interest in a promotion to the position of structural engineering *510 associate. Zmuda spoke with Aliviado and then told Iwekaogwu that Aliviado had said he was waiting to fill the existing structural associate position with the civil associate. Zmuda also told Iwekaogwu that Aliviado had said that Iwekaogwu was doing an unsatisfactory job, but that Zmuda had worked with Iwekaogwu on a lot of projects and found him very competent.
Slightly more than a week after Iwekaogwu inquired about a promotion, Aliviado gave Iwekaogwu a job evaluation, rating him as unsatisfactory overall. The evaluation included comments that Iwekaogwu needed to listen to and follow instructions more carefully, to be more careful in checking his work, to better interpret engineering drawings, and to take initiative and ask more questions.
Iwekaogwu thenwrote a letter to Ezunial Burts, the executive director of the harbor department. He delivered it by hand to a secretary in the executive director's office in early May 1994.[2] Burts testified that he did not see the letter until after litigation was commenced, but that the letter was referred to Hall who in turn assigned it to Anderson for follow-up.
Iwekaogwu's letter was captioned "Discrimination Complaint in Engineering Division of the Harbor Department of the City of Los Angeles." After reciting Iwekaogwu's history of employment in the harbor department, the letter complained about the employment evaluation from Aliviado; hostile actions by Aliviado toward Iwekaogwu, including his yelling at Iwekaogwu in front of coworkers; the failure to announce his promotion in 1991; and other actions. Iwekaogwu described these as