Welcome to The Newsfeed.

I'm Paris Jackson.

A Seattle Veterans Affairs whistleblower who spoke out last year about the deteriorating conditions of a building on this South Seattle campus says he's now been fired.

He believes it's in retaliation for speaking out.

Last year, a Cascade PBS and Northwest Public Broadcasting investigation found patients and staff in Building 18 of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System endured years of alleged mold, water leaks and a failing HVAC system.

That building is now closed.

Doug Galuszka tells Cascade PBS last Thursday, he was fired.

The VA had previously sent him a letter last month notifying him that they were considering firing him.

That letter listed several instances they say were evidence of negligent performance of duty, conduct unbecoming a federal supervisor, and failure to follow instructions.

We sat down with Galuszka to learn why he risked his own job to advocate for others.

We should note we interviewed him the day before he found out he officially lost his job.

What was your motivation to speak out about the facility that housed specialty clinics and more than 100 employees worked.

-My service line, logistics service line was actually our offices are on the first floor of that building.

The second floor was the specialty clinic.

So my staff was being directly affected by the unsafe conditions, as well as all the veterans being treated in the South Clinic.

I've been a health care administrator for 30 years in the federal system, 27 years in the Army.

And it wasn't something that was acceptable anymore.

We felt an obligation to stand up and fight to get everybody out of the building.

-It's been more than a year since that building was closed.

How has working at the VA been for you?

-The service line itself has had a lot of success.

A wonderful crew that we've put together in the logistics service line.

We've passed our fifth straight inspection.

This last May.

Personally, though, it's been rough, I have had to deal with a lot of, whistleblower retaliation.

Been suspended three times in the last 20 months or so, and now have been proposed for, removal from, employment for incompetence.

-And you've been in the line of service for more than 30 years.

How does it feel now to have your livelihood in jeopardy?

-I have to say that it's beyond disappointing.

I have been giving faithful service to the country for 35 years now.

This summer, I hit 35 years.

The fact that I might be fired for incompetence when we've actually had the exact opposite of that.

It is beyond disappointing.

We, all we want to do is to be able to provide good health care to the veterans.

156,000 veterans that we service at VA Puget Sound.

We provide all the medical supplies, all the equipment.

All the contracting support.

And we just want to be able to do our job.

And was this constant harassment because of Building 18 and us fighting to get out of it.

And, we hope that it can stop soon and we can all move forward.

Again, we conducted that interview with Galuszka the day before he was fired.

He now says he plans to appeal his firing with the Merit System Protection Board.

A VA spokesperson tells us they can't comment on personnel matters due to privacy laws.

And they also contend there were no problems with Building 18 on this South Seattle VA campus.

We have an update on a story we brought you in September.

The owners of Estelita's Library, Dr.

Estell Williams and Edwin Lindo, are another step closer towards developing affordable housing in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood.

In late October, Lindo posted a picture on Instagram announcing they signed the closing documents on the home next to the former auto shop they bought this summer.

He wrote, “This is just the beginning.

Solidarity House is coming.” The couple plans to build their complex on the site of those two properties.

I'm Paris Jackson.

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