Sat, Sep 18, 2004
Board Members Say Engleman Conners Is A Bit Heavy-Handed
Her employees say she's
restricted their travel, fiddled with hiring and even told them
what clothes to wear -- and they've had enough.
Three members of the NTSB have sent a letter to NTSB Chairwoman
Ellen Engleman Conners, explaining why she probably won't get a
Christmas card from the staff this year. Carol Carmody, Richard
Healing and Deborah Hersman all have beefs with Conners --
three-and-a-half pages worth of beefs, to be exact.
That would all make for a nice in-house brouhaha, except that
Ms. Engleman Conners reportedly wants to hire staff on the behalf
of NTSB members, limit interviews with the news media and wants to
settle a lot of the board's long-standing safety
recommendations.
Ms. Engleman Conners worked in the Department of Transportation
before she was appointed by the Bush administration to lead the
NTSB. As you know, it's a board of five independent members -- all
political appointees -- but all supposedly free of political
baggage.
So imagine the surprise of Ms. Engleman Conner's fellow board
members when they walked into her office and found, big as life,
portraits of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
Perhaps the most bizarre
aspect of the complaints was Ms. Engleman Conner's fashion
criticism. The Saint Petersburg (FL) Times reports she even went so
far as to make sure what other board members wore didn't clash with
her own outfits.
Former board member John Goglia joked at his retirement party in
April that she made recommendations about his ties. "She once
recommended I wear bright, lively ties," he said this week. "I even
went out and bought some." He was quoted in the Times.
Ms. Engleman Conners wouldn't respond to reporters' questions
about the complaints. Instead, NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said
"her door remains open to her colleagues" and she "hopes that board
members will continue to focus on the important mission of the
board rather than on bureaucratic distractions," according to the
St. Pete paper.
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