Judges' Union Calls on D.C.'s Chief Administrative Law Judge Mary Oates Walker to Resign

The D.C.-based International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), a union representing nearly 2,000 administrative law judges across the nation, today called on the District of Columbia’s chief administrative law judge Mary Oates Walker to resign as a result of ethics and corruption charges brought by the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability yesterday. If Walker does not voluntarily step down, IFPTE has asked Mayor Gray to remove the top official of the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings.



“How can anyone with business before the Office of Administrative Hearings have full faith and confidence when the chief judge is up on 19 counts of wrongdoing involving self-dealing, conflicts of interest, obstruction of justice, and employee retaliation?” said IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Paul Shearon. “These charges are not out of leftfield,” Shearon added. “Walker has been reprimanded by the Attorney General’s office and by a council committee chaired by Tommy Wells; her actions have been the subject of investigations by Channel 7 and the Washington Post; furthermore her management of the agency has raised questions of competence as well as ethics.”



Among the charges raised initially by Channel 7 was a secretive no-bid furniture-moving contract awarded to the husband of Walker’s business partner Kiyo Oden Tyson. Tyson who also was charged Thursday serves as the agency’s general counsel. The ethics board charged Tyson on Thursday with 10 counts.



Details related to the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability’s hearing are contained in a front-page Metro Section story in today’s Washington Post.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/top-city-judge-allegedly-steered-contract-to-business-partner-and-lied-to-investigators/2014/02/06/b34bd6ae-8ec1-11e3-b227-12a45d109e03_story.html



In 2012, after raising questions of competency, ethical behavior and transparency in the D.C. Office of Administrative Law Hearings, the majority of the agency’s 24 judges signed a letter to Mayor Gray expressing “no confidence” in Walker’s management of the administrative law courts. Three quarters of the agency’s judges later signed union authorization cards calling for a union election and representation by IFPTE. Walker has tried to fend off the union organizing campaign by hiring the Venable law firm using unauthorized taxpayer dollars to delay an election. The funds for Venable came from Medicaid reimbursements to the District.



Since the summer of 2012, IFPTE leaders and administrative law judges have met with the Mayor, City Administrator Allen Y. Lew, House Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) about the problems in the agency but Walker has continued to operate unchecked.



Mayor Gray has the authority to voluntarily recognize the union because of the supermajority that have signed union cards. The mayor also has the authority to remove Judge Walker.

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