Scary e-mail from the Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility....
News Releases
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."
###
Read the October 11 "Revised Procedures for GS-13, GS-14, and GS-15
Selections" http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/05_13_10_hiring_directive.pdf
Revisit the President's Management Agenda
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2002/mgmt.pdf
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