CIVIL SERVICE
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1997:
Whistleblowers
The Professional Institute of
the Public Service, representing
Canadian public scientists, on August 7
demanded passage of a whistleblower
protection law promised by the Liberal
goverment during the 1993 election
campaign and recommended in 1995 by
Auditor General Denis Desautels, but
not yet introduced to Parliament.
Instead, the Department of Fisheries
and Oceans responded to the recent disclosure
of extensive falsification of official
data pertaining to cod, salmon, and
seals by circulating a 1982 disciplinary
code which lists public criticism of the
department as an offense on the same
level as mutiny and fraud. As A N IMAL
PEOPLE reported in July/August
(“Scientists say Canada falsified data”),
outside scientists revealed in May and
June that the DFO concealed evidence
that Atlantic cod have been overfished
to endangerment, and undercounted the
1996 offshore sealing kill, officially
262,402, by as much as 100%.
Confirmations
The U.S. Senate on July 31
confirmed the appointments of J a m i e
Rappaport Clark to head the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, Robert Stanton
to head the National Park Service, and
Pat Shea to head the Bureau of Land
Management. Clark has served as Fish
and Wildlife Service assistant director
for ecological services since 1994.
Stanton, the first Afro-American director
of the Park Service, formerly headed
the Park Service capital region office.
Shea ran unsuccessfully for governor of
Utah in 1992 and for the Senate in 1994.
He became the first confirmed BLM
director since the ouster of Jim Baca in
February 1994, replacing three-year
interim director Mike Dombeck, now
heading the Forest Service. Dombeck
made waves on August 5 by reassigning
seven senior officers. Michael Francis,
national forests director for the
Wilderness Society, told Scott Sonner
of Associated Press that the reassignments
advanced a Dombeck pledge to
de-emphasize logging in favor of recreation
and wildlife protection.
Moonstruck
Idaho Fish and Game
Department director Stephen Mealey,
“on a large boat with a bunch of other
people” on July 24, “momentarily
tugged his trousers part way down,
actually sort of half-mooning the shore”
according to apparent witness Bill Hall
of the Lewiston Tribune, “in reaction to
a statue he didn’t like disturbing the natural
lake view.” The Idaho Fish and
Game Commission suspended Mealey
without pay for two weeks, costing him
$3,442, but that didn’t satisfy I d a h o
Sportsman’s Heritage Fund s p o k e s –
person Don Clower, Idaho State
B o w h u n t e r s president Larry Velvick,
and Upper Snake Wildlife Council
chair J. Kent Marlor, especially after
the stunt inspired two Boise disk jockeys
to moon Fish and Game Department
headquarters staff. The hunting groups
demanded Mealey’s ouster. With letters
to Governor Phil Batt running 21-5
against Mealey, The Idaho Coalition
United For Bears on August 9 urged
members to defend him. “Steve is the
first guy in a long time who has attempted
to get a dialogue going between
hunters and nonhunters,” explained
ICUB director Lynn Fritchman. A former
grizzly bear researcher, Mealey
was previously best known for opposing
grizzly bear reintroduction.
Selling swampland
A month after Public
Employees for Environmental
R e s p o n s i b i l i t y accused the F l o r i d a
Department of Environmental
P r o t e c t i o n of gutting wetlands programs
to favor developers, the DEP in
early August put wetlands programs
under Robert Kriegel, 50, who was
removed as director of the Pensacola
regional office and took a $14,000
demotion because of alleged questionable
permit issuance. The M i a m i
Herald reported that, “The Florida
Department of Law Enforcement
cleared Kriegel of criminal wrongdoing,
but concluded ‘His administrative
actions dealing with questionable permitting
may warrant a complete review
of the Northwest District.’”
