Lee Walter has had an unblemished record over almost 30 years with the Pima County Attorney’s Office, so when she received a disciplinary letter in December 2011, she concluded that it came in retaliation for whistle-blowing.
Walter, who works as the civil division operations manager and supervises all non-legal staff in the county attorney’s civil division, filed a claim of whistle-blower retaliation on Dec. 15, 2011, with the Arizona State Personnel Board, claiming that retaliation took place after Walter reported misconduct and unethical behavior by two attorneys during an attorney-hiring process in November 2011.
Walter’s first hearing before the board was on May 14; the second hearing is slated to take place on Thursday, June 7.
To prepare her case for the state board, Walter needed records to prove that retaliation took place. Her request included records on the hiring process, and interoffice communications between her supervisor and others. To get those records, Walter filed public-records requests on Dec. 28 and Dec. 29 of last year.
What was a personnel issue quickly turned into a public-records dispute as well. In April, Walter filed a complaint in Pima County Superior Court against her boss and attorneys in her office for withholding public records that she claims support her whistle-blower complaint.
It’s unclear in the Pima County Superior Court documents—filed by a private attorney representing the Pima County Attorney’s Office, and filed by Walter, who is representing herself—exactly what kind of unethical behavior allegedly took place during the hiring process. The Tucson Weekly asked Walter for comment, but she said she didn’t feel comfortable talking about her case because of the upcoming hearing.
We called County Attorney Barbara LaWall’s office for comment, but had not received a response by press time. We also called the private law firm the county hired, Gabroy Rollman and Bossé, and left a message for Richard Rollman, the attorney of record for both the case before the personnel board and the public-records lawsuit. The Weekly did not hear back as of press time.
Besides the Pima County Attorney’s Office, Walter also filed her public records complaint against LaWall, Chief Deputy County Attorney Amelia Crammer, Chief Civil Deputy County Attorney Chris Straub, Deputy County Attorney Regina Nassen and Deputy County Attorney Stacey Roseberry.
According to court documents the Weekly obtained through the Pima County Superior Court, Walter’s issues began in November when she participated in an attorney-hiring process.
In an April 30 memorandum to Judge Ted Borek, Walter claims she received the disciplinary letter as retaliation after she reported the misconduct and unethical behavior. Walter then requested her personnel files, any documentation involving the attorney-interview process, information about the investigation that was supposed to have taken place after she reported the misconduct, and communications between attorneys regarding her discipline.
Walter said she did receive some records, but in the court documents, she said one disk with more than 500 pages included very little requested information. However, Walter also said she received documents involving an attorney who was interviewed that included bank, payroll and insurance information. That kind of information, Walter said, she’d consider confidential.
In the response filed by the county’s attorney on April 27, the county admitted that Walter has never received any counseling or discipline during her 30 years with the department. The document also stated that an investigation of Walter’s claims was completed, and it was concluded that there were no hiring-policy violations.
According to a memorandum to the court filed by the county’s attorney, the disciplinary action Walter received in December was one of the “least-serious forms of discipline available; it is ‘informal’ discipline. As long as the conduct for which the employee was counseled is not repeated within the following 12 months, a letter of counseling is expunged from the employee’s personnel file one year after it was given.”
The county’s attorney also contends that the disciplinary letter concerns matters that occurred before the November hiring process. According to a memorandum filed by the county’s private attorney, in September 2011, Straub asked Walter to provide him notice of upcoming staff meetings and agendas. When it was determined that Walter didn’t follow that request, Straub met with other attorneys in the office to decide what to do next. Straub was then told by LaWall to draft a disciplinary letter to Walter on Nov. 14. It wasn’t until Nov. 15 that Walter met with Crammer regarding her complaints on attorney-hiring violations, so therefore, from the county’s perspective, retaliation couldn’t have occurred. The memorandum notes that Walter received the disciplinary letter in early December 2011.
As part of Walter’s public-records request, she asks for a log and explanation of why the records she wants will not be released, and why portions were redacted. The county’s response is that it is not legally obligated to provide that log. It also contends that her request is too broad, and that a good deal of the information she requested is confidential in nature.
There was a proposal to allow Walter to view the information she requested in the County Attorney’s office, but she needed to sign a confidentiality agreement. Walter put off that offer until Wednesday, May 9, when Judge Borek ruled in Walter’s favor, which also led to her signing the confidentiality agreement to view the records Borek thought were confidential.
What information Walter chooses to use for her case won’t be known until the second hearing on Thursday, June 7.
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2012.
Interesting about these “unblemished” records at PCAO. I’m a former employee of Lee Walter’s, and my public records file shows an unblemished record too, but for some strange reason, I am no longer eligible for re-hire in any county position. I really hope that the media can dig into this and find out about all the misgivings that occur at that office, and then are swept under the rug. Our County Attorney’s office is a governmental disaster. They always had so many nasty things to say about Pinal County; the irony here is awesome.
I agree. After I, myself, “blew the whistle” regarding a paralegal performing private legal document preparation … Including that of Wills, on company time…i received a disciplinary action set forth by Lee Walter & was soon fired…even though prior to that I also had an unblemished record. Funny how that works.
“Unblemished” record?!? Perhaps “UNTRACEABLE” record is better suited for her employment history. Here’s an addendum to your addendum….Lee Walter is an Operations Manager for the Civil Division of the Pima County Attorney’s Office. She has been in that position since the Stephen Neely era. Lee Walter is a tyrant and anyone that has been managed by this woman will know she is the “queen of retaliation and torment”. Her “Whistleblower” and “Special Action” claim makes her sound like a woman with great integrity and ethics. Her claim asserts that she refused to “fix” an employment interview process – let it be known SHE IS NORTIOUS FOR FIXING EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWS like the hiring of her child’s caregiver as a paralegal in that division and the countless others she has hired and/or promoted as long as they follow her rule. Her notion that Barbara LaWall is hiding something in her public records request comes only from a person that is the architect at hiding detectable materials.
This just isn’t about Chief Civil Deputy Chris Straub; she has unequivocally not adjusted to anyone in the Chief Deputy position that holds her accountable. She undermines their authority and the authority of Barbara LaWall, she delegates her managerial duties to other staff members, retaliates against attorney staff with support staff assignments, causes unproductive and damaging havoc among staff members, she has established untraceable acts of retaliation to many employees. Her mastermind techniques of untraceable due diligent acts allows her to cover her paper trail, her disappearing acts and lack of visibility in the office she manages, she untruthfully downgrades employee evaluations, her breach of confidentiality and dishonesty have plagued that division for the least 2 decades under her helm. Lee Walter touts that the office has a difficult time with recruitment because of competitive salary – this is the farthest from the truth! The office lacks quality, experienced and professional staff members because of the low morale she has created in that division. She boasts about her stellar and untarnished managerial/employment record, however we can see that a vast majority of employment cases are usually bogus…..High-quality employees just move on to bigger and better opportunities instead of tolerating the albatross around those burdened by her bullying acts. Lee Walter brings such counterfeit claims because she has no recourse. As history has shown us oppressor’s time is usually cut short when the oppressed have been exhausted. A public records request of the various employees that have left this division the last two decades with an “honest” exit interview would warrant and would find a more tarnished record to this public sector tormenter; including the most recent, Terry D. who drank himself to death last fall at the hand of her evil and retaliatory acts of miss-management and vindictive plots.