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and policy statements on the Interior Department's Web
<br />site. Eventually I did speak with Fran P. Mainella, the director
<br />of the National Park Service and the first woman to hold that
<br />post in the agency's 87 -year history (Norton is likewise the first
<br />woman to head Interior); she was previously in charge of state
<br />parks in Florida under Gov. Jeb Bush. A cheery, well- tailored
<br />woman, Mainella ushered me into her corner office over-
<br />looking Constitution Avenue and talked about some of the
<br />issues that had been raised by the agency's critics, She had
<br />recently met with one of them, Bill Wade, the former Shenan-
<br />doah superintendent. "It was a good meeting," she said. "We
<br />have common goals. It's just that I'm trying to work within the
<br />system to make these things go forward in a way that is pro-
<br />tecting our resources, employees, and visitors."
<br />I asked the director about
<br />Wade's fear that the Clear Skies Visitors throng the
<br />Initiative could hurt the parks. information desk at
<br />"Clear Skies actually will help Yellowstone. Other jobs
<br />improve air quality," Mainella involving maintenance,
<br />said. An assistant secretary of the search and rescue, fire
<br />Interior, she added, "met with us fighting, and traffic control
<br />on that particular point because eventually may go to the
<br />that is something that involves private sector.
<br />Skies will give us the tools that we need" to protect the parks.
<br />V
<br />after Mitch Daniels, a Bush appointee and former head of the
<br />Office of Management and Budget, reportedly referred to the
<br />parks agency as the world's largest lawn -care service.
<br />The j obs that involve cutting grass, hauling trash, and clean-
<br />ing restrooms, say proponents of outsourcing, can be handled
<br />more economically by private contractors. Critics of out-
<br />sourcing, as well as Mainella, contend that many Park Service
<br />maintenance men and women could not efficiently be replaced
<br />because they are trained to perform additional jobs, such as con-
<br />trolling traffic, fighting fires, and rescuing visitors. Last August
<br />the Park Service Web site proudly hailed the story of a 10 -year-
<br />old boy lost in Shenandoah National Park who had been found
<br />by a search team of four park employees. On the National Parks
<br />Conservation Association Web site, opponents of outsourcing
<br />posted the fact that three of the employees were maintenance
<br />workers with search - and - rescue training — something no private
<br />contractor would likely provide.
<br />Of some 1,700 jobs within the service that were deemed
<br />potentially commercial, 859 have now been categorized as suit-
<br />able for outsourcing, primarily maintenance and clerical j obs but
<br />also including new or vacant positions for computer technicians,
<br />security guards, engineers, and scientists. That number includes,
<br />in addition, positions for historians, curators, and archaeologists,
<br />and more of these cultural resource specialists remain under con- .
<br />sideration, in what can best be described as a highly fluid decision
<br />making process. Forty -three such jobs at the Park Service's
<br />southeast archaeological center in Tallahassee, for instance,
<br />were judged economically competitive and so remained official
<br />Park Service slots; so did 46 jobs at the midwest archaeological
<br />center in Lincoln, Neb. But as of this writing some 40 jobs at the
<br />western archaeological center in Tucson, Ariz., were "still on the
<br />table," according to a Park Service spokesperson.
<br />Outsourcing was not invented by the Bush administration.
<br />Its origins as government policy go back to the 1950s and the
<br />desirable goal of trimming fat from the federal bureaucracy. But
<br />many within the Park Service argue that there is no more fat to
<br />trim. "Our people are overworked," says Rob Arnberger, a 34-
<br />year parks veteran who retired last year as regional director in
<br />Alaska. "The service is already kneecapped, and now they want
<br />to outsource the staff. What does that tell uO It tells us that, for
<br />lack of leadership and effective resistance in Congress, they're
<br />tearing the service apart."
<br />A measure of congressional resistance did emerge last spring
<br />if W t ional office super -
<br />POSSIBLY THE MOST CONTENTIOUS issue involving the Park
<br />Service over the past year was the government's attempt to
<br />"privatize" part of its work force —to auction off, in effect,
<br />some of its 20,000 jobs to the lowest - bidding private contrac-
<br />tors. Known also as "competitive sourcing" or "outsourcing,"
<br />it is part of the President's aim to shrink the government.
<br />Though other federal agencies have been ordered to study the
<br />outsourcing of jobs considered "commercial," as distinct from
<br />governmental, the Park Service came under special scrutiny
<br />28 PRESERVATION Januaryl February 2004
<br />after the revelation that the Pac Ic es reg ,
<br />vising some 58.parkunits, had been ordered to absorb a 28 per-
<br />cent cut in its structural repair and rehabilitation programs. The
<br />diverted funds were to be used, in part, to pay private consultants
<br />to study which federal jobs might be shifted to the private sector.
<br />At Mount Rainier National Park, where there is a $101 million
<br />maintenance backlog, the shift would have taken money ear-
<br />marked for the repair of two historic structures and spent it instead
<br />on an outsourcing study of 67 of the park's 112 full -time jobs.
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