Nevada panel sees merit in workers’ conflict claims

The head of a federal panel on worker health has dismissed a conflict-of-interest complaint against the leader of a Nevada Test Site advisory group, but the Nevada Center for Public Ethics believes there is some merit to the complaint.

Robert Presley, Nevada Test Site Working Group leader and member of a board that advises the Department of Labor on its program to compensate sick nuclear weapons workers, also works for a company, Pro2Serve, that performs subcontract work for the test site and other Department of Energy entities.

In the case of the test site, Pro2Serve is involved in physical security work for the agency and also has an office in DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration's North Las Vegas complex.

John Funk, a former test site worker who is chairman of the non-profit Atomic Veterans and Victims of America Inc., contends Presley is tied too closely to the test site and DOE to offer fair advice on the compensation program. He said that Presley has declined to accept information from the advocacy group about where and how test site workers were exposed to materials they blame on their illnesses.

"On three occasions I went to him and he refused information," Funk said recently.

Funk noted that Presley is an original member of the 10-member advisory board and not only chairs the Nevada Test Site working group but belongs to other panels, including the conflict-of-interest panel.

Funk was dismayed by an Aug. 5 letter from a National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health official who is on the advisory board and dismissed Funk's complaint against Presley.

Earlier this month, Julie Tousa, acting president of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics, wrote in an e-mail to the Review-Journal that there is merit to some of Funk's contentions.

"In regard to Mr. Presley's role ... there appears there would be a conflict somewhere in his line of work," Tousa's e-mail reads.

"The DOE is no longer over its own investigations into sick workers' claims so (Pro2Serve) being in offices in the area should not be a conflict," Tousa wrote. "But as was inferred it is very realistic to think that some board members have biases or loyalties to certain groups. ... So I believe that some of Mr. Funk's concerns are legitimate."

Presley did not return phone calls made by the Review-Journal to his office with Pro2Serve in Tennessee. His conflict-of-interest disclosure statement filed with the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health requires him to recuse himself from matters involving only sites in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Acting on Funk's complaint, the Department of Health and Human Service investigated the question of Presley's work as a manufacturing engineer for Pro2Serve, and the company's contracts with the Department of Energy. The investigation found that Pro2Serve is a subcontractor to a company that provides security guard work at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Nevertheless, "Mr. Presley's work for Pro2Serve does not include any work at or for the NTS (Nevada Test Site) facility, and relates only to non-NTS national security matters, not physical security matters. Thus, the HHS (Health and Human Services) determination that he is not conflicted and is able to fully participate in the board's work on NTS remains unchanged," reads the Aug. 5 letter to Funk from Christine Branch, acting director for the National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health, NIOSH, and the designated federal official for the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health.

The advisory board for NIOSH makes recommendations to the Department of Labor on compensating workers based on their exposures to radioactive and hazardous materials while they worked in the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons complex during the Cold War. The Labor Department took charge of the program from the Department of Energy in 2002 after Congress determined that it was inappropriate for DOE to conduct its own investigations of sick workers' claims. The secretaries of Energy, Health and Human Services and Labor "share responsibilities" for administering the compensation program, according to the advisory board's charter.

The purpose of the compensation program is to provide for timely, uniform, and adequate compensation of workers who suffer from certain illnesses linked to their Cold War work in the nation's nuclear weapons complex.

Funk believes that because some of the board's members do contract or subcontract work for the Department of Energy, claimants' cases are often mired in foot dragging and estimates on their exposures to toxic and radioactive materials is skewed in favor of DOE.

Funk also is concerned that the son and daughter of one advisory board member, John W. Poston Sr., conducted dose reconstructions used in the evaluations for determining compensation.

Funk said both Presley and Poston should step down from the board.

"I don't see anybody on this board who gives a damn that anything gets done," Funk said.

"They're just drawing a paycheck and the letting the world go by. I don't see any dedication here at all."

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.