Chemical Safety Board Urged to Improve Morale

The Chemical Safety Board, with a new chairman and four of its five-member complement in place, should focus on improving employee morale, a watchdog recommended on Thursday.

Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General Arthur Elkin in a report harkened back to lawmakers’ descriptions of CSB’s “toxic work environment,” retaliation against whistleblowers and since-removed Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso’s “disregard for proper board governance.”

“The current board needs to assure that the CSB functions as intended and restores open communication among staff, the board and the chairperson,” the watchdog wrote.

He also said CSB should increase the number of investigations it takes on and improve investigative management controls. “CSB has not published a chemical incident reporting regulation as envisioned in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990,” the report said.

The agency has made progress in taking actions for 13 of 17 prior recommendations in information technology security, he said.

More effort is needed, however, in electronic records management given that the previous chairman and senior managers “used private non-government email systems to communicate on CSB matters,” the report said. CSB has held training classes for employees regarding email and instant messaging record policies, but still “needs to create a formal policy that complies with the requirements and guidelines found in the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014.”

The agency generally agreed with recommendations.

At a public business meeting on Oct. 21, Vanessa Sutherland said she had met with the IG and had received a favorable response.  “We will focus on organizational health, not just morale but investigations’ status,” she said. “With four of five board members, we now have a great opportunity to get things done in these exciting times.” Noting that the public meeting was held in a rented hotel conference room, Sutherland said, “while there is a price to transparency, it is better than the alternative.”

Former interim chairman Rick Engler, a board member, also expressed hope for “putting these significant controversies past us.” He commended the staff for continuing to produce work during the past year of uncertainty, and affirmed governance rules that require public meetings and allow board members to add agenda items.