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Show Shakespeare Continues To Press For BLM House Cleaning Former Grand Staircase-Escalante Staircase-Escalante employee Kevin Shakespeare of Tropic continues doggedly to pursue his complaints com-plaints against his former employer. Shakespeare recently received a letter dated Mar. 17 from State BLM Director Sally Wisely acknowledging that she had received approximately 100 pages of documents from Shakespeare. "You did not include a letter or cover sheet with the documents," Wisely's letter read. "Therefore, I do not know what your intentions were in sending them to me." "The documents I sent speak for themselves through those who originally made them available avail-able to me." said Shakespeare. "They should raise concerns sufficient for investigation by anyone who reads them without any request or comment needed from me." The documents Shakespeare sent to Wisely contained dated and specific documentation of alleged infractions of BLM regulations, reg-ulations, many from former employee Linda Pattison Ahrens and from her husband Lee Ahrens a seasonal employee at the GSENM, and from others, all implicating other GSENM employees and management. Wisely's letter told Shakespeare she had turned over the documents to the Human Resources Office for review "to determine the relevance of any of the documents in relation to any ongoing administrative actions." Her letter also acknowledged receipt of a copy of an email Shakespeare had sent to Monument Manager Dave Hunsaker alleging nepotism in hiring practices in the Escalante Field Office, and an email from Shakespeare alleging unauthorized unautho-rized use of a government vehicle vehi-cle by a Monument employee at the Escalante Field Office. Shakespeare claims that the employee has made frequent such unauthorized use. Wisely's letter said she had "attempted several times" to reach Shakespeare by telephone but was unsuccessful because of the lack of voice mail or answering answer-ing machine. Shakespeare's Tropic telephone number is regularly reg-ularly accessible by answering machine when he is unavailable. Shakespeare says that in a telephone conversation with Wisely he initiated on Mar. 23, Wisely told him she was not aware of any cover-up by the BLM or DOI . Wisely also told Shakespeare that there were "several issues that are still unresolved and are being investigated" inves-tigated" in contradiction to the information given to the Garfield County News on Mar. 16 by BLM personnel in Wisely's office. "This may lead people to wonder if those in the BLM DOI really know what is going on in their own organization," said Shakespeare, "or if they have become so ingrained in deception that they can not tell the truth." Shakespeare has also been in contact with the Office of Inspector General in Washington D. C. A letter from Sandra Evans of the OIG dated Mar. 23, 2004 states that "To date the investigation is open." In conversations with Earl Devaney's office, Shakespeare says he was told that "things are starting to surface". A letter to Shakespeare's attorney from Sandra Evans, Freedom of Information Act Officer at the Office of the Inspector General in Washington D.C. dated Mar. 23 (See BLM on page 4A) BLM From Front Page requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act was denied. Attorney David Holdsworth of Sandy had requested all written records collected col-lected by the Bureau of Land . Management's National Law Enforcement Office during the investigation Shakespeare's complaint. His FOIA request also asked for all documents relating to the criminal investigation investi-gation BLM's National Law Enforcement Office into alleged violations of the Archeological Resources Protection Act by managers or employees of the GSENM, "including but not limited to Gregg Christensen." The reason given for denying Holdsworth's request was the potential for release of the information infor-mation to "interfere with enforcement proceedings" . Holdsworth was told in the letter that "When the investigation is completed and closed by the headquarters office of the OIG, you may submit a new FOIA request." In the meantime, in an action related to the investigation, former for-mer Range Lead Specialist Gregg Christensen remains on administrative leave at full pay since Jan. 8. |