Park Service deputy chief resigns

National Park Service Deputy Director Donald Murphy has resigned from his position and will leave at the end of this week, the Park Service has confirmed.

Murphy is a central figure in the case of former Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers, who was fired in July 2004 after publicly complaining about budget and staffing shortfalls at the agency. She has fought to be reinstated since that time. Murphy has made conflicting statements under oath about the existence of a positive appraisal of Chambers' performance.

His resignation comes on the heels of a federal judge's rejection of the Interior Department's motion to dismiss a case in which Chambers claimed her performance appraisal was illegally kept from her in violation of the 1974 Privacy Act.

David Barna, the Park Service's chief of public affairs, confirmed Murphy's departure, but declined to elaborate on it other than to say, "It doesn't have anything to do with Teresa Chambers." Barna said Murphy was unavailable to comment. His replacement has not been named.

In late September, the Senate confirmed Mary A. Bomar, a career Park Service employee, to be the new director of the agency, succeeding Fran Mainella. With Murphy's departure goes the last of Chambers' superiors who she has alleged falsified claims against her. Chambers said she hopes that will aid in her effort to seek reinstatement.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne "should see there is no chance for me to be with the people who I was working with before," she said. Chambers' appeal of her firing was recently rejected by the Merit Systems Protection Board. She can appeal that decision in federal court, but Chambers said she has yet to do so.

A 2003 performance evaluation allegedly completed by Murphy said Chambers' performance was satisfactory, according to testimony by Terrie Fajardo, former human resources chief for the National Park Service. Fajardo said when Murphy was asked about her performance, he said she did "fine."

In 2004, Murphy testified he had prepared a performance evaluation for Chambers, but a year later, he declared that he had not done so.

Chambers is suing the National Park Service for $2.2 million, citing damages to her reputation, lost salary and emotional distress.

She said she is now considering whether to file a lawsuit against Murphy personally, but that remains in its formative stage while she appeals her firing and seeks a copy of her performance evaluation.