The director of the National Park Service on Tuesday apologized to Congress and the American people for ethics violations related to his book on the parks’ 100th anniversary.
Director Jeff Jarvis testified in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during a hearing about ethics problems at the service.
He has been in hot water since being reprimanded for writing a book that he hoped would inspire people to come visit America’s parks. Jarvis said he wrote the book on his own time and published it through Eastern National, which is an affiliated corporate partner with the service. It was sold at bookstores at national parks around the country.
Jarvis did not go through the proper channels in deciding to write the book and get it sold in national parks and lied to Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell about how the book came about. He told the committee that his concern was it wouldn’t make it to bookshelves in time for the 2016 centennial celebration.
Jarvis told the committee he donated the copyright to the National Park Foundation and directed all proceeds from the book to go to the foundation.
“I was wrong to not seek ethics guidance. I am sorry I failed initially to understand and even accept my mistake,” Jarvis said. “I have apologized to all National Park Service employees through my memo distributed to the field and I urged them all to learn from my mistake.”
Jarvis added that he wanted to “apologize to the American people.”
Committee members slammed Jarvis over the book deal.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the committee, said Jarvis did not appear to be truly sorry for the ethical violations he committed. Instead, it seemed he would be happy to do it again based on statements he made to independent investigators.
“Although he does not appear to have benefited financially, he showed contempt for the government’s ethics rules when he told the Inspector General’s office he would probably do it again,” Cummings said. “That is amazing, that he would do it again because he has, and I quote, ‘always pushed the envelope.'”
In addition, committee members ripped Jarvis for how his agency has been handling reports of sexual harassment in various national parks.
Earlier this year, the Department of Interior’s inspector general found that 35 women were sexually abused or harassed at Grand Canyon National Park on canoe trips down the Colorado River. Three of the four culprits, who all work at the park, were punished.
In addition, committee members slammed Jarvis for not coming down harder on the director of the Canaveral National Seashore in Florida, who has been accused of sexual harassment on multiple occasions.
Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, slammed Jarvis for his agency’s condition during what should be a celebratory year. He said Jarvis should have done more to protect employees who spoke out about the harassment and essentially ignored sexual harassment problems until they became too big to ignore.
“It should be a milestone for the park service, but we instead find an agency in crisis,” Chaffetz said.
