EPA cans Kaufman

Ombudsman investigator says firing politically motivated

By JEFF SELLE
Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE -- Just one day after vice president Al Gore conceded the presidential election, Clinton appointee Tim Fields dismissed the Environmental Protection Agency's only national ombudsman investigator.

Fields is the assistant administrator of the EPA in Washington D.C., and oversees the agency's national Superfund program.

Hugh Kaufman, who has worked under EPA's National Ombudsman Bob Martin for more than two years, has been relieved of his duties in that office.

The ombudsman's office is an internal watchdog arm of the EPA. The office investigates citizen and congressional complaints lodged against the agency.

Earlier this year, Kaufman was asked by Idaho's congressional delegation to investigate the EPA's actions in the Bunker Hill Superfund Site and the agency's plans to expand the project into the Coeur d'Alene Basin.

Kaufman said his dismissal appears to be yet another attempt by EPA to control the ombudsman's office. He believes the move is a politically motivated way to retaliate against him for honestly pursuing the truth in his work.

Earlier this year, Fields attempted to cut the ombudsman's funding to prevent an investigation in the Coeur d'Alene Basin as well as other areas in the country.

When that failed, Fields attempted to pass new guidelines that would internalize the ombudsman's process and prevent him from discussing cases openly in the public.

Both times, Kaufman made the public aware of the agency's intentions, and both times Congress came to the aid of the ombudsman's office.

"This is revenge," Kaufman said.

Fields did not want to respond to that allegation.

Despite Kaufman's departure, Fields said the agency fully intends to support Martin's ongoing cases as ombudsman and provide any resources he may need in the coming year.

He would not say if that includes another investigator.

"I am the piston behind the ombudsman's office and the bureaucrats wanted revenge," Kaufman said, adding the office only employs himself and Martin.

"Tim told me this is because of what we are doing in the Coeur d'Alene case, among others," he said. "They aren't too happy with Bob and I for what we have done this year."

The ombudsman was involved in two controversial investigations in Florida this year. Kaufman said both cases played out "pretty poorly" for the EPA in the newspapers.

"One of those cases was in Palm Beach County, and I am pretty sure Gore lost a lot of votes because of it," Kaufman said.

Green Party Candidate Ralph Nader made an issue out of Gore's environmental record in Florida as well as Ohio.

Martin also released his findings on a waste-to-energy plant in Ohio, only two weeks before the election.

It showed that Gore had not been completely honest about the permitting process at that facility, and Nader made that a major issue in Ohio.

Gore lost Ohio in the election.

"The vote was pretty close in Ohio, too," Kaufman said.

While Gore didn't stand much of a chance in Idaho, the ombudsman's office didn't do him much good either. Kaufman and Martin have revealed some fairly controversial situations in the Coeur d'Alene Basin.

Kaufman, in particular, has been extremely outspoken and critical of EPA officials in the Coeur d'Alene case, and at times he has pointed out alleged EPA abuses in the basin.

"Fields said my actions undermine the credibility of the agency," Kaufman said. "That's true. My actions do undermine the credibility of certain bureaucrats when I expose the truth, but that is because those bureaucrats are not credible."

Fields would not discuss why he chose to take Kaufman out of the ombudsman's office, but said it was not politically motivated and had nothing to with retaliation.

"I don't plan to discuss why he was reassigned," Fields said, adding the move was not actually a reassignment.

"It is true Mr. Kaufman will not be providing support for the ombudsman," he said, "but he still reports to the deputy assistant administrator in the office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response."

While Fields only has about three weeks to serve in his politically appointed position of Assistant Administrator of the EPA, he said that didn't impact his decision either.

"I didn't make this decision based on timing," Fields said. "I just felt it would be inappropriate to leave this problem with a new assistant administrator."

That doesn't wash with local politicians who have been supporting the ombudsman's efforts in the Coeur d'Alene Basin.

"Less than 24 hours after Gore makes his concession speech, the timing is unbelievable," said Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d'Alene. "It can't be anything but politically motivated."

Riggs, who has been an advocate of state-controlled cleanup in the basin, said local officials will look into the reason why Kaufman was dismissed and try to get him reinstated after President-elect George W. Bush takes office in January.

"I don't know Kaufman very well, but it seemed to me that they were a very effective team," Riggs said. "I do know he wasn't undermining the EPA; he was telling the truth, and if the truth undermines the agency, so be it."

U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, could not be reached for comment Thursday, but his press secretary Lindsay Nothern said he will be looking for the reason Kaufman was reassigned as well.

"We are certainly surprised by this news," Nothern said. "And the discussion of his track record is very interesting to us. We will investigate this."

Crapo was the first of Idaho's congressional delegation to request the ombudsman's investigation of the basinwide Superfund program. He has also fought to protect the office from administrative attacks on its funding and guidelines this year.

U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, R-Idaho, has also fought adamantly -- with a strong contingent of congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives -- to protect the ombudsman's office throughout the controversial year.

"Mrs. Chenoweth-Hage is surprised and concerned, because in all of her dealings with Mr. Kaufman he has been professional, knowledgeable and concerned about the people in the Coeur d'Alene Basin," said the congressman's press secretary, Elizabeth Schwarzer. "Given this, Mrs. Chenoweth-Hage would like to be the first to recommend him for Mr. Fields' job when it comes available."

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