Public Statements by the Whistleblower
Whistleblowers disclose and then suffer the
consequences. But they – especially the small-time
sort –seldom reveal much about their experiences outside of court documents. Daniel Binswanger is different.
Binswanger was hired in September 2016 to be director of
business development at the Port of Port Angeles (Washington). He was a long-time business consultant who
had little experience in public organizations, but he was a
local and enthusiastic.
Things did not go smoothly for him. On January 26, 2017, his boss, Karen Goschen,
laid out
to the Board of Commissioners her problems with Binswanger. He was insubordinate. He undermined her by saying she didn’t
understand how an entrepreneurial operation like the Port worked. In addition, his work was unsatisfactory. He failed to give her a list of priorities
although she had asked repeatedly. He didn’t
meet deadlines. He didn’t work well with
the team. It seemed she had pretty good reason
to discipline and even fire him.
Except that on January 20 and 23 Binswanger had
complained to the HR Manager, Holly Hairell, about Goschen. He said she created a hostile workplace. He also warned that a lease
signed before he started charged a nonprofit less than the market rate, which
was an improper government action. On the
evening of the 23rd Hairell talked to the CFO; the CFO talked to
Goshen; and Goschen put Binswanger on a paid administrative leave. Goshen fired him a week later. It sounds as though Binswanger was a
whistleblower and then suffered retaliation.
But that’s not how the Washington State Office of
Administrative Hearings saw it. The
judge noted that the Port’s investigation found no improper action in the contract
since the lease rate was very
close to market. She thought the
Port had valid reasons to fire Binswanger, who had not mentioned being a
whistleblower until after he was put on administrative leave. For the whistleblower, Washington
is a tough place with few protections against retaliation.
In some ways Binswanger was a typical small-time
whistleblower. The amount at stake was
modest – $634 per month and just 7% of the lease amount. He and his boss weren’t getting along before
he raised the lease issue. There were
two sides to the story, and authorities chose to believe the other account. He suffered but lived through it. Now he appears to be back at his consulting
business.
What is unusual in Binswanger’s case is that he uploaded to docdroid
files documenting his experience. That
enabled the Peninsula Daily News to publish a long
article about his experience. He also
posted a harsh rendition of the events to a local
blog dedicated to Port Angeles news.
Then he made critical comments on a more recent Daily
News article.
Big-time whistleblowers, like Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, can
tell their stories in depth and people listen.
Books are published about them. But
small-time players’ stories elicit scant public interest[1].
We often have good reasons not to air our stories in
detail. Public revelations can inspire
the companies to threaten lawsuits, as HomeFirst did
to me. Talking out of court can
complicate litigation and our negotiation of a rich payoff. Discussing the case is barred in the
nondisclosure portion of any settlement agreement, like the one HomeFirst
proposed to me.
Also, the more we discuss our claims, the more trivial they
can seem. Undercharging rent by $634/month,
even if true, doesn’t rank as an egregious crime. My investigating whether clients working in
the HomeFirst kitchen had State-issued food
hander cards didn’t compare to Karen Silkwood’s
investigation of nuclear power plant safety.
But our minor allegations led to terminations for Binswanger and me.
Finally, talking about your case without the discipline
provided by an attorney can make you look a little crazy. You can appear bitter – possibly with good
reason – as Binswanger does in his blogpost
and his comments
to the Peninsula Daily News nine months after he was fired. Or you can seem obsessed
as I might be after 116 blog posts, this one published 3½ years after I was
fired.
Those of us who have blown whistles on our employers may
eventually realize we need to be a bit irrational to stick with our
projects. The years they require. The ambiguities we work through. The costs we put up with.
There is father-son team, both of whom were relatively minor
whistleblowers. They put up a website offering support to
whistleblowers. Theirs lacks the
sophistication of, say, National
Whistleblower Center and Government
Accountability Project. And the pair’s
resources are miniscule. Still, they’ve
been volunteering their advice for nearly twenty years.
They make a helpful suggestion after responding to thousands
of emails: “Know when to let
go and wisely move on!” That’s what
they say, but they didn’t let matters drop either.
[1] One
book by a small-time whistleblower: Joy, Amy Block. Whistleblower.
Point Richmond, California: Bay Tree Publishing, LLC. 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment