Letters

As Gary M. Stern illustrates in "Big Apple Blues" (May), the federal pay schedule in the New York City metropolitan area does indeed impede the government's ability to recruit and retain employees. Though pay is certainly a salient factor, it is not the only factor in the recruitment and retention equation.

I have served at various federal agencies in both the Philadelphia and the New York City areas and have found that employee mobility from one agency to another leaves much to be desired in New York. Many federal employees who consider moving to other federal agencies to advance their careers are stymied and frustrated by the barriers many agencies place in their paths.

Yes, the salary differential clearly ties the hands of federal supervisors in the New York metropolitan area. However, factors other than salary also attract numerous competent people into Uncle Sam's employ. Federal managers would do well to explore ways to optimize such factors so that good talent might be obtained and retained for the federal workforce.

Kenneth H. Ryesky
East Northport, N.Y.

Not So Family Friendly

"Feds and Families" (April) highlights much of what is wrong with this administration and the bias evident in Government Executive. The article had much to say about the proper role of the federal government in America's families, but you've got to read between the lines to find it. This administration thinks that what is family friendly are federal day-care centers and telecommuting, but no one is using them.

According to Office of Personnel Management statistics, so-called family-friendly services such as child care, telecommuting and child- and elder-care resource and referral services are used by a whopping 1 percent, 1.4 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively, of the workforce. Why? Because it's not the government's role and nobody but socialist policy wonks think they are family friendly. They are simply more bloated bureaucracy and government getting involved where it has no business.

To be family friendly, this administration should provide a child-care tax credit to stay-at-home parents that is at least as well-funded as the one for those who think they need to work. The President's proposal allows child-care credit for working parents up through the child's 13th birthday, but only provides for one year's credit for stay-at-home parents.

Why is abandoning your children to a day-care center something the government is encouraging and subsidizing in lieu of staying at home to fulfill one's parental responsibilities? No wonder youth crime peaks between 2 and 4 in the afternoon and youth smoking and drug use are rising-no one is watching the kids and Uncle Sam is paying them to stay away.

Government Executive needs to stop being a mouthpiece for the administration's social policies and instead focus on its mission: being government's business magazine. Clearly this administration's family-friendly policies have failed. It should have been reported as such.

Lt. Cmdr. Philip J. Candreva
U.S. Navy

From my experience, the reason most federal employees don't telecommute is that the restrictions-must work from one location, must have a separate phone line for computer, must be available during working hours-are so prohibitive that it is easier and more convenient to go to work.

Earl A. Reese
Hampton, Va.

Printing Exemptions

The statement in "Out of Print" (March) that "some agencies with heavy printing volumes-such as the Postal Service, the Defense Department and the IRS-are specifically exempt from the requirement to go first to [the Government Printing Office]" is true only with respect to the Postal Service. While some waivers have been provided over the years for specific DoD printing operations, there is no statutory exemption for DoD from the requirements of Title 44 of the U.S. Code, nor is there one for the IRS. In fact, we handled all of the IRS' production requirements for 1998 tax materials. Moreover, even with its exemption, the Postal Service continues to utilize GPO substantially, particularly for its production of postal cards.

Andrew M. Sherman
Director, Congressional, Legislative & Public Affairs
Government Printing Office
Washington

A Win for Everyone

Contrary to the view expressed in your January issue ("The Power of Pay"), the August 1998 agreement between the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association was a win for both sides and a major step forward in the government's partnership with its employees. The article focused on the agreement's benefits for the air traffic controllers, but ignored other changes designed to make possible improvements in productivity, accountability, responsiveness and flexibility:

• Freezing the number of controllers for three years, because of the productivity increases contained in the agreement, with a 2 percent increase per year for the last two years of the contract.

• Eliminating inefficient compressed workweeks (nine- and 10-hour days and regular four-day workweeks) at nearly all air traffic facilities, and giving various administrative functions to controllers.

• Hiring permanent part-timers to match staffing peaks and valleys, and improving work and annual leave scheduling and sick leave usage.

• Finally, pursuant to a reinvention commitment made under Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review, reducing the supervisory ratio-with positions eliminated only through attrition.

In short, this agreement moves us closer to realizing improvements in productivity, efficiency and flexibility as we modernize our air traffic system.This collaboration between labor and management is particularly important at a time of substantial growth in air travel, increasing complexity of technology and system modernization. I am proud of the progress we are making together.

Jane F. Garvey
Administrator
Federal Aviation Administration

Minority Advancement

Although I understand that the climate calls for the Office of Personnel Management to report on the advancements made by minorities and women in the workforce in senior level pay grades ("Women, Minorities Are Climbing," In Brief, April), the one-digit statistical representation and increase for Hispanics, Blacks, Asians and Native Americans is hardly one to tout.

It is indicative of a great disparity; it will take years for these groups to level the playing field. Clearly, as minorities, we would be remiss to not assume some responsibilities for our professional motivations and ambitions and, evidently, we too are failing in helping each other squeeze into those senior-level positions. This, however, does not excuse one of the largest employers in the United States from sharing in their obligation and responsibility and going beyond "encouraging" minority advancement. The numbers tell us how ineffective that has been.

Arlene Sambrano
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Washington

Off Base on Complaints

William Rudman is way off base in making any statement about frivolity in discrimination cases ("The Cost of Complaints," June). To put it bluntly, the government as a whole, the agencies associated with it and the civilian parasites that are thriving on it are all completely out of control.

Those who have the nerve to file discrimination cases are only the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to the numbers of employees (along with their families) whose lives have been destroyed because of the rampant dearth of ethics in the running of this country.

The U.S. Postal Service is one of the worst offenders of individual rights, robbing the dignity of anyone who would dare to stand up for what is right, and within the rules. To make matters worse, postal employees are not protected by the Federal Whistleblowers Act (false as it seems for those it is designed to protect).

It doesn't matter that there are those who have been raped, both sexually and emotionally, not once, but repeatedly without recourse or respite. No matter what avenue the individual chooses, even with a knowledgeable specialized attorney, whether judgment is even remotely for the complainant, the damage is done. "Damage done" is something that should be a severely punished felony.

Do not even dare to ask why. If people conducted themselves with dignity and respect, "we, the people" would not have to spend so many tax dollars on providing so many courts and federal entities (such as EEO, inspectors, Merit Systems Protection Board, etc.), lawyers for both sides, buildings, offices, record-keeping, equipment and so on. The corruption is costing this country a great portion of money that is commonly overlooked. The people are so caught up in the details and traumas and infighting that they fail to realize just how great a cost it is to every citizen of this country. The time has come to wake up and call for reform and practicality and to demand accountability from our members of government and quasi-governmental entities.

Tell Mr. Rudman that he has cataracts. He has the same disease that has besieged the minds of virtually every government higher-up in this country. The complainants who dare to speak up, whether legally trained or not, are the minority of those who have been victimized. The ones who have been hurt the worst are the ones who cannot muster what it takes to speak up or who have been defeated so badly they resort to violence.

If Mr. Rudman wants to stand up and voice something useful, how about an accounting of the financial and emotional tolls these situations have on this country both as the individual losses and the costs to adjudicate things that should never have happened in the first place.

Virginia C. Robertson

I was appalled by William Rudman's comments in his article on federal discrimination complaints. Federal and postal employees have long been treated as second-class citizens. Rudman continues to keep this alive with his article.

I see from the biography note that Rudman was a deputy undersecretary of Defense and director of the Defense Technology Security Administration while employed by the government. He is now retired and talks as if he is still a big shot in the government. With his attitude, as an attorney, it is no wonder the success rate for federal sector Equal Employment Opportunity complainants is only 10 percent.

Federal sector employees need encouragement, not someone telling them to beware of attempting to seek being treated without discrimination in the workplace.

Andy Crowbridge

Corrections

In the April article "Retirement Redux," E-9 should have been ranked as the highest, not the second highest, of the military's 10 enlisted pay grades. The rank of E-1 has two pay grades.

The chart in the April article "The Buying Business" incorrectly described the staff for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Scientific and Engineering Workstation Procurement contract, which includes two federal employees and 13 contractors.