Board Members Say Engleman Conners Is A Bit Heavy-Handed

Her employees say she's restricted their travel, fiddled with hiring and even told them what clothes to wear -- and they've had enough.

Three members of the NTSB have sent a letter to NTSB Chairwoman Ellen Engleman Conners, explaining why she probably won't get a Christmas card from the staff this year. Carol Carmody, Richard Healing and Deborah Hersman all have beefs with Conners -- three-and-a-half pages worth of beefs, to be exact.

That would all make for a nice in-house brouhaha, except that Ms. Engleman Conners reportedly wants to hire staff on the behalf of NTSB members, limit interviews with the news media and wants to settle a lot of the board's long-standing safety recommendations.

Ms. Engleman Conners worked in the Department of Transportation before she was appointed by the Bush administration to lead the NTSB. As you know, it's a board of five independent members -- all political appointees -- but all supposedly free of political baggage.

So imagine the surprise of Ms. Engleman Conner's fellow board members when they walked into her office and found, big as life, portraits of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of the complaints was Ms. Engleman Conner's fashion criticism. The Saint Petersburg (FL) Times reports she even went so far as to make sure what other board members wore didn't clash with her own outfits.

Former board member John Goglia joked at his retirement party in April that she made recommendations about his ties. "She once recommended I wear bright, lively ties," he said this week. "I even went out and bought some." He was quoted in the Times.

Ms. Engleman Conners wouldn't respond to reporters' questions about the complaints. Instead, NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said "her door remains open to her colleagues" and she "hopes that board members will continue to focus on the important mission of the board rather than on bureaucratic distractions," according to the St. Pete paper.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov