McPadden sworn in at private ceremony

Yosemite National Park Superintendent Ray McPadden was sworn in during a ceremony last month a year after he was named to the park’s top post.

The year long delay may be the least curious thing about the “Assumption of Responsibility” ceremony.

Long time park followers can’t recall a similar ceremony for an incoming superintendent with such pomp and circumstance.

A sign outside the Yosemite Theater on April 23 said it was a private event.

The press was explicitly not invited.

The guest of honor was Kevin Lilly, who oversees national parks as an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Interior.

About 40 people attended, including senior staff members, tourism leaders and local government officials. Mariposa County Supervisors Rosemarie Smallcombe and Jenni Kiser attended the ceremony, as did Madera County Supervisor Bobby Macaulay.

Why the swearing in ceremony for such a high profile public figure as McPadden would be private is not clear.

The Department of the Interior did not reply to a request for comment. A Yosemite National Park spokesperson declined to provide a photo of the ceremony.

According to a program for the event, Sandra Chapman, chairperson for the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, read a blessing to begin the ceremony. There was an invocation from Pastor Brent Moore of Yosemite Community Church. The National Anthem was performed by Ranger Marion Roubal.

There was a reception afterwards.

Randy Lavasseur, acting regional director for the National Park Service, and Lilly, performed the “Passing of the Colors.” It is a symbolic transfer of authority and responsibility that is common in the U.S. Army and Marines.

But the ceremony is almost unheard of previously in the National Park Service.

Robert Binnewies, the former YNP superintendent from 1979 to 1986, told the Mariposa Gazette the event struck him as unusual.

“When I was selected as Yosemite superintendent, I was not sworn in,” Binnewies said in an email.

“There was no ceremony; I arrived and started doing the job. To my knowledge, no succeeding superintendent has been sworn in, until McPadden,” Binnewies said.

One difference is that Binnewies was a civil service employee, with a top rating of GS-15, as were most national park superintendents at the time.

But the top post at Yosemite, and 10 other high profile national parks, is considered a Senior Executive Service (SES) appointment.

That change in grade structure means SES appointees serve at will and can be more easily removed from their assignments.

They are considered top-level managers in the federal government in policy-making positions that rank just below presidential appointees.

Established as part of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the SES bridges the gap between political appointees and career civil service across 75 federal agencies.

SES appointees are usually sworn in by top ranking officials, which is likely what brought Lilly to Yosemite for McPadden’s swearing in ceremony.

Lilly performed a similar “Assumption of Responsibility” ceremony last month at Great Smoky Mountains National Park for its superintendent, Charles Sellars, who has held the job for the last year.

Lilly’s formal title is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.

Lilly’s appointment has been controversial because he has no national park, conservation, environmental or land management experience.

Prior to joining the Trump Administration last year, Lilly was a Texas wealth manager and is a former investment banker. Like McPadden, Lilly is an Army veteran.

Lilly’s bio said he also served as chairman of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, where he dealt with “border issues, human trafficking and ridding fentanyl from Texas licensed establishments.”

According to those in attendance last week, Lilly spoke about being touched spiritually by Yosemite. He compared it to the experience of the Artemis astronauts as a way to understand the divine.

Lilly made similar remarks in January when visiting Hoodoo Moab, according to an account in The Times Independent, a newspaper serving Moab and Southeast Utah.

That, too, was a private reception with local government officials. A reporter was asked to leave the event before Lilly spoke.