Federal Daily - December 16, 2009

Postal List is Going, Going … But Not Quite Gone

Critics who see the U.S. Postal Service as a fiscal black hole can’t be pleased by the shrinking list of postal facilities that remain candidates for closure or consolidation. On the other hand, postal unions may be feeling a sense of guarded optimism.

In its latest announcement on the matter, USPS announced on Dec 14 that postal facilities still remaining on its list for review for possible closure or consolidation now numbered “fewer than 170.”

That’s a far cry from the 3,243 facilities on the initial list when USPS began the review earlier this year. That was about 9 percent of the more than 36,000 post offices, stations, branches, and contract and community post offices operated by the Postal Service. 

When USPS initiated the reviews, unions representing post office personnel raised a hue and cry—and began seeking the aid of lawmakers to prevent closures of targeted facilities in their districts.

In July, USPS trimmed the list to 677. By October—the month the American Postal Workers Union began making the case that the decision process USPS uses to determine closures unfairly targets facilities in underserved communities—USPS reduced the list to 371 retail stations and branches. By the end of November, there were 241 facilities left on the list.

In announcing the cut to 170, the Postal Service cautioned that it has not yet made any “facility specific final decisions.”

Stay tuned.

See the latest list at: www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/stationbranchop.pdf.

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Whistleblower Gets Highest OSC Award

Loose lips may sink ships, but sometimes they also help keep your head above water.

The Office of Special Counsel today is slated to award the 2009 Public Servant Award of the Year citation to Maria Garzino, who blew the whistle on deficiencies in a post-Hurricane Katrina pumping system installed to protect the city of New Orleans.

Garzino served as the pump team installation leader for a project that installed new hydraulic pumps in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The pumps were designed to move floodwater away from the city to the lake side of the floodgates in case of an emergency.

However, Garzino became concerned over problems which she felt would make the pumps ineffective, and took her complaints in 2006 to the Army Corps of Engineers, which was responsible for the installation. Rebuffed by the Corps of Engineers, Garzino made a whistleblower disclosure in August 2007 to OSC, which ordered the DoD inspector general to investigate.

The DoD IG concluded that the issues Garzino complained about were not as serious as she portrayed them. Garzino complained again to OSC, disputing the IG’s report. OSC reviewed the IG’s report and determined that its findings and conclusions were incomplete.

OSC further found that “the government and the public cannot reasonably trust that the flood control system in place in New Orleans possesses reliability and integrity,” according to documents posted by the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization that represented Garzino.

The Public Servant Award is the highest honor bestowed by OSC.

To see more, go to: www.whistleblower.org/content/press_detail.cfm?press_id=1824

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2 Percent Pay Raise, Omnibus Package Goes to Obama

The Senate approved and sent to President Obama a $1.1 trillion omnibus funding package for Fiscal Year 2010, which includes a 2 percent raise for civilian federal employees and extends a moratorium on new public-private competitions for federal work.

The bill (H.R. 3288) also would ban funding for government use of private tax collectors and require non-DoD agencies to compile a list of contracts performed by private contractors. Obama is expected to sign the measure this week, sometime before the current continuing resolution expires on Dec. 18, Senate staffers told FEND.

The bill passed the Senate along a largely party-line vote of 57 to 35. The bill rejected Obama’s recommendation to freeze locality pay at 2009 rates; the Senate agreed with the House and voted to allocate 1.5 percent of the 2.0 percent raise to base pay and 0.5 percent to locality pay.

National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley applauded the measure and noted that NTEU has been working for elimination of the private IRS tax collectors.

“The omnibus spending measure contains a number of important provisions sought by NTEU, including funding increases for a variety of agencies,” Kelley said, “extending a government-wide moratorium on new public-private job competitions, a continuing denial of funds for the use of private tax collectors and language allocating a portion of the 2010 federal civilian pay increase to locality pay.”

To see more, go to: http://appropriations.senate.gov/news.cfm?method=
news.view&id=6ec79f1e-cf92-489d-8af2-ab90deac394b (Senate Appropriations Committee) or www.nteu.org

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