Washington Blade - June 20, 2003
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Health Department director James Buford announced the change in HAA's leadership on May 15, when he disclosed he had promoted HAA Administrator Ronald Lewis to the post of chief operating officer for the full department.

Wanda Alston, Mayor Anthony Williams' special assistant for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender affairs, said Buford's decision to name Lewis to the second highest post at the DOH shows that Lewis continues to enjoy Buford's and the mayor's full confidence.

But some gay and AIDS activists said Lewis' departure as HAA administrator at a time when critics - including members of the Council - have raised questions about HAA's ability to carry out its mission, may have prompted Buford and the mayor's office to take a closer look at HAA.

The announcement of Lewis' promotion came on the same day that a middle level official at HAA told the D.C. Council Committee on Human Services that "gross mismanagement and abuse of authority" were widespread within HAA. Lewis denied these allegations.

Gay District Council member David Catania (R-At-Large) challenged Lewis' response to this and other allegations during the committee hearing, including charges contained in an e-mail written by a former HAA employee that a co-worker had been selling illegal drugs at the office to other employees.

Lewis, who called the drug allegation an "unfounded rumor," had to respond to another charge two weeks later that he and other city officials agreed to rent office space for HAA in a building next to a notorious open-air market for illegal drugs.

Questionable lease deal near drug market

Earlier this month, gay D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) disclosed that HAA was among the D.C. government agencies that leased office space in a building at 77 P Street, N.E., through a questionable deal with controversial developer Douglas Jamal. The city's property management office delayed the move by some of HAA's employees into the P Street building following questions raised by Graham about details surrounding the lease.

Graham expressed concern that the city paid $929,000 to Jamal's company, Douglas Development, nearly a year before the city signed a lease for office space in the building's basement. Graham questioned whether the city paid too much for the lease. City officials have said the city is currently paying Jamal's firm $11 million a year through five individual leases in the six-floor building at 77 P St., N.E.

While AIDS activists and city officials said the issue of the office lease raised concerns about HAA's inner workings, activists said the dramatic testimony by the HAA official who alleged threats by HAA managers of retaliation against employees and vendors receiving HAA contracts created a stir among the city's AIDS activists.

The official, Michael Snoddy, an HAA public health analyst, invoked a city law to protect himself as a government "whistle blower." He told the committee that Lewis created a "culture of intimidation and fear of retaliation" against HAA staff members who raise concerns about HAA's ability to provide services to people with AIDS.

"Ronald Lewis and other senior management have intimidated and even threatened to fire staff who release information that may evidence HAA's dysfunction," Snoddy told the committee.

Snoddy also charged that on at least one occasion, HAA denied a contract to a vendor that fell out of favor with Lewis, even though the vendor received a higher rating score than the vendor that received the contract in an internal HAA evaluation process.

Lewis denied the accusations during his own testimony before the committee. He said he has always encouraged opposing views among his subordinates and was hurt that Snoddy could hold such an incorrect impression of his leadership style.

"That is totally not my philosophy," Lewis said. "We have an open door policy, and I have had staff basically cuss me out and there's not been a firing of people because of that."

Catania challenged Lewis' assessment of HAA at the hearing, asking him a series of sharp questions about reports of internal personnel problems, including the allegation by a former employee that HAA staff members sold illegal drugs in the HAA office.

Catania cited Snoddy's testimony and the testimony of the head of a non-profit housing group who told the committee that Lewis chose not to renew the group's city contract after the group criticized HAA's response to housing issues.

"I disagree with you, and I believe there is evidence of retaliation," Catania told Lewis during the hearing.

Support for Lewis

Other witnesses during the May 15 hearing expressed support for Lewis, saying HAA's programs have improved significantly since Lewis took over HAA five years ago. Among those crediting Lewis with making improvements at HAA were Ron Simmons, executive director of the local AIDS service group Us Helping Us and Patricia Hawkins, deputy executive director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic.

Whitman-Walker is the city's largest, private service provider for people with HIV. Both groups receive city contracts from HAA.

The Council members asking most of the questions were Catania, Sandy Allen (D-Ward 8), the committee's chair, and Carol Schwartz (R-At-Large).

Catania raised eyebrows by warning Lewis and other HAA officials not to attempt to retaliate against Snoddy for his testimony criticizing HAA.

"Any intimidation of Mr. Snoddy will be viewed as an intimidation of a Council witness," Catania said at the hearing. "It is punishable by up to two years in prison," he said, adding, "I will not let the grass grow under my feet to draft the letter and walk it to the U.S. attorney myself. I just want that to be perfectly clear."

In a written statement announcing Lewis' promotion, Buford praised Lewis for doing an "exemplary job" at HAA. But Buford, noting that Lewis had been serving the dual role of HAA administrator and senior deputy director of health promotion for the Department of Health, said it was "important that this critical program [HAA] receive permanent, full-time leadership."

Gay rights and AIDS activists had urged Mayor Williams to name a full-time administrator at HAA for the past two years, as Lewis divided his time between the HAA administrator's post and his senior deputy director's job at the Department of Health.

HAA spokesperson Floyd Nelson said Buford named Ivan Ortiz Torres, an openly gay official who has held several posts at HAA since 1994, as HAA's interim administrator. Torres has said he is not a candidate for the permanent administrator's position.

Torres told the Blade last week that the office space at 77 P St. is needed because HAA employees are overcrowded in HAA's current rented office space on two floors of a building at 717 14th St. NW.

A group representing AIDS patients has opposed HAA's plans to move several of its departments to the 77 P St. location, saying the building is near a major, open-air drug market, where crack dealers brazenly operate in a fastfood restaurant parking lot. Many pof HAA's clients, who would be assigned to the 77 P St. building to receive various services, are recovering drug addicts who would be forced to confront drug dealers on their way to the HAA office, according to the People With AIDS Committee of the city HIV Planning Council.

On the issue of the e-mail, Catania sharply questioned Lewis at the May 15 Council hearing about Lewis' decision to approve the firing, and one week later the re-hiring, of HAA employee Ramon Bush.

The re-hiring followed Bush's release of a lengthy e-mail message to more than a dozen HAA employees and the mayor's office. It alleged sexual harassment by HAA managers against HAA employees, drug use and sales on the premises of HAA's offices and a breach of confidential employee personnel files by a high-level HAA official.

Bush states in his e-mail that HAA officials never told him why they fired him, although he said it appeared to be based on "hearsay" allegations that were untrue. HAA has refused to say why Bush was fired, saying such information could not be released under city personnel rules.

Catania said Bush's e-mail painted a picture of "essentially a Peyton Place at the office" - at the expense of city taxpayers.

"I met with him immediately after we received the e-mail," Lewis told Catania during the hearing. "He felt he was fired because of rumors and therefore he would put out rumors and see if people would get fired for the same reason," Lewis said.

"Presumably, Mr. Lewis, he was fired for a cause?" Catania asked.

"That was correct," Lewis said.

"Let me see if I understand it," Catania said. "If you're fired for cause, the way you get your job back is to send an e-mail that lays it all out there, drags dirty laundry from one side of the dais to another. à If he was fired for a legitimate reason, he should have stayed fired. It looks like a cover-up."

"Well, it's not," Lewis said. "It was not a cover-up. It was giving a young man an opportunity to show what he could do, and that's what it was about - as well as allow everyone that was assaulted by that e-mail to hear from that. That's all that was about."

Bush could not be reached by press time.

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