A national park superintendent who was highly valued for her performance and skills has been fired by the National Park Service for refusing to accept a job 500 miles away from her home and family.
While Mary A. Miller, superintendent at Sitka National Historical Park in Alaska, initially was successful in appealing her dismissal, a federal appellate court overturned a decision by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board and Ms. Miller was escorted out of the park by the chief ranger on New Year's Eve.
Park Service officials in Alaska decided in 2010 to shift Superintendent Miller from the historical park to a new position as Alaska Native Affairs Liaison in Anchorage, 500 miles away. When she declined the reassignment, claiming she was not qualified for the role and that it would be a hardship because of her family situation, the Park Service fired her. Ms. Miller then appealed that decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which overturned her dismissal.
In gathering testimony on Ms. Miller's appeal, the Merit Board heard from the Park Service how it "had a high regard for the appellant’s performance as the superintendent in Sitka. Indeed, agency witnesses testified that the agency relied upon the appellant’s strengths and accomplishments as a Superintendent as the basis for directing her reassignment to the Liaison position in Anchorage," the board noted.
Furthermore, it added in its ruling in April 2013, "we find that it did not promote the efficiency of the service to direct the appellant to take the position in Anchorage against her will and to remove her from employment altogether when she declined the position. As a result of the agency’s actions, it lost an apparently valued and successful employee, and created two vacancies that the agency had to fill after her removal."
The federal government's Office of Personnel Management then appealed that ruling to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed the Merit Board, holding that the Park Service had legitimate reasons for reassigning Ms. Miller to Anchorage.
Yet the Park Service's determination to transfer Ms. Miller from Sitka was deemed "reprehensible" by U.S. Circuit Judge Evan Wallach. While Judge Wallach agreed with the court's majority that the Merit Systems Protection Board had wrongly approached Ms. Miller's case, he maintained that "it appears obvious to me that the agency’s actions were entirely pretextual and in bad faith."
Specifically, the Circuit judge wrote that the Park Service had crafted the job description for the Alaska Native Affairs Liaison in such a way " ... to obtain the desired result. It is obvious to me that the agency modified the standards and qualifications to make Ms. Miller the only person uniquely qualified, within the pool of employees that were considered for the position; that the agency’s actions were entirely pretextual; and that they were intended solely to present Ms. Miller with an improperly motivated Hobson’s choice. Such conduct by an agency of the United States is reprehensible."
In its ruling, reached in September, the Court of Appeals directed the Merit Systems Protection Board to reverse its decision. A final order supporting Ms. Miller's removal was filed on New Year's Eve and the Park Service appointed Neil Akana as acting superintendent for Sitka.
Comments
Kurt, you need to ask for the 2010 Management Review that was done in Sitka, it will start you down the right path for the whole story! People deserve to know what kind of manager this woman really is and then you can piece together the actions of the NPS. She deserved to be fired but for different reasons....
The permance evaluations is not the story. That was how she managed to get reinstated in 2013, not the reason she was terminated in 2010. FOIA the Management Review as previously stated as well as the Employee Viewpoint surveys for the last decade.
That the regional director originally chose this 'pretextual' method to remove her from causing further damage at Sitka instead of doing the hard work necessary to institute a disciplinary or performance action for removal is unfortunate; however, to anyone who is actually familiar with the situation instead of basing their knowledge on a brief blurb by Kurt, the correct result was achieved in the end - with the added benefit that she isn't working at damaging NPS relations and subordinates in Anchorage either. It's just a shame that at least two other employees had their lives uprooted to accommodate the MSPB's erroneous reversal. The lesson learned here is to quit pencil whipping performance evaluations of problem managers just because they threaten to sue you.
The full article is behind a paywall, but this didn't take long:
Former Park Supt. Miller Plans to Appeal Removal
08 Jan 2016 23:20
By Sentinel Staff Mary Miller, who was removed as superintendent of Sitka National Historical Park [ ... ]
And the soap opera continues.
At a certain point, after multiple rulings against you, further appeals appear to be an exercise in spite as much as any realistic hope for an optimal outcome.
Here is the article suggesting a new appeal
http://www.sitkasentinel.com/7/component/content/article?id=9518:sitka-p...
"The only thing the National Park Service did wrong was to take so long to remove her from office."
I FULLY agree with this response.
In the Juneau Empire article from 2010, I'd like to point out this excerpt:
The report found that the park had no annual budget process, and that the development of "distrustful if not hostile work relationships negatively impact operations."
This puts it nicely.
A National Park Service Superintendent is equivalent to a Forest Service District Ranger, both are responsible for managing public land acres and employees that do the work.