Hmmmm....bout time!! Buying $300,000 boats under the radar will do it:) dummy....

link? Sounds interesting.

Wheres the story??

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2018571362.html

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Sunday, July 1, 2012 - Page updated at 10:30 a.m.
Northwest's top federal fisheries cop removed from office


By Craig Welch
Seattle Times environment reporter
The special agent in charge of federal fish cops in the Northwest has been removed from her position while internal government investigators pore over documents from her Seattle office, sources say.

Vicki Nomura, who has overseen law enforcement for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle for a decade, was abruptly replaced in mid-May by an official from the agency's headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.

Her office was the subject of attention earlier this year when it was disclosed that one of her agents had paid $300,000 for a luxury boat without following proper bidding procedure, then used the boat for social outings with friends and family.

Officials at the Fisheries Service declined to comment on the latest investigation. An email written by the agency's new director of law enforcement, Bruce Buckson, to his staff said Nomura "has been temporarily detailed to HQ staff for an undetermined length of time."

But several sources with knowledge of the situation said the agency's head of law enforcement told staff in Seattle that the U.S. Commerce Department's inspector general was conducting an internal investigation of Nomura and of operations in Seattle.

The focus of the review was not clear, but staff members were told to avoid contact with Nomura.

One former agent, now retired from government service, even called the agency's headquarters last week to share information about his tenure in Seattle. He was put in touch with internal investigators who agreed to pass his contact information to the inspector general conducting the investigation.

A spokesman for the inspector general's office said the agency could neither confirm nor deny the existence of any investigation.

The Fisheries Service is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Nomura's section of the agency is a law-enforcement branch that employs 111 special agents with most of the same police powers as FBI agents.

Fisheries agents police commercial fishing and the illegal trade in fish and marine mammals, from poaching of endangered species to international smuggling of everything from whale teeth to shark fins. There are 12 special agents in Seattle.

In the last two years, the Fisheries Service's national law-enforcement program has been the subject of several scathing audits, focused primarily on leadership in its Maryland headquarters and on issues in New England, where agents were accused of bullying commercial fishermen, conducting heavy handed raids on fish markets and mismanaging an asset-forfeiture fund.

The reviews criticized agents for threatening fishermen cited for violating fishing rules with extravagant fines — sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — if the fishermen contested the citations.

The agency's previous top law-enforcement officer, Dale Jones, was shifted to a new job after he was accused of shredding documents. His superiors have said the shredding was part of a routine paperwork purge.

The Northwest office largely escaped attention until February, when U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass. released results of an earlier internal investigation of the Seattle office by Commerce's inspector general.

The IG found that in 2008, while Nomura was in charge, one of her managers spent $300,000 on a 35-foot Boston whaler ostensibly to spy on whale-watching tours. But the manager bought the boat without going through a proper bidding process and held barbecues, took friends and family members across Puget Sound to restaurants and resorts, and used the boat for what a visitor called "a pleasure cruise."

Ultimately, the boat was used for official purposes for just 119 hours.

The heavily redacted documents detailing that investigation state that an unnamed female manager in the office confronted the high-level agent who bought the boat about potential misuse of government property, which he denied.

But the manager did not make a record of the accusations or refer the matter to headquarters, as required. Nomura was the only woman in leadership in that office — and both her deputies were men.

It's not clear if the current investigation is connected to the purchase or operation of the boat.

Nomura, 49, has been part of some the Northwest's most storied investigations. In the late 1990s, she posed as "Tori," secretary to an undercover informant who bought and sold shellfish. She secretly recorded phone calls to a Las Vegas fish broker who illegally bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of geoduck. The Vegas broker tried to hire a hit man to rough up a rival clam salesman, and the broker eventually wound up in federal prison.

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @craigawelch.

Related:

Archive: Luxury NOAA undercover boat got more use as pleasure cruiser (Feb. 2012)

Copyright © The Seattle Times Company

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Fish on...

Todd

Interesting that the manager who bought/used the 300K boat gets no disciplinary acton?

It doesn't say that a report was filed previous to the illegal "use", like when the boat was purchased in an illegal fashion, so maybe someone wasn't invited to go on the "cruise"?

Whenever this type of stuff comes up I just keep telling myself this is just one sour grape in the bunch but it does get my head scratchin'.

How many people here would practically kill to have a decent job like that and than you find out about these folks that just keep helping themselves despite a comfy paycheck and benefits, it makes me sick.

Plus, you know these folks are making any and all job opportunities available only to their friends and family et cetera. And we wonder why work places are so inefficient and jobs so hard to find......

Thanks Todd! Im not so savvy:) its despicable what they get away with,no charges,no fines...,etc. Wonder whats gonna happen to that Boston whaler?

And on top of all this, when the story broke the agent reportedly blew a engine to the tune of a 30k repair for failure to keep it properly lubricated, replaced on the taxpayer dime of course. F%$#!@! idiot...

Everyone who was involved should be fired, fined for their misdeeds, and permanently removed from any public service position.

fixed...

Given the way these things sometime work, the guy who purchased the boat without getting proper bids will get one demerit for that action, but more than make up for it by getting two merit points for thinking outside the box and coming up with the idea of an "undercover" boat to spy on illegal whale watching. The fact that observing illegal whale watching isn't very important in the greater scheme of things is irrelevant because, after all, it is "illegal" if the whale watchers are closer than 100 m. The fact that a $40 or $50K boat would probably serve just fine if the need to observe illegal whale watchers is real won't even register on the radar screen. Buying more boat than is needed is always justifiable as a safety measure, since the wind and water can kick up any time out in the Straits.

Using the boat for personal recreation however, is a fireable offense, although having BBQs on the boat could have furthered the undercover nature of the Special Agents' work. But I think I read they were doing the BBQ at a location well removed from whale watching territory. Pretty screwed up, to say the least.

As I recall the requiring activity (versus who actually purchased the boat) first wanted one particular boat and when he couldn't get that through the requirement later resurfaced as the vessel currently being discussed.

That individual tried to sole source the purchase but the Contracting Officer (CO) didn't accept that approach and made them come up with some specifications and after much pressure (e.g. the law enforcement card) ultimately convinced the CO to put the requirement out for quote amongst firms holding General Services Administration (GSA) contracts.

The procurement period was short and the number of firms holding GSA contracts able to supply vessels let alone one with the specs the requiring activity asserted it needed (bet they were taken right out of the manufacturer's catalog) resulted in only one offer - that being for the boat they wanted (why am I not surprised?).

I would suggest that the requiring activity (whoever generated the requirement) made false statements regarding their need and should be fired. The CO failed to stand tall and meet the requirements of the Competition in Contracting Act and should probably be demoted losing his/her Contracting Officer's warrant.

And don't forget that the requiring activity misrepresented the facts internally that allowed this purchase to avoid a vessel procurement review process even before the actual purchase action was begun.

These are all prior to the misuse/abuse of the vessel.

But, Jason, your statement that "you know these folks are making any and all job opportunities available only to their friends and family et cetera" is without substance and only goes to expose your ignorance and bias regarding civil service employment. The patronage system died along with President McKinley.

Salmo, your are right that this was screwed up big time but I disagree that there were any positive points for anyone given the public airing this has (rightfully) enjoyed.

Edit: More recollection: Not only did they push the "law enforcement" need they further claimed an exigency (e.g. "need it soonest") for the upcoming season which further pushed the CO to find a way to make it happen yet give the appearance of competition. Yet, in the final act the vessel did not actually get it into service for that season.......

So nomura is gone, why isn't"the manager" fired. Really makes me feel good that im still paying him every day, and for his insurance, retirement, paid vacations, and waiting for that prick to log more hours and get a promotion. Why is it that so many govt employees make out better, and are better protected with job security, than those working in the private sector. I am so sick of this crap. Besides being fired, isn't this some degree of embezzling, when you knowingly steal resources from the public funds?

$300K is the tip of the iceberg:

$300K for boat (no bid)
How much $ for fuel
How much $ salary was paid for screwing around on the yacht
How much $ for insurance for non-authorized use
How much $ for the blown NEW engine
How much $ for the USCG tow back in with blown NEW engine
How much $ for the USCG tow back in for running out of gas
Maintenance costs for racking up hours that were not necessary?
How much enforcement/preservation of resources was LOST due to misuse of time and resources to party?

For those who own a boat (and probably a much lesser boat), you know what they cost!! The goes on and on....

I want that manager fired. Why should we payroll his next paid vacation?

you can get a 05 36 foot Grady for 134k, what the hell kind of boat did this dude buy?

http://www.boatsforsale-ads.com/ads/2005_36_foot_grady_white_33_express_23801.php

Larry B,

Obviously you know a thing or two about gov't. procurement system. And yeah I was making a t.i.c. remark about the merit-demerit points. Some times I can't help myself.

I hate like hell that crap like this happens because it paints an entire agency with a broad negative brush. I never hesitate to remind co-workers that the reason for the negative public opinion of gov't. agencies is because of the seemingly endless supply of examples that earn it.

Sg

lol

Sig line worthy!

Larry b, Jason is spot on. Maybe they're not blood related, but they are all cut from the same cloth when they are all aware of the scam, and still knowingly participate.

I think I played around with that one already.
I don't disagree, but I'm trying to understand the mindset of those who just keep their heads low in self preservation. Right? No. Understandable? Probably.

Ned, you can't rationally support Jason's grossly erroneous and uninformed statement regarding employment of family members using the rationale that they (employees) were all in on the scam. They are different issues and, yes, all of those who were involved or had knowledge of wrong doing and took no action are, to various degrees, culpable.

Unfortunately, as Salmo has pointed out, actions of a few taint the many who do their jobs competently.