Watchdog report: Ex-Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer oversaw hostile work environment, misused funds

Chavez-DeRemer, who resigned earlier this year, could not immediately be reached for comment.

She is also accused of repeatedly directing staff to perform personal tasks during work hours. That included, at one point, directing her personal aide and executive assistant to travel to her home and organize her bedroom closet. After completing the task, they were asked to provide a video documenting their work. The report includes a photo of neatly hung, colorful blazers, alongside purses and shoes.

In other instances, it alleges, she sent staffers to her home to retrieve packages from the mail room, instructed them to make personal purchases that weren’t always reimbursed, and directed a Hispanic federal employee to communicate with Spanish-speaking workers, including a house cleaner and movers.

The report alleges Chavez-DeRemer developed and maintained an inappropriate and unprofessional relationship with a senior agent on her security detail, documenting in extensive detail witness reports of her massaging the agent’s shoulder, the two golfing and gambling together, and leaving an event walking arm-in-arm.

Investigators obtained electronic hotel door lock records that suggested the two were spending time overnight in each other’s rooms. And they obtained key fob records and video footage to document his visits to her home.

The relationship, they said, “appeared to continue even after he was placed on administrative leave and was suspended from his official duties.”

The office also concluded that the former secretary and senior staff consumed and stored alcohol on federal property without permission, that she combined personal and official travel, including visits to family, personal residences and Las Vegas. And it identified a handful of gifts that were not reported, including tickets to attend a rodeo, an alligator-hide wallet and cowboy hats.

The report also alleged that Chavez-DeRemer oversaw a hostile workplace, with senior staff “routinely engaged in threatening, demeaning, and abusive verbal and written communication” that she was seemingly aware of but did not take action to stop.

Witnesses described the work environment as “toxic, intimidating and humiliating,” with staff accused of berating employees in front of colleagues, openly discussing performance issues in the presence of other staff, and frequently making threats of termination.

Senior staff were also accused of making staffing decisions based on physical appearance instead of qualifications, including relocating one employee’s desk because they did not want a “fat person” seen in the front office.

Jill Colvin, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Watchdog report: Ex-Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer oversaw hostile work environment, misused funds

More Local News