‘Unfounded’ Bullying Accusations Sidelined Head Of Grand Canyon For 5 Months

Enlarge this imageGrand Canyon National Park Superintendent Christine Lehnertz, seen in 2017 with then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, was lately cleared of allegations of place of work hara sment.Felicia Fonseca/APhide captiontoggle captionFelicia Fonseca/APGrand Canyon Countrywide Park Superintendent Christine Lehnertz, witne sed in 2017 with then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, was just lately cleared of allegations of place of work hara sment.Felicia Fonseca/APThe specifics on the prolonged federal investigation that exonerated the embattled head of Grand Canyon National Park of making a hostile get the job done environmentwere produced Tuesday.Park Superintendent Christine Lehnertz was cleared in February of any wrongdoing pursuing allegations she bullied and retaliated in opposition to some male leaders on the park and mi spent funds, in accordance with a report within the Interior Department’s inspector normal.The conclusions arrive pretty much five months right after Lehnertz was hastily rea signed from her put up operating amongst the country’s hottest nationwide parks.”We located no proof that Lehnertz produced a hostile get the job done setting,” the report mentioned. “Most of the employees [interviewed] indicated that Lehnertz was generally favored for the park and reported that Lehnertz didn’t addre s adult men or girls in a different way and held all people towards the exact same standard.” Grand Canyon’s heritage of hara sment This isn’t the initial time that an official at Grand Canyon Countrywide Park is dogged by allegations of hara sment. In 2014, much more than the usual dozen woman park rangers wrote a letter to Inside Secretary Sally Jewell describing a long-term pattern of sexual hara sment and place of work hostility inside the park’s River District. A federal investigation later discovered a complete of 35 staff members who experienced witne sed or seasoned hara sment and hostility there. The scandal created countrywide headlines, resulted in a congre https://www.heatedges.com/Kelly-Olynyk-Jersey sional hearing and inevitably the ouster of then-Superintendent Dave Uberuaga. Lehnertz took more than the park in a pre s to boost morale and create stability and decorum.In the course of a 2016 job interview soon following she was employed, Lehnertz informed the general public radio collaborative Fronteras Desk that as a way to cleanse up house there, she required to set expectations.”A chief should be extremely obvious, for the outset, so there is certainly just no question in anyone’s brain there are benefits for people behaviors which are constructive and consequences for anyone that are destructive,” she reported.Recent and former Nationwide Park Support Chris Bosh Jersey staff claimed Lehnertz was different from prior administrators for the park. She actually listened. “When you speak with her, you are feeling like you have regarded her forever and she’s your very best buddy,” said Martha Hahn, the previous science and useful resource management division main at Grand Canyon Nationwide Park. “I indicate which is that’s how comfortable she helps make you feel.” That listening, Hahn stated, translated into action. Lehnertz served force out some staff and established a crew tasked with understanding and stopping the cycles of abuse and discrimination on the park. Hahn mentioned Lehnertz did far more than tackle the park’s long-term background of sexual hara sment and abuse.”She’s also very seriously interested in everyone pulling their load,” she mentioned. “And I feel that was the element that bothered some individuals who experienced invested lots of time within their job not remaining pushed like that.” Management design It absolutely was widely recognised that a few profe sionals didn’t value Lehnertz’s leadership style. John Dillon, govt director on the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Affiliation, claimed he listened to the complaints firsthand from Park Services supervisors who clashed together with her.”I do know a handful of men and women from the park which have have felt quite discouraged while using the new superintendent’s model,” he said. Dillon represents river rafting firms that deal while using the National Park Provider. He functions with workforce there and claimed a couple of supervisors felt just as if they were being walking on eggshells soon after Lehnertz turned superintendent.”I believe the priority is, ‘I have a further ten a long time and i don’t want to say a thing or do one thing improper or end up while in the cro shairs of somebody that is with a mi sion to clean residence,’ ” he claimed. It can be unclear regardle s of whether that atmosphere led a senior official within the park to file the hostile function ecosystem a sert that released the months-long investigation into Lehnertz. It had been spurred just after she proposed suspending the employee for not offering important reports and for mi sing a gathering, in keeping with the Inspector Normal report. Lehnertz was also accused of bullying male leaders with the park.Having said that, the Inspector Basic report reported the one-day suspension was warranted and also the accusations “unfounded.” Lingering thoughts The federal investigation was launched in October. Quickly soon after, the Countrywide Park Provider taken off Lehnertz from her submit and rea signed her to an unspecified place at regional headquarters in Denver.Within an October 2018 email to staff attained by E&E News, Acting Regional Director Kate Hammond claimed Lehnertz was rea signed “to protect the integrity on the OIG’s investigation into these allegations.” Jon Jarvis, director on the National Park Provider all through the Obama administration, reported that removing a park superintendent like this is rare and that he believes, in this case, the agency overreacted. He hired Lehnertz for the job functioning Grand Canyon in 2016.”I know Chris really well,” he reported. “She volunteered to go to Grand Canyon to take over the i sues there with sexual hara sment. So I would’ve thought this seemed a little odd to me that a subordinate was claiming hara sment by Chris Lehnertz. I would’ve wanted to better understand the situation before I tried to move her out of her job.” The Countrywide Park Support didn’t make Chris Lehnertz available for an job interview. But in an emailed statement, an agency spokesperson explained she’s “a talented and dedicated govt on the Countrywide Park Company and her commitment https://www.heatedges.com/James-Johnson-Jersey to building a respectful and inclusive office is sincere, broadly demonstrated and extensively respected.” The agency also said it wouldn’t comment on personnel actions, the investigation or when Lehnertz would return to Grand Canyon. The park turned 100 decades old last week, and Lehnertz wasn’t there to celebrate.This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration among Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City, and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Tags: Enlarge this imageGrand Canyon National Park Superintendent Christine Lehnertz, seen in 2017 with then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, was lately cleared of allegations of place of work hara sment.Felicia Fonseca/APhide captiontoggle captionFelicia Fonseca/APGrand Canyon Countrywide Park Superintendent Christine Lehnertz, witne sed in 2017 with then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke