Fulton County Superior Court “EFILEDTV Date: 10/24/2022 2:26 PM Cathelene Robinson, Clerk IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF FULTON COUNTY STATE OF GEORGIA STEPHANIE RAMAGE, Plaintiff, CIVIL ACTION FILE .. 20220371882 No. ORGIA VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AGENCY, an agency of the STATE OF GEORGIA, Defendant. COMPLAINT Plaintiff Stephanie Ramage (“Ramage” or “Plaintiff”) brings this action against her former employer. the State of Georgia (the “State”), under the Georgia Whistleblower Act. O.C.G.A. § 45-1-4, alleging as follows: Parties, Jurisdiction, and Venue 1 Plaintiff is a citizen of the State of Georgia who was employed by the Georgi Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (*GVRA” 2. GVRA is a State agency. Pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 9-1-4. the State may be served by having process delivered to Mr. Chris Wells in his capacity’ as the Executive Director of GVRA at 200 Piedmont Avenue. 13th Floor, Atlanta, Fulton County. Georgia 30334. Jurisdiction and venue are proper in this CourtFactual Allegations Relevant to All Claims 4. Ramage began working for GVRA on June 16. 2022 as a Public Affairs Officer after a detailed hiring process. After training, Ramage began working at the GVRA office on June 17, 2022. 5. Ramage has extensive experience working in communications and public affairs, including 11 years working for the City of Atlanta immediately prior to her employment with GVRA. 6. Based on her experience as a public employee. Ramage is familiar with laws, rules and regula ns surrounding the preservation of public documents, including the req ments and spirit of Georgia's open record laws. 7 A few days afier Ramage started in the GVRA office and sometime between June 21 and June 23, 2022, Mr. Jonathon Buxton (the then-acting Director of External Affairs) sent Ramage an invitation to join the mobile application. Signal, using his state-issued phone. The Signal application is designed to hide communications among its users According to its own website home page. Signal is a ~“[s}tate-of-the-art end-to-end encryption (powered by the open source Signal Protocol) [that] keeps your conversationssecure, We can't read your messages or listen to your calls, and no one else can ei er Privacy isn’t an optional mode — it’s just the way that Signal works. Every message. every call, every time.” It also enerypts phone calls and allows users to use alternative (“fake”) phone numbers obtained via Google Voice or Skype to establish an account. Additionally. xno Signal calls or messages show up on the user's mobile phone account. 9 Signal users can choose how quickly they want communication deleted: they can choose to have all communication deleted after as little as 30 seconds. All ignal communications are automatically deleted after four weeks if no shorter period is set. 10. ‘When used in government settings. the Signal application is designed to avoid open records laws and eflectively destroys records that Georgia law requires be preserved and available to citizens. ll. Use of this application fails to comport with the General Assembly's stated intent under the Georgia Open Records Act: ‘The General Assembly finds and declares that the strong public policy of this state is in favor of open government: that open government is essential to a free, open. and democratic society: and that public access to public records should be encouraged to foster confidence in government and so that the public can evaluate the expenditure of public funds and the efficient and proper functioning of its institutions. O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70(a).12. The law broadly defines as a “public record” “all documents. papers. letters, maps, books, tapes. photographs, computer based or generated information, data, data fields. or similar material prepared and maintained or received by an agency ...." O.C.G.A. § 50-18- 70(b). 13, The use of Signal violates the State’s policy goals and express directive to preserve public documents. 14, Georgia's open records law further prohibits the use of systems that fail to preserve documents: ~an agency's use of electronic record-keeping systems must not erode the public’s right of access to records under this article.” 0.C.G.A. § 50-18-70(0. 15. Based on her belief that use of the Signal application violated Georgia law. Ramage expressed to Buxton her objection to using Signal because it does not preserve communications or attachments. 16. Buxton responded to Ramage’s objection by informing her that Signal was used by GVRA leadership. including the Executive Director Chris Wells. Chief Counsel Zain Farooqui. Assistam Director of Client Services Jennifer Howell. Human Resources Director Jennifer Statham and Assistant Director of Program Support Julie O*Connos among others. Ramage stated that she would not use the app and Buston exited Ramage’soffice. "7 As soon as Buxton left Ramage’s office. Ramage went to the office of Zain Farooqui, agency counsel for GVRA. and repeated her objections over the use of Signal and its failure 10 preserve communications. Despite Ramage’s concems, Farooqui acknowledged that he used the application and asked Ramage if she believed an attomey would do something illegal. Ramage suggested that he should ask for advice from the attorney general's office. 18. When Ramage stated that she would not be using the application, Farooqui said it might be hard for her to “keep up” if she did not use it, 19, Shortly after Ramage’s interactions with Buxton and Farooqui, GVRA’s Executive Director, Chris Wells, called Ramage to see how she was doing since she was recently hired, Ramage took the opportunity to express her concerns about using the Signal app for the same reasons she explained to Buxton and Farooqui, 20. Wells became defensive and stated that if Farooqui. as the agency attomney, did not have a problem with him using the app. then that was good enough for him. He stated that he could not force Ramage to use it. Wells explained that he and other members of the GVRA’s leadership “started usingit during the pandemic because we couldn't meet,” but Ramage responded that the GVRA. used Microsoft Teams as well as Zoom for meetings all the time, so Signal wasn’t necessary n Ramage realized later that “during the pandemic” was also during the time that the GVRA had been (and continues to be) under the scrutiny of the federal monitor (the Rehabilitation Services. Administration) for _—financial_—_irregularities (hups://rsa.ed.gov/publication/03/monitoring-reports-georgia-combined-2020) 23 e Upon information and bel , the Signal application is used within the execu branch and agencies of the State of Georgia. Some of its users are high-ranking officials, such as directors and heads of departments. 24, Upon further information and belief, the Signal application is used for official communications and therefore fails to preserve government documents and communications and violates Georgia's Open Records Act, among other laws. rules and regulations, 25 Use of ephemeral applications. like Signal. exploded afier the January 6. 2021 attack on the United States Capital, 26. Afier publicizing her objections to the use of Signal for governmentcommunications, Ramage began to be cut out. She experienced being alienated by Wells, among others. 27. Wells’ communications with Ramage significantly diminished after_her conversation with him. In fact, while at a GVRA event the very next day, Wells refused to speak to Ramage and acted as if he did not see her when she attempted to say hello. 28 Wells’ targeting of Ramage did not stop there. On July 21. 2022. Ramage submitted a document to Wells via email to review in the normal course of doing her job. Wells responded by sending Ramage an intensely red-lined draft with numerous purported corrections to Ramage’s draft and an Excel table insertion that created misaligned sentences and paragraphs. 29, Ramage responded to the email requesting that Wells not change the formatting of the document since reporters do not like Excel and that the tables in Word were actually better. 30. Despite Wells acknowledging that Ramage was working from home that day. he immediately requested that she meet with him in his office in 30 minutes. When Ramage arrived on time at Wells’ office. she was met by him along with a member of the HR staff and Farooqui.31. Wells began the meeting stating that he “had never been so disrespected in his life” and that “anyone looking at your email would find it to be disrespectful.” Stunned, Ramage attempted to grasp what was going on and explained that she in no way intended her email to be disrespectful, was only trying to help. and apologized if Wells perceived it as insubordinate or disrespectful 32, Wells ended the meeting abruptly and expressed doubt that he would be able to work with Ramage 33. The GVRA also began to sabotage Ramage’s job performance. 34 On Tuesday, August 30. Bethany Whetzel. a recent employee of the Office of the Inspector General, where she had been an attorney. who was replacing Buxton as Ramage’s supervisor at the GVRA, told Ramage to stop focusing on any public or media relations (which are the central responsibilities of any public affairs officer) and instead devote herself to “consistent branding” and white papers. 35 When Ramage asked what Whetzel wanted her to do with the white papers. if she was asking her to edit all of them as there appeared to be more than a hundred in the folder. Whetzel replied. via TEAMS “Or. ob. what the heck. just write them.” Ramage asked “Re- write them or write them from scratch?” Whetzel replied whichever Ramage wanted to do. -8-it didn’t really matter. 36. Feeling that she was being ostracized and blocked from doing her job because of her refusal to go along with use of Signal, Ramage disclosed the agency's use of Signal and the way she had been treated after objecting to its use to Georgia's Office of the Inspector General. 37. Because she did not know where the O1G's office was—and the address online listed the office at “2 Martin Luther King Drive, she had to ask three passersby for the inspector general's location: two of these were employees of the Georgia Building Authority. one of whom looked familiar as the GBA had done some work in the GVRA office recently. and the third was walking down the hall on the 11"* floor where the OIG's office is located. 38. The OIG’s office was closed. so Ramage called a contact to see if he had the O1G's phone number. He did. She then went to the elevator to return to her office on the 13" floor. When the elevator opened on the 11" floor. it was full and Ramage realized there were people in the elevator who worked for the GVRA on the 13th floor 39. Ramage called Georgia Inspector General Scott McAfee on the afternoon of Tuesday. August 30. and disclosed her concerns about GVRA leadership's use of the Signal app. explaining that she had been pressured to use the application but had refused -9-to do so because she believed it to be a violation of the Georgia Open Records Act. Inspector General McAfee told her that she was right to call him. that she'd done a “very brave thing,” and he said “you are a whistleblower. You have whistleblower protection.” 40. The next morning, on August 31, 2022, Ramage was fired. When she asked tor the reason for her termination, HR Director Jennifer Statham said “We don’t have to give you a reason, 41. Statham told her she would not be allowed to return to her office to get her things, that an HR employee would go through her desk and office and gather her things and bring them to the HR conference room for Ramage to verify that she had everything. and that Ramage would then be escorted from the building. a ‘An HR employee brought a banker's box containing Ramage’s belongings and then escorted Ramage through the office and down to the balcony level where Ramage explained she used MARTA to commute to work. so the employee wished her luck and said goodbye as Ramage walked into the Georgia State MARTA station. Count I: Whistleblower Complaint Pursuant to O. 45 43. By this reference. Ramage incorporates the Facts set forth in the previous paragraphs as if fully set forth herein. -10-44. At all times relevant to this Complaint, the State was a “public employer” for purposes of 0.C.G.A. § 45-1-4, 45, At all times relevant to this lawsuit. Ramage was a “public employee” for purposes of OCGA. § 45-1-4. 46. O.C.G.A. § 45-1-4 declares unlawful for a public employer to retaliate against a public employee for disclosing a violation of, or noncompliance with, a law, rule, or regulation to either a supervisor or a government agency. 47. ‘The law also prohibits retaliation against any public employee for “objecting to. or refusing to participate in. any activity. policy. or practice of the public employer that the public employee has reasonable cause to believe is in violation of or noncompliance with a law, rule. or regulation.” 0.C.G.A. § 45-1-4(d)(3). 48, While Ramage was a public employee of GVRA. she objected to and disclosed to her supervisors at GVRA and to the Olfice of the Inspector General that the use of the Signal application by the GVRA stat violated the Georgia Open Records Act. 49, Ramage’s disclosures were protected because she objected to and disclosed tate laws, rules and regulations, activities that likely violated50. ‘The use of Signal also constitutes a violation of the Freedom of Information Act. as the agency administers federal grant money. 31 Ata minimum, Ramage held a good faith believe that the agency's actions violated these laws, 52, GVRA retaliated against Ramage for making protected disclosures by, among other things, restricting her responsibilities within GVRA, subjecting her to harassment and public humiliation. and terminating her employment with GVRA. 3 The State is liable for all economic and non-economic damages resulting from its acts of retaliation against Ramage. Demand for Jury Trial 34, Plaintiff respectfully demands a trial by jury on all issues so triable, Prayer for Relief WHEREFORE. Plaintiff respectfully asks this Court to: 1. Find. order. and declare that Defendant violated Plaintiffs rights under the Georgia Whistleblower Act:2. Award Plaintiff all legal and equitable relief available under the law based on the facts proven after discovery, including compensatory damages. back- and front- pay. pre- and post-judgment interest at the maximum rates allowable by law. attorneys" fees and expenses of litigation, and any other relief justified by the evidence and the governing law; 3. Grant a trial by jury on all issues so triable: and 4. Grant any further relief deemed necessary. proper. or just Submitted this 24th day of October, 2022, ‘Andrew Y. Coifmai Georgia Bar No. 173115 acotfman@pewlawfirm.com PARKS, CHESIN & WALBERT, P.C. Robert J. Kozloski. III 75.14% Street. 26th Floor Georgia Bar No. 548519 Atlanta, GA 30309 rkozloski@pewlawtirm.com Telephone: 404-873-8000