Whistleblower Protection Act to be basis of DOH complainant's lawsuit

This week, SFR reports the latest in whistleblower Diane Moore's tangle with the Department of Health. The State Personnel Office weighed in last week; see SPO's notes after the jump.

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On April 23, after months of taking her complaint up through the DOH ranks, Diane Moore and her attorney, Diane Garrity, took Moore's grievance—that she was transferred out of her job as punishment for blowing the whistle on shady hiring practices at the DOH—to the State Personnel Office, hoping they'd weigh in on the situation.

(SFR first reported on personnel problems at the DOH in a

last December; for more background, read our Jan. 13

.)

Moore and Garrity heard nothing from SPO for more than a month. On June 14, Garrity sent a letter to SPO inquiring about the complaint's status. Then, on June 18, SPO Director Sandra K. Perez responded with reviews of Moore's situation—the involuntary transfer—and those of five employees Moore alleged were improperly hired by DOH.

Without further ado, here's

Perez's analysis of Moore's situation:

When SFR reached Moore on Monday, she was unequivocal about the next step.

"We're going to court,"

Moore says. "We're going to file under the Whistleblower Protection Act [passed this year]."

"They're just denying everything without documenting it," Moore continues. "Everything I've said is true, and we can document it."

Garrity agrees that the SPO review amounts to little more than

taking the DOH's denials at face value.

"It looks like they relied on the information provided by the Department of Health," Garrity tells SFR. "It doesn't look like [SPO] went into any of their own records; they merely relied on what the DOH told them. My thought is that

SPO knows there was nepotism in hiring, selection and supervision, and they are choosing to ignore it

because of DOH telling them it's not a problem."

Santa Fe Reporter