WANTED: National Park Service Employees with Fealty to the President's Management Agenda
Topic: Yesterday's News?31. October 2005 |
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Re: Parks: A Place for Politics?
by Anonymous on 2005.10.14 03:33PM EDT |
IP: While the same policy is, albeit unspoken,
still very much in force in many agencies, it is even more obscene to see it in print.
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IP:
country and our collective culture. Each park interprets its
significance to visitors through ranger talks, exhibits, films,
publications and other media. If the party in office wants to shift our
collective understanding of history, culture, and our environment, they
only need to place politically motivated decision-makers at the table
to edit the dialogue before it starts. An example - the film at the
Lincoln Memorial was edited after a right-wing protest of the content.
The incident did draw some attention from the press. But with political
insiders embedded deep in the National Park Service, the editing, or
censoring, of our public discourse will happen without much, if any
public awareness.
These two eloquent comments are in response to the following post:
For Immediate Release: October 13, 2005
Contact: Chas Offutt (202) 265-7337
POLITICAL SCREENING FOR ALL PARK SERVICE MANAGERS — Mid-Level Managers Picked for Fealty to “the President’s Management Agenda”
Washington,
DC — The National Park Service has started using a political loyalty
test for picking all its top civil service positions, according to an
agency directive released today by Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility (PEER). Under the new order, all mid-level managers and
above must also be approved by a Bush administration political
appointee.
The October 11, 2005 order issued by NPS Director
Fran Mainella requires that the selection criteria for all civil
service management slots (Government Service grades or GS-13, 14 and
15) include the “ability to lead employees in achieving the
…Secretary’s 4Cs and the President’s Management Agenda.” In addition,
candidates must be screened by Park Service headquarters and “the
Assistant Secretary [of Interior] for Fish, and Wildlife, and Parks,”
the number three political appointee in the agency.
The order
represents a complete centralization of Park Service promotion and
hiring in what has traditionally been a decentralized agency. More
strikingly, the order is an unprecedented political intrusion into what
are supposed to be non-partisan, merit system personnel decisions.
The
President’s Management Agenda includes controversial policies and
proposals such as aggressive use of outsourcing to replace civil
servants, reliance on “faith-based initiatives” and rollbacks of civil
service rights. Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s “4Cs” is a slogan she
uses to express her management approach: “4 Cs: communication,
consultation, cooperation, all in the service of conservation.”
“It
is outrageous that park superintendents must swear political loyalty to
the Bush agenda and parrot hokey mottos in order to earn a promotion,”
stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “The merit system is supposed
to be about ability, not apple polishing.”
The order applies
to all hires for park superintendents, assistant superintendents and
program managers, such as chief ranger or the head of interpretive or
cultural programs. Overall, the policy applies to more than 1,000
mid-level management and supervisory positions in the Park Service.
“Presidents
come and go but the civil service is designed to serve whoever occupies
the swivel chair in the Oval Office,” Ruch added. “It is downright
creepy that now every museum curator, supervising scientist and chief
ranger must be okayed by a high-level political appointee.”
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