dr. rovero was harassed. we reported the retaliation to the ethics commission, but ethics did nothing to protect my career. instead, they told me to get a lawyer. then ethics took over two years to complete their investigation. in retrospect, the lawsuit was our only hope because ethics has not sustained a single whistle blower retaliation claim since it was founded. not one. many studies have shown that reprizals against whistleblowers are common with rates up to 90%. but with our ethics commission, the retaliation rate is always zero. that's why we are here today. we hope some benefit will come of this and offer two suggestions to prevent future lawsuits. number one, ask why the ethics commission dismisses every retaliation complaint it receives. and two, ask the controller's whistleblower program to perform a whistleblower satisfaction survey. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >>> hi, supervisors. i'm maria rovero, i'm the silent partner in the lawsuit you're going to be reviewing. dr. kerr and i blew