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NPS Official Investigated For Padding His Travel Expenses Lands New Position

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A senior National Park Service official investigated for padding his travel expenses by nearly $18,000 reportedly has been transferred to a position overseeing the agency's Park Planning, Facilities and Lands Division, a move that drew quick criticism from union representatives.

Mike Caldwell had been director of the agency's Northeast Region office. 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 an Interior Department document obtained by the American Federation of Government Employees, on June 5 Mr. Caldwell is to take over as chief of staff of the park planning division, a position that has him responsible for coordinating "on key managerial initiatives/projects."

A document passed on to the American Federation of Government Employees states that Mike Caldwell, who was investigated for travel fraud during his role as Northeast Regional Director of the National Park Service, has been moved to another role with the agency.

The move was harshly criticized Monday by Adam Duncan, secretary treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees, Council 270, who represents Park Service employees in the Northeast Region.

"In this position, Mr. Caldwell will presumably have direct influence on high-level decision making and will still travel. Every NPS employee I talk to is outraged on this decision that seems to be very little discipline and disproportionate to what other lower graded employees receive for far less infractions. I myself am representing an employee who is facing disciplinary action over giving out bottles of water to other staff members," Mr. Duncan said in an email to the Traveler

"The National Park Service has a long history of shuffling around high-ranking officials who have been subject to major disciplinary action while lower subordinates face much harsher disciplinary actions for much less severe actions," he added. "It is reprehensible that high-ranking officials are moved to other positions where they can continue to mess up all while NPS morale suffers. Employees want honest, accountable leadership. Unfortunately, those leaders are very few and far between in the NPS."

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 released in December 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."

The case report didn't indicate whether Mr. Caldwell made restitution. But in the seven-page report he was very forthcoming in admitting to the allegations made against him, stating that his travel vouchers had been "tainted and fraudulent.”

National Park Service officials in Washington were preparing a comment Monday.

Comments

It is convenient to assign the blame with one presidential candidate or the current President, with a current or past Director or Secretary or but none have much to do with this situation or the many others we could each cite where NPS supervisors or leaders are too quickly shifted without consequences or a few where people were too quickly blamed.  Doesn't the real problem rest with each of us acknowledging that leaders lead from the front.  For too long, "management" or "leaders" have pursued one program or another to improve NPS supervision, management and leadership and then immediately exempted themselves from participation.  Where significant responsibility is assigned and accepted, people must accept that significant accountability must also follow.  And that process must show absolute integrity.  In addition, as someone said, part of the challenge is not simply the need for great leaders but for great followers too.  There have been great leaders within the NPS and, like all organizations, poor ones too.  Unfortunately, it seems that more of the great leaders, supervisors and managers have retired or moved on.  


" Unfortunately, it seems that more of the great leaders, supervisors and managers have retired or moved on. "

Or could it be that there are still a whole bunch of great leaders, supervisors and managers out there right now who are just quietly doing the job without fanfare --- and perhaps unfortunately --- without much credit?

The ones who get the attention are too often those who are problems.  Too often, good things are taken for granted.

 


The thing is, if eyes were truly wide open there would be conversation of the national parks themselves with water ways being lawfully polluted, mining being opened up, hunting of animals for no reason etc etc etc. Hell if every comment on this were made in voices raised up Flint Michigan would have clean water. How easily your attention is diverted; are you really sheep- manueverable and flexible as chess pieces...... seriously Kurt?

Or maybe you don't know how to seek out stories of measure........ if you did you would be writing about today and what can be done; not with yesterday in which something was already done. Unbelievable that good journalism has become segregated by tunnel vision.


Perhaps you missed the story on Pebble, or the one on the James River, or the ongoing problems with the transcanyon pipeline, or the stories on the national monuments, or the stories that spawn debates over "clean" energy, the piece on oil trains and the threats they pose the parks, or even the piece the other day on how the growing numbers of volunteers might not be in the best interests of the Park Service, #STAND.

Or maybe you don't realize there's only one full-time writer at the Traveler, or appreciate how much time it takes to report on a story while also trying to post content every day of the year, or that many readers want to know what's happening in parks today that might impact their vacation plans next week.

There is no corporation behind the Traveler with deep pockets, no hefty subscription fee on readers to pay the bills, and no endless line of volunteers who will write for free or handle the technical aspects of the site for free. And even if there were those endless volunteers, they still require editing.

Ideally, there'd be a more consistent mix of daily news items and those "stories of measure" that you'd like to see. But if you think one person can do it on a regular day-in, day-out basis, well, that'd be nice.

Those are some of the reasons we've asked folks like you to donate, so we can afford even a small staff to, in part, delve into journalism that involves more than seeing there's enough content up for tomorrow.

Why don't you contact me off-line and we can discuss this and see what solutions exist. Just hit the "Contact" button and you can reach me. And maybe hit the donate button, too.


# STAND. If people don't agree with your opinion, that just means that they think for themselves. You just attacked Kurt (while remaining nameless yourself)and went off subject. This is the kind of extreme reaction some national park service employees are getting for trying to offer up a different viewpoint from a dysfunctional status quo. Over-emotional reaction intentionally sqaushes free thought and fosters hatred. Maybe we do notice the water quality issues and wildlife issues, and do something about that. But this string is about corruption in management, not those other issues.  Rational, polite discourse makes progress- irrational hateful statements based on assumptions about the character of someone you do not know serves no greater good. Ah... courtesy and friendly discourse is a lost art!


Mike Caldwell worked out a settlement with the NPS that resulted from something that's known as due process. While the specifics remain unknown it is a significant reduction in pay, grade, and responsibility. While every employee should know the Joint Travel Federal Regulations and superseding memos that engulf employees responsible for executing travel as proficiently as they kick rocks.  Let's face it - travel controls are non-existent.  The travel process should be executed by accounting operations via a central travel office. I would hope this results in a much-needed paradigm shift in optics and transparency from the NPS leadership. If you have a moral conflict with what is observed at the agency you work for, then step up to the plate by creating workforce change. You can empower yourself and peers by doing something about it. Although that would require one to leave the rocks they kick and stop discounting the hard work that the rest of the service does selflessly. 


Mike caldwells grade Leval only dropped 1 Grade so he still in the 150,000 range. It should have dropped to 0. I do have two contacts in Washington that will be Observing him. This most likely is just a job to set him up for a Future higher position. After all , He was my boss at Valley Forge National park and as Vice President of the Union I had many meetings with him so I know how he operates. Some of the meetings involved while he was superintendent in the Park was Rigged employee's performance grades, Allowing non-Qualified employee's to succeed over Qualified employee's. Involvement with Park Management in the Illegal set-up of a Camera in the Carpenter shop to try to catch any stealing ( by the way ,the Camera should have been installed in his office ). Taking away Hearing test in which now employee's are getting settlements for loss of Hearing and involvement with Valley Forge Management in a Hiring Scam which Denied all Veterans and Qualified Applicants to allow a Non-qualified Hire and  led to a Large settlement to a 30 year Qualified 10 point Vet so the matter would not go to court. As you can see , Mike has been involved in a lot of messy situations, and his attitude was I can do as I please as you saw in his Travel Fraud. Oh, just want to say I can back up what I say. I have about  a 2 feet stack of papers from my Union business that i saved when I retired in 2013 because I saw all of this coming.


Just fire the man and be done with him. He has no pright to work for the nps,or any other federal agency. I think his noted theft of funds,is just the tip,of the iceberg. He is a bad apple. Get rid of him


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