The Answer I gave to the bullshit ACS hanged me on. John Mattingly this is one of your smaller shames.

To: John B. Mattingly March 20, 2006
Commissioner
Administration For Children's Services
City Of New York
Michele Weinstat
Director of Employment Law Unit
220 Church Street
New York, New York 10013
cc: Local 371 SSEU
Patrick Malia, Child Protective Manager
From: Eugene Weixel
Re: Response to Notice of Informal Conference Served on me Sunday, March 13, 2006.
Regarding Charge I, Specification One
This charge and specification is untrue.
I am charged with insubordination on a case. I was not insubordinate. I was in the presence of a supervisor who I convinced that we had done enough. This was a case in which a young black couple's infant child had died. The doctor who declared the child dead did not file a report because she did not believe there was a reportable situation. My supervisor Mr. Adegbola wanted me to bring police to their apartment (Police had been there earlier in the day) at 2:20 AM and further wanted me to take the police to the home of their neighbor who was watching the couple's one year old child and wake them and the one year old up with cops at around that same hour. In the final event Adegbola sent another team to this address but got cold feet when they asked him if they should "911 the case."

Actually the manager Mr. Malia told me that I had been right and Adegbola had been wrong and did not "counsel" me but had a rather lengthy chat with Mr. Adegbola. Malia tells me that when ECS Director Jean-Philippe realized that he had erred he tried to recall his email to me. You will see that I reported to Mattingly a widely known fact among CPS workers which is that "Albany" (The State Central Register of the Division of Child Protection in Albany) frequently takes calls that are not valid reports and adds or spices up information either to make them into valid reports or make them appear more serious than they are. the fact is that I had been told by a police sergeant that Albany had not taken her report. Soon after another cop tried to get a report taken and Albany obliged by turning a baby carrier into a "back pack." The cop is quoted in the case record as saying that he never used that term.
Mr. Mattingly has openly invited CPS staff to disregard the chain of command and contact him or others above supervisory level directly and in fact Mr. Mattingly thanked me for the information I gave him regarding kinship placements. It seems though that my going directly to him about Vargas and his coddled incompetence is what finally got me in the sauce. Note I am not charged with going outside the chain of command. Do it and Department of Investigation takes the hard drive from your desk computer for a little look see.
Here is the memo that I sent to Mr. Mattingly:
From: Weixel, Eugene (ACS)
Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2005 6:47 AM
To: Mattingly, John (ACS); Jean-Philippe, Joycelyn (ACS)
Cc: Adegbola, Maradesa (ACS); Fore, Gregory (ACS); Vargas, Ramon ECS (ACS); Malek, Hani (ACS); Malia, Patrick (ACS)
Subject:
Dear Mr. Commissioner:
I am writing this letter to you because I have confidence in the rightness of what I am going to tell you, even though the last time I communicated directly to you regarding case practice in ECS I had to undergo an attempt at retaliation that failed.
As you may know, a one month old infant died in New York City last night. I was assigned to investigate this matter prior to the acceptance by the SCR of any report against the parents.
I spoke with the detective on the case who told me that he did not suspect child abuse or neglect at this time. He told me that the infant had been carried by the now subject mother in an ordinary baby carrier. He told me that he could not make a determination regarding crime prior to the results of the Medical Examiner's investigation. He did tell me that the home is in deplorable condition. (This is not mentioned in the Oral Report that the SCR was generating at perhaps the very moment I was getting into a car to go to the parent's home.)
My visit to the parent's home, at 2:21 AM, is described in my case notes. Basically the now subject father wanted ACS to return to his home at a more conventional hour. He stated that he and his wife are bereaved. He said that the surviving one year old sibling is in the home of a neighbor. He said he did not want to wake up that neighbor's family and that the child would be returned to his apartment in the morning.
I decided not to push, bully or coerce this father into allowing us into his home at 2:30 in the morning nor to attempt to force the awakening of the neighbor's family.
I want to bring up another matter. The police officer whose report was taken has told ACS that the report does not accurately reflect his words. He did not say that the child was being carried in a "backpack." More than once I have spoken with reporters who tell me that the ORT being described to them does not reflect the information they reported, and I can say that this has happened even tome in reports I have called in carefully going over the facts with the SCR worker. At times the information gathered by us from reporters would point to a lack of any real allegations, yet we pursue these matters, prying into the lives of people who have not been truly and factually even accused of doing anything wrong, sometimes calling them and ringing their door bells sometimes at very unconventional hours as well.
I initially objected to the assignment to go to this family’s home in the stark hours of early morning. I feel this is a brutish and heartless act, needlessly heartless at that, and in fact I question being assigned to investigate the family or ring their doorbell without a report.
I can recall another instance in which a child died on Staten Island and a report was made only accusing this family of leaving the deceased child’s siblings unattended in a hospital parking lot. I was dispatched to the family’s home and learned that the children in question were not unattended. (Such an investigation on the day a parent’s child has died!) When I called back to the IRT coordinator he wanted me to return to the home and question the family about the death that had been investigated by police and found not to be homicide and after the hospital that pronounced the child dead had not reported any neglect or abuse connected to the death itself.
In still another instance another worker told a manager that the worker suspected that a reporter was mentally disturbed. I was assigned to assist on the matter, to ring the doorbell of the reporter at around three in the morning to assess his mental state!
In still another case I was ordered to “tell the parents” of a child who just had died on the day of this death that the “had to bring the other children to the hospital right now.” I'd hope not to see those days return.
I believe in the rule of law. When lawmakers, law enforcers and government officials habitually do not abide by law then the ideas that underpin our Declaration of Independence come into play. Beyond the law and rule of law (investigation without report, investigation of reporters) there is a matter of common decency in all of this. Our office is called “Emergency Children’s Services” I think for a reason. We are conceived as an arm of Child Protection that intervenes in emergencies. It is a matter of decency if not of law that people are not to be disturbed in their abodes by the government at unreasonable times or for reasons that lack reason.
One cold February morning around four years ago I removed four little children from their homes at around four in the morning without court order and for no reason a normal person would accept, other than the old cliché “I was only following orders.” I wrote a memo to my director who thanked me for bringing the matter to his attention. A few months after this the manager retired, some say under duress. This action was ordered and insisted upon after my co worker and I told the supervisor from the home itself that there was no safety emergency in this home – and I promised myself that I would never again be the instrument of such thoughtless brutality.
I'm almost 60 years old and it is too late for me to change much. I have these hang ups about decency, respect for others and lawfulness of government actions that help make me into a misfit where I work, but it is too late for me to find another job. Maybe it is not too late for the place where I work to change.
Thank you,
Eugene Weixel
There was no refusal of any directive. The directive to bring police into this family's home at 2:20 in the morning after they had already had the police in their home and after the doctor who had pronounced their child dead hours earlier had not filed a report, and lacking a report at the time I left ECS was not legal any way. It also offends common decency and that is why CPSSI Malek, who accompanied me agreed that it would be the decent thing to do to allow this dead baby's mother to cry with her husband at 2:20 in the morning.
Mr. Adegbola in the end did not send any police to the address. Mr. Malia in the end agreed with me.
Charge II All Specifications and related Charge III and related Charge IV:
If you prove this charge and specifications is true you will not be able to prove that I am either the first, the only or the most egregious offender. These charges are brought because I have told the truth to those in power and continue to do so. These charges exist not because anyone is offended by "Dance Like a White Boy" but because I have been a whistle blower for years in Emergency Children's Services, something I can prove with a stack of documents. It was me, of all people to put into writing the fact that ECS was sending Child Protective Specialists into the field with no child / baby seats in the cars! The atmosphere of fear and conformity in ECS has been such that it actually took courage to point this fact out.
Because the Children's Center was located with no concern for the manner in which employees get there and get home in the late night and early morning hours ACS has created a situation in which great amounts of time is wasted by employees who clock in, and then leave the premises to park their cars, coming back ten, fifteen, twenty minutes or more later. Work and supervision are repeatedly interrupted when staff members leave to move their cars into parking places in which they will not get tickets or towed. I tried to bring this problem out to the authorities of our City prior to the move to the Children's Center, to no avail. Any time I might be proven to have wasted in the above specifications is dwarfed by time wasted due to the thoughtless placement of this office with no provision for parking of staff member's private cars. I point out that I do not travel by private auto and so I do not participate in this widespread time wasting and fraudulent practice.
Charge V and related charge VI: The memos sited in the specifications are legitimate agency business. As for the allegation that I distributed unauthorized literature on your premises there are no specifications to this charge. It is a specious charge that attacks me as a whistle blower.
I had emailed a memo Mr. Mattingly about a negative practice in ECS and Mr. Mattingly sent it down to ECS Director Jean-Philippe who held a supervisor's meeting, showed them my memo to that was addressed to Mr. Mattingly and told them that there were going to be involuntary schedule changes. At least one supervisor, George Baird, held a meeting with his staff, told them hat their hours of work were going to be changed "because of Weixel." People on the floor were furious with me and I sent copies of the memos with my side of the story to them. In the end there were no involuntary schedule changes.
Charge VII: Mr. Vargas has given me most praiseful evaluations since these alleged actions. I have not harassed, incited or intimidated anyone, through email or any other manner. Harassment, incitement and intimidation are however, part and parcel of the way ECS functions under the direction of Mr. Jean-Philippe. Here is the substance of a memo that I sent to the Commissioner regarding this matter:
"It is good to know that you have come from outside this agency and have been involved in monitoring its actions on behalf of the Marisol panel. There are people within this agency who would like to see the process of reform continue and deepen.
"As a Child Protective Specialist working in Emergency Children’s Services I feel that I have a stake in this process. There are things that have happened in Emergency Children’s Services that you may or may not know about. As these matters are serious I feel responsible to make certain you are aware of them.
"Elaine Davis, a supervisor with a long history of insensitivity, incompetence and abuse of power, has been in an ad hoc status of “Acting Manager” for almost two years now. Her actions have evoked two group grievances that were filed by 21 and 30 social service staff members including several respected supervisors, one of whom was subsequently appointed Child Protective Manager (actual) in Emergency Children’s Services. These grievances, by the way, are approaching Step Three hearings after languishing for nearly two years because of the refusal of ECS management to consider the best interests of the agency.
"The history of these grievances include the harassment by Ms. Davis and the unjust suspension of our co worker, David Johnson. Mr. Johnson died early in the course of the suspension in a horrible car crash into a tree.

"David Johnson appealed in writing all the way up the chain of command for redress from Ms. Davis’ harassment. He never got a reply.
"As part of a clique centered around Child Protective Manager Rodney Jackson, (No longer part of ECS), Ms. Davis attacked me personally by covering in paper toweling the chair she had every reason to know was my workplace. On that same day Ms. Davis, in a display of apparent instability, took an NYPD form out of a garbage can or off the floor and copied it dozens of times leaving it on dozens of perplexed staff members’ desks. The genesis of this attack (which was justified by our Director in a memorandum in which he demonstrates the apparent fact that Ms. Davis did not know how to use functions of the “Connections” system) is lengthy but it involves my attempt at self defense when confronted with a co worker, Anise Antoine, who had shouted an anti Semitic slur in the office, had brought into the office and demonstrated a stun gun which she proclaimed she brings into the homes of ACS clients, and who shouted at me in public not to “underestimate” her for her size, but to “respect a gangster” in front of incompetent supervisor Samuel Halstion, (who is now relegated to a position where he can do only limited harm.) Mr. Halstion was allowed to conduct a so called investigation of Ms. Antoine’s stun gun carrying and it was I who brought the Inspector General into the matter. Mr. Halstion and fellow incompetent supervisor Sheila Bleefeld, (also, like Mr. Halstion, Ms. Bleefeld is now placed in a position in which she cannot impact child protective investigations any longer) as errand persons of their manager Rodney Jackson, set out to encourage Ms. Antoine in her vendetta with me demanding that I go into the field, into clients homes on Agency business with this unstable person who carried a fake badge and a stun gun to work. Irresponsibly, in full knowledge of Ms. Antoine’s unfortunate state of mind, this clique, with ECS management consent, continued to send Ms. Antoine into client’s homes. ACS’ Office of Equal Opportunity ran interference for this clique as well, responding to my complaints with an inquiry into my purported coffee break habits.
"Subsequent to an on the job automobile accident Ms. Antoine has been absent from ECS since March and she also has recommended for disciplinary action. Supervisor Bleefeld, by the way, in an email to me told me that she knows of many CPS workers who carry these fake badges and gave me advice on how to obtain one for myself. This has been brought to the attention of the Child Protective chain of command, including Commissioners Bell and Chahine.
"Ms. Antoine certainly is a victim in this matter. Prior to her assignment to Emergency Children’s Services this unfortunate young woman was attacked by a dog who forced her to fall out of a window in a client’s home, while doing her job as a Child Protective Specialist.. On her first night at ECS Ms. Antoine told me that she was not ready to return to work, but that she felt forced to do so. This is a person who ECS management decided to manipulate against me. This is a person who they decided should be sent into the field after midnights while wondering if her personal automobile might be ticketed or towed should a case drag on past normal hours.
"This ECS management saw fit to email a list of traffic enforcement cameras to the staff under the symbol “;)”.
"Subsequent to rejecting our first group grievance, our Director approached members of the local 371 delegation and expressed personal agreement that Ms. Davis is a liability to ECS and stated that he wished to convince his superiors to remove her from her ad hoc “managerial” position. Our Director had issued a threatening memo to those who filed the initial grievance and Child Protective Manager Jackson saw fit after the grievance was rejected at step one to call in his staff members who had signed the grievance in order to intimidate them. Ms. Davis by the way while being referred to as a Child Protective Manager in official ACS documents never underwent the process of becoming a manager and still is carried on the payroll and is evaluated as a Child Protective Supervisor II. Interestingly Ms. Davis continues on as a member of the New York City “overtime royalty” while others have been appointed to the position of manager (and who have no overtime compensation) at ECS during this period.
"ECS staff has been patient and trusting of the grievance process to which we unfortunately had to turn. I can tell you though, as a citizen of a free country, that the citizens and taxpayers of New York and their representatives have a right to know of these events should the process fail to produce redress."
There are piles of documents regarding these matters contained in my complaint to the US Equal Opportunity Office that your legal department has access to.
Charge VIII Specification I:
This was an appropriate entry into the case record. In fact Mr. Mattingly saw fit to have Mr. Gilbert personally intervene in this case to assure the safety of the four month old infant in question.
I have been praised by Mr. Vargas, by Mr. Jean-Philippe, by Mr. Adegbola and Mr. Malia for my dedication to my work as a Child Protective Specialist even after many of the alleged actions you have charged me with. Whether I continue as your employee or not I am dedicated to the protection of our children.


Eugene Weixel