3/23/2017 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mail - Fwd: Virgin Islands

Respectfully,
Dan
Sent from my lPhone

On Mar 28, 2017, at 2:55 AM, Roddy. Russell (rt ssell roduyu?guos.dorgow wrote:



Hi, Dan.



Though I was not included, I really would have appreciated being approached first with any issues regarding my
travel to the Virgin Islands. Perhaps, I myself could have cleared up any questions or concerns before multiple
parties became involved.



First off, I may not be good at a lot of things. but one thing I know I am good at is efficiently planning and executing
events and advance. That includes determining the time needed to do so.



Per my travel to the Virgin Islands, I initially wanted to leave on Monday morning. However, flights to the USVI are
few and far between. I wanted to fly into St. Thomas as early as possible on Monday and take care of events there
on Monday and then head to St. Croix that evening. However, flying out at the crack of dawn on Monday morning still
would not have gotten me to St. Thomas until 2:45 in the the last flight from there to St. Croix was
6:45 or so. That meant I would have had less than 3 hours to go thru everything on St. Thomas. As it turned out, I
was picked up at 7:00 am. this morning at my hotel in St. Thomas and we were not done until after 3 in the afternoon
(8 included coordinating logistics for all St. Thomas official Centennial events with The Governors office,
the Prime Minister of Denmark's office. multiple meetings, etc. The flight I ended up taking Sunday (mind you, a day
that should have been a day off for me) left at 6:59 why did I take it? Because it was the only way I could
make the last connecting flight to St. Thomas thru Atlanta which left at 11 :00 am. Thus, in order to take care of all
details regarding RKZ's trip, I planned accordingly. Not knowing what to expect (and it is more than a bit unorganized
here), I planned for handling St. Thomas official centennial events on Monday, St. Croix official centennial events on
Tuesday. and then the rest of the Secretary's events on Wednesday. That left a half day on Thursday prior to the
Secretary's arrival to handle any loose ends or issues regarding the events that may arise. As far as approval went, I
thought all processes were followed to that end.



I can assure you that while I am in dire need of a vacation (after working 3.5 straight months on the campaign with 3
days at straight into straight into the Administration), I did not consider this as giving
myself an extra day of rest and relaxation or leaving a day early. I am very sensitive to the appearance othen/vise. I
can assure you of that. I know how long it takes to do what needs to be done for such I will not present
the Secretary in an amateur light.



For further rationalization, I am one person from our team coordinating the Secretary's participation in multiple high
profile events (12 at last count) on two islands (that does not belittle Basil's participation because he played an
important a different role than dealing with different as the security team deals with a
different focus). The security detail sent two members in on each will spend a total of 6
days in advance of the Secretary's arrival. They are pros and know how much time it takes to do their jobs. I will
have spent 4 days here handling events on two different islands prior to the Secretary's arrival. Perhaps. I should
have scheduled two of us to work on on each island as the security detail did. But, on the outset, I was told
that we wanted as few staff as possible to travel. Beyond that, I considered the additional costs involved of having
two make the trip.



If I have not adequately supported why I am here, please advise.



Thanks.



Rusty

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