Richard Cordray’s CFPB Mismanagement Continues To Cause Headaches For His Ohio Gov Campaign
March 22, 2018  |  General, Ohio, RGA News
Since Washington D.C. Bureaucrat Richard Cordray left his job at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in November, his decision to overspend on the agency’s new $124 million taxpayer-funded headquarters continues to cause headaches for his gubernatorial campaign in Ohio. Now there are reports of new health hazards in the building due to “noxious fumes” that have caused employees to become sick, forcing a “very large number” of them to leave the building and work from home.
This comes just weeks after reports emerged that the CFPB’s building is “infested” with rats. In the past, Cordray has refused to answer why he drastically overspent on the building. When questioned at a congressional hearing in 2015 by Missouri representative Ann Wagner about the high taxpayer-funded price tag for the bureau’s headquarters, Cordray angrily responded “Why does that matter to you?”
The Daily Caller reports:
“’Noxious fumes’ are sickening Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees at its newly renovated headquarters, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group learned.
It is the second health hazard employees have faced since re-occupying the renovated headquarters still under construction. Employees recently incurred an infestation of rats, which is also tied to the ongoing construction. About 750 employees work in the building that sits on prime real estate across from the White House.
The bureau was the first new agency President Obama created. Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren originally founded it as an agency designed to protect consumers.
Some bureau employees have already fled the building and are telecommuting, a CFPB spokesman confirmed. Fumes are wafting throughout the six-floor building.
‘People are nauseous and dizzy’ from the fumes, which occurred via chemicals used in the still-under-construction basement, a CFPB employee told TheDCNF.
A circulated memo to all CFPB employees was given to TheDCNF by a Samuel Gilford, an official bureau spokesman. ‘If necessary, please contact your manager about telework and other workplace flexibilities that may be available to you,’ the staff notification shows.
‘We’ve been experiencing noxious fumes for a while, and people are saying they are getting sick,’ a CFPB employee told TheDCNF. ‘People should not be in that building. They need to evacuate that building until it’s ready for occupancy,’ he said. A ‘very large number’ of CFPB employees have left the building and are working from home, he added.
The federal employee would only be able talk to TheDCNF anonymously, for he felt his position would be in jeopardy if CFPB management learned he was talking to reporters, he pontificated.
The staff believes the premature return to the building was one of a long list of management mistakes, the CFPB employed explained to TheDCNF. Bureau employees believe the latest environmental problems at its headquarters may be the reason for CFPB Chief Operating Officer Santaj Alag’s abrupt resignation the week of March 12 — Alag joined the agency in July 2013 — he told TheDCNF. Alag’s last day would have been April 18, Alag reportedly told CFPB colleagues, according to The Morning Consult.
Alag was pushed out because he was only a year away from retirement, which would have entitled him to lifetime health coverage and an annuity, the source speculated.
Former CFPB bureau director Richard Cordray made the decision to reoccupy the building while it was still under construction. Cordray left November 2017 to launch a planned Democratic gubernatorial campaign for Ohio.
The new health risk may further strengthen the hand of acting director Mick Mulvaney, who President Donald Trump appointed to take over its management. He pledged to drastically change the troubled bureau in the form of a five-year strategic plan. Mulvaney is also simultaneously serving as the White House director for the Office of Management and Budget.”