Ethics group files lawsuit over Forest Service outsourcing

Ethics group files lawsuit over Forest Service outsourcing
By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian


http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2...nal/news07.txt

Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics filed suit against
the U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday, challenging a decision to hand
over analysis of public comment on major agency decisions to private
contractors.

"We think the public deserves to have its comments read by the
government, not by the private sector," said Andy Stahl, FSEEE's
executive director. "Government employees are regulated by strict
conflict of interest and ethics rules that do not apply to private
contractors."

Filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula, the lawsuit claims the
Forest Service violated a newly enacted federal law by "outsourcing"
its content analysis teams in Missoula and Salt Lake City.




The 2004 Interior Appropriations Act requires the Forest Service to
conduct a public-private competition and to demonstrate cost savings
of 10 percent or $10 million before any agency function is given to
the private sector.

The Forest Service neither conducted a public-private competition nor
showed a cost savings before eliminating the content analysis teams,
FSEEE's lawsuit said.

Already, about 20 members of the Missoula team have lost their jobs to
the privatization effort; at one time, the Missoula team had 30
employees.

"We think the management of federal lands is something the government
ought to do," Stahl said in an interview from his Eugene, Ore.,
office. "We are not pleased with the way the government is proceeding
with outsourcing."

By handing over public comments to private companies, the Forest
Service opens the door to bias from special-interest groups, in
Stahl's estimation.

"Let's say the Forest Service proposes a new rule to delist the
spotted owl," he said. "The public comments could be analyzed by a
company whose clients include major timber companies. There will be
conflicts of interest; we can see it coming."

Forest Service officials did not want to comment on the lawsuit
Wednesday, saying they had not seen the suit and do not comment on
pending litigation.

But in earlier interviews, both agency officials who presided over the
content analysis team's outsourcing said the Forest Service will be
"more resilient and nimble" if it relies on private contractors to
evaluate public comments.

Public comments come and go, so the content analysis team's workload
fluctuates wildly, officials said. Now private companies - not
taxpayers - will pay for any down time.

But the privatization process has been "awkward," conceded Pam
Gardiner, the agency's deputy director of ecosystem management
coordination.

Stahl said FSEEE attempted to discuss its concerns with Forest Service
officials before filing suit, but received no answer to repeated
requests for information.

"I would define it as getting the runaround," he said. "One person
referred me to another person who referred me to another and another.
We had no choice but to sue them."

The Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2004 became
law on Nov. 11, and - according to Stahl - was clear in the limits it
placed on the Forest Service's discretion to contract out jobs
previously performed by 10 or more federal employees.

On Nov. 11, there were still 18 Forest Service employees assigned to
the content analysis team, he said, so the act protects their jobs.

FSEEE is the national environmental group that recently filed suit
against the Forest Service over the agency's firefighting policies and
practices.

Stahl said the group's membership totals 12,000 people, of which about
500 currently work for the Forest Service and "the balance are owners
of the national forests."

Five of the nine members of FSEEE's governing board are Forest Service
employees, one works for the Bureau of Land Management and three are
retired from the Forest Service.

Board members, not the group's general membership, approve all of
FSEEE's litigation, Stahl said.

The Forest Service started looking at jobs it could hand over to
private contractors after the Bush administration issued a call for
"competitive outsourcing."

Over the past two years, the agency studied 2,340 jobs, according to
deputy chief Tom Mills, and decided to offer 243 of those jobs to
private contractors.

Just two agency functions were eliminated during the first round of
outsourcing: the content analysis team and a computer hotline. Still
under review are 1,200 information technology jobs and 124 employees
assigned to fleet and road maintenance.

Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at



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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...type=printable


JEFF BARNARD, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, December 3, 2003
©2003 Associated Press

URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/12/03/state2112EST7366.DTL


(12-03) 18:12 PST (AP) --

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- An environmental group is suing the U.S. Forest
Service, claiming it acted illegally by trying to lay off government
workers who analyze public comments on logging and other projects and
replace them with private contractors.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Missoula,
Mont., by the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, based
in Eugene. It alleges the Forest Service failed to do studies to show
a private contractor could do the job for less money, as required by a
provision of the 2004 appropriations bill funding the agency.

"Under the Forest Service proposal, no longer will the public be
listened to by our government," Andy Stahl, executive director of the
organization, said in a telephone interview from his office in Eugene.
"Our comments instead go to a private corporation which massages them
and then gives a digest to the government of what the private
corporation says we said."

The appropriations bill requires when considering whether to outsource
any function performed by 10 employees or more, the Forest Service
must study whether it can save 10 percent or $10 million, whichever is
less, the lawsuit said.

Stahl said the lawsuit was brought only after the Forest Service
refused to go back and study the issue.

Created in 1997, the Content Analysis Team grew to nearly 60 full-time
staff split between Missoula, Mont., and Salt Lake City, Utah, the
lawsuit said.

The team analyzed public comments on controversial Forest Service
projects such as a Clinton administration rule outlawing logging in
undeveloped portions of national forests known as roadless areas and
the salvage and recovery plan for forests burned by wildfire in
Montana's Bitterroot Valley.

Forty-one members of the team were told last March that their jobs
were being put out to bid, despite a cost estimate showing they could
do the job for $425,000 a year less than private contractors.

The move was part of a Bush administration initiative to determine if
a variety of government jobs could be done more cheaply by private
contractors.

Forest Service spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevich said the agency had a
policy of not commenting on pending litigation.

All of the employees affected by the outsourcing were either temporary
or on a limited term of employment, she said. The bid for the contract
to replace the jobs has been extended to Jan. 5.