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The
report below was sent to Arnold . The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and especially its Division of Ratepayers Advocates (DRA) whose Director is appointed by the Governor from all indications and from information we are aware of apparently seems to support ethnic discrimination, staff harassment, dishonest Managers and Supervisor including Managers caught lying with clear factual evidence and witnesses. Despite by all indications that she is aware of these illegal activities she has failed to discipline or investigate these allegations. These individuals supported by this governor’s appointee should be investigated by the through the governor by conducting a thorough investigation of the State employees involved. For now, it appears CPUC is unable to police it self and what appears to be dishonest, vindictive and lying Managers whose actions if made public would be an embarrassment to the Governor for failing to act after we have brought this to your attention. Ms. Dana Appling, the Governor appointed Director has condoned and created an environment that on occasions are filled with lies and dishonesty. However, as long as these Managers does her bidding, she has turned a “willful blindness” to these illegal actions by these Managers and Supervisors. Ms. Cathy Walker the Deputy Director, and currently the DRA Acting Director is also part of the bandwagon; allowing managers and supervisors caught lying to go scotch free without any repercussions by following in the footsteps of Ms. Appling. There actions or inaction could cause the citizens of California thousands of dollars if the staff involved chooses to take the case up legally. However, we the Concerned Staff Committee have asked that such legal actions be delayed to give the Governor the opportunity to investigate first hand the issues we have brought up and we believe that the true facts would come out that would be better for the governor rather than having others bring such out that will embarrass the governor especially when he is now made aware of the wrong doings going on. If he does not condone such, we expect him to act immediately on this by calling for an immediate investigation of the CPUC especially the DRA. Mr. Danilo Sanchez a Program Manager who is Hispanic but appears to engage in blatant ethnic discrimination, illegal retaliation, dishonesty along with the facts that he has been caught a few times lying against staff of the CPUC and which Ms. Dana Appling and her Deputy Cynthia Walker in most cases were fully aware of. Mr. Sanchez has also decided to use his immediate subordinates to harass, retaliate and intimidate DRA staff that are doing their best to do a professional job expected of them. We believe that these issues need to be investigated as his boss, Ms. Dana Appling appears to be part of this corrupt and unfair environment and therefore not capable of conducting such an objective investigation especially when she could also be implicated as she is responsible for the cover up. We believe it is the Governor’s office that could issue appropriate directives to unearth these illegal activities going on in DRA. Mr. Hani Moussa a Program Project Supervisor, has also been intimidated by Mr. Sanchez and because it appears that he is not qualified to occupy his current position because he lacks the knowledge required of such position. As a result this, DRA is paying thousands of dollars to the person formerly occupying the position to come in as an annuitant to train Mr. Moussa going over nine months and who till today we understand is still in training over nine months since he was put in that position. Others more qualified than him and that knows the job where pushed aside for one reason or another. His main qualification appears that he is willing to tow the line of his boss Mr. Danilo Sanchez as been used to harass and retaliate against staff that Mr. Sanchez has a personal vendetta against. Thereby, covering his incompetence and this wastage of tax payers’ money by having someone train him for over nine months and counting should also be investigated. Wasting of Taxpayers
Funds By DRA towards the end of last Fiscal Year We are writing to bring to your attention this interesting case involving the management of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the Division of Ratepayers Advocates (DRA) support and the encouragement of lying and dishonest Managers whose shoddy work is also condoned and applauded by the Division. We are even more concerned that they might have also been able to deceive the state into providing in the current state budget additional staff for DRA when the staff they currently have appears are not properly utilized or hiring staff that appears to lack adequate knowledge of the DRA work to be done. They were successful in this effort but we believe that by the time the state look into the issue of Nathaniel Cole, of DRA, the picture of what is going on will be become clearer. We will use the case of one DRA staff to highlight the various problems and illegal activities condoned by the CPUC or DRA Management. What makes this case more intriguing for us the Concerned Staff Committee is the fact that Mr. Cole is one of the best auditors and professionals in CPUC; of course to the dismay of his superiors who lack the in-depth knowledge he brings to the job. Based on the information we have, Mr. Cole is the only CPUC employee to have all these professional qualifications that complement each other in this modern day business environment i.e. Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Fraud Specialist, Certified Forensic Consultant and a Professional Member of the Association of Certified Anti Money Laundry Specialists. It this training that gives him that edge in exposing the lies propagated by these managers which CPUC is attempting to cover up since last year. CPUC along with DRA management appears to support through their inaction or action the activities of these dishonest managers and their boss to the detriment of the governor’s principle or public pronouncement. With Mr. Cole’s credentials you will know that we are talking about someone that knows his trade more than, or equally as any of his professional counterparts in the CPUC. The CPUC and DRA management actions against him condoned and supported by the management needs to be investigated by the state and we are sure that others would come forward once they are promised immunity against retaliation by these apparently dishonest DRA Managers and/or Supervisors. 2. COMMENDATIONS FOR DRA STAFF’S DEDICATION AND HARD WORK SUPPRESSED BY CPUC & CURRENT DRA MANAGEMENT Mr. Cole if one of the few CPUC employees that has at various times commended for his work and professionalism in dealing and working to serve the citizens of California in the most professional manner as expected of a professional like him. For the records we are aware that he was highly commended by the Supervising Deputy Attorney General in the State of California in Charge of Financial Crimes of the Department of Justice/ the Attorney General Office as one of the few CPUC employees that can be trusted, and who is selfless and can be relied upon and that CPUC was fortunate to have such a dedicated professional. This type of commendation is unusual for CPUC staff but not unusual for Mr. Cole as outside parties unbiased are able to recognize his professionalism and hard work. In another case in June of 2005 another highly placed attorney that served the City of Fontana and other Cities in California who had an opportunity to work with Mr. Cole sent a letter of Commendation to the DRA Director Ms Dana Appling to let her know how much they appreciated Mr. Cole’s selfless service and very professional dedication to his work in serving the people of the state of California. Unfortunately to this day Ms. Dana Appling suppressed the commendation, but unfortunately for her, much later we were able to get a copy of the letter. Why Ms. Dana Appling chose to suppress such letter commending a dedicated staff is a mystery that only an investigation by your office can unravel. This points to a gang up to suppress a dedicated staff who DRA finds threatening especially when he would not go along with some of their dishonest actions. Ms. Dana Appling and her cronies of dishonest managers and supervisors are doing their best to discredit one of the best staff CPUC and a highly dedicated professional. This could be because Dan Appling has been shown by the staff to surround herself with lying managers and supervisors but because they help her to get what she wants from the governor either through deceit or misrepresentations, she covers up for them or turned a blind eye to their atrocities committed against a fine and dedicated staff who as we said above that third parties others outside the CPUC have gone out of their way to commend. The action of Ms. Dana Appling and her cronies we believe are not only unfair, but illegal as well and we would need your office to investigate this matter as we intend to make several of the issues and memos public, but we would wait for your action that we expect you to take to get to the bottom of this type of abuse and illegal activities going on at the CPUC. 3. FALSEHOOD AND DISHONEST ACTIONS BY DRA MANAGERS Mr. Cole has been harassed, threatened, and lied against by these Manager and Supervisor. The manager involved is Mr. Danilo Sanchez, a Program Manager in DRA whose inexperience, threats that was in violation of the government contract with the union and lies has been exposed by Mr. Cole. We believe that with the very detailed information that we have available to us would make any reasonable person not part of the cover up investigate the matter. Unfortunately, Ms. Dana Appling allowed this abusive and dishonest environment to continue. This matter has now been brought to the attention of Jennifer Bowers, CPUC Personnel Manager, but to date we are not aware of anything that has been done to look into these issues. This is another one of the reasons why your office needs to act and investigate this and other issues that may are illegal and that are allowed to fester in the CPUC. When you see the circumstances and the information that in our opinion will show that this Manager, Mr. Sanchez does not deserve to be where he is. However, because he assisted in justifying rightly or falsely the need for more staff in the DRA which the Governor could have mistakenly approved in the last budget, the DRA Director decided to look the other way, but we are sure that you will not. The inaction and failure of both Ms. Dana Appling, DRA’s Director and Ms. Cynthia Walker can be termed as “willful blindness” when faced with objective facts chose to ignore such and pretend that nothing has happened when dishonesty reigns supreme among some of their managers and supervisors. 4. A CASE OF ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION AND ACT OF RETALIATION BY MR. SANCHEZ AND CONDONED BY CPUC AND DRA MANAGEMENT We have an example of ethnic discrimination by Mr. Sanchez which was allowed to fester by DRA management under Ms. Dana Appling. This is on a general ate case application by an utility during which DRA management abandoned Mr. Cole who was left alone to deal with the case. In essence, DRA management thought the case would be lost without their support for the ratepayers they were supposed to represent. DRA management abandoned the citizens of Fontana and ratepayers to bear the heavy rates and increases sought by the utility. However, they failed to understand that Mr. Cole was capable to act in substances as both, the DRA Director, Deputy Director, Program Manager, Program Project Supervisor, and as well as his job as the assigned Project Manager. Mr. Cole alone continued without DRA management support to act on behalf on the California ratepayers. However, when the rate increases sought by the utility that was challenged under the sole leadership of Mr. Cole took a good turn for the rate payers and citizens of the City of Fontana (after been abandoned by the entire DRA management who had no material input in decisions on the case), and Mr. Sanchez saw that the case was creating good impression for DRA through the sole leadership of Mr. Cole suddenly decided to remove Mr., Cole and replaced him with one of his own, an Hispanic. The replacement had no knowledge of the issues involved or the case at the time, but was a close ally of Mr. Sanchez and they were of the same ethnic origin. This was done without any consultation with Mr. Cole but prior to this Mr. Cole had exposed Mr. Sanchez’s dishonesty that was brought to the attention of the DRA management. To this day
Mr. Cole informed us that he was never told why he was removed,
especially when it the areas and issues he handled directly and
for which he had instructed and encouraged his assigned attorney
along with the attorneys of the City and School district involved
to file a rehearing of the Administrative law Judge’s decision
that was issued by a Judge that was at the same time contesting
for a water Board position an apparent conflict of interest which
we think is contrary to the state’s conflict of interest rules.
5. MR. HANI MOUSSA’S NEW WAVE OF PERSONAL VENDETTA AND FROM ALL INDICATIONS AT THE URGING OF MR. DANILO SANCHEZ The new wave of personal vendetta now orchestrated through Mr. Hani Moussa, a Project Program Supervisor that was at the time of his appointment last year September inexperienced in the work DRA does. We believe that if you conduct a thorough investigation these facts would be revealed. Mr. Cole’s recent memo indirectly informed the DRA and CPUC management of how Mr. Hani Moussa is now being used by Mr. Sanchez to continue his lies and harassment of Mr. Cole. Mr. Moussa has no choice than to do Danilo’s bidding for the following reasons: 1. He is not qualified to Supervise CPUC staff involved in representing the ratepayers on general rate cases. He was so unqualified that the previous Supervisor, by name Mr. Paige had to be brought in to train him for months and do some of his work. These are facts that can easily be verified. This has caused the state huge waste in thousands of dollars which the DRA keeps paying for. When the position could have been filled by those who know the work and this would have saved the state thousands of dollars. 2. Secondly, Mr. Moussa is still on probation and because of this he is probably fearful of not been confirmed if he does not do Mr. Sanchez's bidding in harassing, creating a hostile work environment for Mr. Cole. Mr. Moussa’s interest is to be confirmed for his position, which if properly investigated would show that he is not qualified for the position and taxpayers money are been spent to train him when we have others that already know the job. Hence, Mr. Moussa’s willingness to cooperate with Danilo Sanchez to harass staff and this in part resulted in the lies Mr. Moussa has now engaged in. The saving grace for Mr. Cole is that he has witnesses that are willing to step forward and also documented information to show that Mr. Moussa is dishonest just as Mr. Sanchez. It now appears that DRA is the home for dishonest managers or supervisors contrary to public and the governor’s policies.
Mr. Moussa’s lies and Mr. Sanchez lies have been brought to both DRA and CPUC management through the CPUC Personnel Manager, but none has acted to investigate for fear that Mr. Cole has overwhelming evidence to show that these managers are dishonest and should be dealt with accordingly. This why we believe that the Governor’s office should ensure that dishonest Managers and Supervisors are not protected or condoned by any government agency headed by appointees of the governor. If Mr. Cole is wrong, the investigation would show or bring such out or the management would have called Mr. Cole to inform him that he is wrong but they have not done this because we believe they know that Mr. Cole is right and have information to show that these folks are dishonest. In addition, Mr. Moussa and Mr. Sanchez falsehoods and lies have been brought to the attention of both the current DRA Acting Director and the DRA governor appointed Director Ms. Dana Appling but both have turned a blind eye to these dishonest managers and we believe that this can now only be unraveled if the governor’s office should conduct an investigation or order such to unravel the level of dishonesty and falsehood tolerated by the CPUC or DRA management. The management of CPUC and DRA appear incapable of dealing with these hence the need for an outside party appointed by the governor to get to the bottom of these issues. 7. CONCERNS THAT DISHONEST SUPERVISORS AND MANAGERS ARE ALLOWED TO ROAM FREE IN THE CPUC AND IN DRA IN PARTICULAR We are concerned that liars and dishonest managers are allowed to roam free at the CPUC especially in DRA. As a first step we are calling on you to request from the CPUC and DRA why these allegations of dishonesty and lies were not investigated or the staff such as Mr. Cole that brought such up been asked to prove his allegations. The reason for this is simple because Mr. Cole has both written documents and several witnesses that could attest to the falsity of these managers. However, this should not preclude your office from investigating these allegations and if found to be true such Managers should be disciplined as they deserve. The CPUC is degenerating to a Commission that condones dishonesty and that is a reflection of the current governor’s appointees for failing to do something about this. Rather than conduct these investigations against these dishonest managers the CPUC and DRA (from information we gathered) have engaged in the past wasting tax dollars in investigating innocent employees, while letting the real dishonest managers go scotch free. These gang of people were hoping that it will not come to the attention of the governor and this why we are bringing this to your attention for immediate action. It is time the State act against these types of managers that are giving the current governor a bad name. However, we believe that once this is brought to your attention, something will be done about these. 8. SOME CPUC MANAGEMENT STAFF THAT SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED IF THE GOVERNOR DOES NOT SUPPORT THEIR ACTIONS The above are part of the reasons why we the concerned staff committee are worried that these dishonest supervisors and managers will use their position to not only create a hostile working environment, they will also use their authority to abuse innocent staff and possibly manipulate information that could be used to expose them if the investigation is delayed any further. Therefore we are calling on you to investigate the following individuals and their roles in all these more so because the head serves at the pleasure of the Governor. They are “ Mr. Hani Moussa,
DRA Program Project Supervisor We are wiling to provide you during your investigation any information we have that would aide you in uncovering the cover up by DRA management in particular of dishonest and vindictive Managers. A division whose head reports to the Governor should not condone dishonesty as it appears to have been done in DRA in the face of overwhelming evidence that some of these people are dishonest. Who knows how much dishonest or false information they included in DRA budget that the governor now approved and this was probably done by them in order to falsely gain unfair advantage in staff additions to DRA which we think the governor might have approved in error in the current budget. 10. CALL FOR
INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION of CPUC DRA In addition, if we do not hear your response on this we may be forced to turn this entire issue to the public arena and we believe that this would not serve the government well in the coming months. However, we would do this as a last resort if no action is taken to expose or at least investigate the matters we have brought to your attention. We also believe that there are a lot of others that would come forward once the staff are assure of protection against retaliation from CPUC or DRA management.
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