Pentagon taps career Navy executive to dissolve NSPS

The Pentagon has tapped a Navy career senior executive to wind down the National Security Personnel System and to design a new performance management system for its civilian employees.

"He's coming in to a very tough job," John Palguta, vice president of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, said of John H. James, the Navy official chosen to lead the National Security Personnel System Transition Office. "There's going to be lots of issues to be ironed out."

Maj. April Cunningham, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said James would oversee the staff formerly responsible for running NSPS, and he was currently assessing the need for additional personnel. On Wednesday, James met some union leaders who represent Defense workers on labor-management partnership, Cunningham said, adding he will work with them during the dismantling of NSPS.

Not only must James figure out how to shift NSPS employees back into their previous pay systems -- some of which were personnel demonstration projects that have since been disbanded - he also must ensure they do not lose pay. For employees returning to the General Schedule system who received NSPS raises that lifted their pay above Step 10 of the grade they were assigned to previously, James must figure out how to retain their salaries without simply bumping them up a grade.

James also has been assigned to manage a number of flexibilities that Congress gave Defense in the legislation repealing NSPS. He will be responsible for designing a new departmentwide performance management system for civilian employees and for establishing and administering a bonus program, the DoD Workforce Incentive Fund.

Palguta said even though the Office of Personnel Management has discussed publicly designing a new governmentwide pay and performance management system, having Defense begin work on its initiative could serve as a useful experiment.

"This is a role they're used to playing. The greatest number of personnel demonstration projects have come in Defense," he said. "They're used to being a laboratory; they were under NSPS, and they may well be again."

James is currently the executive director for logistics, maintenance and industrial operations at the Naval Sea Systems Command. He began his career with the Navy in 1981, and became a senior executive in 2000, winning a Meritorious Presidential Rank Award in 2006.

While much of James' career has focused on engineering and maintenance of submarines, he also has done substantial work on diversity issues in the Navy. He chairs the Navy African-American Senior Executive Service Advisory Committee, and leads efforts of the combined Naval Sea Systems Command-Office of Naval Research to improve research partnerships with colleges and universities, including those that historically serve minority populations. He also has worked on the Navy's outreach efforts to college and high school students.

Matt Biggs, legislative director for the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, said James has a good reputation among union members as someone who is sensitive to the needs and concerns of the workforce. Biggs said James' appointment was a signal of a new approach by Defense.

"Management is to be applauded for doing this," Biggs said. "It shows the workforce that this is going to be done properly, it's going to be done seriously; it is not someone from the past who put this personnel system in place."

A spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees said the union had received little information on how the office would run, but it was eager to see "NSPS die as soon as it can."