Planned boss of National Park Service office in Denver resigns

The employee tapped to take over the National Park Service’s Intermountain regional office in Denver has quit. Superintendent of Lake Mead National Recreation Area Lizette Richardson was recently asked to lead the office, which oversees Yellowstone, Grand Teton and dozens of other national parks in eight states, the Jackson Hole News and Guide reported . But Richardson – like the regional director she was to replace, Sue Masica – rejected a transfer ordered by Secretary Ryan Zinke’s Interior Department, and will instead end a career of working for the federal government. “She notified her employees yesterday that she plans to retire,” Lake Mead spokeswoman Christie Vanover said of Richardson. The Jackson Hole News and Guide broke the story Wednesday about Masica’s retirement, prompted by a rejected reassignment to the Park Service’s Midwestern regional office in Omaha, Nebraska. Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk will retire in September after a 43-year career, rather than accept a transfer to Washington, D.C. Wenk’s last day will be Sept. 29. Approximately 225 Interior personnel are considered senior employees, known formally as the Senior Executive Service, the agency’s uppermost echelon. Twenty-seven of the 35 who received reassignment notifications last year were actually reassigned. Three others resigned, three had their reassignments rescinded and two stayed in their positions pending retirement, the report said...MORE