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A sudden change in Ryan Zinke's travel plans cost taxpayers nearly $2,000, documents show
$2,000's not that much, but I don't see him picking up the tab.
Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/fahrenthold
A sudden change in Ryan Zinke’s travel plans cost taxpayers nearly $2,000, documents show
Link to tweet
Energy and Environment
A sudden change in Ryan Zinke’s travel plans cost taxpayers nearly $2,000, documents show
By Juliet Eilperin December 11 at 5:35 PM
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s decision in April to change his travel plans for a fact-finding trip to Channel Islands National Park in California added nearly $2,000 in costs when he left from Santa Barbara, Calif., where his wife owns a second home, according to emails sent among Interior Department officials.
The documents, obtained by the advocacy group Western Values Project under the Freedom of Information Act, show the extent to which National Park Service staff had to rearrange transportation to accommodate Zinke. The two-day trip — which included Zinke’s wife, Lolita, as well as her aunt, Beatrice Walder — was originally scheduled to depart out of Ventura Harbor aboard a Park Service vessel, the Ocean Ranger.
....
Russell Galipeau, the Channel Islands superintendent, wrote in an April 7 email that while he was working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials to use a vessel it had in Santa Barbara, “I urge against it.” A week later, Galipeau wrote that “to accommodate” Zinke’s request, the crew would need to be paid three hours of overtime each, adding $300, and the government would have to add fuel for an additional eight hours of running time at a price of $1,440. The group ultimately used the Park Service’s boat.
....
In a phone interview Monday, Western Values Project Executive Director Chris Saeger said the fact that government employees had to go to such lengths and that taxpayers incurred a higher bill suggests a broader problem at Interior. “This pattern of behavior is not just a problem for the people who are making the schedule changes,” he said. “The influence they’re exerting over leadership decisions at Interior is sloppy and ethically deficient.”
....
Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books—one on sharks, and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other—and has worked for the Post since 1998. Follow @eilperin
A sudden change in Ryan Zinke’s travel plans cost taxpayers nearly $2,000, documents show
By Juliet Eilperin December 11 at 5:35 PM
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s decision in April to change his travel plans for a fact-finding trip to Channel Islands National Park in California added nearly $2,000 in costs when he left from Santa Barbara, Calif., where his wife owns a second home, according to emails sent among Interior Department officials.
The documents, obtained by the advocacy group Western Values Project under the Freedom of Information Act, show the extent to which National Park Service staff had to rearrange transportation to accommodate Zinke. The two-day trip — which included Zinke’s wife, Lolita, as well as her aunt, Beatrice Walder — was originally scheduled to depart out of Ventura Harbor aboard a Park Service vessel, the Ocean Ranger.
....
Russell Galipeau, the Channel Islands superintendent, wrote in an April 7 email that while he was working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials to use a vessel it had in Santa Barbara, “I urge against it.” A week later, Galipeau wrote that “to accommodate” Zinke’s request, the crew would need to be paid three hours of overtime each, adding $300, and the government would have to add fuel for an additional eight hours of running time at a price of $1,440. The group ultimately used the Park Service’s boat.
....
In a phone interview Monday, Western Values Project Executive Director Chris Saeger said the fact that government employees had to go to such lengths and that taxpayers incurred a higher bill suggests a broader problem at Interior. “This pattern of behavior is not just a problem for the people who are making the schedule changes,” he said. “The influence they’re exerting over leadership decisions at Interior is sloppy and ethically deficient.”
....
Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books—one on sharks, and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other—and has worked for the Post since 1998. Follow @eilperin
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