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What
Now?! November 20, 2003 Michael
R. Peavey Subject: The Concerned Staff Committee directed me to inform you about the following: Mr. Vahak Petrossian applied for Project Manager Position with the Commission and was appointed, but Mr. Petrossian never relocated to San Francisco. Instead, he was allowed to stay in Los Angeles(where his home is). The job announcement stated that the position was for San Francisco. Mr. Petrossian as program manager is expected to manage and supervise about forty employees of the Rail Safety Branch. Only seven of those employees reside in and work out of Los Angeles. We do not see how the Commission’s regulatory mission and the Rail Safety Program objectives can be successfully completed when the supervisor is not around to monitor and direct the staff. As you know the State is facing an extremely serious fiscal Crisis and we believe that to continue paying Mr. Petrossian to stay in Los Angeles would constitute gross misconduct and perpetuating inefficiency and fraudulent use of state funds. This is a disservice to the people of California and also it undermines the proper coaching and professional development of the staff of the branch. We know that you inherited the situation and we believe that you do not know about it otherwise you have remedy the situation. We are also requesting that those who approved Mr. Petrossian’s request to stay and work from Los Angeles should be asked to pay back to the State of California all the travel expense claims meals, hotel expenses which Mr. Petrossian charged to state funds. Ms. Linda Vaisa applied for and was appointed EEO Officer of the Commission but she never relocated to San Francisco but showed up to San Francisco a few times. Take a look at her duty statement and you will conclude that she should be in San Francisco. All but one of the Commission’s divisions is located at 505 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. So why is the EEO Officer in Los Angeles? Here again we believe that paying unnecessary travel, hotel, and meal expenses constitutes gross mismanagement and misconduct and fraudulent use of state monies. We request that whoever approved the travel expense claims of Ms Vaisa must pay back to the state the payments made to Ms. Vaisa. We ask that Mr. Petrossian and Ms. Vaisa be made to report to work in San Francisco. It is the View of the Concerned Staff Committee that this practice of given unlawful privileges to friends of management should stop, because it is demoralizing to honest and dedicated employees of the Commission. We make it clear that we are not claiming that Ms. Vaisa and Mr. Petrossian have done anything wrong. They have not. We firmly believe that the respective supervisors of Vaisa and Petrossian are probably violating several government codes. For example, the persons who approved the timesheets could well be in violation of a particular government code. President Peevey, please note that this letter is submitted to you because these issues fall within your responsibility under PUC CODE 305. Sincerely, Yaya
Fanusie, Ph.D Cc:
Governor Schwarzenegger |