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Tracking Zero Tolerance In The National Park Service

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Top Interior Department and National Park Service officials have pledged to take a "zero tolerance" approach to harassment of any kind, but how easy is it for Park Service employees and the general public to see if that approach is indeed upheld? It's a tricky question to answer, as privacy laws and criteria used to guide decisions on punishments can both hide and limit what actions are taken.

Some background:

  • During his confirmation hearings in January, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said he had zero tolerance for sexual harassment in the Park Service. 
  • As long ago as last July, then-NPS Director Jon Jarvis said the Park Service would not tolerate harassment of any kind, and that appropriate discipline would be leveled against those who perpetrated it.
  • In September, during an appearance before the House Oversight Committee, then-Deputy Director Mike Reynolds said the agency had a sound strategy for eliminating sexual harassment.

And yet, last week Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said that a superintendent of De Soto National Memorial who had admitted inappropriate behavior toward female employees was given a lateral transfer to a larger park to handle partnerships.

When asked how that superintendent's transfer might be viewed in light of the stated zero tolerance policy, Park Service spokesman Thomas Crosson said in an email that, "(D)ue to ongoing personnel actions, we cannot comment on allegations related to Jorge Acevedo’s time at De Soto National Memorial."

A request last week to Interior Department officials to explain, in the aftermath of the De Soto incident, what is being done to assure Park Service employees and the general public that Interior and Park Service officials are serious about their zero tolerance policy went unanswered.

However, Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift told The Associated Press that her boss's approach to zero tolerance has empowered individual superintendents to aggressively work to change the Park Service's culture.

“His leadership will create a culture where people are valued for their work and not discriminated against,” she said.

Out in the National Park System, at least one superintendent is willing to demonstrate transparency when enforcing a zero tolerance policy.

At Yellowstone National Park, which has been investigated for sexual harassment within its Maintenance Division, Superintendent Dan Wenk last week released to the media, upon request, his response to the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General report detailing what its investigation uncovered.

In that investigation, the OIG determined that a "good old boy system" that spewed inappropriate comments and behaviors toward female coworkers existed in the Maintenance Division and thrived "because of the actions, or inaction, of supervisors."

In his response, Superintendent Wenk said "that up to 12 personnel actions will be taken. Because it is written, actions will happen. Due to the Privacy Act, we cannot be more specific," Yellowstone spokeswoman Morgan Warthin told the Traveler.

Actions Superintendent Wenk said he was taking include:

  • Employee training on how to identify and report hostile work environment and sexual harassment;
  • Mandatory training on sexual harassment for all supervisory employees;
  • Penalities for personnel range from "counseling to suspension, and to potential removal."
  • A survey of all divisions in park operations to "identify additional issues or concerns to be addressed by the park management team."

"The behavior described in the OIG report is unacceptable; no NPS employee should ever experience the type of behavior described in the report," wrote Superintendent Wenk. "Yellowstone National Park has zero tolerance for the behavior described in the OIG investigation."

The actions outlined by the superintendent are to be implemented on Tuesday or soon thereafter.

While the OIG forwarded the Yellowstone report to Mr. Reynolds, now the acting Park Service director, for "any action he deemed appropriate," nothing publicly has come down from his office on the matter.

The issue of sexual harassment in the National Park System erupted in January 2016 when the OIG released a report that detailed a 15-year-old running chapter of a rowdy, sexually charged atmosphere for some Grand Canyon National Park employees, with male employees pawing and propositioning female workers, some of who at times exhibited their own risqué behavior. The investigation generated a tawdry list of inappropriate behavior, from male employees taking photographs up under a female co-worker's dress and groping female workers to women dancing provocatively and bringing a drinking straw "shaped like a penis and testicles" to river parties.

The incidents, a September 2014 letter to then-Interior Secretary Sally Jewell charged, "demonstrated evidence of 'discrimination, retaliation, and a sexually hostile work environment.'”

Since that story broke, Dave Uberuaga retired as superintendent of Grand Canyon, there were congressional calls for then-Park Service Director Jarvis to be fired or resign, there was a bipartisan demand from Congress for the Park Service to develop a plan to combat sexual harassment, and there was a rise of sexual harassment allegations from Yellowstone, Canaveral National SeashoreChattahooche River National Recreation Area, and De Soto National Memorial.

Today’s Park Service managers have to follow a plethora of Office of Personnel Management rules, and deal with labor unions, when it comes to disciplining their employees. While those rules were established to protect employees and keep a good employee from being arbitrarily fired or reassigned due to political pressure, they can also impede attempts to discipline or remove employees.

As Traveler noted a year ago, that the Park Service is trying to tackle the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace head-on is good to know. That they have so many hurdles to clear to succeed is unfortunate. 

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