10 park workers to be disciplined

BILLINGS, Mont. — As many as 10 workers in Yellowstone National Park’s maintenance division will be disciplined after an investigation found female employees were subjected to sexual harassment and other problems, park Superintendent Dan Wenk said.

The move comes as widespread reports of harassment, bullying and other misconduct have plagued the National Park Service and its parent agency, the U.S. Interior Department.

Investigators have uncovered problems at many of the nation’s premier parks — Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Canaveral National Seashore — as well as inappropriate behavior toward female employees by the Interior Department’s former director of law enforcement.

At Yellowstone, the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General began its investigation last year, after a park employee complained to a local magazine and members of Congress that a pervasive “men’s club” environment had encouraged the exploitation and abuse of female workers.

The inspector general’s investigation also found that government-issued charge cards in the maintenance division had been misused. Wenk said the punishments stem from harassment and charge-card misuse, but he declined to be more specific, citing employee privacy.

The review was shared with park officials March 13. More than four months later, the personnel actions will be handed down and could range from letters of counseling or reprimand, to suspensions or firing, Wenk said. The workers can appeal before the penalties, to be proposed by Tuesday or soon afterward, become final.