WASHINGTON (AP) -Environmental Protection Agency criminal agents are being diverted from their normal investigative work to provide security and drivers for agency chief Christie Whitman – and getting long lists of do’s and don’ts to keep her happy.
EPA agents assigned to investigate environmental crimes have at times been ordered to perform more personal tasks, such as returning a rental car for Whitman’s husband after a trip or sitting at a table until the administrator arrived for a restaurant reservation, according to interviews with several EPA senior managers.
The lists of do’s and don’ts instruct agents who chauffeur the EPA administrator to ensure they rent only a Lincoln Town Car, tune the radio to smooth jazz or classical music and set the volume low, and keep an eye out for a Starbucks coffee shop or Barnes & Noble book store.
The “professional conduct” lists, obtained by The Associated Press, say the former New Jersey governor prefers to addressed as governor, rather than ma’am or administrator.
After the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, senior managers in EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training were instructed to help with homeland security and Whitman’s protection detail by providing agents who normally investigate environmental crimes, according to memos written last year by office heads.
The agents are pulled from offices around the country for several days at a time depending on where Whitman travels, and the added duties are straining already overtaxed resources in the crime unit, the managers told AP. They spoke only on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisal.
The agents normally investigate alleged violators of environmental laws, gathering evidence for criminal prosecutions.
One manager said an agent on a security detail was directed by Whitman to return her husband’s rental car to the airport so the Whitmans could catch a flight together.
A second manager said an agent was told by the head of Whitman’s personal security team to hold the reserved restaurant table until Whitman arrived for dinner. The agent is paid $100,000 a year to investigate environmental crimes, the manager said.
With agents already designated for homeland security tasks, the regional offices sometimes are left without investigators for days at a time when Whitman is in town.
“Up to a week all work will shut down in an area office to facilitate the protective service detail,” one manager said.
EPA officials said the added security was necessitated by the post-Sept. 11 terrorism concerns and specific threats against Whitman, which they declined to describe.
They said the agency is trying to minimize the impact of the added duties on the 220-agent Criminal Investigation Division.
“We dedicate a minimum amount of resources to the protective detail,” said Leo D’Amico, chief of the EPA’s criminal enforcement office, which includes the investigative division. “We will adjust our level as our on-scene people see fit.”
D’Amico, whose name appears as the author of one of the do’s and don’ts memos, said he knew of no instance in which an agent was asked to return a personal rental car or to perform any other personal chore for Whitman.
“If there is a need to accompany the administrator for protection reasons, we’ll accompany her to any and all locations,” he said. “Our agents are not there to provide any personal services, nor have they been asked to provide any personal services.”
Whitman’s protection and chauffeuring is overseen by a small group of EPA special agents permanently assigned to this job. John Martin, the agent who supervises that group, said he wrote one of the lists to help agents not typically trained in providing security.
“We have to plan for the entire day. We’ll take her to a Starbucks or a bookstore when there’s down time. Part of our job is to know where everything is,” he said Saturday from Paris, where Whitman was on government business.
“When we travel to different locations, we usually rely on a local agent to do the driving since they know the area, where the hospitals are,” he said. “We travel to so many different cities it really minimizes the impact on each office.”
Martin emphasized the lists reflect observations by him and others, and are not Whitman’s requests.
“She does not ask us to do any kinds of personal favors. She doesn’t want the extra-special treatment – she carries her luggage through the airport. … Governor Whitman had no input on that.”
Among the additional security measures the EPA is considering is the construction of a special facility at agency headquarters where agents can be sure there is no electronic eavesdropping.
The managers interviewed by AP said their superiors at EPA headquarters have been alerted to their concerns that highly trained personnel are being diverted from the chief mission of investigating crimes and protecting public health and the environment.
The managers also said they have questioned some spending, including the new headquarters facility, at a time when the investigative office is having to cut back.
In the 12 months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the amount of criminal penalties dropped to $62 million from $95 million, EPA figures show.
The number of years for criminal sentences and number of defendants charged each declined by more than 10 percent, while criminal referrals to the Justice Department fell 2 percent.
But the investigative unit initiated a record 674 cases, almost entirely due to the new focus on counterterrorism.
EPA officials denied the added responsibilities for homeland security have hurt enforcement efforts.
“While we’re doing protection and homeland security, we are continuing to do our core mission, which is protecting the environment,” said J.P. Suarez, EPA’s enforcement chief.
As for the multiple pages of memos they received on how their agents should act as chauffeurs and security providers, some managers chuckled at items that had little to do with security.
For instance, one memo offered the following advice: “Drive like a federal agent, not like you are on a Sunday stroll or like you are coming down the back stretch at the Indy 500.”
Another told agents to limit their chitchat. “Expect Governor Whitman to ask you how you are doing. This is not an opening to tell Governor Whitman your life story, your hobbies, your most interesting cases … or what is wrong with the Bush administration.”
AP-ES-04-26-03 1510EDT
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