APA says it’s striving ‘to ensure a safe working environment’ after Feb. 12 letters sent by union detailing ‘culture of fear’
By Gwendolyn Craig
The Adirondack Park Agency’s executive director and her management staff have cultivated a “culture of fear” including “bullying, hurtful conflicts, and general abusive behavior,” according to a letter endorsed by 20 of 47 APA non-executive-team employees, and sent to board members by their union. The environment, they wrote, is leading to resignations, a loss of institutional knowledge and undermining the agency’s effectiveness.
The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), the union representing many APA staff, brought the allegations before board members in a Feb. 12 cover letter. Martin Blair, the PEF field representative, described “a massive increase in reports to PEF of a toxic workplace” over the last several months. He called on the agency’s 10 board members to address the situation.
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Attached to his email was a letter endorsed by 20 employees, signed anonymously out of concerns of retaliation.
“The Agency maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding bullying, intimidation, and any other form of toxic behavior,” said Keith McKeever, APA’s director of public information. “We are actively working with the Office of Employee Relations to ensure a safe working environment so that every employee can continue their critical work to support the Adirondacks.”
When contacted by the Adirondack Explorer, APA Board Chair John Ernst expressed disappointment that the letter was leaked.
He later sent the following statement on behalf of the board of directors: “Executive Director Barbara Rice has prioritized building a positive and productive work environment since day one, focusing on increasing staff levels and improving morale. This commitment ensures all employees have a safe, rewarding, and supportive workplace where hard work is recognized and everyone has the opportunity to succeed.
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“The board receives regular updates from management on personnel matters and fully supports the Agency’s ongoing efforts to attract, hire, and promote the most qualified candidate. The Board will continue to actively oversee these matters to ensure the Agency effectively and efficiently fulfills its critical mission, enabling all employees to take pride in protecting the Adirondacks.”
The letters add to a growing cloud over the APA, a unique state agency that oversees public and private development in the 6-million-acre mix of state and private lands.
This week also marked one year since the state Offices of the Inspector General sent staff in about a half dozen vehicles to the agency in Ray Brook. Investigators interviewed multiple top APA officials, but it remains unclear what it was about. Records show the IG’s office received a complaint regarding “corruption” in September 2023.
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The Explorer’s Freedom of Information Law requests on the investigation continued to be denied as of Feb. 13 citing the “ongoing investigation.”
Letters outline toxicity
PEF represents 50,000 state employees. In his cover letter directed to the agency’s board members and APA Deputy Director of Administration Elaine Caldwell, Blair asked them “to vastly improve the working conditions.”
APA staff, in their letter to board members, pointed to executive management in recent years as instigating the toxic environment. It has not only caused distress in the workplace, but caused the work of the agency to suffer through resignations of personnel with institutional knowledge and by disregarding the “professional input” of some current staff.
“This culture of fear has eroded morale, stifled collaboration and led to the resignation of highly skilled professionals and the loss of institutional knowledge,” they wrote. “Compounding these issues are executive management’s troubling trends in hiring and promotional practices, which raise serious ethical concerns. These patterns have not only diminished staff morale, but have also undermined the Agency’s overall effectiveness.”
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Blair wrote that he believed more staff would have endorsed the letter were they not fearful of “retaliation and revenge.” He reminded board members and Caldwell “that it is unlawful to retaliate against any union member who did, or is surmised to have, engaged in protected activity, including endorsing this instant letter.”
Reactions so far
The union letters were sent the day before the agency’s monthly meeting in February, but board members and Rice made no public mention of it at that time.
Following an agency presentation on its 2024 annual report, Board Member Mark Hall said Rice and the executive team “earned a vote of confidence from this board.”
At the agency meeting, Rice highlighted her new hires and championed how Hochul’s budget included five new positions for the agency. If approved during negotiations with the state Legislature, it would mark the first time since 2007 that the APA would have a staff increase from 54 to 59.
“This will be the highest overall staffing at the APA in 14 years,” Rice said at the Feb. 13 meeting.
She discussed Gov. Kathy’s Hochul’s $252 billion executive budget and how it proposed an additional $10 million for the agency’s new headquarters, another source of tension with some APA union members. A PEF survey of APA staff showed most did not want to move from Ray Brook to downtown Saranac Lake. They, along with former APA staff, expressed ethical concerns about such a move considering the at least $29 million in state funding would benefit a particular village, one that Rice lives in and represented as a Saranac Lake village trustee and a Franklin County legislator.
The current APA building is in a state complex specially zoned for administrative purposes, along with the Department of Environmental Conservation and State Police.
The APA has outgrown its original function and usefulness. It’s time for a reboot including a separation from being a branch of the D.E.C. The “concerned that the letter had been leaked” quote speaks volumes about how concerned (or not) Ernst is about the actual issue.
Just my two cents…
Poor, poor agency… corrupt and incompetent. Scam for everyone living inside the blue line. For those that feel this agency is doing good work, please look at all the information concerning its operation. It is all cased in B.S.
Would be nice for the majority of non management staff that didn’t sign on to this charade to stand up and do the right thing, and expose all these sad witch hunts for what they are.
Just a small indication to this organizations usefulness to the park. Outdated and corrupt.
The vocal minority, at it again throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what will stick, with no concrete examples and no truth behind the allegations. How many more goose chases will you put people on? How many more lives and reputations will you needlessly and baselessly try to ruin? And for what? Because management has asked you to do your job? Because you don’t want to move to saranac lake? Because life didn’t turn out the way you expected? As Dennis Leary once said – “wake up and smell the maple nut crunch.” Grow up.
Sorry but is anyone else confused by this? What are the specific issues, why is the current storyline so vague?
Very Sad. As a former APA employee, I always took pride in what we were doing. Sure there were disagreements, but generally staff and management worked to foster a collegial atmosphere. I believe the Adirondacks still need the intended functions of the agency. But these concerns need to be fixed.
Typical state democratic run b. s. I’m sure our governor promotes this type of activity. Maybe it time for ALL new faces!
Soooo. What are the issues????
We need the APA or we will be over developed and ruined like other similar communities outside the Blue Line.
However…. I do believe that Albany needs to pay more attention to the workings of the APA and other state run organizations inside the Blueline.
I would love to see the towns that are over developed out side the blue line. Especially in St Lawrence County
’20 employees, signed anonymously out of concerns of retaliation’. Fair enough, but also suspisiously convenient, and wouldn’t hold much water in a court of law. If you folks are real, grow a spine, and man up.
I would agree. These same rabble rousers continue to hurl baseless accusations without proof and expect the public to sympathize. It is a true case of Peter and the wolf. Complain to pef – nothing happens, complain to the IG and try to ruin peoples lives – a year later IG hasn’t found anything. So, why don’t we make some stuff up and get pef to stick its neck out and then leak it to the explorer, who will never shy away from muckraking.
February 22, 2025 at 2:07 pm
What a sad way for the Park Agency to have entered its next 50 years. The APA has an executive director and other top managers who have divided the Agency’s staff to a point where their effectiveness is questionable. And the Agency’s board of commissioners seem both uninformed and disinterested. There is clearly a crisis in leadership at the APA. Nearly half of the staff have signed a letter alleging “bullying, hurtful comments, and general abusive behavior” and the best that Chairman Ernst can do is to express regret that the letter was released and say that he and the Board have confidence in the Executive Director Barb Rice and her executive staff. Really? Public confidence in the coordinated work of the APA’s inter-disciplinary staff and Board is critical to the Agency’s ability to successfully perform its mission. I’d say it is time for Governor Hochul to focus on what is going on at the Agency that would cause this many staff people to express their concerns through PEF and for such an endorsement of executive management from the Chairman and the Board. Comments from my friend Keith McKeever that “the Agency maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding bullying, intimidation, and any other form of toxic behavior” certainly don’t ring true. Unfortunately, Keith is in the unenviable position of defending the APA Board, the Executive Director, and Governor Hochul where all responsibility for ensuring the effectiveness of the APA truly rests. Keith is, as they say, “between a rock and a hard place.” I served as the APA’s Economic Advisor for 28 years. I never would have expected this.
It seems to me that Governor Hochul should be setting up an independent review of the APA. If nearly half the staff are a party (even anonymously) to this letter, there are clearly some big problems on the inside and they should be investigated. The Adirondacks are a beautiful place and the agency responsible for protecting the area should have a strong, cohesive team. The story goes on to say that there’s been controversy around moving the HQ from an area zoned for admin buildings to a specific town where the ED currently lives and used to represent. Hmmm…..seems to be a conflict of interest there as well. Let’s get an independent review set up NOW.
How can you have a strong cohesive team when a small faction of obstructionists a) don’t do their actual jobs and b) do anything in their power, including lie, to throw roadblocks up and destroy the ED from the beginning?
And saranac lake is the most populated village in the park and the so called “capital of the Adirondacks.” Why shouldn’t “the capital of the Adirondacks” be the seat of government for the agency charged with governing the park?
People govern the places they live in all the time. Town board, planning boards zoning boards all do this. School boards do this. Commissioners and senior managers at other state agencies live in Albany. This happens everywhere, all the time.
Interesting comments in support of the ED. What are the actions by the APA that the commenters are in favor of or in opposition to? Just sounds like more pro-development ranting to me. The APA has been performing lower levels of analysis on issues involving wetlands and shoreline development for residential and commercial properties than it has in the past. The standards being diluted weakens protections to habitat, communities, ands adjacent land owners. When Cuomo decided to use the APA as a political tool to gain North Country votes, it was only a matter time until staff brought up the internal struggles within the agency.
As for the note about Saranac Lake being the best site for locating the APA headquarters, the current headquarters is a bruising 3.6 miles away in Raybrook… Not much persuasion there…
Lower levels of wetland reviews? It doesn’t sound like you’ve read their recently released 2024 annual report. 4 pages on scientific advances in 2024 and another 4 on review at statistics. Wetland site visits were at a record high at 264 site visits, a record low in days to process requests, they are finally mapping impacts to carbon sequestration due to forest removal and are mapping deep water marshes. Seems like they are actually using science for once. This, in addition to winning all the court cases involving wetlands last year. So, what else would you like them to do??
Uh oh Gwen, looks like the President will need you to name names soon if this federal law is passed – will have to bring these dishonest vocal minority actors out of the shadows if this passes:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/trump-2nd-term-live-updates/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhfacebook&utm_content=null&entryId=119203816&id=119115308
Barb Rice, has to go. The APA campus in Raybrook needs to torn down and rebuilt/updated for the future of the Adirondack Park at its present location, Raybrook, NY.
Why aren’t you covering the counter to this that will doolittle published with actual sources on record? It’s a real disservice to your readers by only presenting one side… especially when you have a bunch of anonymous “sources” leaking stuff to you all the time.