The Democrat and retired Army brigadier general who faces GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna on November 3 was the subject of complaint to the Army’s inspector general (IG) for creating a hostile work environment and being a “toxic leader.”
Leela Gray is running to take Luna’s 13th Congressional District seat. But The Floridian has published material from an Army inspector general’s probe that held up her promotion to one-star general.
Amusingly, despite the probe and allegations against her, Gray appeared on MS NOW to call Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a combat veteran, a “unqualified frat boy.”
The Allegations
The website reported that the anonymous allegations delayed then-Colonel Gray’s confirmation by the U.S. Senate as brigadier general in 2015.
“Gray is referred to as ‘a toxic leader who causes a toxic work environment,’ who is ‘disrespectful to her subordinates,’ and who ‘destroys their careers,’” the website reported.
An anonymous source told the website about the complaint to the IG about Gray’s creating a “hostile” and “toxic work environment,” including her attempts “to have several subordinates fired or removed from their positions.”
Another source said the same thing, and other personnel feared complaining about Gray because of possible retribution.
The website continued:
In the report, the names of the soldiers have been redacted for privacy reasons. In total, some 48 officers and soldiers came forward to testify against Gray’s confirmation.
“This complaint was submitted in 2015, anonymously, because everyone was terrified of her crushing their career. It was substantiated by the Army Reserve IG and then looked into by the Department of the Army IG. 48 Army officers and NCOs came in person to several IG sessions to testify against her. Many flew in from overseas and cancelled leave to be there. Every single testimony of her behavior as a leader during her commands (at least one of which she was kicked out of), were awful,” another source stated in an email. …
According to this source, Gray had to wait for a year for the investigation to conclude for her nomination to move forward. Additionally, it is alleged that the IG recommended a “downgrade and immediate discharge,” but that recommendation appeared to have been overruled and disregarded. Gray, whose nomination was offered during President Barack Obama’s second term in office, was eventually confirmed.
The website quoted the IG report directly:
The commander is the issue and she has been approached on numerous occasions regarding the toxic work environment and constant disrespect to her subordinates on a daily basis. Colonel Leela Gray, Division Chief for Legislative Affairs Division, Office of the Chief of Army Reserve (OCAR), is a toxic leader who causes a toxic work environment. She is not only disrespectful to her subordinates, but destroys their careers, and constantly talks behind their backs. Having no legislative affairs experience herself, she forces her subordinates to work extensively, while herself being out of the office, and takes all credit for all accomplishments while firing and forcing out subordinates for her failures. The OCAR legislative affairs team works to accomplish its mission in spite of her leadership rather than as a cohesive unit.
Allegations about Gray’s toxic leadership include the following:
- Forcing a soon-to-be retired sergeant first class to work brutal hours for months, giving him “unnecessary missions up to the day of his retirement allowing him virtually no time for retirement processing.” Gray also forced the noncommissioned officer to work on “holidays and weekends to complete his retirement paperwork.”
- Hiring and firing officers or forcing them to quit “for no cause except that she did not get along with them because of her toxic personality.”
- “Several officers were not allowed or threatened not to be allowed to complete professional education (PME) and for those that did, their [officer efficiency reports]/evaluations suffered as a result,” the website reported. They included a major and two captains.
The complaint says that “Gray consistently speaks badly of officers and soldiers in her division behind their backs and disparaged her section chiefs.” Her “toxic leadership” and the hostile work environment she created “caused serious mental anguish to a mature and highly educated” sergeant first class who held a doctorate.
The complaint also alleges that Gray tried to hire unqualified friends.
Hegseth a “Frat Boy”
Given that background, Gray’s recent comment on MS NOW about Hegseth was a droll example of her lack of self-awareness. The Democratic candidate posted it on her X feed.
“As a retired brigadier general with 30 years of service, Hegseth is an unqualified frat boy,” averred Gray with a slight laugh:
He is a disaster for the Department of Defense. He should never have been hired and he needs to be fired. And his actions are actually making our country less safe, much less ignoring everything that’s going on within the military.
Gray said the people in her community worry about the nation’s direction, and want a congressman with “leadership experience” who knows how to “problem solve.”
To her credit, though, Gray’s list of issue positions focus on bread-and-butter matters and do not include the usual culture-war notes from the party of sodomy and abortion. Her main concerns, the website says, are:
- The cost of living;
- Economic growth;
- Caring for kids, seniors, and veterans;
- Florida’s environment; and,
- Corruption.
The latest polls show Gray with a five-point lead over Luna.
