Watchdog Raises Ethics Concerns Over NPS Chief’s Award

A government watchdog published documents exposing a conflict of interest between the director of the National Park Service (NPS) and a university on the West Coast the agency has contracted with.

On Thursday, the nonprofit group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) released records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) showing NPS Director Charles Sams was given the green light by ethics officials within the Department of the Interior to accept an honorary degree from Oregon’s Portland State University. Sams was granted approval by the agency ethics bureau in June last year despite the university being “party to numerous cooperative agreements with the [National Park Service]” and “likely [having] other matters, actions, or decisions pending before the Department.”

The Department of the Interior’s Ethics Office argued that “the Director’s acceptance of the honorary degree would not cause a reasonable person to question the Director’s impartiality in a matter affecting PSU.”

“We understand, based on information provided by NPS, that the vast majority of NPS’s cooperative agreements with PSU remain at the regional level and that the Director has had either none or very little involvement in the existing cooperative agreements with PSU,” the ethics department said in its decision.

The language used to justify the award from a partner university is similar to the wording deployed by the secretary of the interior to unilaterally waive ethics complaints related to her decision over an oil and gas moratorium in New Mexico. Last year, Secretary Deb Haaland prohibited new oil and gas leases within a 10-mile radius around the Chaco Cultural National Historical Park, despite local opposition to the regulations. The 10-mile buffer around the American Indian historical site offers protections for existing leases but eliminates opportunities for new drilling for the next two decades.

The order was handed down after Haaland’s daughter lobbied for the restrictions in a conflict of interest now under investigation by the Interior Department inspector general at the request of PPT. Haaland had also participated in a film by her daughter’s activist group that opposed drilling within the area not shut off from oil and gas development.

In February, PPT released more documents from a public records request showing Haaland took advantage of a “catch all provision” within federal ethics rules to dismiss allegations of inappropriate conflicts.

“I have carefully assessed whether my participation would raise a question regarding my impartiality and performing my official duties,” Haaland said to federal ethics officials. “In undertaking this assessment I have considered the relevant facts about the particular matter in question and have determined that I believe that a reasonable person with knowledge of those facts would not question my impartiality.”

In other words, Haaland merely issued a statement with no justification to assuage concerns surrounding violated ethics. The secretary just asserted she was impartial despite participation in the activist work with her daughter to shut down oil and gas opportunities in the Greater Chaco area. 

“When the Biden-Harris administration promised to be the most ethical in history, the American public had every right to expect that meant that the bar would be set extremely high,” said Michael Chamberlain, the director of PPT. “Even under normal circumstances, ‘very little involvement’ or ‘potential involvement’ where ethics concerns arise should raise red flags. But lowering the bar for ethics seems to be the order of the day at Secretary Deb Haaland’s Department of the Interior.”