was transferred from the construction management section. Lim had taken the structural engineering examination and had scored lower on it than Iwekaogwu. Aliviado told Zmuda that Lim would be a good man for the job, although Aliviado had never worked with Lim on a project in the harbor department and had never evaluated his work performance. Zmuda hired Lim for the structural design section without looking at any of his prior performance evaluations and after talking to him for five or ten minutes on a couple of occasions.
*511 After Zmuda became his supervisor in 1994, Iwekaogwu submitted a request for overtime. At about the same time two other members of the structural design section made similar requests. Zmuda approved overtime for the other two but tore up Iwekaogwu'sovertime sheet. Zmuda told Iwekaogwu that he did not want him coming in and asking for overtime. After that, Iwekaogwu was not given overtime. Iwekaogwu asked for overtime again in 1995, but his request was denied. While Zmuda was the supervisor of the structural design section, everyone in the section was approved to do some overtime work except Iwekaogwu.[3]
In April 1995 Iwekaogwu telephoned Sandra Peelen of the equal employment opportunities section of the City of Los Angeles. He complained to her about discriminatory treatment and followed up with a letter dated April 14, 1995. The letter repeated many of the complaints made in the letter addressed to Burts and added others, including the denial of overtime. Iwekaogwu followed up with Peelen by telephone and met with her in