Tom and Sally found a parking spot on North Blount Street adjacent to Peace College, north of the state government complex in Raleigh. It was a favorite place for them to park for agency meetings held in the Archdale Building. Dressed in their best clothes and walking at a brisk pace they headed to the meeting, admiring the attractive college buildings and landscaping on their right.
Jimmy Carter and Chris Russo with the agency's Office of Organizational Excellence in Raleigh had been sympathetic listeners during the months-long effort to find someone in Raleigh who would address the agency red flags and the retaliation against the couple in Fayetteville.
The Office of Organizational Excellence conducted regular forums with the agency bosses located in both the Raleigh offices and the seven field offices scattered around the state. Normally, these Manager Forums were only open to the numerous bosses and supervisors in the sprawling organization. However, this specific event titled "Workplace Conversations," was opened up to include agency staffers. It certainly appeared that the many red flags in Fayetteville and Raleigh involving Tom, Sally, Supervisor Vozzo, and Director Overcash, was the driving force for this unusual forum.
They entered the large meeting room on the ground floor of the Archdale Building and took their seats in the front row. As the meeting began, Tom turned and looked carefully at the many people sitting in the rows of chairs behind them. Director Overcash and Steven Vozzo were not present. In fact, he did not see anyone in the audience from his own agency group, the Division of Air Quality. He was surprised and disappointed.
It was a painful reminder of the presentation he and Sally had made at the EPA conference in Raleigh, in April of 2005, which included a discussion of chemical manufacturing facilities, DuPont, PFOA, and the importance of agency collaboration and information-sharing for complex manufacturing sites. They had been surprised that co-workers from the agency's Division of Air Quality were not present at their EPA presentation, only people from other states. Normally, agency emails were sent out encouraging people to attend presentations made by North Carolina co-workers at the annual EPA conference in Raleigh. Instead, there was silence, as if Tom and Sally no longer worked for the agency. Did this reflect Director Overcash's previously stated view that the Division of Air Quality was not part of the North Carolina state environmental agency? Was this another example of Director Overcash locking down any information-sharing and discussion about the events in Fayetteville?
They had been hopeful that the forum would shed some light on what was happening in the Fayetteville Office. Rita Richardson of Human Resources had prepared the summary that was emailed to forum participants:
March 30 - Managers' Forum - "Workplace Conversations"
Time: 8:30 am - Noon
Location: Ground Floor Hearing Room
The purpose of the Forum is to bring supervisors and employees together to define workplace relationships within an organizational context. The outcome of the Forum is to challenge individual perceptions and have each person walk away with a renewed, confirmed or changed perspective on workplace relationships and the circumstances around those relationships.
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