The Official Biography of Coast Guards Director, Office of Civil Rights – Questions
We published a teaser on this article earlier today, and this evening we bring you the report. Coast Guard Report had long put the conflicting issues with the Official Biography of Coast Guards Director of Civil Rights behind us. However, Ms. Dickerson herself brought the issue back into pubic purview with the release of the Booz Allen Hamilton report in February of this year.
In Dickerson’s memo to the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in April 2008, paragraph 5, of the memo was devoted exclusively to this Blog [document is page 5 of the pdf of the complete report]. Coast Guard Report is mentioned or referred to in the Booz Allen Hamilton report more times than the Office of Civil Rights itself. Booz Allen went on to say:
The Booz Allen team has also verified elements of the Director’s background. It is also noted that the Director was vetted through interviews by USCG and DHS, and, as with other members of the Senior Executive Service, a contract firm conducted a full background check.
But what the report doesn’t say is how they verified these elements, so Coast Guard Report took it one step further and filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the United States Commission on Civil Rights. On April 20th, 2009 we fired off our FOIA to the Commission:
Pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, I request access to and copies of the job position descriptions for the agency head and that of the second in charge for the years 2000 to 2006. Specifically I request the positions descriptions for the permanent position held by Ms. Terri A. Dickerson SES, during the years 2000 to 2006. Additionally I request the document that appointed Terri A. Dickerson the acting or interim head of the Agency in 2005. As further clarification Ms. Dickerson’s official biography says this about her time at the USCCR “From 2000 to 2006, Ms. Dickerson was second in charge at the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights. Among duties, she examined federal agencies’ civil rights offices, and advised officials, Congress, and the White House on improved enforcement. In 2005, the White House installed her as the interim agency head after the outgoing chief departed, and until a new appointee could be confirmed.”
On April 27th the FOIA Officer at the Commission responded to our request
We examined our records and have located the following documents that are responsive to your request:
1. Position description for the Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights;
2. Position description for the Assistant Staff Director for the Office of Civil Rights Evaluation; and
3. Administrative Instruction 1-18B-Order of Precedence
Back in February of 2008, Dickerson published a one-time newsletter called Our Space in which she rebutted much of what has been published here and in comments by readers regarding her Official Biography. She address the issues raised concerning some of what’s in her Official Biography. One of the issues raised in both the main body of the Booz Allen report as well as Appendix C is the issue of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports on issues with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in which the GAO referred to the Commission as being in “disarray,”
In the newsletter Our Space, Dickerson goes on to explain that she was not responsible for either of the two GAO reports and that they were directed at her boss not her. But wait … Dickeson’s Official Biography says that:
From 2000 to 2006, Ms. Dickerson was second in charge at the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights.
As we said earlier, we obtained Ms. Dickerson position description (PD) from her time at the Commission. Dickerson’s title according to the Commission was Assistant Staff Director for Civil Rights Evaluations. No where in the PD does it identify the incumbent as the second in charge, or give the incumbent responsibility for anything outside the incumbents staff. This aligns with Dickerson’s statements in Our Space and Appendix C to the Booz Allen report. What it doesn’t align with is being “second in charge at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Second in charge means something to most readers, likely that if you are “second in charge” you’re the second top dog, the Vice President is second in charge, the Vice Commandant is second in charge, even Ms. Dickerson’s own Deputy Director is second in charge. So the question at the end of the day is: If you’re going to state you’re the second in charge at an agency in your Official Biography, shouldn’t you be responsible for something more than your own division? Maybe not in this case.
Lastly on the issue of Dickerson being installed as the interim agency head by the White House her Official Biography says:
In 2005, the White House installed her as the interim agency head after the outgoing chief departed, and until a new appointee could be confirmed.
However, our research with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the documents they provided in response to our Freedom of Information Act request suggest something slightly if not completely different with regards to being “installed by the White House as interim agency head.” An online search of White House documents for 2005 resulted in a find of zero documents related to Dickerson or the Commission by name. So again, we turned to the Commission itself with our FOIA request for answers. The Commission was able to locate one document related to Ms. Dickerson’s time as interim agency head. That document is page 6 of the pdf below. The document is titled “Administrative Manual, Administrative Instruction 1-18B, Order of Precedence and dated February 5th 2002. The order is signed by the Staff Director at the time, and states that the when the Staff Director and Deputy Staff Director are both absent, that the Assistant Staff Director for Civil Rights Evaluations becomes acting Staff Director.
If this all sounds like an incredible amount of information, it is. But we’re not done yet. Turns out that there is more on this topic to be found in the Code of Federal Regulations.
45 C.F.R. PART 701—ORGANIZATION AND FUNCTIONS OF THE COMMISSION
The Commission staff organization and function are as follows:
(a) Office of the Staff Director. Under the direction of the Staff Director, this Office defines and disseminates to staff the policies established by the Commissioners; develops program plans for presentation to the Commissioners; evaluates program results; supervises and coordinates the work of other agency offices; manages the administrative affairs of the agency; appoints an Equal Employment Opportunity Officer for the agency’s in-house Equal Employment Opportunity Program; and conducts agency liaison with the Executive Office of the President, the Congress, and other Federal agencies.
(b) Office of the Deputy Staff Director. Under the direction of the Deputy Staff Director, this Office is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the agency; evaluation of quantity and quality of program efforts; personnel administration; and the supervision of Office Directors who do not report directly to the Staff Director.
What does all this mean, we’re not sure but you can draw your own conclusions. We feel pretty confident we’ve given you plenty to consider. We do want to be clear that there are still some unknowns here. We contacted both Ms. Dickerson and Coast Guard Headquarters for comment on this story several weeks ago. Note that this means we gave them more than ample opportunity to comment in keeping with ALCOAST 458/08. Next, we have no way of knowing if Dickerson was filling in as Acting Deputy Staff Director for some, part or all over her time at the Commission. One thing is certain, the description of duties outlined in 45 C.F.R. Part 701 for the Deputy Staff Director clearly describes that person as being what most would consider to be the “second in charge.”
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