-Caveat Lector-
Investors Business Daily
NATIONAL ISSUE
INTERIOR'S CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Department's Deal-Making Raises Red Flags
Date: 10/7/99
Author: Daniel J. Murphy
The Clintons got into trouble early because of a sweet land deal
that went sour - the Whitewater scandal.
Despite that episode, there are signs the deal-making has
continued - not in the White House, but at the Interior
Department.
A trail of missing funds, lost records and charges of not
cooperating with congressional overseers have led some to wonder
if Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's agency is a major scandal
in the making - one that could add an unwanted taint to the
department's policies.
One situation in particular stands out.
Interagency e- mails reveal that, after taking over at Interior
in 1993, Babbitt remained active in a project even after he had
formally severed ties with its private-sector side, a recent
report in The Washington Times noted.
The project is Canyon Forest Village, an Arizona development just
outside Grand Canyon National Park. The planned housing, lodging,
retail and transportation complex sits on U.S. Forest Service
land.
A memo Babbitt's office sent to IBD stresses that the Agriculture
Department (the Forest Service's parent), not the Interior
Department, has legal authority over the land.
But Interior's National Park Service oversees work with the
Forest Service on the Grand Canyon's general management plan. The
National Environmental Policy Act requires that the Park Service
draw up such plans.
A May 1997 Forest Service memo detailed Babbitt's direct
involvement.
Legal experts say Babbitt's insertion into the process governed
by the National Environmental Policy Act merits closer scrutiny.
What's more, Babbitt's family has ties to the Canyon Forest
Village project.
Babbitt Bros. Trading Co., the family business from which the
former Arizona governor has cut his financial ties, is one of
several Canyon Forest Village partners.
Documents show that in August 1995 Babbitt Bros. acquired
properties for the purpose of including them in a land swap that
would keep the Canyon Forest Village project moving forward.
Federal law permits land swaps, and such exchanges take place
regularly. News reports over the years have noted Babbitt's
involvement in similar deals.
In such instances, the value of the properties being exchanged
should come close to matching.
How the figures get arrived at, though, is another matter. In
Canyon Forest Village's case, the federal property destined for
the private sector has been appraised at just under $19,853 per
acre. Yet IBD has obtained records that show property at Highway
64 and Canyon Pine Road - located farther from the Grand Canyon's
entrance -was appraised in 1995 at more than $1.1 million per
acre.
Critics charge the difference amounts to a hidden taxpayer
subsidy for Canyon Forest Village developers.
Babbitt's spokesman, Michael Gauldin, disputes Babbitt has
downplayed the family link and says the secretary has acted
properly.
Then there's the strange case of Palmyra - one of many Interior
activities investigated by the National Wilderness Institute, a
Washington, D.C.-area conservation group.
Located between Hawaii and American Samoa, the uninhabited
Pacific island is privately owned. Yet it caught the Fish and
Wildlife Service's attention, which wanted to buy the atoll for
$30 million using funds set aside for duck conservation.
The government also cited three animals under the Endangered
Species Act as a reason for its planned purchase. But no official
endangered species list places any of those animals as Palmyra
residents. The purchase did not go through.
''NWI's research, Freedom of Information Act requests and
interviews with government employees have shown that Babbitt's
legacy at Interior is really an unabashed politicization of
government in the guise of environmentalism,'' said Rob Gordon,
the group's executive director.
Palmyra isn't the only Pacific island where Interior's influence
has been felt.
Its Office of Insular Affairs deals with issues affecting distant
islands under U.S. government control. One such set of islands is
the Northern Marianas.
That commonwealth benefits from a unique arrangement that allows
it to set its own immigration and labor policy. The Clinton
administration has sought without success to have Uncle Sam take
it over out of concern for labor and living conditions.
Insular Affairs public affairs specialist David North tried to
advance the cause politically.
Among others, North contacted possible Democratic opponents of
House GOP lawmakers like Majority Leader Richard Armey and Whip
Tom DeLay, both of Texas. Such contacts could run afoul of the
Hatch Act's ban on certain political activity by federal
employees.
One missive North penned last fall to a San Diego-area ally laid
bare his intent. ''My motivations are: to help elect Democrats to
the House and to punish the handful of obvious GOP sweatshop
allies, such as Mr. (Brian) Bilbray.'' Bilbray, a Republican,
serves the San Diego area in the House.
North retired from his post this summer after questions arose
about his political activity. The matter remains under
investigation.
Busted land deals aren't the only bitter harvest at Interior.
Eight days ago, the House Resources Committee voted itself
subpoena power to call witnesses over a variety of matters linked
to widespread mismanagement in a federal aid program to the
states. Controversy has arisen over the misuse of dollars that
federal law slates for state renewal of hunting and fishing
opportunities.
Assistant Secretary of Interior Donald Barry had been asked to
appear before the panel to discuss the findings of a General
Accounting Office audit.
He never showed. Intead, Interior sent Fish and Wildlife Service
Director Jamie Rappaport Clark.
''Because she is the responsible official, the Service and the
department felt that she was the appropriate witness,'' said Fish
and Wildlife spokeswoman Meg Durham in an interview.
The committee wouldn't let her testify.
''I would like those who are here from the Fish and Wildlife
Service to take a message back to him (Barry),'' said Resources
Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska. ''This is nothing
personal, but the assistant secretary is ultimately responsible
for conservation dollars. Only he can answer our main line of
questioning.''
Young was also interested in the ordeal of another Interior
employee, Bonnie Kline, that began in June 1998. She is a friend
of whistleblowing Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Jim Beers,
who recently reached a settlement with the government. Beers had
clashed with Fish and Wildlife over mishandling of the federal
aid funds.
At last week's hearing, Kline disclosed that copies of e-mails
federal investigators sought covering the period October 1997
through January 1998 were missing.
When Kline returned to the office the day after testifying, a
female colleague began to curse and abuse her. ''She just threw
the phone and it kind of whizzed past my neck,'' Kline said. It
was done with such force that ''the phone cradle literally flew
off my desk.''
Kline explained that the woman was upset because her name was
mentioned - and favorably so - at last week's hearing.
Supervisor Louis Irwin has since blamed Kline for the incident.
Kline alleges her bosses at Interior warned her to stay away from
Beers and to not cooperate with the FBI and other investigators.
Immediately after being warned, Kline testified she received
verbal inducements for a different job -minus her security
access. She rebuffed those offers.
She brought her complaints to an administrative law judge who
ruled in her favor. But Interior has yet to respond.
(C) Copyright 1999 Investors Business Daily, Inc.
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