REPRESENTATIVE Stanley T. Torres yesterday requested the Attorney General’s Office to conduct an investigation into the alleged acts of impropriety committed by Health Secretary James U. Hofschneider against the nursing director of the Commonwealth Health Center.
In his letter to Attorney General Robert T. Torres, the lawmaker said he was “disturbed” by the “serious accusation that Hofschneider has repeatedly displayed impropriety on his dealings with Remy B. Tudela,” the CHC’s nursing director.
“I…request your office to conduct an immediate investigation on this matter as I firmly believe that every worker’s right should be protected and discrimination in the workplace should not be tolerated,” the lawmaker said.
He said he was informed that Hofschneider allegedly “harassed” and belittled” Tudela on April 15 after she asked Gov. Juan N. Babauta a question she felt was pertinent to her job.
Hosfchneider was unavailable for comment.
In a June 10 letter of Tudela to Hosfchneider, she related that in the April 15 meeting of some officials and staff of the Department of Public Health with Babauta, she asked the governor some information on the direct hiring of nurses.
After the meeting, Tudela claimed that Hofschneider called her in his office and “scolded me like a child for asking the question.”
She claimed that the secretary “embarrassed her in front of other staff and felt that I have been punished for doing something I strongly felt I had the right to do.”
The following day, Tudela related on her letter that Hofschneider took her to acting Deputy Health Secretary Jack Taitano’s office and “harassed” her again for asking the question. “Both of you acted like it was a joke and laughed at me anyway. I felt very belittled by that gesture,” Tudela told Hofschneider in the letter.
Also, on May 31, Representative Torres told the attorney general that the secretary allegedly “poked fun” at Tudela again in front of some people for asking Babauta the question.
In her letter, Tudela said he treated Hofschneider with respect but the health secretary treated her as if “I am uneducated and I don’t know what I am doing.”
She complained that it was not the first time that such acts of impropriety and harassment were done to her by Hosfchneider.
Heads of government agencies, according to Representative Torres, “are supposed to be the paragons of fairness and dignity.”
“But in the case of Secretary Hofschneider, it seems that he is incapable of promoting harmonious working relationship within his department, as it is apparent that he is the cause of his staff’s demoralization,” the lawmaker said.
