing). This reduced charge communication unfortunately was not the case (it was only during this communication with Ms. Burgess that my attorney informed me that indeed the Florida court record showed my Florida attorney entered a guilty plea for an alcohol/driving offense). My attorney also informed me that this Florida attorney has had a number of complaints filed against him with the state and local bar associations.

Neither of these charges showed up on the criminal record which was forwarded as part of my January 2014 Peace Corps application. I did my best to explain these circumstances to Ms. Burgess, including having my attorney request the court documents for her consideration. Ms. Burgess declined the offer and on August 26, 2015 Mr. Wall called to inform me that my termination from the Peace Corps would be effective August 31, 2015.

My attorney immediately filed a FOIA request. After repeated Peace Corps promises, our repeated requests, and finally with the help of my congressman, we received the “interim” report on December 30, 2015; only after more promises, requests and congressional help did we receive the “final response” on March 18, 2016.

Subsequent to my forced resignation from the Peace Corps I have been broadcast on web sites and in the Albanian national media as a “sexual molester” – this as a result of the continued defamation arising from the wrongful complaint and disaffected Peace Corps volunteers in Albania. Considering my immediate service termination following the phone conversation with the Country Director regarding the complaint dismissal, my attorney and I both wondered if there was an unspoken/unadmitted connection between the unfounded complaint and my subsequent termination from the service. The recommendation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Council (EEOC) offered to the Peace Corps regarding its use of the extensive background check information does not justify my service termination.

(http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/foia/letters/2011/title_vii_criminal_record_peace_corps_application.html)

How is it that this “irregularity” just became an issue a full year and a half after my Peace Corps application and cause for termination and within days after Mr. Wall submitted his report finding the sexual harassment complaint without basis?

For what we received in the reports (interim and final), we feel the delays were unconscionable: the bulk of the interim report consisted of my Peace Corps application and form emails; the final report contains no information regarding the sexual harassment charge (surprisingly, it did not even include my communication to Mr. Wall at the time); in neither report is there any record of the sexual harassment complaint or the findings; and other than copies of form emails there is nothing of substance regarding my termination.

The FOIA report is embarrassingly incomplete. Please note one instance in the March 18, 2016 final report which references a meeting in an August 25, 2015 email to Earl Wall from Lateefah Burgess (pg. 32): “Sheila Crowley, Ami Richardson, and I have had a chance to review Mr. Martin’s responses [redacted]. We determined that William should be removed from service…” Certainly one of them took notes at this meeting and there is a file in someone’s office regarding their deliberation and conclusions. How did their conclusions deem me unfit for service? Why is there no documentation?

Please review carefully my attorney’s request and the documents requested. We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

William K. Martin

A few days later I received this:

From: FOIA [FOIA@peacecorps.gov]

Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2016 7:06 PM

To: William Karl Martin

Cc: Stacy McNeill; Gazmir Maksuti

Subject: FOIA Request Appeal No. 16-0115

Dear Mr. Martin,

This is to acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of information Act (FOIA) / Privacy Act (PA) appeal letter of April 28, 2016.   It is appealing the response we made in FOIA/PA Request No. 15-0247.

You will receive our response within 30 business days.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Denora Miller, FOIA/Privacy Act Officer at 202-692-1236 or at FOIA@peacecorps.gov.

Sincerely,

Chanel Diggs

FOIA/PA Specialist

I told my stateside attorney that my heart was pounding when I saw the email in the inbox – thinking they had rejected my appeal out-of-hand. But no, they got my request and I’d get a response within thirty business days. Really, thirty business days – so…let’s see…thirty business days from the 28th? or from the 4th? Hell, let’s give them the benefit to drag their feet some more and go with the latter. May 4th to…yeah, June 15th. OK. Should have gotten something by last Friday. Nope. Nothing. Déjà vu all over again. You know damn well that if I had missed the deadline to file my appeal by more than a nano-second it would have been denied. Standards (or maybe calendars) are not quite the same across the board.

And I certainly looked forward to renewing my communication with Denora Miller (as instructed by Chanel Diggs). You may recall how many time I asked Ms. Miller what it meant when she would tell me I would get the final FOIA by blah-blah-blah, and then shooting off another email wondering how it was possible to miss another promised date. Here I go again:

From: William Karl Martin

Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2016 1:58 PM

To: FOIA

Cc: Stacy McNeill; Gazmir Maksuti

Subject: RE: FOIA Request Appeal No. 16-0115

Attention: Denora Miller

Dear Ms. Miller

Please see below the confirmation email from Chanel Diggs, FOIA/PA Specialist, regarding the receipt of my FOIA appeal and the promise that I would hear from your office within 30 business days. That deadline has passed. I would appreciate your quick response and resolution of this matter.

Thank you.

William K. Martin, PhD

Ismail Qemali University

Vlorë, Albania

Home of Albanian Declaration of Independence, November 28, 1912

+355 69 322 3141

http://wkmartin.blogspot.com/

I can sense some of your thoughts as I write these words, “Jeez, Bill, let it go. You’ve landed in a good place; you don’t need this crap.” I understand. Well, after almost a year after the initial complaint, this stuff is never far from my thoughts.

About a month ago Mitesh was walking by my office with a new Peace Corps Volunteer. He made some introductions and said, “And this is the famous Doc Martin.” It was a running joke with Mitesh, Doc Martin, Doc Martens. Of course I made the wrong jump, “Yeah, I’m the famous harasser.” I could see it shook the young volunteer and she said, “Well, I don’t pay attention to that stuff.” An unfortunate exchange. But, her reply, kind of ironic, huh? Like I said way back in the early installments on all of this, this kind of complaint will stay forever.

So, no choice – FOIA, OIG, ACLU, court cases, whatever – as long as it takes to get out from under it.

Oh yeah, the prosecutor here is still hoping for Bonnie’s location. Somewhere in Yellowstone this summer – any clues, I’d appreciate it.  

My best to all you guys.

XOXO

Back at it in Vlora

Greetings:

So, I’m at my office a couple of weeks ago grading and working on lesson preps and I hear this gathering noise – a roadside seat to see this mile-long line of kids coming down the boulevard. All the middle school and high school students of Vlora and the surrounding areas were marching into the stadium for the Youth Sports Olympiad. What a parade! What a country!

It’s been about a month since Mitesh and I got back from Amsterdam and I finally got around to posting the event. I want to bring you up to speed on my university experience.

***

Of course teaching something like Psycholinguistics to graduate students has been a real task. I think I mentioned the last linguistics course I had was about forty-five years ago. So, when I first got the assignment back in March – with only two weeks preparation before my first lecture – I had to Google the damn thing to see what in the hell it was all about. Yeah, about ten to twelve hours a day reading up on the basics and then wading through a couple of on-line books and about three dozen articles.

I can’t fault the faculty director for the assignment – the university rector handed her an American PhD at the last minute with the instructions to find me a course. The sense, I think, is that an American university educated doc (even one in history) can do just about anything. Fortunately I’ve been able to stay a couple of weeks ahead of the kids. And the fact is I’ve found the material quite fascinating; I hope I get the chance to teach the course again next spring. Certainly out of my area of study, but I doubt it would serve any purpose in Albania to teach a week on the 1876 US presidential election debacle. So, I adjust to the needs of the university and faculty. And happier than hell I’ve found a place.

***

The students are wonderful to be with – a sense of innocence and wonder that makes each session brand new – a whole new discovery moment for me and them. I’ve mentioned their shock with the whole thing: first an American and second, my expectations. As I’ve done in most of my courses, we have a self-graded quiz every class; a weekly reading assignment (BF Skinner and Noam Chomsky!!); an on-line course journal; and a term paper assignment. Over two months into the semester some of the students are still a bit overwhelmed getting used me; most have finally sorted out the mechanics of Google Drive – and with my learning curve on revisiting it, I completely feel their pain. But for the most part they’re coming along and I’ve got a number of students who could walk right into an American university and do great. I wish more had the chance.

"Yeah! And we're going to have fun at the same time!" At this moment not too many of them looked convinced!

***

I’ve met a few of my fellow teachers, but generally they don’t approach me – of course I always hit them with a friendly “mire dita,” we exchange smiles but that’s about it. I subbed for a professor couple of weeks ago when she was in Vienna at a conference, so I got to visit with a few of her undergrads.

Filling in with the undergrads

Plus I’ve been invited to give presentations to the Economics School on critical thinking (!) and my take on – really Wallentein’s – world economic systems theory. Oh yeah, I’m tutoring the university rector (president) and his wife three afternoons a week – and the three of us have a pretty good time with that – their English light years beyond my Albanian!

With some of the Economics School students - and a session with Flora and Berti and Bill

***

The classroom accommodations are brutal, long narrow classrooms, and half the time I couldn’t get the PowerPoint projector to work, which when I did, it didn’t show up on the wall very well.

"What is this American doing?!"

But I found a solution: I searched the building I was in and I connected with the director of the Nursing School. She offered one of her classrooms! And (wait for it!) it had a built in PowerPoint projector. BAM!

And then…,,,,two weeks later the projector was stolen!! Holy hell. But the room is great and so I just regrouped.

***

My relations with the secretarial staff here were a bit rocky at first – ahh, bureaucracy. It took me forever to get a class roll or negotiate solid commitments with the one and only PPT projector. And one of the secretaries was quite upset with the room change – switching from a language faculty classroom to a nursing faculty classroom. “But that’s not how we do it; it’s different.” “Yeah, and different can be scary, huh?” “Yes.” “But just because it’s different doesn’t mean it can’t work, right?” “No...I guess.” “I know, I get it, but it’s not a revolution, it’s only a classroom change, it will be OK.”

With Gerti before class - check out the poser on the far right! Kids, funnier than hell!

The new classroom is situated right across from the secretary office and a couple of them asked if they could attend my class (probably heard all the noise). So a couple of them visited my class last week and I’m happy to say my relations with the secretaries are improving!

With the short-lived state-of-the-art projector - but my new friends in the secretary office always make sure I've got one on hand. Yay!! 

***

Conference with Albion and Edi

But the accommodation problems are really no big deal. The great joy in living and teaching in Albania is connecting with these students. As you’ve read a few times in these pages, the hope for this country is solely with the young – as it is in any society or country.

Let me finish up with an excerpt from a student journal; the class was on Skinner’s definition of the role of the listener. This is a sample of the student’s entry: 

 "It is easier to understand the lecture when you are shown different examples. I love how the professor gives the examples, with all the funny faces and stuff. It makes me think of other possible examples, and thinking is great, right?"

Hmm, “…funny faces…” – have no clue what’s she’s talking about there, but note the last bit. As you’ve probably noticed, most of the writing on this blog is conversational, pretty much how I talk. And the kids have evidently picked up on certain nuances. I responded to her comment: “You crack me up, ‘right?’” She gets back: “I looked up ‘you crack me up’ and it means that I made you laugh, right?” “Yes, it made me laugh. And you looked it up – I am still laughing. Inter-cultural communication is fun, right? See you in class.”

***

So, pretty happy how I landed; not in the Peace Corps anymore but I’ve got some idea about a secondary project – it’s pretty big, but with maybe another ten years of sucking air there might be enough time. I’ll keep you posted on that and all the other sub-plots in my Albania experience as things move along.

Speaking of sub-plots, no “Addendum” posts in the works – I’m still waiting on the FOIA appeal and the slow moving legal processes (the same everywhere I guess).

On the way back from Amsterdam Mitesh and I started planning another road trip and Nelson (see the Egypt post) connected to say he wanted in. So, in a couple of months the three of us are headed down to Corfu for a few days and then over to Athens (first visit for me so I need to bone-up on my ancient Greek). Mitesh is limited on his time away from his PC work so he’s going to head back to Albania and then Nelson and I are going to do some island hopping. 

But before I go - let's close with another parade!

These kids, and a hundred more, are headed to the Vlora Folk Festival - Vlora's a happening town!

Later. My best to all of you.

XOXO