The Buzz

Acceptable government pay; is Martha OK?; stamps out of play; bombproof trash cans save the day.

Grass Not Greener

Government workers, often depicted as lagging behind their private sector counterparts in pay and benefits, actually are relatively content with their compensation, according to a recently released survey. New York-based Sirota Consulting, which specializes in personnel issues, conducted the survey between 2001 and 2003. It included both private sector and government employees at all levels; specific data on federal workers was not available.

Overall, the survey found that nearly 60 percent of government employees were satisfied with their pay, as opposed to 44 percent in the private sector. At the executive level, 61 percent of government employees were satisfied, compared with only 53 percent in the private sector.

Sirota noted that the most significant satisfaction gap was in nonmanagement positions. Only 41 percent of private sector rank-and-file workers reported that they were satisfied with their compensation, compared with 58 percent in government.

"I wasn't shocked by it," says Douglas Klein, president of Sirota Consulting. "Even 20 years ago, we were seeing patterns like this." Klein says government workers, on the whole, have motivations besides pay when they make career choices. He suggests that public servants are driven by a need for job security and a desire to serve their country.

"The overriding attraction cannot be, 'I think I'm going to make a million dollars,' " Klein says.

Guarding Martha

The folks at the American Federation of Government Employees know a PR opportunity when they see one. And they saw one in October in the form of Martha Stewart.

Even before the homemaking guru arrived at the federal minimum security prison in Alderson, W.Va., to begin serving her five-month sentence, AFGE officials issued a press release charging that prison administrators could not guarantee Stewart's safety because of staffing cutbacks over the past three years.

"It's not a bad, bad place, but it's still a federal prison," says Phil Glover, president of AFGE's Council of Prison Locals. "We've had about 10 to 15 assaults or fights there over the last year."

The facility houses about 1,000 women. The prison is sometimes called "Camp Cupcake" because of its relatively lenient security measures. According to Glover, however, several inmates involved in fights recently have been transferred to more secure facilities. He alleged that Stewart's living quarters will not be supervised by a correctional officer around-the-clock because of staffing cutbacks.

Glover says recent budget cuts have reduced the number of correctional officers at federal facilities by an average of 15 percent systemwide, and the drop-off was much sharper at medium- and minimum-security prisons. Alderson had 60 correctional officers in 2001, according to Glover. Officials at the Bureau of Prisons say 44 officers are currently employed there.

Stamps.not

The U.S. Postal Service is rethinking the popular PhotoStamps program, under which customers could use their own photos to create personalized stamps.

Stamps.com, which sells ordinary stamps online, won approval to test the PhotoStamps idea in August. In less than two months, the company sold more than 2 million of the stamps. "The response has been overwhelming-and we have all been impressed by the fun, creative and exciting ways you chose to use PhotoStamps," company officials said in a message posted on the Stamps.com Web site.

Well, maybe not all the ways. It turns out that the folks at The Smoking Gun, a Web site that devotes most of its attention to uncovering and publishing embarrassing documents about celebrities, got a little too creative with PhotoStamps and spoiled the fun for everybody. Tricksters at the Web site were foiled in their efforts to order stamps featuring Lee Harvey Oswald and mobster Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, but succeeded in obtaining postage with the high school photo of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and with an image of Monica Lewinsky's infamous blue dress.

After The Smoking Gun publicized its prank, the Postal Service opted not to extend a test of the program and to conduct a 90-day review instead. If that trip to bureaucratic purgatory isn't the kiss of death for the program, it certainly delivers a severe blow. "It puts the PhotoStamps program into a state of Limbo as the holiday season approaches," noted Stamps.com CEO Ken McBride in early October. He urged PhotoStamps enthusiasts to lobby the Postal Service and their representatives in Congress to save the program-by writing letters with their personalized stamps, naturally.

ON THE RECORD: Anthony Principi...

...head of the Veterans Affairs Department, oversees an operation that spends more than $70 billion annually to provide health care and other benefits to 25 million veterans. Principi recently spoke with the Defense Writers Group in Washington about the future of VA.

On the Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services program to close some VA hospitals and build new facilities: CARES is critically important to the future of VA. Our first VA hospitals came along after the Civil War. That's a long time ago. We had a massive buildup after World War I and a second massive buildup after World War II. Health care in America has changed profoundly. The private sector learned that lesson and they restructured, and unless the VA restructures, the VA will fail. I am absolutely convinced of it. This is not about saving money. It's going to be a billion dollars a year for the next seven years to modernize our infrastructure. The average age of private sector hospitals in the U.S. is about nine years old; the average age of VA facilities is 50-plus years.

On the impact of the war in Iraq: With the exception of the Guard and Reserve, all the men and women deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan would have been eligible for VA benefits anyway. We have not had a massive call-up that's going to swamp the VA health care system or the benefits system in the future. We've treated about 15 percent of returning service members. The numbers are relatively small compared with previous wars. I think mental health is going to be an issue. I think we are going to see a significant amount of post-traumatic stress disorder and we need to be ready for it.

On VA's recent growth and adapting to the future: In 2001, we were treating about 3.8 million veterans in health care; today we are treating almost 5 million. We are treating a million more in three-and-half years, and we'll go to about 55 million outpatient visits and will fill almost 200 million 30-day prescriptions annually. Never before have we treated more people and with higher quality. You have 4.5 million of 16 million veterans from World War II alive. We are losing them at the rate of 1,500 per day. Look at the general population versus the veteran population in terms of age, and the veteran population is way out in front. So by 2015, 2020, the population is going to shrink dramatically and I think the face of the VA is going to change dramatically.

Can the Bomb

In these post-9/11 times, the government needs a good bomb-resistant trash can, and former Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., is determined to help find one. Callahan-who served in Congress from 1984 to 2002 and now has his own lobbying practice-was hired in September by Centerpoint Manufacturing, a Mobile-based company that makes bomb-resistant trash cans.

Company president David Fannon says he hired Callahan to "try to get acceptance of our product in the marketplace" and to "navigate the government bureaucracy." The Homeland Security Department is looking for suppliers of bombproof trash cans, but first it wants evidence that the cans will actually contain an explosion without turning into shrapnel.

The Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division issued a "sources sought" request in August on behalf of DHS, asking manufacturers to provide test results for trash cans designed to withstand the blasts of improvised explosive devices. Several companies have provided information about their trash cans, and experts in the industry say the government is particularly interested in blastproof cans for railway stations and other public places.