From WXIA:
A group of Atlanta attorneys and federal judges are questioning the motive of moving a Social Security hearing office from north Atlanta to a wealthy suburb. ...
There are two hearing offices in Atlanta where the disabled must go for a judge to approval Social Security benefits, downtown at the Sam Nunn Federal Building and 3105 Clairmont Road.
Earlier this year, the agency secretly starting relocating the Clairmont Road location to Alpharetta, 25 miles away. It’s scheduled to open in January. The new location, 4100 Old Milton Parkway, happens to be conveniently located about five miles from Judge Ollie Garmon’s Alpharetta home. He is one of the highest ranking social security judges in the country.
Garmon currently works out of the Sam Nunn Federal Building in downtown Atlanta. According to blueprints and sources familiar with the move, the agency plans to build Garmon an office inside the future Alpharetta social security hearing office. This will cut his commute nearly an hour during rush-hour.
The move was so secret, the agency didn’t even notify its own judges. In May, the Association of Administrative Law Judges filed a grievance with Social Security to block the move.
“No judges were notified about this move to my knowledge. I’m unsure if any employees were notified about this move until after the lease had been signed,” said Carol Moore, a vice president with the Association of Administrative Law Judges. Moore is also an administrative law judge in Macon. ...
Numerous Atlanta-area attorneys, who represent clients seeking disability benefits, say the move makes no sense. They don’t think the relocation close to Garmon’s home is a coincidence either.
“I don’t know, but it kind of smells like it wasn’t,” said Robbie Weaver, an attorney out of Blairsville. ...
Atlanta attorney John Hogan said, “[It’s] an inconvenient location without any benefit.” ...
“As I’ve said before. I cannot answer questions. I’ll be happy to do that at the proper time,” Garmon said.
A spokesperson for Social Security explained in an email that, ”the new location is centrally located to better serve the public,” it will have an “additional restroom” and “more parking.”
“If you put a dot on the map and drew a circle, that could be the case, but the reality is, without access to the bus station, it’s a false perception,” said Hogan. ...
To determine how the move will impact disability claiments who rely on public transportation, the 11Alive Investigators took public transit to both the current and the future site from downtown Atlanta. ...
From downtown to proposed Alpharetta hearing office: it took two trains, a bus and required more than a one mile walk. ...
25 comments:
whoooo boy! gonna just sit back and watch this one.
Having practiced across this country, I can assert that SSA has a less than stellar record making hearing offices accessible. But this development, if done to cater to one ALJ, would be a whopper. And more evidence no one at SSA is at the wheel.
I only had to go to Alpharetta once, and if I hadn't had a very good GPS, I would still be there. A nightmare place to drive.
Disgusting. Why make it harder to access from public transportation? Most people have a hard enough time as it is.
Nutshell Version:
1) Garmon engaged in misconduct, wrongdoing and Prohibited Personnel Practices as ROCALJ, a Senior Attorney 27 has noted in recent threads.
2) There has been a massive COVER-UP through the entire chain of command all the way up to and including Acting Commissioner Colvin. Colvin was not confirmed SSA Commissioner or renominated.
3) The folks in Falls Church told Garmon he had to leave his ROCALJ position. Garmon said no, and fought kicking and screaming. Falls Church finally agreed to allow him to gerrymander a hearing office near his home in order to get him out of his ROCALJ position, even though he will be assigned to Falls Church. He reportedly has an office with his name on it.
4) So, Garmon barely got a slap on the wrist for the illegal misconduct he engaged, which destroyed the lives of several good career Federal employees over the years - NO ACCOUNTABILITY.
5) Colvin refuses to allow the new nominee for SSA Deputy Commissioner, Eanes, to take control of the ship, after he was all but confirmed by Senate Finance Committee. At one point, she even offered to step down to a lower SES position and reduced pay providing she could maintain power as the Head of SSA. Colvin's only reason is so she can protect Garmon and his associated minions, other SSA employees and managers who engaged in the same misconduct as he, from being held accountable because as Head of the Agency the decision is in her exclusive control.
^^ speculation by disillusioned former employee
The agency's conduct is terrible. The office is being moved to the wealthiest city in metro Atlanta. The explanation is ridiculous. The office is not going to be centrally located for people who have in person hearings. The new office is in the extreme northwest corner of the service area. If it were just a mile further west on the other side of a highway, it would be out of the service area. There can't be 2 dozen claims pending within 5 miles of that location. The majority of claimants in the service area live in dekalb county and southern Gwinnett county, within 5-10 miles of the existing office. Those people will now be traveling 30 miles or more.
The bus route that serves the new office doesn't run all day. It's designed to get workers back and forth from the nearest subway station, which is 2 cities to the south. The bus only runs in the early morning and late afternoon. Any claimant who has to take the bus will be waiting hours in the hearing office for the route to start back up.
The agency original plan for the office only had one bathroom for the public. The second bathroom was only added after the employee unions complained. Now the agency lists it as a reason the office is moving.
Threre are acres of available parking at the existing office.
If you are going to lie about why you are moving the office,,please try harder.
@11:40AM stated, "Speculation by a disillusioned Federal employee."
Really? If this is speculation, which we all know it is not, please tell us your version of the truth. You cannodo that because SA 27 is anything but "disillusioned, or a "former" employee. Plenty of the "truth" is evidence in ongoing litigation over SA 27's situation.
11:40
Here is a current, non-disgruntled employee who know Garmon. I happen to like to like him, but I can say that he knows how to get his way. What is going on with the office relocation is completely wrong. I also support 27 because I know that there are horrible managers in SSA who lie and I don't doubt that if Garmon or one of his favorites was caught with his/her hand in the cookie jar that he would do what he thought he needed to.
All that being said, there needs to be a congressional investigation into this nonsense and heads need to roll. There is something in the water down in Atlanta. Anyone who remembers the coronation of years past will know what i am talking about. Good luck getting any congressional action because everyone is in cahoots together and one "good old buddy" is not going to do another "good old buddy" in.
Nothing is going to happen to Colvin either. There is a body at the top who is planing on leaving but it has not been generally announced so I'm not going to state here.
We are doomed.
lets also not forget that this is taking an office away that could otherwise be used by a judge to actually hear cases which I thought was allegedly important with a million plus backlog
No car? go to the public transportation accessible federal building downtown, video hearing to the north office. No big deal. No need to appear in person, we don't make credibility determinations anymore.
that was a joke don't freak out
1:44 is dead on. Research the backgrounds of the major players involved at the region and their friends that have made it up to Falls Church and higher and you will quickly find they all share an origination story that begins in the same city in a different state in the region...All the baloney that's been happening in ODAR Region 4 all these years is mostly just a bunch of long-time friends constantly doing favors for one another, even when it was a really bad idea to do so.
Yea, right. Sure it was a "joke." BS:
Having to choose a video hearing because one cannot access a SSA Disability Hearing Office is UNFAIR to the Claimants. Everyone is entitled to choose between an in person hearing and a video hearing. The majority choose in person hearings because they are more personal. Thus, not having the choice is a disadvantage for claimants.
ALJ Garmon should, by no means, be entitled to have his cake and eat it too. If Colvin only gave him a slap on the wrist by removing him from his ROCALJ position, and protected Garmon’s minions from accountability/discipline by the Agency, as well, redress can be obtained through the OSC, or personal lawsuits. Colvin’s word does not have to be the FINAL word, especially if the evidence shows Garmon and his minions were all let off with a mere slap on the wrist.
Garmon and his minions engaged in illegal activity over a period of years which destroyed the lives of good career employees who he forced out the door just like SA 27. He, and the others, must be held accountable. Allowing Garmon to gerrymander a hearing office close to his home which is not easily accessible and will cause undue hardship for many claimants and their representatives does not equate to holding a Public Official accountable. Colvin and TPTB who authorized this are guilty of malfeasance, unless they put an immediate stop to this.
...and you freaked out
Agree w SA 27 and others who have commented on the management problems in ODAR. One can stay under the radar and fake good relationships with management just to get by and make day to day life tolerable. But any intelligent person who doesn't have an agenda of wanting to join management ranks themselves can observe the unhealthy, malignant, diseased organization that ODAR seems to have become.
Look at the nitwit who was ranting about how if he can't have a senior attorney position, then no one should, and he wants all the senior attorneys demoted. That's the prevailing environment in ODAR among the new young "professional" class. And management has fostered that attitude by creating a rat race numbers competition and watching all the little rats try to beat each other out. Once in while management will mouth something about the importance of public service, but, as Joe Biden would say, it's sounds like a bunch of malarky.
there's something missing in some of these posts.......illegal actions ? what are those? and if they have not been adjudicated......how can they be judged as illegal?
the other missing piece is that ALJ Garmon has already scheduled his retirement.......so what's the point of moving the office supposedly for his benefit? sounds like another goofy GAO action......which controls the real estate work for most agencies including SSA.
I think you mean GSA. Maybe it was GSA, but SSA should have known about the overall cruddiness of the location and pushed back. The leasing/buying agency has rights, too, and can most definitely steer the process if they know what they're doing and put in the effort. For goodness sake one of SSA's biggest concerns with hearing office location is supposed to be ease of access for (allegedly disabled!) claimants. The anecdotal reports from the news source and posters above about the poor public transportation access and location of the new office essentially at one of the boundaries of its service area strongly suggest SSA would have had plenty of meat on the bone to fight for something different. Maybe R4 just doesn't know much about the process, or maybe they just are too busy, or maybe they just don't care. Who knows?
This story is so slanted it is pitiful and horrible reporting. Atlanta NORTH services Northeast Georgia - from Blairsville to Elberton all the way west - not downtown Atlanta. Why shouldn't it be located North of Atlanta instead of on Clairmont road which is practically downtown? The downtown claimants don't take MARTA to Clairmont. Have you ever had to drive from say Gainesville to Atlanta North for a hearing? Taking 85 south in rush hour?
Alpharetta does not have a rush hour. The only people complaining here are 27+ years and those who live near the horrible hearing office location on Clairmont. But they can work at home 3 days a week, so who cares? The move out of downtown should have happened YEARS ago - to anywhere north of the Perimeter.
The only thing inaccurate about the story is that the homeless guy in downtown would not have his hearing in Atlanta North. However, the nearest bus stop is a full mile away. Alpharetta doesn't have a rush hour - the traffic is terrible most of the day, and is getting worse with the huge new Avalon development. Perhaps the office should have been moved further north, but if so, further up I-85. (The traffic is terrible everywhere in metro Atlanta.) However, the main point of the story was that a "powerful" judge (Garmon) was able to get an office close to home, without any input from the ALJs and staff who work in the Atlanta office, nor from the legal community; and it does not appear to have any other benefit.
@5:53AM:
Prohibited Personnel Practices and Unfair Labor Practices have NEVER been "LEGAL ACTS." Garmon and his minions have repeatedly engaged in such acts for many, many years, and literally destroyed the lives of several good Federal employees for no reason. In certain cases, the conduct engaged crossed the criminal line. If you do not understand these issues, then look them up. Last time I checked, the entire chain of command all the way up to and including the Head of an Agency do not engage in massive COVER-UP when they have done nothing wrong.
Why do you think Colvin was NOT confirmed or renominated to be SSA Commissioner? Why do you think she refused to allow Eanes to become SSA Deputy Commissioner? Why do you think she offered to step down to a lower SES position, PROVIDING she could maintain her POWER as HEAD of the Agency? Why do you think Falls Church told Garmon he had to leave his ROCALJ position - A JOB he refused to leave without a lot of kicking and screaming? Why do you think several top SSA and ODAR officials have already quietly announced they will be leaving the Agency soon?
I suggest you wake up, smell the roses and stare the facts squarely in the face.
553
Garmon may be making noise about retiring and he may have even put in his papers, but that is a recent development. The new hearing office has been int the works for quite a while. There is a connection. If Garmon retires, it is because the kitchen finally got too hot and he can always come back as a Senior judge.
Wake up and smell the rotting sewage.
Garmon was Regional Chief during the site selection process for this location. Rumor has it that he rushed through the site selection for this location as his final act as Regional Chief. An office location on the main road that your house is located on with an out stationed office clearly labeled "OCALJ" on the floor plan is one outlandish coincidence. Further rumor has it that the union has filed a FOIA request for all of Judge Garmon's emails to GSA regarding site selection. It will be interesting to learn what they say.
I doubt that Garmon got this office reassignment because he was so popular with higher ups. Things don't work that way. Instead, I suspect, Garmon knew things that could lead to embarassment, firings or criminal charges. What kind of things? Maybe about an ALJ who worked in the same building as Region 4 offices who "signed in" for full work days while on active military duty and how the timesheets disappeared when the ALJ conduct was brought to light. And how a low producing ALJ was fired for domestic dispute charges that were dropped after maw and paw made up.
@3:02,
I respectfully disagree with you about Garmon. While I have no doubt the events surrounding the two ALJ's you described took place, I have been in Region IV many, many years, and I have observed plenty of Garmon's antics to know not to even question he got the gerrymandered office near his home because of his connections and association's with the highest level Agency officials, including Colvin.
Colvin refused to allow Eanes to be confirmed just so she could maintain her power as Head of the Agency in order to protect FAVORITES like Garmon and his minions who engaged in misconduct and wrongdoing. Race is clearly an issue here, as well. Colvin will not be able to get by with mere slaps on the wrists, or no discipline, if the actions she takes with Garmon and his minions is egregious given the seriousness of the misconduct engaged over a period of several years by these individuals.
I also do not believe Garmon's cozy deal with the gerrymandered office near his home is a done deal. Too many people, including the AALJ, are pissed about this, and easily see through the veil what really happened. It's obvious as hell.
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