Sex harassment, congressional probes: Not how park service planned to mark 100 years | McClatchy Washington Bureau

A management and morale crisis afflicts the National Park Service, epitomized by but not limited to the abrupt retirement this week of Yosemite National Park Superintendent Don Neubacher.

Neubacher’s departure follows the retirement in May of Grand Canyon Superintendent Dave Uberuaga. Both career park service professionals chose retirement rather than reassignment, amid sharp scrutiny of their management practices.

Their boss, National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis, likewise is retiring in January, a more leisurely departure that nonetheless follows increasing criticism of an agency whose champions had hoped for a happier way to mark the service’s centennial.

“There is a leadership problem in the National Park Service, mostly derived from inadequate training,” Duncan Morrow, a retired 41-year veteran of the park service, said Friday. “It isn’t new . . . (but) it appears to be getting worse.”

Morrow, who served as special assistant to four park service directors in Republican and Democratic administrations, added that the agency has “long treated people management as an instinctive skill” that can be learned on the job.

“That works for employees whose careers develop under skilled and thoughtful managers,” Morrow said. “It totally fails workers who are supervised by people who don’t know how to do it.”

At Yosemite, for one, flawed management has created a “hostile work environment” characterized by “bullying, gender bias and favoritism,” the park’s fire and aviation branch chief, Kelly Martin, told a House of Representatives committee earlier this month.

Myriad Yosemite employee complaints are being investigated by the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General, as are sexual misconduct complaints at Yellowstone National Park. The alleged problems, moreover, go beyond the two crown jewels that together drew 8.2 million visitors last year.

“We are conducting investigative work in other parks,” Nancy DiPaolo, external affairs director for the inspector general’s office, said Friday, adding that “each investigation is distinctive, so no conclusions should be drawn.”

MJ Henshaw, a spokeswoman for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is conducting its own investigation into the park service, said Friday that “we are still gathering evidence and (will) see where that takes us.”

The tumult, combined with chronic budget woes, a big maintenance backlog and other recurring challenges, has contributed to what Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Professional Responsibility, called Friday the “cratering morale” among the park service’s 22,000 full-time and seasonal employees.

Employee dissatisfaction now puts the National Park Service a depressing 259th out of 320 agencies on an annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government survey. Even the Bureau of Prisons ranks higher than the park service, whose score has dropped markedly since 2010.

“There is rampant abuse of public lands employees,” Mark Martin, who formerly worked at the federal Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center in Lone Pine, California, said in an email, adding that “no one in management was interested” when he complained about mistreatment.

The congressman whose district includes Yosemite, Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said Friday that he lacked confidence in park service leadership, about whom he said his office had “constantly” heard concerns.

“I have not received any complaints involving sexual harassment or employee morale, but I’m not surprised by recent revelations,” McClintock said. “When you have an insular attitude of a fiefdom that we see reflected in (park service) public policy, it’s not hard to imagine this abusive mentality being extended into their personnel policy as well.”

Amid all the heat, the park service has been juggling its roster.

A 37-year veteran of the park service who served as the agency’s deputy director for operations, Peggy O’Dell, quietly retired in July. The park service revealed her departure in late August, as part of a larger announcement touting five new appointments to Jarvis’ inner circle.

Jarvis’s new deputy for operations, Michael Reynolds, told lawmakers Sept. 22 that the agency must “develop trust and support among our employees, visitors and Congress to make the changes that are undeniably necessary.” He also acknowledged it won’t be easy.

“The leadership team . . . has committed to making substantial and long-term culture changes at the agency to prevent sexual harassment and to ensure that every employee has a safe and respectful work environment,” Reynolds said.

Outside of headquarters, the superintendent at Canaveral National Seashore, Myrna Palfrey, was detailed to another job several days before a Sept. 22 congressional hearing into allegations of park service mismanagement. Interior Department investigators previously cited allegations of sexual harassment and other problems at Canaveral, which was visited by 1.6 million people last year.

Uberuaga stepped down June 1 from his Grand Canyon post, several weeks before a hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee into park service management. Earlier inspector general investigations had alleged sexual harassment and other problems at the popular park; Uberuaga himself wasn’t accused of the misconduct but was criticized for how he’d handled it.

“This summer the Intermountain Region of the (National Park Service) received almost 100 complaints or concerns related to workplace issues at Grand Canyon, and has opened 40 cases as a result,” Grand Canyon worker Brian D. Healy told lawmakers.

Healy did, however, praise the park service regional officials who he said have made an “unprecedented commitment . . . to improve our culture and lead” the agency forward.

Like Uberuaga, Neubacher first had been offered a gradual exit. In a discussion last Wednesday with Laura Joss, director of the park service’s Pacific West Region, Neubacher said, he was offered a Denver-based job as senior adviser to the park service’s deputy director.

“Since my home is in California, I have opted to retire effective November 1, 2016,” Neubacher advised Yosemite employees in an email, further explaining that “I will be on leave effective immediately.”