Whitewash: Bilello Exonerated by IG & CCO

On November 7, 2012 Inspector General Scott Danielson (IG) and Chief Compliance Officer Josh Leicht (CCO), issued a four page report that exonerates Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Mike Bilello of improper conduct and finds that there was inappropriate conduct by former District Council President Bill Lebo (who was forced to resign) during a meeting (see article "Insanity") of the delegate body on July 25, 2012, where both Bilello and Lebo, during questioning, on the MWA crisis, became unhinged, harassed, intimidated, threaten and allowed members of the delegate body to disrupt the meeting, and moved to file charges against me, allegedly for revealing "strategy," by posting the names of newly hired "outside attorneys" on this blog.

The much delayed and anticipated joint report is a disgraceful whitewash in its inaccuracies and transparent motives.

And, it appears to reasonable people who have read the report that the Bilello administration has succeeded in intimidating the IG and CCO into doing its bidding.

In a November 13, email commenting on the report, Review Officer Dennis Walsh wrote:

"Though reasonable men might draw different conclusions from what they observed at the July 25th delegate meeting, I am of the view that the events which were the subject of the report represent an appalling failure of decorum and procedure and that the conduct of the chair could fairly be characterized as harassment."

In response to the report, I emailed the IG and CCO and wrote among other things, that "the joint report is filled with inaccurate quotes, lies, material taken out of context and in no way reflects what transpired at the delegate body meeting on July 25, 2012."

"You have delivered a whitewash report that misrepresented EST Bilello's response to my questions by cherry-picking Bilello's comments in an effort to exonerate and portray him in the most desirable way."

Mr. Leicht responded and acknowledged an error in the report, stating that the word "not" was missing from "the first sentence of the last full paragraph on page 3."

He said that sentence should read as follows: "We find that President Lebo did not retire from the Chair or follow established procedures when he injected himself into the exchange between you and Executive Secretary-Treasurer Bilello at the July 25 meeting of the Delegate Body."  

Leicht also said that he disagrees with my characterization of the report and he believes that the July 25 meeting was "poorly conducted and did not reflect well on the District Council as a whole, the conduct towards you did not rise to the level of constituting "harassment" or "intimidation" as those terms are commonly understood."

In response among other things I said, if you believe the meeting was "poorly conducted and did not reflect well on the District Council as a whole," (which is an understatement) why didn't you write that in the report?

The report (which took over three months to complete) is filled with errors of fact and is a sloppy and shoddy work product that does not correctly reflect what actually transpired at the delegate meeting.

The fact that the IG and CCO did not interview other delegates, the rank-and-file members in attendance, council employees or RO is a travesty of justice.

I suggested to the IG and CCO that they "tear up this atrocious report and write a new report which correctly reflects what did in fact transpire."

It is grossly inaccurate and a disgraceful whitewash for the IG and CCO to write:

"We find no evidence that Bilello "behaved improperly or inappropriately" and he responded to questions "in a generally civil manner."

Bilello's comments and conduct are entirely improper, inappropriate and uncivil.

His comments are what incited Lebo and members of the delegate body into a mob mentality, reminiscent of a scene from a Frankenstein movie where the angry village people armed with torches and pitchforks go after the Frankenstein monster (me).

Taking their cue from Bilello and following his unethical "tone from the top," Lebo and the delegates acted accordingly and behaved and conducted themselves exactly how Bilello intended, I was heckled, intimidated, harassed, and threaten.

It is an injustice and absolutely ridiculous for the IG and CCO to write, Bilello conducted himself in a "civil manner."

Below is a copy of the joint report and exclusive audio (click here for transcript) of the meeting during my questions regarding the MWA. I am the first speaker, Bilello second, then Lebo (as usual improperly interrupting within 60 seconds of questioning). The "appalling failure of decorum and procedure" starts at 10 minutes and 15 seconds into the recording.

Decide for yourself, do you agree or disagree with the findings of the IG and CCO, please post your comments.

iPhone users click here for audio.



11-07-12 - CC0-IGO Dec re JM 5F complaint