November 4, 2005: Headlines: Separation: Law: Early Termination: FedSmith.com: Firing a Government "Volunteer" Isn't Easy
Peace Corps Online:
Peace Corps News:
Peace Corps Library:
Law:
April 4, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: Law :
November 4, 2005: Headlines: Separation: Law: Early Termination: FedSmith.com: Firing a Government "Volunteer" Isn't Easy
Firing a Government "Volunteer" Isn't Easy
Under the Peace Corps Manual, if the agency considers separating a volunteer early, there is a process to follow. The volunteer is to be told of the specific conduct that gave rise to consideration of an early termination, a chance to respond, and given the opportunity to resign before a final decision is made.
Firing a Government "Volunteer" Isn't Easy
Firing a Government "Volunteer" Isn't Easy
By Susan Smith
11/4/2005
Click here for more articles by Susan Smith
You can have daily headlines from FedSmith.com delivered right to your desktop each business morning. The service is free and you don't get junk e-mail as the price of your subscription. Just click here to sign up!
A recent decision of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals concerns availability under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of a Peace Corps draft Administrative Separation Report (ASR). (Horowitz v. Peace Corps, U.S.C.A.D.C., No. 04-5065, 10/28/05)
Under the Peace Corps Manual, if the agency considers separating a volunteer early, there is a process to follow. The volunteer is to be told of the specific conduct that gave rise to consideration of an early termination, a chance to respond, and given the opportunity to resign before a final decision is made. If the volunteer opts for resignation, then the ASR is not completed and not made part of the agency’s records. But the resignation must occur before the final decision is made to separate; otherwise the ASR is completed.
In this case, the volunteer opted to resign before the ASR was finalized. So the Peace Corps manager did not complete the report and did not forward it to the office of record within the agency. But, at the volunteer’s request the manager kept a copy of the draft report in his safe. The former volunteer requested a copy of the document under the FOIA and the agency declared it covered by exemption 5 and refused to release it. The agency also denied his request for access to the document under the Privacy Act. Finally, the agency refused to disclose the identity of the “alleged victim” of the volunteer’s actions that were the subject of the draft ASR.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided with the agency. (No. 00cv00848) The court determined that the agency properly invoked exemption 5 in denying the draft ASR under FOIA. The lower court also found that the draft ASR was not part of a system of records subject to disclosure under the Privacy Act. But the district court did order the agency to disclose the identity of the alleged victim.
The appeals court concluded that the District Court was correct in applying exemption 5 to the document and in its reasoning on application of the Privacy Act. It however disagreed as to disclosure of the identity of the alleged victim of the Peace Corps volunteer’s actions and ruled that the agency had properly refused to disclose that information. The court indicated that the alleged victim’s privacy interest clearly outweighed any public interest in disclosing his identity, calling such interest “virtually nonexistent.” (Opinion p. 11)
When this story was posted in November 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Peace Corps at highest Census in 30 years Congratulations to the Peace Corps for the highest number of volunteers in 30 years with 7,810 volunteers serving in 71 posts across the globe. Of course, the President's proposal to double the Peace Corps to 15,000 volunteers made in his State of the Union Address in 2002 is now a long forgotten dream. With deficits in federal spending stretching far off into the future, any substantive increase in the number of volunteers will have to wait for new approaches to funding and for a new administration. Choose your candidate and start working for him or her now. |
| Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject. |
| 'Celebration of Service' a major success The Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here. |
| PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident" The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted. |
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today. |
| Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong 170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: FedSmith.com
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Separation; Law; Early Termination
PCOL22717
73