House Oversight Committee Conducts Hearing on EPA Abuses, Employees Convicted of Crimes

ACTING DEPUTY ACCUSED OF VIOLATING FEDERAL LAW

by Sharon Rondeau

(May 18, 2016) — 9:32 a.m. EDT – The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is conducting a hearing in which EPA officials and the agency’s inspector general have admitted abuses, criminality and sexual harassment to have been allowed to persist in some of its employees.

The topic of the hearing is “EPA Employee Misconduct.”  It is the sixth such hearing about the agency’s management over the last several months.

As detailed on Twitter, Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz has asked Acting Deputy EPA Administrator Stan Meiburg how “perverts” have been allowed to maintain their positions at the EPA, specifically naming one who was known to have been convicted at some point prior to 1999, as confirmed by Inspector General Patrick Sullivan.

One former employee discussed, John Beale, was discovered to have “bilked taxpayers out of almost $900,000 by pretending to be a secret agent.” by “telling EPA colleagues that he was a CIA operative” in 2013.  Beale was accused, tried and convicted of the crime and sentenced to 32 months in prison in December of that year.

At approximately 9:40 a.m., Rep. John Mica asked, “How many were fired?” referring to EPA employees committing various “offenses,” to which an unclear response was made by both the Inspector General and Meiburg.

“Nobody gets fired; the alternative is to retire,” Mica said, following his enumeration from a paper he held of some EPA employees who he said were “watching porno” while being paid as much as $125,000 annually on leave.

“You steal, you sit around and watch porno, you get convictions outside, you either voluntarily resign or go to retirement, but nobody gets fired,” Mica said.

Sullivan told committee ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings that there are presently approximately 90 pending cases for misconduct, with an additional 76 cases open for other allegations of wrongdoing.

Cummings asked Sullivan if there exists a “duty” for EPA employees to report it if they know that a fellow employee has been convicted of a crime.

Sullivan asserted that in other experiences he has had, “you have to report” but that he was “a little curious” as to why the EPA does not have a hard-and-fast rule requiring it.

Sullivan testified that, “I don’t have enough agents” to “expeditiously investigate every case of fraud that comes on my plate.”

Rep. Jody Hice asked how an employee in a specific instance who was found to have stolen EPA equipment received three years’ probation and a 30-day suspension.  “The taxpayers are on the hook,” he said.  Hice said he did not understand why EPA employees imposes “fine after fine after fine” on business but practices a “double standard” with their own.  “It’s an absolute, hypocritical double standard,” he told Meiburg.

“The state of the affairs of the EPA is totally unacceptable,” Hice said.

Rep. Buddy Carter then asked about an EPA employee who was charged with felony possession of marijuana.  “He was charged with felony possession.  He had a ‘grow’ operation and was placed on administrative leave and paid for seven and a half months,” Carter said, then asked Meiburg, “Tell me that’s not correct,” to which Meiburg said, “No, sir, that’s correct.”

“Mr. Meiburg, why would the EPA do this?  Why would you do this?”

Meiburg said he “couldn’t speak to the particulars of the case.”

“You know who we need here?  We need somebody we can fire,” Carter retorted.

Rep. Brenda Lawrence said she “applauded” the EPA for positive changes it is reportedly making when placing employees under investigation on “administrative leave.”

Lawrence said that “every employee is a citizen of the United States” and should be granted due process while under investigation.

Rep. Gary Palmer then addressed Meiburg about an allegation against the EPA of “occupying property” in Alabama which may have been unlawful and in which the signer of an affidavit said he was “intimidated” when the EPA approached him about conducting some testing.

Palmer stated that it appeared that the EPA employees “acted outside the law” and sought “to shut down a legitimate business which employs many people.”

Rep. Paul Gosar bluntly told Meiburg that he may currently be serving illegally because he is the “CEO” of the EPA and it would present a conflict of interest.  “The EPA under this president has a long history of a blatant disrespect for the law…” Gosar said.  He also accused EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy of “lying to Congress.”

Gosar then told Meiburg that he cannot be nominated to take McCarthy’s place if he is already serving in his present capacity.  He then mentioned that he is considering impeaching McCarthy.

“I’m disgusted,” Gosar ended his five-minute allotted time frame.

At 10:34 a.m., Sullivan said he could not recall an instance where an EPA employee was terminated for agency “overreach.”

“What do you have to do to get fired from the EPA?” Rep. Mick Mulvaney asked Meiburg.  “Do you have to kill somebody, or is it something short of that?”

Meiburg said, “It’s something short of that.”

Gosar later asked Sullivan if he were aware of “the issue” of Meiburg’s current service, to which Sullivan said that he was told by certain “counsel” that “it’s not a problem.”

Gosar asked for a list of people who informed Sullivan and Meiburg that his service is within the law, providing a two-week time frame.

Rep. John Duncan asked Meiburg what type of “discipline” employees who have “spent hours viewing porn” receive, to which Meiburg responded that there is a variety of remedies available.

The meeting adjourned at 10:47 a.m. EDT.

On May 3, Meiburg wrote a blog post titled, “Recognizing the Outstanding Accomplishments of EPA’s Public Servants.”