The Bush administration has proposed privatizing as many as 70 percent of all the jobs in the National Park Service -- a move that could have a profound effect on the national parks. Soon, at national parks across the country, the rarest treasures may not be the beloved wildlife, scenic wonders, and historic artifacts, but rather the special people who safeguard them.
By Todd Wilkinson
Imagine Ron Kerbo's surprise when he read in a newspaper story that a right-wing think tank had identified National Park Service jobs like his as candidates for "outsourcing."
Kerbo, the agency's top cave expert, is internationally renowned for his passion and knowledge about subterranean ecosystems. Over the course of three decades as a civil servant, he, along with hundreds of ranger-speleologists that he has trained, have spent their careers protecting such natural wonders as Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, Wind Cave in South Dakota, and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. "When most people take a job with the Park Service, they're not doing it for the money," Kerbo says. "They're doing it because they love the natural and cultural treasures under their care, and they take pride in being stewards of them on behalf of society."
Yet not long ago, the president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has influenced a number of Bush administration policy initiatives, suggested that jobs like Kerbo's could be farmed out to younger, less-experienced workers from the private sector who could work far more cheaply.
| Fortunately, decision makers realized the folly of such thinking and backed off targeting key natural resource positions -- at least for now. Still, it hasn't stopped the president's advisors from moving forward with a controversial plan to put thousands of other Park Service jobs -- as much as 70 percent of all jobs in the agency -- on the auction block in an attempt to supplant government workers with contract laborers. |
Park rangers in Shenandoah National Park prepare a controlled burn to provide clear ground for new tree germination. | |
"The Bush administration's plan to downsize the Park Service and privatize the federal workforce has profound implications for the future of our National Park System," says Craig Obey, NPCA's vice president of legislative affairs. Obey has been closely tracking the downsizing-outsourcing plan even though much of it has been crafted behind closed doors at the highest levels of government.
While few Americans have ever heard of the Governmental Performance and Results Act of 1993, and even fewer know about "Circular A-76" (a directive dating to 1955 being used by the federal Office of Management and Budget [OMB] to justify eliminating Park Service positions), both figure prominently in what could become the greatest human resource shakeup in the Park Service's storied history.
According to observers, OMB -- the fiscal nerve center of the government -- is poised to whittle down the ranks of the Park Service and has ordered the agency to identify jobs that are inherently "commercial" in nature and to make those posts available for competition from the private sector. The initiative is based on OMB's reinterpretation of Circular A-76, which compels the government to identify all "commercial" jobs. It also cites the Government Performance and Results Act, crafted with bipartisan support and signed into law by President Clinton in 1993.
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The intent of the law is simple: It was created to make the federal bureaucracy more efficient and accountable to taxpayers. But the net result may gut one of the proudest and most beloved conservation agencies in government. |
Of the 20,000 people who work for the Park Service, seven of every ten jobs are potential candidates for outsourcing. Scroll down the list of Park Service positions that the Competitive Enterprise Institute says could be replaced by consultants and day laborers from the private sector, and it covers 60 pages and may involve as many as 6,500 jobs.
The first round includes archaeologists, historians, museum curators, and engineers, as well as maintenance and security positions. "While it is perfectly appropriate to seek the lowest bidder for the uniforms our park employees wear or the equipment they use, seeking the lowest bidder to replace their expertise and experience is wrong," warned Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), ranking member of the House Committee on Resources, who has introduced legislation to stop the administration's outsourcing plans. "National Park Service employees are not overpaid, and hiring people to replace them based only on their willingness to do the job for less will only lessen the value of the work being done in our national parks."
The House of Representatives may have dealt a mortal blow to the administration's plans in July by voting to stop privatization among agencies under the Department of Interior. The Senate is expected to act on this version of the bill in September.
Although senior-level administrators within the Park Service deny they are being pressured, a memo from Lynn Scarlett, assistant Interior secretary for policy, management, and budget, suggested the job performance of superintendents would be based, in part, on how quickly they acted to identify jobs that could be outsourced.
Bush administration officials claim their intentions are virtuous, though Park Service employees and park advocacy groups like NPCA decry the fact that political operatives at OMB and the White House, who have no conservation experience and apparently little respect for the proud tradition of the agency, are calling the shots.
Part of the anger stems from their perception that the White House and Interior Secretary Gale Norton -- a vocal supporter of privatization -- don't fully appreciate the level of expertise and commitment career park employees bring to their jobs. In one offhanded comment, OMB director Mitch Daniels demeaned the Park Service as "the world's largest lawn care service."
In the beginning, Park Service Director Fran Maniella defended outsourcing, but after realizing its potential effect and conferring with numerous agency career professionals, she has turned more ambivalent. In a recent memo, she noted that merely studying the process of opening up 1,708 agency jobs to the private sector could cost $3 million, more than $2,000 per job. Ironically, to pay for that review, some parks may have to cut services or have fewer rangers available to assist visitors.
Outsourcing also has the potential to set back a major Park Service initiative to broaden racial diversity within the agency workforce. A focus in recent years has been on recruiting more Hispanics and African Americans, especially in urban areas. Park Service Director Maniella acknowledges there could be problems and that outsourcing in general could have "serious consequences" for the quality of services visitors expect. So why do it?
Answer: Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, believes that although the administration denies it, the reason has to do with the president's blind adherence to a campaign pledge.
When he came into office, Bush pledged not to grow the size of the federal government. But after September 11, 2001, came the decision to create a federally managed security force at airports, and civil service ranks ballooned. Federal agencies hired 135,978 new full-time employees last year as part of homeland security. Moreover, Baby Boomers have not retired in as great numbers as predicted-as much as 23 percent less than expected.
Now the president is trying to shrink the size of government by privatizing more than 850,000 jobs in the federal workforce. Some have suggested that without this reduction, the Bush administration will be responsible for the greatest increase in the size of the federal workforce in recent history.
Aside from sheer numbers, OMB accountants fail to factor in the fact that individual Park Service workers wear many different hats and thus exemplify the notion of "value-added" employees.
Maintenance rangers who care for many western parks in many cases also double as firefighters or perform emergency rescue functions. Those who mow the lawn on the Mall in Washington, D.C., or fix picnic tables in Yellowstone also are available to knowledgeably answer tourists' questions. "They are dedicated to ensuring the public has the best experience, but they are painfully aware of the mission of the agency, which is to pass the parks on to the next generation unimpaired," says Jeff McFarland, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers. "Will someone who is punching a time clock care as much?"
Consider the overworked, underpaid maintenance workers at Yellowstone, who, because of their devotion to the park, have kept its ancient sewage system functioning at major destinations like Old Faithful. On several occasions in recent years, operational failures of treatment systems have resulted in effluent being flushed into the same geothermal systems that produce the park's amazing array of geysers and hot springs.
"Veteran workers are able to work magic because they know where all of the trouble spots are," Ruch says. "The idea that they can be easily replaced is a recipe ripe for disaster."
In addition, Ruch says outsourcing may provide a subtle mechanism whereby current employees who have a conservation ethic and a bias against further development in parks could be replaced by contract labor more in tune with the administration's ideology.
Critics and proponents of outsourcing agree that the Park Service has already been a model of how to make the private sector a partner in delivering services to visitors. Today, nearly 60 percent of all employees in national parks are private- sector workers employed by larger companies involved with running hotels, restaurants, auto service stations, and gift shops. The other 40 percent who wear Park Service uniforms serve essential agency functions.
According to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, there were 1,841 permanent and 616 seasonal law enforcement rangers in 1980. In 2001, those levels had shrunk to 1,539 permanent rangers, a 16.4 percent decline, and 469 seasonal law enforcement specialists, or a 23.9 percent reduction. At the same time, visitation to Park Service sites grew by more than 10 million, 62 new Park Service units were added, and park acreage grew from 77 million acres to 84.5 million acres.
Parks today also are increasingly in a pinch because many law enforcement rangers receive temporary reassignments to perform homeland security duties, creating a need for experienced personnel to interact with the public.
"In essence, the archaeologists, historians, and maintenance workers also function as park interpreters," says David Barna, the Park Service's chief spokesman in Washington, D.C. "They are certainly one of the reasons why this agency has such a high public approval rating. Can we replace them with contract workers from the private sector and deliver the same level of service and resource protection?"
Ruch believes the National Park Service is on a slippery slope that could lead to commercialization of parks. "Consultants aren't going to tell their employer unpleasant or inconvenient things if they want to get their contracts renewed. Under civil service laws, employees feel not only an obligation but they're protected when they point out things," he says.
On February 4, 2003, 23 senators wrote a letter to OMB director Daniels expressing concern over the administration's overall privatization plan. Law-makers also tried to prevent OMB from simply imposing numeric targets without assessing their impact, but their opposition went down by a vote of 50 to 47. NPCA has joined dozens of conservation organizations in calling for congressional hearings, but so far those requests have been rebuffed.
In the future, NPCA's Obey says, the Bush administration may come to realize that not only do parks have a special place in the hearts of Americans, but so do the special people who wear the uniform.
