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Mike Snyder, Intermountain Regional Director for the National Park Service, Opts for Retirement

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Mike Snyder, the Intermountain regional director for the National Park Service, has decided to retire rather than take a reassignment. NPS photo.

Mike Snyder, the Intermountain regional director for the National Park Service who became a controversial figure over his "core ops" approach to budgeting, has decided to retire rather than take a reassignment.

Mr. Snyder announced his plans in a blog posted on the Park Service's intranet.

Mike Snyder's Blog: So long IMR family: I will leave you with a smile

On Monday of this week I traveled to Phoenix for a meeting on the Glen Canyon Dam and how its management affects the Grand Canyon. When I checked into my hotel, there was a fax waiting for me at the front desk. The fax was from the Director, telling me that I was being reassigned, effective in 15 days, to a compliance job in the Denver Service Center.

As you all know, being in the Senior Executive Service means that you can be reassigned at any time. It is something that all of us in that position understand. After the job here as Regional Director, though, I don’t think any other job can measure up in terms of the people you get to work with, the issues that engage you, and the places you get to go. So, I have decided to retire. My retirement date is March 2.

Laura Joss will be the acting Regional Director effective February 17. I know that all of you will work closely with her, support her, and keep carrying on the good work you are doing on behalf of the parks and the NPS mission.

A while back I wrote a blog in which I began with the line “So much of being successful depends on our initial approach and attitude” and ended it with “…every change in life requires a change in thinking.” I will apply that simple logic to the change that I am about to make. This is a new beginning and I am looking forward to all that lies ahead.

I want all of you to know how proud I am of the work you have accomplished for the National Park Service, and how much I enjoyed working with you. We have been through a lot together, and I have always been impressed by the professionalism, dedication and creativity of the people in this region.

As I look back on a long career with the NPS, I feel blessed to have been part of carrying out our mission and to have been able to work with so many talented people. I leave here with a smile, happy to have had such challenging and fulfilling work. Please take care of yourselves, and think first of the safety of your colleagues and friends. I hope our paths will cross again.

Comments

I find it interesting that NPT provides a frank forum for discussion of this regional "meltdown." Unfortunately, there was no such outlet for the similar disaster that befell the Southeast Regional Office at the hands of directors selected by relativism and political correctness from 1999 into 2007. During that time, scores of dedicated employees had their lives and careers destroyed or diminished by individuals who were ill-prepared to lead, let alone manage. WASO, for the most part, ignored the problem while complaints, appeals, illnesses, resignations, early retirements, and legal actions mounted to embarrassing levels. For those of us who loved the parks and the NPS, it was heartbreaking to watch. For the future of the parks, the NPS, and its dedicated staff, I hope the current management remembers and learns from these issues that plagued SERO and IMRO for years. If they do not, I see the NPS, as the tiny office making up less than 0.001% of the federal budget, reorganized out of the existence while the parks themselves survive under "new" management. Let's hope that Jarvis, who seems well-versed in the Mather-Albright mantra, walks in the traces with the spirit of Hartzog and Dickenson. As for SES reassignment by fax, it may be cold, but it's honest and not beyond reality in corporate America. If the NPS needs anything these days, it's more reality.


Maybe we can use this thread to shed some light into the administrative side of the NPS, you never see when you visit a park. What is the purpose of the seven(?) regional offices anyway? How many staff work there - compared with a) the parks in the region and b) with the central offices in DC and other offices with national scope such as Harper's Ferry?

I have to admit, that I know close to nothing about the administrative side. How much of the regional offices and middle management in the (larger?) parks is consulting, controlling, documentation and the like which might be a more suitable place to cut costs than the rangers that "range"?


Mike Snyder spins a tale to get empathy. Sending a fax would not have been the initial effort by Director Jarvis to contact him. Other people and I have seen him ignore phone calls from the Director, even saying to a group that it was the Director calling and he was not going to answer the phone. Mike Snyder knew a reassignment was coming and was dodging phone calls and emails. A fax cornered him.


Adding to what RoadRanger wrote above. Director Jarvis should authorize a review of the Intermountain Regional Office staff and practices. Park field staff would have much to say about performance, favoritism, and qualifications of the highest graded regional employees. IMR needs a new regional director who will clean up the office starting with the directorate. Mike Snyder sprinkled his favorites with GS-14 and GS-15 grade increases as he left, not succeeding in all cases thanks to WASO required approval for GS-15s. There is lack of trust from the field for the corner office staff.


Writing to support these last comments. The Intermountain Regional Office has gone on a hiring spree of epic proportions over the last 18 months or so. Many high graded positions, GS 14 & 15s, most non-competitive or at least pre-selected for favorites. Lots of constant non-essential travel. What is doubly ironic is that this has come following the short sighted core operations processes where parks lost positions forever - despite being at the heart of what the agency is really all about. I am not a gratuitous government basher but it is hard to feel good about the federal government when one looks at the doings in the Intermountain Regional Office over the last four years. A careful review by non IMR regional office staff is necessary and hopefully some significant and rapid changes there. Good luck to the next regional director who will have to clean up Snyder's and his lieutenant's incredible mess and try to rebuild trust in the employees of the Intermountain Region.


The NPS needs to rethink its leadership model, if it even has one. Currently, we often see leaders selected into their positions for all the wrong reasons, including political correctness. Yes, I know it is difficult to discuss, but it is real.

During the mid-nineties, the reorganization years, a move away from operationally ground and sound leadership (rangers) was replaced with selections based upon diversity. Not necessarily diversity of gender, race or ethnicity, although that did play a part, but diversity of position and organizational background. Scores of planners were selected for upper management positions, including Superintendents.

The issue here is not diversity, but how an organization prepares, mentors, tests and selects its people for leadership. In our case, we did not work through any logical or accepted process for leadership secession. Oh, we made overtures that we considered leadership readiness, but it was a sham. We simply made our selections based upon 1) self-serving political considerations of the selecting supervisor; 2) personal / professional associations (friends); 3) subjective evaluation as to the candidate’s ability to conform to management direction, supervisory loyalty and ideological positioning; 4) philosophy ideology (rangers vs anybody else), and 5) to demonstrate how tolerant you where by aggressively pursuing diversity.

Again, the issue here is not diversity; I completely support equal opportunity for all, etc. The issue is how we prepare, evaluate and select our leaders. Can you imagine if, let’s say the U.S. Navy decided to select a central office planner for the operational command of war fighting vessel? Yes, the planner may technically be at the same grade level, but do they possess any subject matter expertise, supervisory and leadership experience or have they demonstrated complex operational leadership success in a series of progressively more difficult leadership positions? Probably, not.

The military would be horrified with the prospect of simply selecting a planner to captain a ship, due to an ideological premise and philosophical commitment to diversify its leadership, under the mantra of demonstrating its tolerance for multiple points of view, etc. However, this is exactly what the NPS does. Our captains are our Superintendents, and we select them for all the wrong reasons.

There are dozens of examples of how these selections have gone awry. For instance, consider the Superintendent of the C&O Canal NHP, Kevin Brandt, who was also a central office planner until selected into the Superintendent ranks. He had no operational experience, nor leadership or supervisory ability. Not a problem for the NPS, because most importantly, he demonstrated that he could conform and support the needs of higher management.

NPT reported on how this superintendent (allowed) the billionaire owner of the Washington Redskins Professional Football Team to harm park resources (cut hundreds of NPS managed trees), so he could improve the view from his Potomac River mansion; allegedly with the support and direction of the NPS Director and NCR Regional Director. Members of the park staff revolted, did their duty and blew the whistle. The OIG investigated and found that the NPS violated law and policy and some officials lied to investigators, but the Superintendent / Planner is still in place.

This is just one of many examples. It is the consequence of failing to grow and place into positions of leadership people who have a demonstrated ability to perform these functions. We can do better.

The NPS needs to go back to defining, teaching and enforcing its foundational values. We need to grow and select people for leadership positions who truly have this leadership ability and hold them accountable for making ethical, logical and mission based positions. The era of confusing management with leadership needs to come to an end.

This comment was edited.--Ed.


After reading through these comments, it becomes apparent that the roles and responsibilities and the size of our regional staffs have to be investigated and studied. Simply stated, there seems to be far too many people making much too much money who are traveling too much to do far too little.

Concerning salaries and compensation, I wrote in a previous comment (on core ops) the following: "In the midst of the debate about how much money has been spent in different ways and at different levels of the Park Service, it's interesting to go to http://php.app.com/fed_employees/search.php and just compare some numbers.

For instance, if you look at the salaries of all the employees of the Intermountain Regional Office and the Denver Service Center, it shows in fiscal year 2008 there were 543 employees .......and 24% earned more than $100,000 and 64% earned more than $75,000.

If you combine the numbers for Mesa Verde National Park and Yosemite National Park---one of our typical medium-sized parks and one of our larger parks---you end up with 993 employees....and of these only 1.5 % earned more than $100,000 and 6% earned more than $75,000. (Based on the web site's statistics: at Mesa Verde NP one person earned over $100,000 and 9 others earned between $75,000 and $100,000; and at Yosemite NP there were 819 employees with 14 earning over $100,000 and 36 earning between $75,000 and $100,000.)

These numbers include all employees---full time permanent and summer seasonals. If we try to eliminate the seasonal employees, then Mesa Verde NP had approximately 60 year-round employees and Yosemite NP had approximately 400. That results in a combined full time staff in the two parks of 460 people with 3% earning over $100,000 and 13% earning over $75,000."

There's just something wrong with the picture these statistic create; it's a picture of too many people being paid far too much to do jobs which if eliminated might not really affect our parks too much. And with budget cuts and the anticipated budget freeze, it makes the problem become even more difficult. For instance, when push comes to shove and when the budget in each and every park has to be analyzed and trimmed, are we going to trim programs that affect visitor services, or look for for other areas to cut? Will the $15,000/year seasonal rangers be cut resulting in fewer tours and programs, or should a few of those positions at regional offices be trimmed through attrition and retirement?

Perhaps Mike Snyder did the honorable thing....and just retired instead of becoming just another expensive cog in the NPS regional bureaucracy.


To Mr. Schundler,
Right on with your comments. Time to downsize and possibly eliminate the regional offices and put the dollars back in the parks, the places for which the appropriations are actually intended, especially in anticipation of the coming frozen budgets and eventual budget reductions.


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