A congresswoman from California has called on the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General to look into "improper and potentially illegal" actions by National Park Service employees involved in development of a Dog Management Plan at Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Park Service officials earlier this week placed a hold on the off-leash regulations, both because members of Congress had asked for a waiting period on approval of the Final Environmental Impact Statement and because a former employee had used personal email for official communications related to the Dog Management Plan planning process. The agency said it would conduct an independent inquiry into whether personal email was used in a manner that is at odds with applicable laws and policies, and if so, whether its use affected the planning and rulemaking processes. 

Park officials also wanted to delay action on the FEIS so they could review these emails to see if they were pertinent to a Freedom of Information Act request targetting the decision-making process.

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat representing San Francisco, on Tuesday announced that she had asked the Inspector General's Office to look into the use of a personal email account during the planning process.

“I am shocked, but unfortunately not surprised to find out the leadership of the (Golden Gate NRA) conspired to mobilize opposition to counter the voices of citizens with whom they disagreed," the congresswoman charged. "The emails, uncovered through the FOIA process, reveal that the personal email account of a high-ranking NPS (Golden Gate) employee was used to deliberately hide a preordained decision to orchestrate a campaign to mobilize citizens opposed to off-leash dog areas. Their actions corrupted what should have been a fair and impartial public process. That is why today I called on the Inspector General to immediately, fully, and openly investigate this breach of the public’s trust. I also am calling on the NPS to rescind the Dog Management Plan because of the tainted process.”

According to the representative, the personal emails that the Park Service publicly released this week "clearly show that this employee was using his personal email to inappropriately coordinate with special interest groups. Examples ... include:

"1. The employee sent documents to advocacy groups, and told them to respond only to his home email address. The employee marked this correspondence CONFIDENTIAL.

"2. The employee solicited particular viewpoints to submit public comments.

"3. The employee may have engaged in prohibited grassroots lobbying by advising advocacy groups on how to communication with Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"4. The employee coordinated with groups on their advocacy materials.

"5. The employee advised advocacy groups on media strategy."

Rep. Speier said she wanted the IG to investigate the matter because "an internal inquiry staffed by NPS employees cannot be truly independent as the NPS claims."