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Cleveland settles airport whistleblower’s First Amendment-retaliation lawsuit
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
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CLEVELAND, OHIO – On Friday, October 5, 2018 the City of Cleveland agreed to pay whistleblower Abdul Malik-Ali an additional
$425,000, plus increased wage compensation of $3,210 per year, to settle a federal First Amendment-retaliation suit against
the City and various officials arising from Mr. Ali’s reports to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of serious
airport safety violations.
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport airfield-maintenance manager alerted FAA to safety violations.
Cleveland settles airport whistleblower’s First Amendment-retaliation lawsuit
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport airfield-maintenance manager alerted FAA to safety violations. OSHA found he endured
immediate retaliation. The total recovery now exceeds $500,000.
CLEVELAND, OHIO – On Friday, October 5, the City of Cleveland agreed to pay whistleblower Abdul Malik-Ali an additional
$425,000, plus increased wage compensation of $3,210 per year, to settle a federal First Amendment-retaliation suit against
the City and various officials arising from Mr. Ali’s reports to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of serious
airport safety violations.
The amount is in addition to the $95,798 in damages and attorneys’ fees and expenses that the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (“OSHA”), in a May 23, 2017 letter, awarded for the retaliation, and brings the total amount
for which the City is responsible to remedy the retaliation to $520,798, plus the wage increase.
The agreement followed a mediation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio conducted by Magistrate Judge
Jonathan Greenberg.
In 2015, Mr. Ali, who is the airport’s airfield-maintenance manager, told the FAA that the airport regularly failed
to meet FAA-mandated staffing levels for its snow-and-ice-removal operations. The failures resulted in diverted and cancelled
flights and put passengers at risk.
Hours after Mr. Ali blew the whistle, then-airport-director Ricky D. Smith, Sr. (who now directs Baltimore-Washington International
Airport), immediately “reassigned” Mr. Ali to a makeshift closet at the airport where he was given only menial
“makework” like monitoring trash levels in dumpsters. Stripped of his supervisory responsibilities, Mr. Ali suffered
deep humiliation and continued harassment.
Mr. Ali reported the retaliation to OSHA, which, following an investigation, agreed with him and ordered him reinstated to
his former, managerial position and awarded emotional-distress damages and attorneys’ fees. The FAA went on to impose
a record $735,000 civil penalty on Cleveland (later reduced to $200,000) based on the safety violations Mr. Ali brought to
the FAA's attention.
Mr. Ali also filed a 2017 lawsuit in which he claimed that the airport had violated his First Amendment rights and other rights
arising under Ohio law. It is that lawsuit, captioned Ali v. City of Cleveland et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-00634, that the City
agreed to resolve on Friday. Individually named defendants in the case included former Port Control (airport) Director Ricky
D. Smith, Sr.; Fred Szabo, Jeanette Saunders, current airport Director Robert W. Kennedy, and Edward Rybka.
The settlement provides that Ali will be paid $425,000 in three installments over the next year. As part of the settlement,
the City also agreed to
increase Ali’s annual salary by $3,210;
abide by all of OSHA’s directives and implement all its remedies;
purge Ali’s personnel file of all disciplinary letters and reports connected to his whistleblowing, including a 15-day
suspension he received for placing an emergency order of de-icing chemicals to clear runways and protect the public;
not impair Ali’s participation in any federal or state proceeding or investigation that may be launched into Ricky Smith’s
conduct while at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
Since Ali’s reinstatement to his previous managerial position overseeing airfield maintenance, runway safety has vastly
improved. On September 20, 2018, following an FAA inspection, the airport received the agency’s highest safety rating—receiving
no letters of correction.
On May 30, 2017, the editorial board of the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com commended Mr. Ali for "being willing to put his
own job on the line and report dangerous conditions"—and took the rare step of urging the City to "swiftly settle" with
Mr. Ali.
Ali's lead counsel, Subodh Chandra, said, "Mr. Ali did the right thing in informing the FAA about safety concerns, and should
never have endured retaliation for doing so. Mayor Jackson should nominate Mr. Ali for the John F. Kennedy Profile-in-Courage
Award."
Ali is represented by Chandra, Donald Screen, and Patrick Kabat of the Chandra Law Firm LLC, www.ChandraLaw.com.
Re: Retaliation threats by City of Cleveland and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, related to Case No. #EWB15580 that
chill potential for safety-violation reports
Dear federal officials responsible for the traveling public’s safety:
I write on behalf of Abdul-Malik Ali to provide additional information about the climate of fear Cleveland Hopkins International
Airport management has created. The airport’s conduct is having a chilling effect on the potential for additional safety
violations being brought to public attention.
THE CHANDRA LAW FIRM
1265 West 6th St
Suite 400,
Cleveland, OH 44113
Map & Directions
Phone: 216-578-1700
Fax: 216-578-1800
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https://www.chandralaw.com/blog/cleveland-settles-airport-whistleblowers-first-amendment-retaliation-lawsuit
http://www.chandralaw.com/files/blog/ChandraToFAAOfficials.pdf
THE CHANDRA LAW FIRM
1265 West 6th St
Suite 400,
Cleveland, OH 44113
Map & Directions
Phone: 216-578-1700
Fax: 216-578-1800
January 24, 2017
By email
Birkely M. Rhodes Manager, Safety Standards Branch Great Lakes Region —Airports Division—Safety & Standards Branch
FAA Great Lakes Regional Office O’Hare Lake Office Center 2300 East Devon Ave., Rm 319 Des Plaines, IL 60018 Birkely.M.Rhodes@faa.gov
Susan Mowery-Schalk Manager, Airports Division Great Lakes Region FAA Great Lakes Regional Office O’Hare Lake Office
Center 2300 East Devon Ave., Rm. 309 Des Plaines, IL 60018 Susan.Mowery-Schalk@faa.gov
Patricia Halpin FAA Hopkins-CLE Certification Safety Inspector Great Lakes Region Airports Division, Safety & Standards Branch
FAA Great Lakes Regional Office O’Hare Lake Office Center 2300 East Devon Ave., Rm. 319 Des Plaines, IL 60018 Tricia.Halpin@faa.gov
Benito De Leon Acting Associate Administrator for Airports FAA 800 Independence Ave, SW Washington, D.C. 20591 Benito.DeLeon@faa.gov
Stephanie Swann Deputy Manager Great Lakes Region Romulus, Detroit, Michigan Airport District Office FAA Detroit ADO 11677-B
South Wayne Rd., Rm. 107 Romulus, MI 48174 Office Phone: 734-229-2902 Fax: 734-229-2920 Stephanie.Swann@faa.gov
Vincent L. Murray II Manager Audit and Analysis Branch FAA—Office of Audit and Evaluation U.S. Department of Transportation
800 Independence Ave., SW Washington, D.C. 20591 Vincent.Murray@faa.gov
Richard Abernathy Regional Supervisory Inspector U.S. Department of Labor – OSHA 420 Madison Ave., Ste. 600 Toledo,
OH 43604 Abernathy.Richard@dol.gov
Re: Retaliation threats by City of Cleveland and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, related to Case No. #EWB15580 that
chill potential for safety-violation reports
Page 2 of 3 www.ChandraLaw.com
Dear federal officials responsible for the traveling public’s safety:
I write on behalf of Abdul-Malik Ali to provide additional information about the climate of fear Cleveland Hopkins International
Airport management has created. The airport’s conduct is having a chilling effect on the potential for additional safety
violations being brought to public attention.
On or about January 19, 2017, following a meeting with top mayoral aides and with the new Director of Port Control Robert
Kennedy, Robert Henderson—the current airfield-maintenance manager at Hopkins—addressed all field-maintenance
staff. Mr. Henderson threatened those employees with retaliation if they publicly disclose any additional safety violations.
The enclosed recording of Henderson’s remarks captures the retaliatory threat in reference to our January 18, 2017 complaint
to you:
If anybody is caught associating with anything like that, the penalties will be great. So I’m calling y’all together
now. Let’s go ahead and put it out there; let’s talk about it right now. So we can get it out of the way. Because
if anyone is caught sitting there having a sideline conversations about this, or with [unintelligible] did to somebody else,
or let me send it to this friend or let me do that, that could connect you with something that’s, that’s frowned
upon in the organization—to take internal stuff and leak it out to the media. So please don’t engage in, in all
that. I’m putting it out right here, right now. It ain’t nothing to whisper about. Ain’t nothing [unintelligible].
Nothin’ going to happen. We goin’ keep on doin’ business.
That’s it. So, if, you are all grown people, you do the choices that you do what you do, but listen don’t get
caught up in, in that. It’s news. It is what it is…
A transcript of the recording is attached for your convenience.
This threat violates the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (Air21) as well as the First
and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. And it serves as evidence that the retaliation against Mr. Ali is part of a
broader custom, policy, and practice of retaliation by the City of Cleveland that must be stopped.
As you know, Mr. Ali was for 15 years the manager of airfield maintenance at Hopkins. On February 18, 2015, he was demoted
after reporting blatant safety violations to the FAA, case #EWB15580. The FAA found Mr. Ali’s safety concerns “substantiated.”
(See FAA letter to Mr. Ali dated March 27, 2015 enclosed with my January 18, 2017 letter to you.)
OSHA has been investigating Mr. Ali’s retaliation for nearly two years. Mr. Ali spends his days in a veritable mop closet
at Hopkins, from which he discharges the
Page 3 of 3 www.ChandraLaw.com
humiliating task of counting trash levels in airport dumpsters for a daily report. On January 18, 2017, we reported additional
safety violations to you on Mr. Ali’s behalf.
As I explained in my January 18 letter, the intensifying retaliatory climate at Hopkins is chilling public employees’
willingness to come forward and report safety and retaliation violations to you, as is their right, and as the law encourages.
Many of these distressed employees have been in touch with us—as is their right—and are praying that you will
take swift action. If Director Kennedy thinks he can ignore the ongoing retaliation against Mr. Ali without addressing it,
then this in effect means that he is succeeding in engaging in and indeed leading it. In purportedly seeking to address internally
the concerns raised in our January 18 letter, Director Kennedy has failed to seek input from the one person with the most
knowledge and experience about airfield maintenance at Hopkins—Mr. Ali. That speaks volumes.
We request your acknowledgement of this and our January 18 correspondence.
Sincerely,
Subodh Chandra
Enclosures (January 19, 2017 Henderson recording and transcript)
Cc: Barbara Langhenry, Esq., Director of Law, City of Cleveland (via email) Jonathan McGory, Esq. (via email
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