Fired Voyageurs National Park employee says future is unclear despite court order
Kate Severson loved her job as a supervisory park ranger at Voyageurs National Park. She was the Chief of Interpretation and Education, working with kids and training new rangers.
Severson was fired from her position in February, along with roughly 1,000 other employees with the National Park Service.
A federal judge has ordered thousands of fired federal workers should be back on the job. But not all workers have been notified to return to work, and some still face an uncertain future.
"The deadline was yesterday, at 1 p.m. according to the judge's temporary restraining order," said Severson. "They were supposed to reinstate us and let us know, and they haven't."
Severson left a higher-paying job to come to Minnesota, her home state.
"I was just so thrilled to come up here and start work here with a really great team," she said.
She said she is fortunate to be able to get health insurance through her husband's work. Fired workers' health care expires 30 days after they are let go, and she worries about a court filing from the Park Service that to her, sounds ominous.
The filing says "The Department must also take other requisite administrative actions, such as evaluating the off-duty action of reinstated appointees during the period of separation."
"Maybe it just meant they're going to see if we took other jobs, but it, I don't know, reevaluating or evaluating off-duty actions, to me, sounds like they might retaliate for things we did," said Severson.
Previously WCCO has interviewed another fired federal worker Chris Wicker. Wicker worked for the Small Business Administration and would not comment, but WCCO has learned he was reinstated retroactively to the date of his firing.
He was also put on administrative leave for 10 days, with no guarantees of employment after that
