Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 27, 1993 TAG: 9304270246
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The VA's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in Washington is reviewing a "formal complaint" against Sam Tiano, director of the Roanoke office since 1990, VA spokesman Ozzie Garza confirmed Monday. Garza wouldn't reveal the nature of the complaint.
A VA official who asked not to be identified confirmed that it was a complaint of sexual harassment.
The complaint comes as the VA is enacting a strong policy against sexual harassment.
An employee at the Roanoke regional office, who also asked not to be identified, said the complaint was filed by an employee who charged that Tiano had sexually harassed her. The employee said the harassing involved "very crude" remarks made by Tiano.
The employee said she was among at least 20 other workers who reported similar incidents when an investigator from the VA's Eastern Regional office in Fort Howard, Md., was in Roanoke two weeks ago.
"The stories are coming together," the employee said.
The complaint is in the hands of the VA's EEOC office at department headquarters in Washington, D.C., Garza said.
The woman who filed the complaint could not be reached for comment.
Tiano - whose home phone number is unlisted and whose home address is not listed in the City Directory - also could not be reached for comment.
Tiano, 62, left his Poff Federal Building office Friday on personal leave, at his own request, Garza said. Garza declined to link Tiano's personal leave with the investigation.
The VA has appointed Stewart Liff, assistant director of the VA regional office in New York, to serve as interim director of the Roanoke regional office.
Liff "is here while [Tiano] is on leave status and our present assistant director attends a four-week executive training session," said Andy Bryson, public affairs officer for the Roanoke office.
The complaint against Tiano came one month after Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown ordered major changes in the way his department handles harassment complaints and directed all VA employees to attend four hours of sexual-harassment lectures.
Brown ordered the changes after charges surfaced that VA officials had ignored a decade of sexual harassment by top officials at the Atlanta veterans' hospital. VA investigators found that top officials at the Atlanta hospital - including the man who handled all harassment complaints there - had harassed female workers for years. The abuses were common knowledge among the staff.
Brown's actions were the strongest any federal agency has taken against sexual harassment since the Navy last year ordered enlistees and civilian employees to attend a daylong training session after the Tailhook scandal, in which female aviators and other women were assaulted by pilots at a 1991 convention in Las Vegas.
Brown instituted mandatory training on sexual harassment for all workers and created a departmental task force on harassment.
Liff said the initial training will be followed up with two-hour refresher courses every two years.
The newly enacted rules demonstrated that "sexual harassment will not be tolerated" in the VA, Liff said.
The VA regional office in Roanoke serves all Virginia veterans except those in Arlington and Fairfax County - a total of 508,000 people. The office administers veterans benefits, including compensation and pension, disability, insurance and home-loan guarantees.
The Roanoke office - one of 57 regional offices nationwide - administers $500 million in benefit payments annually. It employs 270 people.
Tiano came to Roanoke in 1990 after five years as director of the regional office in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Tiano began his VA career in 1956 as a field attorney for the regional office in Huntington, W. Va. From 1962 to 1965, Tiano worked at the VA headquarters in Washington. In 1965, he returned to Huntington as chief attorney. Nine years later, he was named director of the office. In 1985, Tiano was named director of the Honolulu office.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***