Opinion ID: 625603
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ratings Session and Promotions

Text: As part of the ISP employee promotion process, each sworn employee receives an annual promotional rating, which is given by the employee's direct supervisor. [6] During the 2008 ratings session, approximately thirty individuals, including Mr. Hanners, were to be considered for promotion from master sergeant to lieutenant. Lieutenant Anderson-Martin was Mr. Hanners's rater for 2008. Following the usual protocol, she met with Mr. Hanners to go over the components of the ratings process. She then scored Mr. Hanners on a scale of 1 to 9 in nine different categories and preliminarily calculated his aggregate score as 68. Prior to the ratings session, Lieutenant Anderson-Martin inquired as to whether she should take the email incident into account for purposes of rating Mr. Hanners's job performance; she was told that she should do so. She therefore adjusted Mr. Hanners's aggregate score accordingly. However, when she reviewed her scores with the other supervisors at the ratings session, several individuals, including Commander Woods, suggested that the grade still was too high given the email incident. [7] Lieutenant Anderson-Martin expressed her concern regarding the further lowering of Mr. Hanners's rating because, aside from the email, Mr. Hanners had performed at a high level throughout the year. At the ratings session, Lieutenant Anderson-Martin felt that the discussion of her grading decision became adversarial and that the situation was compounded by the fact that she was being considered for promotion to captain. In what she deemed a difficult situation, Lieutenant Anderson-Martin ultimately agreed to reduce Mr. Hanners's grade to reflect the recommendations given by the other supervisors. Mr. Hanners therefore received an aggregate grade of 54. Mr. Hanners challenged his promotion grade in accordance with ISP protocol. The challenge was reviewed by Commander Woods, who recommended that Mr. Hanners's grade of 54 be upheld. Further, three of Mr. Hanners's superiors, Captain Fidler, Lieutenant Anderson-Martin and Lieutenant Colonel Stallworth, after considering the merits of Mr. Hanners's challenge, all agreed that his grade of 54 should not be raised. As part of the process, Lieutenant Anderson-Martin was tasked with writing a memorandum in response to Mr. Hanners's contentions. During the drafting of her memorandum in response to Mr. Hanners's challenge, Lieutenant Colonel Stallworth, who had made his displeasure with the content of the email known, informed Lieutenant Anderson-Martin that Mr. Hanners's grade would not be increased above a 54. [8] Lieutenant Anderson-Martin created several drafts of the memorandum; each draft was rejected until it was deemed to be sufficiently generic. R.31-5 at 4 (Anderson-Martin Dep. 152-53). After the challenge was reviewed by the individuals in his chain of command, including Colonel Nelson, Mr. Hanners ultimately received a promotion rating of 54.