Ex-OSP Employee Received Money from Production Companies That Contracted with OSP

An investigation into the Office of State Parks found that a former maintenance employee assigned to the Fort Pike and Fort Macomb historic sites was paid $24,600 by media production companies that contracted with OSP to use state facilities.

Media production companies contract with OSP to use state parks and historic sites for commercial filmmaking, videography, and still photography. OSP’s facility use agreement establishes the cost to use the parks and historic sites and contains a provision requiring a representative of the State to be onsite during all stages of production at no additional cost to the production companies.

The former employee, Arthur Schick Jr., told auditors he was paid by the production companies to cut the grass at the parks on the weekends and to let their people park on property he owned near the state parks. However, cutting grass at state parks and historic sites was part of Mr. Schick’s regular job duties.

In June 2017, OSP sent a different employee to a site where a production company was working, and a company representative asked for an invoice for that employee’s time. That employee said the OSP was paying her for her time. The production company representative told her Mr. Schick always turned in an invoice.

An examination of Mr. Schick’s bank records showed 22 checks totaling $24,600 were deposited to his accounts between May 2009 and June 2017. Each check was from a media production company that contracted with OSP. The dates of the checks also corresponded with the dates of production, according to the OSP contracts.

State law prohibits public servants from entering into contracts or other transactions that are under the supervision or jurisdiction of the public servant’s agency. By receiving money from the production companies for his time at the historic sites, Mr. Schick may have violated state law.