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Erin Jordan, U of I Fired Lab Director for Resisting Directions, Des Moines Register

Zack Kucharski, Gilchrist: I Acted to Keep Iowa Safe, The Gazette

Mike McWilliams, Testimony Wraps Up, Iowa City Press-Citizen

[Note: This material is copyright by the Daily Iowan, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of the Daily Iowan.]

Insufficient funding for the new $36 million UI Hygienic Laboratory and the Iowa Vanguard Program, a proposed initiative that would aid in the rapid detection of biological threats, substantially threatens the health of Iowans, the former Hygienic Lab director said during 3 1/2 hours of testimony Monday.

Despite repeated attempts to relay her concerns to her bosses, Gilchrist contended, Meredith Hay, the UI vice president for Research, and interim UI President Gary Fethke did not listen.

"Dr. Hay said the university is not responsible for the protection of the health of Iowans," Gilchrist said. "This was disturbing for me to hear. I wanted to get a pen. I wanted to write it down. I asked her to subsequently put it in writing, and she declined."

Hay's comment - which the administrator steadfastly denied during her testimony on Monday - spoke to a larger, looming problem in Gilchrist's eyes.

"I had this explicit acknowledgment of what had been implicitly apparent for quite some time," she said.

She was fired in October for reasons Fethke has identified as strategic discrepancies in their visions for the lab's future, while Gilchrist says it was because she was "too passionate" about her career.

Gilchrist sued Fethke and Hay last month, asserting that the administrators tried to illegally prohibit her from raising her concerns with lawmakers and the state Board of Regents - a violation of Iowa's whistleblower statute. The law allows state employees to disclose information they reasonably believe shows substantial and specific danger to public health and safety.

Judge Denver Dillard heard testimony Monday to determine whether Gilchrist will get her job back temporarily while court proceedings are pending.

On the witness stand, Gilchrist said she refused to speak only through Hay because she believed the funding issues could harm public health.

In the event of a pandemic, the Iowa Vanguard Program would respond quickly to transport specimens to the state lab, and the additional space cut from the new lab design would have served as surge capacity when staff had to test numerous specimens, she said.

"The place where I was prone to disobeying orders was when it came to putting the health of Iowans at risk," Gilchrist said.

Because she knew for roughly three months that she would be terminated, Gilchrist, following legal advice, secretly tucked a recording device in her pocket on the day of her firing, Oct. 3, 2006.

"You stuck your neck out for what you believed in, and we, we just can't live with it," Fethke told Gilchrist that day, according to the nearly 20-minute recording heard in court.

He also told Gilchrist that her passion overwhelmed her common sense, and he put up with it "until it went too far."

In the recording, Kevin Ward, the UI executive associate director of Human Resources, also offered to frame Gilchrist's termination as a resignation, which would have included six months' salary, a reference letter, and health benefits - with the stipulation that she must refer all inquiries about her departure to University Relations.

Dillard may rule on the case as soon as this afternoon.

As Mary Gilchrist argues in a Johnson County courtroom that two UI administrators wrongly pushed her from the post of Hygienic Laboratory director, a state lawmaker is proposing legislation in Des Moines that would slip the disease-control facility from the grasp of university oversight.

The Hygienic Lab, which among other tasks gauges air, water, and soil quality in Iowa and works to predict and prevent the spread of communicable diseases, currently sits in the UI bureaucracy, receiving funding and direction through traditional university channels.

In October, Gilchrist sparked controversy for the UI Oakdale Research Campus facility when she announced she was fired merely because she sought to raise money independent from the university. Meredith Hay, the UI vice president for Research, and interim university President Gary Fethke testified last week in Gilchrist's ongoing trial that the former lab head was released for insubordination and for her "inability to work in a team environment," as Hay put it.

Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, said the fight between Gilchrist and her superiors brought to light the need to reassess the mission of the lab - which, he said, has evolved into an "agency integral to public safety." His legislation would make the facility a state entity, divesting the UI of its authority and charging an 11-member panel with overseeing the lab's operations and funding.

The UI's president would serve as a permanent member of the board, along with the state's secretary of Agriculture, Public Health director, Natural Resources director, and director of the Attorney General Office's consumer-protection division. The governor would appoint the additional six members representing specific Iowa health sectors to staggered three-year terms.

The lab's director, who would be appointed by the state Board of Regents and approved by the lab board's membership, would hold a nonvoting committee seat. The bill's language stipulates that the UI would retain authority for the facility's "routine administrative purposes."

Danielson, who said he has spoken with both Hay and Gilchrist recently but is not endorsing either side in the case, said the inclusion of agricultural knowledge on the board would help scientists actualize the benefits of animal testing for human disease-control purposes.

"What we're learning about DNA and animal-human transference, with things like the Avian flu, we can utilize the testing to make sure people are safe," he said.

Interim Hygienic Lab Director Chris Atchison had mixed reactions on Monday to the proposal. While concerned over jurisdictional and authority issues that may arise between the Hygienic Lab and other testing facilities in the state, he said he sees the merits in creating a budgeting route distinct from traditional university funding.

"Currently, the lab is appropriated through the regents' education budget," Atchison said. "But really, it performs the function of a health and human-services organization, at least in terms of what it does for the state."

Danielson concurred. Because the lab's vital role in the state dictates that it should enjoy "stable funding," the senator said, the lab shouldn't be forced to compete with other UI functions for money.

[Note: This material is copyright by the Des Moines Register, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of the Des Moines Register.]

Spectators in a Johnson County courtroom listened Monday as a secretly recorded audio recording of the meeting Oct. 3 at which Interim President Gary Fethke and other top U of I officials informed the director, Mary Gilchrist, that she was being dismissed.

"At the highest level, Mary, it's just a difference of strategy going forward that we just can't live with," Fethke said, according to the recording. "The secondary level is simply your unwillingness to do what you've been asked to do."

Gilchrist said that she felt Iowa law required her to speak out and that the U of I was trying to muzzle her. A smaller laboratory would limit the state's ability to deal quickly and effectively with a public health pandemic, she testified.

Fethke responded that Iowa law "doesn't specify that you inform by creating a sense of nonperformance and if not hysteria.

"I put up with a lot of this because ... you're a scientist and understand the lab," Fethke said.

"I put up with it and put up with it until it went too far. And now I just have lost confidence in your ability to direct the resources in a way that we think they should be directed," he said.

The university offered Gilchrist six months' pay, health insurance and letters of reference if she agreed to keep quiet about being fired Oct. 3, according to the recording.

"Rather than treating this as a termination, we could frame it as a resignation," Kevin Ward, senior associate director of human resources at the U of I, said on the recording.

The tape was played as part of a lawsuit Gilchrist filed against Fethke and Vice President Meredith Hay. Gilchrist alleges that they broke state whistle-blower laws by firing her for talking to state officials about her concerns that a new lab building would be scaled back in size and that a program she favored would not be funded.

Gilchrist, the lab's director from 1995 until Oct. 3, is seeking an injunction to prevent the university from hiring a new director while the lawsuit is pending.

District Judge Denver Dillard said he hopes to rule on the injunction request today.

Gilchrist testified Monday that she bought a tape recorder when she had an idea she would be fired for disobeying Hay's orders not to talk with legislators and other state leaders about her opposition to plans to shrink the new laboratory to meet the construction budget. Gilchrist secretly recorded the Oct. 3 conversation in which Fethke laid out reasons for her termination.

Ward, the human resources official, explained terms of a severance package that included six months of salary (roughly $90,000), insurance and a letter of reference "to help the job search."

"In exchange for that, we would expect an understanding that we not talk about the terms of your separation publicly, that you would refer all inquiries back to University Relations and that we would allow each other to sort of walk away from the situation maintaining the dignity of both yourself as well as the university," Ward said.

Gilchrist declined the offer.

The U of I announced her departure the same day in a news release in which Hay thanked Gilchrist "for her many years of leadership at the hygienic lab."

[Note: This material is copyright by the Gazette, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of the Gazette.]

  Gilchrist testified in Johnson County District Court that space cut from the project to save $3 million and bring it within its $38 million budget was critical ‘‘surge’’ space that would be needed in the event of a major pandemic outbreak.

  The scaled- back design, which was approved and is now under construction, also reduces the amount of teamwork and staffing efficiencies the other design would have provided, she said.

  Gilchrist testified she contacted a lawmaker and Regents board President Michael Gartner to tell them the scaled-down project would not provide what had been promised.

  Gilchrist testified for more than two hours as part of her request for an injunction to get her job back while her lawsuit against University of Iowa interim President Gary Fethke and Meredith Hay, vice president for research, is pending in court.

  Gilchrist, who was director for 11 years, said she felt state law required her to speak out about health threats. She testified Monday she had a feeling she was going to be fired three months before her Oct. 3 termination because of Hay’s warnings she would find a new lab director.

  Gilchrist, represented by attorney Pat Ingram of Iowa City, claims Fethke and Hay violated whistle-blower protections by firing her after she voiced her concerns and tried to secure additional funding for a program that would ‘‘scan the horizons’’ and monitor for possible pandemic outbreaks. Judge Denver Dillard, who has presided over two days of testimony, said his ruling on Gilchrist’s request for an injunction could come as early as today.

  A recording of a portion of Gilchrist’s termination meeting, attended by Fethke, Hay and Kevin Ward, the executive associate director of human resources, was played as part of Gilchrist’s testimony. Gilchrist said she made the tape on the advice of an attorney, using a recorder she put in her pocket.

  ‘‘ Your passion overwhelmed your common sense,’’ Fethke said to Gilchrist on the tape. ‘‘We lived with a lot of it because of the passion and because of your competency. . . . When it went too far, we had to make a change.’’

  During the termination meeting, Fethke said the UI couldn’t live with the way Gilchrist avoided the UI’s process and stuck her neck out for what she believed in. He said he had lost confidence in her ability to lead the lab.

 The UI claims Mary Gilchrist did not qualify as a whistle-blower because she didn't raise specific health threats.

  ‘‘I’m very sorry because I think you have great talents but one of your great liabilities is your inability to do what the people you report to have asked you to do,’’ Fethke said.

  Interim lab director Christopher Atchison countered Gilchrist’s testimony that Iowans are at risk with the new lab, saying the state and its residents will be ‘‘far better off ’’ with the new facility.

  Fethke testified last week that Gilchrist seemed unable to let go of the design she envisioned for the lab. Hay, Gilchrist’s former supervisor, testified that Gilchrist repeatedly ignored requests not to lobby lawmakers for funding for lab projects and the lab expansion without clearing those efforts through her.

  Assistant Iowa Attorney General George Carroll, who is representing Fethke and Hay, claims Gilchrist doesn’t qualify as a whistle-blower because she didn’t raise specific health threats and was simply trying to lobby lawmakers for funds and a program she wanted to implement while ignoring standard UI procedures.

[Note: This material is copyright by the Press-Citizen, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of the Iowa City Press-Citizen.]

"I'm very sorry because I think you have great talents," Fethke told Gilchrist in an audio recording played Monday in Johnson County District Court. "But one of your liabilities is your inability to do what the people you report to have asked you to do."

Gilchrist, who was fired in October, took the stand Monday as part of her lawsuit against Fethke and Meredith Hay, the UI vice president for research and Gilchrist's former supervisor. Gilchrist filed the lawsuit last month to win her old job back.

The court hearing, which started Thursday, is for Judge Denver Dillard to decide whether UI can hire a new lab director before Gilchrist's lawsuit is resolved. Testimony wrapped up Monday afternoon and Dillard said a ruling on the injunction could be issued as early as today .

Gilchrist claims Fethke and Hay violated state law when they muzzled her from "whistle-blowing" to state legislators about her concerns about scaled back designs for a new hygienic laboratory.

"We weren't protecting the health of Iowans," Gilchrist told the court. "We were putting the health of Iowans at risk."

The new, $36 million lab is under construction on UI's Oakdale campus. Part of the scaled back design called for the elimination of empty "surge space" on the lab's first floor. However, Gilchrist said that space actually was designated for training.

Fethke and Hay have said they lost confidence in Gilchrist's ability to lead the lab and move forward on the new building project. Hay also said Gilchrist ignored several orders for her not to lobby on behalf of UI or talk to state legislators or public officials without Hay's permission.

"I put up with it and put up with it until it went too far, and now I have just lost confidence in your ability to direct the resources in the way we think they should be directed," Fethke told Gilchrist in the recording. "I can't say it's a big difference of opinion, backed up by your unwillingness and your passion to speak your mind when you asked not to."

Gilchrist also said she sought funding and a change in governing structure for the rapid testing program for infectious diseases called Iowa Vanguard -- Protecting Your Health. Funding for Vanguard was repeatedly denied by UI despite support from state groups such as the Iowa National Guard and the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Gilchrist said.

"After I said we need to implement the Vanguard program to protect the health of Iowans, Dr. Hay said, 'it's not the university's job to protect the health of Iowans,'" Gilchrist told the court. "That was explicit acknowledgement of what was implicitly apparent for quite some time."

Hay denied saying that and said she told Gilchrist that the hygienic lab could not draw funds from the university's general appropriations budget, which is used for education.

Gilchrist told the court she knew she was going to be fired months before it happened based on repeated threats by Hay that she would find a new lab director if Gilchrist continued to disobey her.

On Oct. 3, 2006, the day Fethke fired her, Gilchrist said she secretly recorded the firing at the advice of her lawyer, Pat Ingram of Iowa City.

Ingram played a 15-minute portion of the recording in court.

"You stuck your neck out for what you believed in and, and we just can't, we can't live with it," Fethke told Gilchrist on the recording.

In the recording, UI executive associate director for human resources Kevin Ward told Gilchrist that her firing could be framed as a resignation. Part of the agreement called for Gilchrist to receive a severance package, that included six months salary, health benefits and job reference letters.

"In exchange for that, we would expect an understanding that we not talk about the terms of your separation publicly," Ward said in the recording. "That you would refer all inquiries back to University Relations and that we would allow each other to sort of walk away from the situation maintaining the dignity of both yourself as well as the university."