Already burdened by chronic staff shortages, low morale, an $11.3 billion maintenance backlog, and claims of disloyalty by the Interior secretary, the National Park Service will soon ask “a number of employees” to accept voluntary early retirement, according to a memo obtained by the Traveler.
Where eligible, those in identified positions will be contacted by the agency’s Washington Support Office detailing offers that may include severance packages, called Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIP), according to the email sent this week to all employees by Deputy Director of Operations Michael T. Reynolds, who has been serving as interim director.
“In recent years, budget reductions and the absorption of fixed costs have constrained the ability of NPS units, including parks and program offices, to recruit and fill positions through attrition and existing workforce management authorities,” the memo said. “High priority permanent positions remain lapsed in order to afford existing encumbered positions, and seasonal positions critical to the operation of national parks are not filled. Units have also seen their workload change as old processes are modernized and new responsibilities emerge.”
Employees were told that the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) approval is a continuation of a buyout program that began in 2014 and isn’t the result of a government-wide reform plan being developed by the Interior Department and the Office of Management and Budget, and Congress.
“If you are offered a VERA or VSIP, your acceptance is completely optional. You will notice the first word in each of these authorities is ‘voluntary’ and that’s exactly how they should be interpreted,” the email said. “You are not encouraged one way or another to accept or decline. The decision is yours and you should think it over carefully. Your Regional Human Resources Manager can answer any questions you may have about this offer.
“I recognize the work you do every day is not only valuable but has been essential in developing the remarkable organization we have all helped to build. I want each and every employee to know, whether you are offered a VERA/VSIP or not, and whether you choose to accept or not, that the work you do is no less important to those you serve.”
The move would further deplete institutional knowledge from the Park Service, which hasn’t been able to fill all of its open positions for many years.
“Since 2001, the parks have lost the capacity to hire over 1,400 people due to annual NPS appropriations not keeping up with costs and with inflation. For too many years, the Park Service has been required to absorb fixed costs, and appropriations have not kept up with costs associated with employee salaries and benefits,” Deny Galvin of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks told a subcommittee of the U.S. House Natural Resources
Committee in testimony earlier this month.
The Park Service continues to be mired in the bottom 25 percent of all government agencies in terms of being a great place to work, according to the annual Best Places in the Federal Government to Work survey. In addition, a survey revealed that nearly 40 percent of the Park Service workforce has been the victim of sexual harassment, intimidation, or discrimination.
In September, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told the National Petroleum Council that "I got 30 percent of the crew that's not loyal to the flag," according to The Associated Press.
All this while national parks surge in popularity, with record-high visitation surpassing 330 million in 2016 during the Park Service’s centennial year.
Comments
This is a national disgrace. Recall that the USS Gerald R. Ford, the most recent aircraft carrier built cost US taxpayers $13B which is the same amount that our entire NPS is in financial arrears. And President Ford was a Yellowstone ranger as was his daughter, Susan. Our national priorities are backwards and culling out NPS staff is a direct affront to the Park Service's mission. After my recent 176 NPS unit Centennial tour, what was apparent to me was the reliance of volunteers in the system--bless their hearts, but we need more, not fewer rangers in uniform. When I served in the 1970s the most coveted government jobs were in the NPS--today it's the bottom 25%--shameful! C'mon Zinke, let's make the National Park Service Great Again!
Yes, lets call in Ranger Rick when that North Korean missle comes heading our way.
We think there are TRUMP-ZINKE GOP Advocates already within the NPS to adversely affect the Agency from within. Just examine the anti-environmental effects of anti-science adovcates within the EPA as a result of Scott Pruitt, a clear TRUMP decision as TRUMP tells the PR Crowd that He Cares about Clean Water, another of numerous TRUMP LIES.
Often there is the assumption that the "NPS High Command" is made up of "John Muir types", strong advocates for ecological science and wise environmental friendly decisions.
What is the case in reality, is that a number of high ranking positons are occupied by law enforcement rangers or political appointees with little respect for the complications of natural resource science based project decisions or respect toward truly protecting
wildlife from poachers, including the entire biota fragmented as they are within many national parks.
There are numerous examples within the NPS CULTURE: Lest we forget, lets recall the Olympic N.P. case study whose superintendent, Fred Overly, was a Logger wearing the NPS green and gray uniform. (Read Olympic Battleground by Carsten Lien. a lowly seasonal or as some NPS supervisors would say, "sleasonals" !) San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1991
Or Crater Lake N.P. when NPS Management did not support the volunteer limnologist Doug Larson reporting a decline in the Lake Water clarity believed the result of Rim Village mega-sewerage pollution
(http://www.craterlakeinstitute.com/oral-histories/douglas-larson/). including old Lodge septic tank leakage for decades along the edge of the caldera.
Numerous other examples are relevant including the Narcissistic Factor Displayed everytime TRUMP, the Bully opens
his mouth, we find in some superintendents like
former Redwood N.P. Supt. Ehorn whose primary contribution was promoting RNP as "The World's
Greatest National Park so he, Ehorn would be seen as the Greatest NP Superintendent, without a clue as to
what the real Battle had been for the North Group of the Sierra Club to lobby for a RNP with Integrity, but
as the reality set in, Congress allowing the best
Redwood Creek watershed old-growth forest to be clearcut.
The Real Fear Now is the GOP selling the Public Lands to help pay for super Wealthy Tax Cuts and the increasing culmulative US Debt of $22 PLUS TRILLION $. So, we're
wondering how many current and former NPS Federal Employees
voted GOP and remain part of TRUMP's base ?
I think it is truly short sighted to buy out your employees who have the training and experience to achieve your goals, while thinking that hiring rookies and starting the training cycle from scratch [and at entry level salary] is adequate.
LOL - you obviously don't understand economics nor how the new tax code works compared to the old.
One of the ways the republican party shows contempt for the American people is to defund our national parks and attack those who stand up for them as dupes of far left organizations. The danger to our parks grows as the deficit from the republican tax cut will ravage the federal government at all levels. The longer Don Trump is in office the more we are tempted to "normalize" his extremism. In fact he and Ryan Zinke are captives of the oil industry and the libertarian right who wish to privatize all public lands. The answer is to get active now and make sure the 2018 elections paralyze the Trump administration and put an end to their reactionary destructive policies.
Tom - the last four major tax cuts were followed by massive increases in tax collections. There will be no deficit caused by this tax cut. If there is a deficit, it will be, as usual, because we spent too much.
Apparently there also won't be any great increase in economic activity either, EC, if the past trends hold true.
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/gop-tax-rate-cut-wealthy/