Opinion ID: 3160472
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Casey's Employment at Hanscom

Text: The CHPS Program was created pursuant to an interagency agreement between the Federal Occupational Health Division (FOH Division) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the United States Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC). Its purpose is to provide occupational health services to civilian employees of the AFMC. However, neither the FOH Division nor the AFMC directly administer or run the CHPS Program. Rather, the FOH Division engages private contractors to perform these functions. In 2007, Casey was hired as a Nurse Coordinator by STG International Inc. (STG), the government contractor then employed to administer the CHPS Program at Hanscom. As a Nurse Coordinator, Casey was responsible for teaching health and wellness classes, conducting blood pressure and cardiac risk profile screenings, and performing other health-related services for AFMC personnel employed at Hanscom. In 2010, the contractual arrangements were amended. A company known as Millennium Health and Fitness, Inc. (Millennium) became the prime contractor to the FOH Division, and STG entered into a subcontract with Millennium. Contemporaneously, Casey executed a new employment agreement with STG, now the subcontractor to Millennium. This agreement provided - 4 - that Casey would continue her employment with STG, performing similar job functions as she had previously when STG was the primary contractor to the FOH Division. At all relevant times, STG set and paid Casey's salary and provided her with employee benefits and W-2 forms. Casey's immediate STG supervisor was Jesse Burk, who was the Health Promotion Operation Manager overseeing the CHPS Program at a total of eight Air Force bases across the country. Although Burk initially was employed by STG when it was the prime contractor, in 2010, coincidentally with the contract change, she became an employee of Millennium. Burk reported to Susan Steinman, who was an employee of the FOH Division of the DHHS. At all times, based on criteria prescribed by the FOH Division, Burk was responsible for developing the health and wellness curriculum that Casey taught at Hanscom. Burk also reviewed Casey's calendar on a monthly basis to ensure that Casey was teaching the requisite number of courses and was otherwise using her time effectively. While Burk was employed by STG, among her other duties, she was responsible for completing Casey's performance evaluations. When Burk transferred from STG to Millennium, direct responsibility for Casey's performance evaluations fell to a different STG employee, though Burk continued to provide Casey with feedback and recommendations. - 5 - The record suggests that, sometime in 2011, Casey's work performance began to falter. For example, in August 2011, Burk was forced to counsel Casey about her poor communication skills and her unexplained absences from her office during the workday. The situation escalated in November 2011, when Burk received reports from William Carpenter, the manager of the Health and Wellness Center at Hanscom (where Casey's office was located), that Casey was not performing her job duties and was being uncommunicative. On Thursday, November 10, Casey discovered a memorandum critical of her performance sitting on a workplace copy machine and confronted Carpenter in his office about the memorandum's contents. The parties offer diverging accounts of exactly what transpired, although it is clear that, immediately following the confrontation, Casey reported to military police that Carpenter had assaulted her. Burk did not learn of the November 10 incident until the following Monday, November 14, when she received an e-mail from Judith Holl, an AFMC employee in charge of overseeing the CHPS Program. Holl's e-mail reported a major incident at Hanscom, and in subsequent communications with Burk, Holl urged that Casey be removed from the CHPS Program. In turn, Burk contacted Steinman. Over the course of the day on November 14, Holl, Burk, and Steinman communicated by phone and e-mail about the need to terminate Casey's employment based on her poor performance. - 6 - The next day, November 15, the tenor of the communications changed drastically, as Holl, Burk, and Steinman grew increasingly concerned that Casey was refusing to respond to military personnel at Hanscom, and was unaccounted for at a secure military facility. Holl indicated that she had grave concerns about . . . Casey's presence [at] Hanscom, and she reported that Casey sounded paranoid almost delusional. Holl requested that Casey be removed immediately from [Hanscom] and her ID card confiscated. Around midday on November 15, STG made the decision to terminate Casey's employment. Burk spoke with Casey by phone, and notified her that she was being placed on administrative leave. Shortly thereafter, Air Force Colonel Frank Glenn (Colonel Glenn) arrived at Casey's office, escorted her off the base, and revoked her security clearance. STG formally terminated Casey's employment two days later on November 17, 2011.