Frustrated lawmakers are now threatening to issue subpoenas as their investigation into Yosemite National Park management problems heats up.
Impatient with a slow National Park Service response to an earlier request for Yosemite-related documents, top members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday amplified their demands with the words no federal official wants to hear.
“The committee may otherwise consider the use of compulsory process to obtain these materials” if not provided by Oct. 11, the letter warned.
Addressed to Michael Reynolds, the park service’s deputy director for operations, the two-page letter seeks an “expedited inquiry report into a hostile work environment at Yosemite National Park.” The internal report was initiated in August, a Sept. 22 committee hearing revealed.
At the hearing, Yosemite’s fire and aviation management chief Kelly Martin cited repeated instances of “bullying, gender bias and favoritism” under the management of Superintendent Don Neubacher. Neubacher subsequently announced his retirement, while the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General has initiated an investigation.
The documents and information you promised to provide relate to the safety and well-being of (park service) employees.
Letter to National Park Service from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Lawmakers at the Sept. 22 hearing asked Reynolds to provide the expedited inquiry report.
“It is...disappointing that you failed to meet your commitment to assist the committee’s investigation and produce those materials,” the letter states.
Going beyond Yosemite, the committee letter signed by two Democrats and two Republicans also asks for the names of all park service employees who were “fired, dismissed or retired” at Yellowstone National Park since Jan. 1, 2013 as well as the number of park service employees fired for sexual harassment and the number of sexual harassment complaints filed during the same period.
Underscoring the bipartisan ire, the committee’s letter was signed by the committee’s conservative chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and the liberal senior Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, as well as the top two members of the subcommittee that oversees the Interior Department.
The Washington Post first reported on the letter Wednesday night.
“We are in receipt of the committee’s memo and we are in the process of verifying the information they requested. We will respond to the committee as soon as possible,” park service spokesman Thomas Crosson said in a statement.
Michael Doyle: 202-383-6153, @MichaelDoyle10