The Ombudsman
Stanley Sporkin is a retired judge and former general counsel of the CIA, who was tapped by Malone in late 2006 as BP's ombudsman following revelations in the aftermath of the largest oil spill on the North Slope that year that the company - along with Alyeska - retaliated against employees who brought up safety concerns and failed to perform routine maintenance at its production facilities and corrosion inspections on its pipelines.
Since his tenure, his office has registered 202 employee concerns, more than half of which were generated from BP Alaska, a majority of which involves safety issues and retaliation, according to a previously unreleased letter Sporkin prepared in February for the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Because Sporkin's work as an ombudsman strictly involves BP-related matters, it seemed odd that Alyeska employees would contact his office to file their complaints.
Asked why BP's ombudsman had become involved in the matter if, as BP has publicly stated, the company does not interfere with the way Alyeska is operated, Steve Rinehart, a spokesman for BP Alaska, said, "the Ombudsman's office runs independently of BP. BP does not control who contacts the Ombudsman's office."
"BP was informed by the Ombudsman's office that the Ombudsman's office had received a concern from an individual stating he/she was an employee of Alyeska, "Rinehart said. "BP informed Alyeska of the employee concern. While this is a matter for Alyeska, we have encouraged the Ombudsman's office to provide Alyeska with any information that the Ombudsman's office may have which might be relevant to the concern."
It turns out that Sporkin's deputy, Billie Garde, a partner in the law firm Clifford & Garde, had previously worked for Alyeska; and, years ago, Garde represented numerous whistleblowers that Alyeska had retaliated against and fired and the ombudsman's office was contacted by an Alyeska manager as a result of her past work on behalf of employees who formerly worked for the company, according to an email sent to the ombudsman's office late last year.
That email said there is "an extreme level of fear and chilling effect at Alyeska to bring concerns forward" because Hostler is retaliatory and has threatened to fire employees who disagree with him or oppose him.
"The current work environment for the past 3 to 4 years has become progressively worse," says the email. "People are afraid to speak up on safety and integrity issues for fear of retaliation. [Hostler] has already done a lot of damage to the culture and character of Alyeska and the danger is he will do much more damage in the next year."
Although not identified by name, the email sent to BP's Office of the Ombudsman late last year was also harshly critical of Alyeska's Human Resources Director Theresa Guim and Valdez Terminal Director Kathy Zinn, who were accused of advancing a culture of fear that permeates throughout the company because of their close ties to Hostler.
Garde immediately stepped in after that email was sent, according to people close to the ombudsman's office, BP officials and government officials knowledgeable about the events. Copies of some of the initial emails sent to the ombudsman's office were also sent to Stupak's and Guttenberg's offices.
Sporkin is said to have discussed the Alyeska issue with Lamar McKay, president of BP North America. McKay reportedly told Sporkin to just "deal with it" and that he did not want to have anything to do with the matter.
In February, a month after Sporkin's office was first contacted about the employee concerns, Alyeska, under pressure from Sporkin and Garde, hired Thebaud to investigate employee complaints about the impact the relocation would have on safety and integrity and the charges employees made against Hostler.
Thebaud, who along with another attorney, Jane Diecker, conducted interviews with employees in Fairbanks and Anchorage over several months, had previously conducted investigations for Alyeska and BP related to similar employee concerns.
One of the investigations Thebaud has conducted involved claims that Hostler had retaliated against one of the company's former senior executives, Robert Glen Plumlee.
In March of 2006, following a pipeline rupture that resulted in a large oil spill on the North Slope near BP's Prudhoe Bay facility, Plumlee, Alyeska's strategic planning coordinator, filed a complaint with then-Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, against Hostler and Alyeska, alleging Hostler placed him under surveillance and kept a secret file on him after he cooperated with federal criminal investigators who were probing Alyeska and BP for environmental-related crimes.
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