"This is a first step. I think it provides an opportunity to let the government know just how punitive the lack of checks and balances within NOAA's law enforcement agency has been to the fishing community," Lang said Monday evening. "The rule of law means due process and equal justice, not implementing the law by executive fiat. The light has shined on them in such a dramatic way that they are going to have to make some changes."
The summit follows the release Monday, by the fishing industry organization Saving Seafood, of correspondence between NOAA's chief administrative officer William G. Broglie and Todd Zinser, the inspector general whose reports about NOAA activities this year have been uniformly scathing.
Broglie's letter, obtained from an undisclosed source, clears former law enforcement division chief Dale Jones from charges that he illegally shredded documents during the inspector general's investigation last year. "We have no reason to believe that the files kept at OLE headquarters and destroyed on Nov. 20, 2009, were records relevant to specific enforcement cases," the letter said, referring to a NOAA investigation. Jones was apparently removed for other related reasons, but there has been no explanation.
The documents, however, shed little light on goings-on at the Office of Law Enforcement since Zinser's report described it as an out-of-control, vindictive and punitive office taking it out on Northeast fishermen in particular.
The NOAA letter reflects that the inspector general recommended "administrative action" for someone whose name was redacted, presumably Jones. NOAA's action was to appoint Alan Risenhoover of the sustainable fisheries office to the law enforcement job.
No specific reason has ever been offered about what happened to Jones, and NOAA for months hasn't even mentioned his name. No other changes have been noted in the office that is the epicenter of today's summit discussion.
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