Opinion ID: 5949
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Constitution of the Review Panel

Text: 55 Without labeling it discriminatory, the district court expressly considered the improper make up of the Service's review panel as a key element in the totality of the circumstances surrounding the promotion process that led to the court's finding of discrimination against Odom. As we observed earlier, the court stated: 56 The review panel appointed to make the selection, which was made up solely of white males, was improperly constituted under the agency's own regulations. The inclusion of Mr. Hicks on the review panel in violation of internal regulations which prohibited supervisors of applicants from serving on the review panel is especially probative since Defendant excluded eligible and available minorities from serving on the review panel because they had supervised some of the applicants or came from the same division as some of the applicants. 25 57 In making this determination, the district court rejected and did not discuss the only evidence in the record--testimony by one of Regional Chief Inspector Moore's assistants--concerning the composition of the review panel. Apparently ignoring the Service's witnesses, the court implicitly found that the composition of the panel evidenced a discriminatory intent toward Odom. We cannot accept either the district court's unexplained disregard of the facially benign explanation given by the Service or the inference of discrimination the court made from the fact that the panel was comprised of three white males in derogation of a provision in Service guidelines for the inclusion of at least one woman or minority on every panel. 58 The district court found the constitution of the review panel especially probative, because minorities who were supervisors of applicants for positions and were of appropriate rank were not appointed to the panel while Hicks, a white male, was included on the panel even though an employee whom he supervised (Hurlbut) was under consideration by the panel. Yet if the district court even considered the uncontradicted testimony of Walker Liner, the Regional Personal Officer and one of Moore's assistants, that fact is not apparent from its opinion. 59 Liner testified that the fact that Hicks was the supervisor of one of the applicants did not come to anyone's attention when the recommendations for the review panel assignment were being made. By the time it was discovered that Hurlbut had applied and that he was supervised by Hicks, the panel was simply too far into the process for anything to be done about the problem. Moreover, Liner's uncontradicted testimony was that when on previous occasions panels had been constituted in technical violation of the guidelines, it was not uncommon for the panelists to serve nonetheless. His experience had been that it was difficult (if not impossible) to constitute every panel in a technically correct manner, and that the fact that it occurred here had nothing to do with Odom's case. 60 The district court also ignored, without comment, the reasonable, benign explanations for there having been no minority member or woman on the instant review panel. At the time the panel was appointed, there were no women supervisors at the appropriate level in the Southern region. As for potential minority participation on the review panel, Liner provided reasonable (and uncontradicted) explanations concerning why each potential qualified minorities supervisor had to be excluded. 26 61 The district court found that the bending of the Service's guideline by allowing Hicks to serve on the panel while excluding potential minority panelist evidenced discrimination against Odom. As discussed, however, the record does not contain any evidence whatsoever of a nexus between the panel's make-up and age or racial discrimination towards Odom--certainly none sufficient to support a finding of discrimination on this point. The inclusion of Hicks on the panel was at most one of oversight regarding Hurlbut's application. Besides, the unavailability of qualified female or minority supervisors to serve on the panel made the appointment of some white male unavoidable. Further, the relevant service guideline does not impose an absolute duty to include a woman or minority group member on each review committee. Instead, the guideline dictates that every effort will be made to designate one such person to each review committee. This language implicitly recognizes that it will not always be possible to compose a review committee in accordance with this standard. 62 Odom's argument, and the reliance of the district court in this regard, encounter another problem: There is simply no evidence that the inclusion of Hicks on the panel had any producing causal connection with Odom's failure to make the panel's top five list. All three panel members were white males, so there is no basis for singling out Hick's appointment as evidence of race or age bias. That Hicks was a supervisor of one of the applicants who made the consensus top five list may show cronyism, but cannot be classified as reflecting race or age bias. After all, not one of the three panelists included Odom in his top five list. Moreover, the only difference in the panelists' individual top five lists was the inclusion of either Nichols or Hurlbut as the last of the sixteen applicants to make the consensus top five list. If anyone should be heard to complain about the composition of the panel, it could only be Nichols--not Odom. For even if Hicks' position on the panel had been filled by a non-white, non-male, non-supervisor who eventually included Odom on her top five list, he still would not have been on the top five list of either of the other two panelists, and thus presumably would not have made the cut. To the extent that the district court found the evidence of discrimination in the makeup of the review panel, the court clearly erred. 63