Nearly half of Adirondack Park Agency staff allege management abuse

APA says it’s striving ‘to ensure a safe working environment’ after Feb. 12 letters sent by union detailing ‘culture of fear’

Editor’s note: This story has been updated as new information and responses have become available.

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.

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.

“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. 

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.”

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.