1/29/2010: Also see here. AAEO Director Penny Daugherty only started working on this draft because of pressure from the OFCCP and, perhaps, the Oregon DOJ. What is going on?
Dear Attorney General Kroger:
As the email below indicates, the UO General Counsel’s office has denied my request for a fee waiver for a copy of the current working draft of UO’s 2009-2010 Affirmative Action Plan. As a federal contractor, federal regulations require UO to prepare AA plans, update them annually, and make copies available “for inspection and copying”. The relevant regulations, which derive from several different federal laws and which are available at http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/index.htm repeatedly say:
The affirmative action program shall be reviewed and updated annually.
and
The full affirmative action program shall be available to any employee or applicant for employment for inspection upon request. The location and hours during which the program may be obtained shall be posted at each establishment.
As your office knows, UO has not updated its affirmative action plans since sometime in October, 2008, though that plan was apparently then backdated and signed by UO President Frohnmayer to read “effective Jan 1 2008.”
Given that this working draft is therefore the closest thing UO has to a valid Affirmative Action Plan, I think it is clearly in the public interest to make it available for inspection without a fee, as these federal regulations rather clearly envision would be the case, had UO complied with them.
Indeed it would seem odd for the Oregon DOJ to hold UO to a lesser standard of disclosure, given that they haven’t complied with these regulations, than the federal government would hold them to if they had followed the rules.
Therefore this is a petition that you order UO General Counsel, and Oregon Special Assistant Attorney General Melinda Grier to waive this proposed fee and make this document available for inspection without further delay or charge.
Sincerely,
Professor X
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