Dem Cheered, R booed by EEOC employees

At the "annual employees' meeting a couple of weeks ago in a ballroom at the ritzy Mayflower Hotel on nearby Connecticut Avenue NW":

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Ishimaru, the lone Democrat on the five-member commission -- there's one vacancy -- ripped into some of the agency's recent initiatives, including the idea of the morning's annual meeting itself, which, even with just coffee, bagels and some sort of "baked good," was budgeted at $30,000, a hefty sum for the cash-strapped agency.

He also criticized outsourcing the public's phone inquiries to Lawrence, Kan., reorganization proposals that focused on the field offices but not on headquarters and so on. People in the 500-person audience cheered and clapped, we were told.

Chairwoman Cari M. Dominguez, said to have been tight-jawed and visibly upset during Ishimaru's remarks, rose to say she felt obliged to respond. Noting Ishimaru's criticism of the costs of the meeting, Dominguez said, according to sources, "we spend about $500,000 a year on his office staff," but she had yet to see a work product from them.

This criticism of those career staff drew hisses from the audience, we're told by our sources.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64292-2005Mar24.html?nav=rss_politics

The Post tried to get a video and was told that the mtg of 500 was "private".

Pointing to the salaries of Ishimaru's office staff. She'd probably love to cut those expenses first, before she'd dream of scaling down the ritzy surroundings for her meetings.