CALIFORNIA - Oyster Farm, Pacific Cost vs Department of the Interior

"Strange Bedfellows Join Fight to Keep California Oyster Farm in Operation" PBS Newshour 5/1/2013

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  In Northern California, there's an unusual battle brewing over a renowned oyster farm that's located in a national seashore.  The fight is playing out among business, government and some environmentalists.  But it's one that's creating strange bedfellows concerned about the outcome.

Spencer Michels reports.

SPENCER MICHELS (Newshour):  The Drakes Bay Oyster Company at Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco may be producing its last crop.

When its long-term lease expired last year, the Department of the Interior said the lease was terminated, and ordered the family-owned company to stop planting and harvesting oysters, as the farm has done since the 1930s.  And that has provoked a battle with an unlikely cast of characters.

The repercussions extend far beyond this spectacular Pacific Coast enclave, to the restaurants of the Bay Area and all the way to Washington, D.C., where politicians of both parties are joining in the fight.  Much of the area in the National Seashore has been designated wilderness, and the then secretary of the interior has said the oyster farm doesn't fit in a wilderness area, since it's a commercial operation.

So he ordered it closed in March.  The company sued to stop its eviction, and a federal court has allowed operations to continue while it considers the case.

POLITICS - Aha, Yes, Another Fine Example of Bush's Promised Ethical Government

"Interior Report: Indian trust officials violated ethics rules in contract awards" by Edward T. Pound, US News & World Report

In a blistering report, the Interior Department's top investigator says that senior officials who manage $3.2 billion in Indian trust funds pressured subordinates to award lucrative contracts to executives with whom the officials enjoyed close social ties.

According to the report, officials in the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST), based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, often partied with executives of an Albuquerque accounting firm, Chavarria, Dunne & Lamey LLC. The officials and executives played golf together and exchanged gifts of meals and drinks over an eight-year period. During this time, the report says, the Chavarria firm won $6.6 million in sole source contracts.

"In summary, the report presents information that establishes that the conduct of four OST officials ....created an appearance of preferential treatment" for the Chavarria firm, Devaney says. Their actions, he went on to say, violate ethics rules and an internal OST memo that directs personnel to maintain "arms length dealings" with contractors.

Federal prosecutors in New Mexico reviewed the report, and declined to prosecute.

According to the report, OST issued a $150,000 sole source contract to the Chavarria firm in October 1998 to perform trust fund accounting and consulting work. The special trustee's office modified the contract over 50 times, "increasing the value of the award to over $6.6 million, all without competition," the report says.

Investigators said that between October 1998, when the initial contract was awarded, and February 2005, Erwin and the Lords brothers "socialized on numerous occasions" with the Chavarria executives and other contractors. Their report explains, "This included golfing at exclusive resorts together ... dining at upscale restaurants together, entertaining one another at their personal residences, and attending happy hours together on a regular basis."

It says that in September 2002, OST issued a memo directing personnel to maintain arms length relationships with contractors. However, it went on, "the socializing did not cease after the guidance was in place." OST officials and Chavarria executives particularly loved to play golf, sometimes at exclusive resorts, the report says. "These golf outings occurred during both official travel related to contract work and during non-duty hours," the report explains. "The golfing took place at exclusive resorts, private golf clubs, a local country club, and public golf courses spanning seven states ..."

So, we have another confirmation of the Bush definition of ethics and ethical government.
Ethical Government = Whatever Busine$$ Says