Julie MacDonald, who resigned from the Interior Department April 30 after the release of a scathing Inspector General report, was rewarded for her performance with $9,628 in March 2005.

MacDonald, a political appointee, got the Special Thanks for Achieving Results (STAR) award for her work during the 2004 Senior Executive Service "performance cycel [sic]," says a printout from the federal personnel/payroll system.

The document was printed out April 17 in response to an April 5 FOIA request, but wasn't provided to ESWR [1]until about a week after MacDonald resigned. There was no paperwork in her file addressing what she may have specifically done to deserve the STAR award.

The lack of documentation appears to conflict with DOI guidance on monetary awards, as delineated in a Nov. 18, 2002, personnel bulletin from the Office of the Secretary and signed by David Anderson, deputy director, Office of Personnel Policy.

Attached to the memo -- which directed agencies to nominate up to five employees annually for a new "Unsung Heroes" awards program -- is an "award certification" form, which says justification is required for monetary awards such as the STAR award.

Justification also is required for innovation awards, and when employees are granted "non-monetary recognition of significant value" or given time off.

But apparently that applies only to career employees. Numerous non-career officials, not just MacDonald, were given money for a job well done. But DOI doesn't plan to discuss why.

DOI spokesman Shane Wolfe said the cash awards are based on performance evaluations that cannot be made public.

"Those personnel records that serve as justification for the award are exempt from disclosure under [FOIA] Exemption 6," Wolfe said.

Wolfe also confirmed that by law, non-career SES'ers cannot get bonuses based on their performance rankings, but that they can receive individual cash awards.

He said the Human Resources Division wanted to make clear that all awards reporting is done "in compliance with OPM standards."

FWS employees in the SES and outside of it, however, said they must have written justification for any cash award.

MacDonald's award was approved by Interior's Executive Resources Board, a recondite body that includes longtime Chief of Staff Brian Waidmann, Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett, Associate Deputy Secretary James Cason, Solicitor David Bernhardt, Deputy Chief of Staff Doug Domenech, and the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget (currently vacant).

In 2004, the ERB would have included Scarlett (who was AS-PMB), Waidmann, Bernhardt (then the deputy chief of staff and counselor to Norton), Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles, and Solicitor Sue Ellen Wooldridge. Wooldridge and Griles married this year, shortly after Wooldridge resigned from the Justice Department, where she was the assistant attorney general, Environment and Natural Resources. Her departure came shortly after Griles was informed that he could face criminal charges in connection with his relationship with convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Wooldridge bought a vacation home with a ConocoPhillips lobbyist and Griles in March 2006, while DOJ was investigating the oil company for air emission violations, the Washington Post reported in February. She eventually signed off on changes to consent decrees that would give the company more time to install new equipment, the Post reported.

Interior Department guidance says cash payments can be used to reward "an outstanding one-time accomplishment or contribution of a non-recurring nature that produces tangible savings or intangible benefits, [or] sustained exceptional performance."

But it appears MacDonald -- and perhaps other high-ranking political appointees -- operated under a different set of rules.

One FWS SES'er who spoke with ESWR said he had never heard of a STAR award -- the kind MacDonald received -- being given without a written justification. "Not in my experience," he said.

A Fish and Wildlife Service "Director's order," amended in November 2005, says that the justification for monetary awards "must reflect the employee's accomplishments and must be personalized and specific to the employee and his or her activities. Include details and outcomes of the employee's actions. Prepare justifications in a neat, easy-to-read format. Incomplete or illegible justifications will be returned to the nominating office for corrective action."

In addition, the order says that "the documentation for this award should contain a specific statement of achievement and of tangible and/or intangible benefits to the government that provides the basis for the amount of the award granted. Award nominations initiated more than 3 months following the contribution(s) for recognition must include a statement justifying the tardiness of the nomination."

MacDonald, however, worked in the Office of the Secretary, not in FWS.

Former Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Craig Manson, who brought MacDonald to the department as his special assistant, said he could not recall the awards process "or who was on the ERB, except that Brian Waidmann was always on the ERB."

In response to an email query, Manson said, "I don't think there were ever specific letters about STAR awards, but I could be wrong about that. You are correct that I would have put her in for any award, although the specific idea may have originated with someone else. I don't recall if she got a STAR award or some other raise or bonus. That's as much as I recall."

The document obtained by ESWR says only "ERB approval and White House clearance certified by White House Liaison on 2/10/05."

MacDonald's award happened to coincide with the release of a survey of FWS biologists that was chock-full of complaints about political interference in implementation of the Endangered Species Act. It was conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The PEER/UCS survey said, "More than two out of three staff scientists (70 percent) and nearly nine out of 10 scientist managers (89 percent) knew of cases "where U.S. Department of Interior political appointees have injected themselves into Ecological Services determinations," the groups said when they released the report.

MacDonald was singled out by name, including in this comment from a scientist in California.

"I have never before seen the boldness of intimidation demonstrated by a single political appointee. She has modified the behavior of the entire agency. I believe there should be a thorough investigation of her abuse of discretionary authority and modification of science information provided in FWS documents."

Manson questioned the validity of the survey results and defended MacDonald, who received her $9,628 award March 6, 2005, after the survey's release. At the end of that month, Steve Williams resigned as director of the Fish and Wildlife Service to become executive director of the Wildlife Management Institute. [Added June 23 '07: In an interview, Williams said his departure had nothing to do with MacDonald's award, which he was not aware of. He said the timing was simply right for taking the WMI job at that point in his career.]

MacDonald is neither a lawyer nor a scientist. A civil engineer by training, she joined DOI in July 2002 as Manson's special assistant. Less than two years later, she was named deputy assistant secretary.

Her promotion came just days before Endangered Species & Wetlands Report revealed that MacDonald had grossly miscalculated the economic impact of critical habitat for 15 vernal pool species in California. Her analysis was nevertheless used, at Manson's direction, as the basis for the removal of land in Butte, Madera, Merced, Sacramento and Solano counties from the CH designation.

After the mistake was conceded in court, FWS redid its economic analysis and redesignated the habitat, adding back some of the acreage removed by MacDonald.

In announcing MacDonald's promotion on May 3, 2004, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said she "has brought the benefits of her long experience in environmental and water law to the Interior Department and done an outstanding job. She is a valuable member of our policy team."

[1] The justification document was printed April 17 but wasn't provided to ESWR until after MacDonald left DOI. The initial version (posted from Friday night, May 25, to Saturday morning) mistakenly implied we had the document before MacDonald resigned.