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Subject: FEMA Officials Try to Swat In-House Gadfly<By Bill McAllister<Washington Post
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 04:42:49 EST
Message-ID: <48.1992Nov24.044249@AmeriCast.com>
Lines: 45

FEMA Officials Try to Swat In-House Gadfly<By Bill
McAllister<Washington Post Staff Writer=

To the leaders of the troubled Federal Emergency Management Agen-
cy, Leo Bosner, a GS-13 management specialist and union leader,
has proved a nettlesome critic. He has repeatedly zinged the
agency, bluntly telling members of Congress and the press that
"these political hacks," as he called the agency's political ap-
pointees, have failed to run FEMA properly.

Last Friday, the day after Bosner's small union local alerted re-
porters to an eleventh-hour reorganization planned by FEMA Direc-
tor Wallace E. Stickney, he was summoned by his supervisor and
told he was being charged with insubordination.

Officially, Bosner said yesterday, the reason for the charge was
his refusal to answer questions about whether he had used FEMA
office equipment-Xerox and FAX machines-for non-governmental pur-
poses.  Unofficially, Bosner said the charges were being brought
against him for "blowing the whistle" on Stickney's proposed
reorganization.

"That was the straw that broke camel's neck," said Bosner, acting
president of American Federation of Government Employees Local
4060. He branded the charge as "a last attempt to get rid of me
before the administration changes."

It is not the first time the agency has filed insubordination
charges against Bosner.  The union official, who has published
articles and testified on Capitol Hill about the agency's diffi-
culties, said in February 1990 he was accused of insubordination.

Bosner said the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency
that probes federal worker complaints, sided with him and forced
FEMA to reinstate him.

A FEMA spokesman said the agency would have no comment on
Bosner's charges.<02:37 11-24C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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