A CHALLENGE TO THE ELECTED OFFICIALS AND CANDIDATES FOR ELECTED OFFICES...

[/b]A CHALLENGE TO THE ELECTED OFFICIALS AND CANDIDATES FOR ELECTED OFFICES TO PROVIDE FOR A SECOND CENTURY OF EXCELLENCE FOR OUR NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM

As the National Park Service nears the beginning of its second century it is important to reemphasize that the parks, and all they represent, have evolved from units of a respected national system into the combined expression of our most valuable and inalienable national [b]heritage. They are the unchanging measures of a rapidly changing world, repositories of information against which human progress or its opposite can be gauged, touchstones of who we are as a people and even as members of the human species, the best hope for preserving the cultural record that defines American civilization and significant components of global biological diversity upon which life itself depends.

At a crucial time in our country’s history, when candidates for President of the United States, and for other elected offices, vie for American’s votes, it is appropriate to deeply explore the visions and statements these candidates present to the electorate. Further, it is appropriate that candidates be challenged by those they seek to represent with visions and issues of consequence that bear upon the very future of the American nation. It is in this spirit that the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees declares its vision of a second century National Park Service and National Park System. It is this vision that guides our organization in considering the merits of all candidates for national office and the platforms of their political parties. We hope this vision for the future, including the necessity of inspired principled leadership at all levels, will resonate both with candidates and their parties and with the citizens they hope to represent. Relative to our National Park System this election may decide whether to retain the benefits of victories painfully won over decades or to risk losing them to narrow, short-term, and private or commercial interests and candidate apathy.

A Vision of a National Park Service that by August 25, 2016:

• Preserves and enables visitors to enjoy the truly special places of our common heritage—the inalienable heritage—of our nation, without confusion about its mission.
• Is deeply involved with the American people in what it means to be American and with the people of the world about what it means to be human.
• Is viewed by the public and government officials not as a “land management agency” but as an agency that manages ideas and ideals.
• Educates visitors through deeply personal experiences of profoundly important places.
• Leads, encourages, and assists all others in our country who pursue similar goals; and on behalf of the United States assists all others in the world who pursue similar goals.
• Is free of burdens that impede accomplishment of its mission, and has leadership that is free of inappropriate constraints and conflicting goals.
• Is well-funded, well-staffed, sophisticated, professional, value-driven, motivated, innovative, daring, and excellent, within a context of long-term continuity.
• Provides education, training, and career opportunities that maximize fulfillment of the professional potential of each employee.
• Is managed as a coherent system rather than as independent areas and programs.
• Is driven by a current and constantly-renewed vision, nationally and in each individual park.

Inspired Principled Leadership of the National Park Service Must Be Guided by Lasting Principles:

The National Park Service must restore its vigor as an agency composed of principled experts who manage priceless elements of this nation’s natural and cultural heritage. It must create a renaissance of inspired national leadership within the agency on behalf of the citizens of this nation who count on it to manage their national legacy.

• Agency leaders will uncompromisingly defend the mission of the National Park Service, recognizing that they are non-partisan principled experts and professionals shouldering the expectation of the American public for honesty, integrity and candor.

• Recognizing that the National Park Service is the stewardship guardian of places that embody irreplaceable beauty, events and ideas that define the nation’s character—those places that deserve the highest levels of reverence and protection—agency leaders will make affirmative, principled, factual arguments that call attention to what the nation cannot afford to lose—the heritage it has placed in trust for future generations.

• The agency, as a direct result of constructive civic engagement, will defend the public’s right to know the truth about its National Park System—communicating facts and perspective to its employees, the Congress, to the Department of the Interior and through the media to the public about how the National Park System is being managed.

• The agency will act to influence all parties involved to understand and act on the premise that appropriate management of the National Park System must be carried out in a nonpartisan way and must place the national interest above political, local and other special interests. Success means that responsible officials of the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, and the Congress:

• Respect and properly execute the NPS mission, including all applicable legislation, court decisions and appropriately developed policy. They further respect and build upon the decisions of past and current generations regarding the composition of the National Park System and the standards of care for the system.

• Exercise the courage to resist the tendency to compromise long-term benefits in favor of short-term political expediency, whim or special interests.

• Recognize, stimulate, and cultivate understanding of and reverence for the inherent values and purposes for which each unit of the National Park System was established, as well as for the system as a whole. They further recognize that this understanding and reverence should form the fundamental rationale for defining the quality of experiences provided to visitors and the relevant education of the public.

• Recognize and support the role of science and scholarship in guiding decisions and actions affecting mission and the integrity and future of the National Park System and its resources.

• Respect and develop the experience and wisdom of career professionals in the National Park Service and encourage, value and give appropriate consideration to their contributions.

• Recognize that the National Park System constitutes an inalienable patrimony belonging to the nation’s present and future citizens as a whole, that the programs and activities associated with the parks extend their benefits throughout the public and private sectors and to the people of all nations, and that any risk resulting from commercialization or privatization of the national patrimony held in the public estate is unacceptable.

[b]Inspired Principled Leadership Derived From Agency Core Values:

• Shared Stewardship: Sharing a commitment to resource stewardship with the global preservation community.
• Excellence: Striving to continually learn and improve so that the highest ideals of public service and be achieved.
• Integrity: Dealing honestly and fairly with the public and the employees.
• Tradition: Pride in tradition fosters understanding while still not bound by it.
• Respect: Embracing differences as a pathway to learning and the enrichment of everyone.

These five core values by themselves are not enough. When coupled with professionalism from principled experts, fidelity to the key pieces of legislation that define and prescribe agency mission, compliance with well considered management policies and a deep belief in and appreciation for the agency mission and traditions, they contribute to inspired principled leadership.. They are what the agency stands for. They describe the agency value system. They bridge the past and the present with the future. They are optimistic, reflective, and intellectual. They inspire. They incite obligation, demand personal responsibility, and create comfort with personal and organizational accountability. They form both the intuitive judgment exercised by agency leaders as well as act as a guide in the formal decision process when making resource based decisions.

The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees believes that the lack of, or failure to faithfully exercise inspired, principled management and principled leadership is the single greatest threat to our park system. It is a threat of cumulative mediocrity that the National Park Service has had forced upon it and must form the necessity for change for the future.

[/b]Standards To Consider As Essential to Individual Success of Inspired Principled Leadership: [b]

• Commitment to Parks That Is Non-Partisan and Free of Divisive Ideology.
• A Legacy of Principled Leadership on the Environment
• Strong and Positive High-Level Management Skills
• Ability to Foster Inspired Change and an Organizational Renaissance
• Ability to Make Tough Decisions Based on Law and Policy
• A Track Record of Creativity in Agency Governance and Development
• Lead Rebuilding the Constituency for Funding, Protection, and Rehabilitation of Parks
• Demonstrated Strength in Natural , Recreational, Historic, and Cultural Resources
• A Pledge to Reinvigorate the Nation’s Heritage Protection
• The Skill to Include and Involve New Generations and Constituencies in Parks
• A Passion for Public Service