A former Northeast regional director for the National Park Service who admitted to submitting fraudulent travel vouchers totaling nearly $18,000 worked out a confidential agreement with the agency that allowed him to stay with the Park Service, albeit in a different role.
Under that agreement, Mike Caldwell is reporting "to the assistant director for Park Planning, Facilities and Lands in a non-supervisory role," Tom Crosson, the Park Service's chief spokesman, said Tuesday evening.
Last December an Office of Inspector General report stated that between 2011 and 2015 Mr. Caldwell rented bigger vehicles than he should have to bring friends on some of his travels, covered lodging costs of personal guests, was reimbursed for mileage "that he never drove," rented an SUV for "an official trip two days before his official business was scheduled to start," and also "spent a day driving the SUV 450 miles out of the way for unofficial purposes."
According to the OIG report, Mr. Caldwell, desiring "nicer" experiences on his travels as regional director, ran up nearly $11,500 in personal travel that he billed the Park Service for, and also collected nearly $6,000 in pay and per diem on some of these travels while not working.
"Caldwell admitted during his interviews that he had taken these trips and that he had knowingly violated federal travel regulations," the report stated. "He said that in doing so he had taken advantage of his official positions, first as a GS-15 deputy regional director and then as a member of the Senior Executive Service. He said he deserved, at minimum, a suspension."
Mr. Crosson could not say Tuesday whether Mr. Caldwell had paid back the $17,500 to the Park Service, citing the confidentiality of the settlement.
Joshua Laird, commissioner of National Parks of New York Harbor, currently is serving as the acting Regional Director for the Northeast Region.
Comments
Just one more disgusting pile of sleaze from our highest government officials. The way things are going now, the Federal Prison Service will need to open an entirely new facility with wings for each agency, Congress, and the White Asylum. It wouldn't be long before they were completely full.
Is someone passing out Stupid Plls?
i should be used to it but still can't believe that we have employees who "knowingly violate" federal regulations - essentially stealing - and still land in cushy non-supv gigs like this guy.
it makes us all look bad.
How is anyone allowed to make felonies go away confidentially?
Gotta love all those 'Confidential" agreements, which hide the truth and make the agency an enabler, for a crime in which there is no meaningful punishment.
As a mere GS 12 working in the NPS division Mr. Caldwell now works for, I would have been fired for this. An agency with such starkly different standards for its Senior Executive Service employees sends the rest of us a very clear message: we good ol' boys take care of our own, and you common folk had better watch your backs.
BTW, our new DOI Secretary was also found guilty of travel reimbursement fraud by the DoD. Yet every time I sign travel documents, it's under explicit threat of removal if it turns out any of my claims are invalid.
So disgusted with my agency leadership right now. After all the sexual harrassment BS came to light, along with Dan Wenk's approval of soft porn filming in his park (YELL), I didn't think it could get any worse, but it just did. What kind of embarrassing intel does Caldwell have on senior NPS or DOI leadership that he was able to blackmail his way into this position? That's the only explanation I can think of. I'm appalled that my tax dollars are paying for this creep.
31 years in the NPS and I've never been so embarrassed to work for the agency. My morale has hit rock bottom because of crap like this. If I was caught breaking the rules for something 1/2 as bad as this I would have been out the door in a heartbeat. This scumbag gets to keep his job and we can't even be sure he was forced to pay back the money he stole. I would walk away tomorrow and never look back if I could. ThE NPS is a joke.
No, EAC, please don't let one or two or even more slimebags color your vision of ALL NPS personnel. The vast majority are certainly not at all like this clown. Unfortunately, we have a government that has become addicted to money and power and politics. It starts at the very top and "trickles down" from Congress and now from the White Asylum. Maybe others in positions of power are afraid to take action because he might have knowledge of secrets they don't want to have revealed. The scum has risen to the top in some cases.
It's at times like these that we need GOOD PEOPLE to carry on no matter how hard it may seem. You and other honest, hard working NPSers (and countless other "awful bureaucrats" in other government agencies) are our only hope of survival.
It will take courage, but hang in there ---- please.
My contacts in Washington state that Mr. Caldwell took a cut in pay from his last position which paid around 169,000 give or take down to 129,000 with his new position for his punishment. He is repaying back the 17,000 +. One other thing I can't figure out. It was stated that Mr. Caldwell was removed from his Position in Philadelphia and placed in washington to work until his punishment was given. It was brought to my attention that during that time he was back at Valley Forge National Park working in his old Office where he was Superintendent until the park has it's new Superintendent to take over the Office. More Later.