DECISION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
This consolidated appeal is before the Board of Directors (“Board”) pursuant to the appellant Valerie Williams’s (“Williams”) petition for review (“PFR”) of the Hearing Officer’s March 9, 2016 Order, which granted in part and denied in part a motion filed by the appellee, the Office of the Architect of the Capitol (“AOC”) to dismiss all counts of the three consolidated complaints herein. Williams also seeks review of the Hearing Officer’s July 1, 2016 Memorandum Opinion and Final Order (“O&O”), which entered judgment for the AOC on her remaining claims.
Upon due consideration of the Hearing Officer’s orders, the parties’ briefs and filings, and the record in these proceedings, the Board affirms the Hearing Officer’s decisions on all claims.
I. Background
Williams is an African-American woman who has been employed with the AOC for 22 years. At all relevant times, she was employed as an Electronics Mechanic in the Electronics Engineering Branch (“EEB”) of the Project and Planning Management Division of the AOC. On February 9, 2012, Williams submitted a Request for Counseling to the Office of Compliance (“OOC”) (Case No. 12-AC-82 (CV, RP)). That case (“Williams I”) was settled and withdrawn, with the parties’ “Confidential Settlement Agreement and Release” approved by the Executive Director of the OOC on April 19, 2013. Appellant Exhibit (“Ex.”) 107.
On December 30, 2015, following counseling and mediation, Williams filed three additional Complaints with the OOC, which were subsequently consolidated. In each Complaint, Williams alleged ten counts, as follows: I—racial harassment; II—sexual harassment; III-V—retaliatory harassment; VI—hostile work environment based on race; VII—hostile work environment based on gender; and VIII-X—hostile work environment based on allegedly retaliatory decisions by AOC “decisionmakers” based on Williams’s engagement in protected activities. Appeal File (“AF”), Tabs 1-3.
After the parties had completed discovery, the Hearing Officer issued a prehearing Order granting the AOC’s motion to dismiss Williams’s discrimination claims in Counts I-II and VI-X of each complaint, but denying its motion as to the claims alleging retaliatory harassment in Counts III-V of each complaint. AF, Tabs 9, 13, 17-19.
