NEWS FOR AND ABOUT EPA EMPLOYEES
• Ventilation Updates
• Free Scholarships
• Phone Regs
VOLUME 5
OOON88002
NUMBER 2
FEBRUARY 1988
Michener's
PSAs
EPA staff visited Pulitzer laureate
James Michener in Florida in
December to film public service
announcements on the subject of
wetlands. PSAs have been sent to TV
stations across the country, and the
Offices of Public Affairs and
Community and Intergovernmental
Relations have begun a campaign to
get them aired. Michener is a life-long
eco-activist; he is shown here with
Melba Meador, Director of Community
Relations, OCIR. Other participants
were Mike McDonell, Shirley Smith,
Mat Cuddy, Gene Padgett and Hazel
Groman. a
Leaded Coolers
Some electric water coolers may be
adding unsafe concentrations of lead
to drinking water, according to data
submitted to EPA by the Public
Health Service. The putative link
between water coolers and lead
contamination was discovered in two
Navy offices last summer. Levels of
the hazardous metal reached as high
as 40 times the recommended
standard. The problem apparently
originates in lead-lined tanks or lead
soldering in refrigeration coils.
EPA officials say initial testing
procedures are underway throughout
the agency to determine the quality of
water in our coolers as well. D
Ventilation Update
The Ventilation Committee
continues to work with Facilities
Management and Services Division
(FMSD) on air quality issues at
Headquarters, among which are the
possibility of conducting a health
survey to determine how many
employees suffer from "edificiogenic"
illnesses, the problem of truck fumes
permeating the second floor of the SW
Mall, and the persistent presence of
mold in the NE basement library.
Rich Lemley (FMSD) has been
holding meetings with representatives
of EPA's Indoor Air Program, the
National Federation of Federal
Employees, the Occupational Health
and Safety Staff (OHSS) and Town
Center management to work on
compliance with the ASHRAE fresh
air standards, the location of
air-intake dampers and CO2
monitoring methods.
Preliminary calculations by a
member of the Indoor Air Program for
the second and third floors of the
Mall (not including the SE Mall and
the second floor of the SW Mall),
show that the ASHRAE fresh air
standard (20 cfm per person) is
perhaps not being met. The amount of
fresh air coming into these areas
seems to be about 10 cfm.
An employee of the Office of Solid
Waste has prepared a memorandum
detailing the problems she and others
experienced while working in the
2600 corridor: laryngitis, sore throat,
persistent cough, headaches, dizzy
spells, fluid in the lungs, difficulty
breathing and general fatigue. The
putative causes range from poorly
located air-intake vents to general
overcrowding. Health problems have
also been noted on the ground floor of
the NE Mall; OHSS is considering an
investigation of this floor.
A report summarizing indoor
air-quality goals as developed in talks
with management over the past two
years may be ordered from Myra
Cypser on 382-2872. a
Free Scholarships
for Feds
Officials of the Federal Employee
Education and Assistance fund
(FEEA) hosted its 1988 program
kickoff on January 6, highlighting the
group's first full year of operation
with the award of fifty-thousand
dollars in scholarships. FEEA is on
the verge of becoming a major
charitable force in the federal
employee community. It was formed
in 1986 to provide general assistance
to all federal employees in the form of
family emergency loans and grants as
well as educational loans and
scholarships.
The founding members are officers
of both management and labor
groups, including the National
Treasury Employees Union, the Senior
Executives Association, the National
Federation of Federal Employees and
the National Council of Social
Security Management Associations.
For information call 1-800-323-4140
or 202-543-8685, or write to POB
2811, Washington DC 20013-2811. a
Charles Robbins retires after 52 years of
dedicated service to the Army, the Air
Force, NIH and, since 1971, our own
Office of Radiation Programs.
Congratulations!
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Functional Staffing
Workshop
The Personnel Management
Division recently held an agencywide
functional staffing workshop in New
Orleans where approximately forty
specialists received training and
shared experiences on a variety of
subjects ranging from special
employment programs to new staffing
flexibilities. The workshop was a
smashing success; there are more to
come. D
New Phone Regs
Twenty years ago government paid
flat fees for long-distance telephone
lines. Extra calls and extended
conversations did not produce extra
costs, though they did tie up lines and
perhaps forced the government to
lease more lines than were strictly
necessary for business traffic.
Today, charges to agencies for
long-distance are just like those for
home phones. More calls for more
minutes mean bigger bills. Every
agency receives a monthly itemized
list showing the extension from which
each call was made, its destination
and time expended. Personal
long-distance calls now cost the
government about $90 million a year.
Staff will notice the colorful GSA
phone posters now going up in federal
halls and offices. "Somebody pays" is
the first in a series of five posters
informing employees of the cost and
inequity of personal calls at
government expense, how charges are
generated on the Federal
Telecommunications System and how
new rules will soon apply to personal
calls from work phones.
The new rules are the result of an
attempt to cut down on major abuse
of the federal long-distance system,
while liberalizing guidelines on
Staffing Workshop Attendees
employee use of phone facilities to
match the private sector. Future
posters will spell out the details. For
example, federal workers will soon be
allowed brief daily calls—even long
distance—to children at home,
babysitters, daycare centers and
physicians.
If personal long-distance calls
during work hours are necessary,
federal workers are being asked to do
the honorable thing and charge the
calls to their own accounts. Managers
themselves, some of the most
notorious abusers, must set an
example for staff and employees. D
Health and Safety
A Health and Safety Committee has
been established in EPA's New York
Office, responsible for advising
management in carrying out an
effective occupational health and
safety program in the Javits Federal
Office Building and during field
activities. The Committee will help
maintain open channels of
communication between employees
and management, and comprises one
member and an alternate from each
division and regional counsel's office,
who serve one-year terms. Members
were nominated by their Division
Directors or elected by members of the
Regional Counsel Health and Safety
Committee. Meetings are held on a
regular schedule; minutes are kept
and sent to the Director of the
Occupational Health and Safety Staff
at Headquarters. The Committee
elected as co-chairmen Carl Howard
and Richard Wice; the Occupational
Health and Safety Officer for Region
Two is Donna Haseman. D
National Symposium
EPA Institute, Office of Human
Resources Management, held its first
two-day National Instructor
Symposium here November 18-19.
The Symposium brought together 125
of the Agency's more than 500
in-house instructors from
headquarters, regions, field offices and
labs to discuss course evaluation and
design. They also attended
continuing-education classes in
instruction techniques, public
speaking and negotiation skills. As
keynoter, Lee Thomas lauded the work
of the participants and presented
special awards to 21 outstanding
instructors. The Institute offers a
broad spectrum of courses from
secretarial to law to the sciences, a
The awardees were:
Administrative Hearings
& Trials
Data Quality Objectives
Epidemiology
Framework for
Supervision
Groundwater Modeling
Human Exposure
Seminar Series
Managing Office
Relationships
Negotiation Skills
Training
Risk Assessment
Risk Assessment
Guidelines
Statistics for Managers
Danforth Bodien,
Region 10; John Hohn,
Region 10; Michael
Walker, OECM
Kevin Hull, ORD
Ruth Allen, ORD
James Guy, OARM;
Jack Hoffbuhr, Region
8
Zubair Saleem,
OSWER
Wayne Bloch, ORD
Nancy Kawtoski,
ORD; Edith Minor,
OPPE
David Batson, OECM;
Linda Flick, OECM;
Winston Haythe,
OECM; Chris Kirtz,
OPPE; Renelle Rae,
OECM
Donald Barnes, OPTS
Dorothy Patton, ORD;
Linda Tuxen, ORD
John Warren, OPPE
The EPA Times is published monthly for
EPA employees. Readers are encouraged
to submit news about themselves or
fellow employees, letters of opinion,
questions, comments and suggestions to
the editor, The EPA Times, Office of
Public Affairs (A-107). Telephone:
475-6643. Items selected for publication
may be edited to accommodate space
available.
Editor: Don Bronkema
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Nominations for Excellence
The Public Employees Roundtable (PER) recently
announced that it is accepting nominations for the 1988
Public Service Excellence Awards. The Awards pay tribute
to public organizations whose achievements exhibit the
highest standard of dedication and accomplishment in five
award categories: federal, state, local, retiree and youth.
Awards will be presented to the winning organizations at
the Roundtable's "Breakfast of Champions" at the U.S.
Capitol in Washington, D.C. on May 5, 1988.
Nominations are solicited from organizations and
individuals interested in excellence in government, such
as federal, state and local agencies, non-profit
organizations, business, educational groups and the public.
The Awards Committee focuses on improvements in the
quality of life, projects that have cut costs of governmental
services and the intensity of employee or volunteer effort
and innovation.
Nomination forms can be obtained by writing the
Roundtable at P.O. Box 6184, Ben Franklin Station,
Washington, D.C. 20044, or calling (202) 535-4324. The
deadline for receipt of nominations is February 29, 1988. n
Sci-Tech Committee Calls for Panel Members
The Scientific and Technical Careers Advisory
Committee has identified a number of issues affecting the
career development and work environment of the
scientific and technical community, and is seeking
participants for panels to address them. To become a Panel
member or Chair you may self-nominate or be nominated
by your peers. Include a paragraph explaining your
qualifications for serving on a specific panel and send it to
the appropriate member liaison within two weeks of the
date you get this issue of the Notes, n
Committee
Member Liaison's
Name and Mail
Code
Panel Title Project Description
Recognition To recommend ways to
EPA enhance recognition of EPA
Scientific/ scientific/technical
Technical community accomplishments
Community not only at EPA but in the
scientific community at large
and among the public
Distmgushed To develop a lecture program
Lecturer where nationally recognized
Series scientific/technical people
can present seminars and
hold discussions with EPA
sci/tech personnel on
environmental science
management and policy
Elizabeth Leovey
Office of Pesticides
Programs Hazard
Evaluation Division
Mail Code TS-769
Rosemane C Russo
EPA
College Station Rd
Athens, Ga 30613
E-Mail EPA8430
Better Government
The EPA Committee on Integrity and Management
Improvement (CIMI - pronounced SEE ME) was
established by the Administrator in August 1984 to
coordinate Agency efforts aimed at minimizing
opportunities for fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement,
and to advise the Administrator on how to improve the
effectiveness of EPA programs and activities. CIMI is
chaired by the EPA Inspector General and includes
representatives of the Assistant Administrators and
Regional Offices. Two rotating members from regional
offices represent the Regions as a whole. The full
committee meets every other month; various
subcommittees meet on their own schedules to develop
projects for the full committee.
One of CIMI's most visible products has been the
Awareness Bulletins. Always devoted to a single-subject
and easily identified by their bold yellow chromatics, the
Bulletins are designed to raise the awareness of employees
of their responsibility to identify fraud, waste and
mismanagement at all levels and of all types. Bulletins
have addressed bid-rigging, the employee suggestion
program and procurement fraud, and in future will
address new anti-fraud legislation and FTS Regs.
Other CIMI products include the publications Indicators
of Fraud in EPA Procurement and Prevention Plan. The
Committee was also instrumental in standardizing
certification statements on EPA forms, such as the
Application for Notification of State Registration of a
Pesticide and Laboratory Performance Evaluations. Future
publications will include "Ethics In A Nutshell" for all
employees and "A Common-sense Approach to Managing"
for supervisors.
The Committee members, listed below, welcome your
comments and suggestions. You can contact them
personally or write, o
CIMI Representatives:
John Martin Inspector General (Chair) 382-3137
Tony Musick Office of Administration & Resources 382-5087
Management
Pat Alberico Office of Enforcement and Compliance 382-4541
Monitoring
Gerald Yamada Office of General Counsel 475-8064
Mary Free Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation 382-4020
Don Flattery Office of External Affairs 475-8200
Pat Keitt Office of Water 382-5698
Thad Juszczak Office of Solid Waste and Emergency 382-4510
Response
Laurie May Office of Air and Radiation 382-7431
Marylouise Uhlig Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances 382-2906
Randy Shobe Office of Research and Development 382-7500
Alan Sielen Office of International Activities 382-4875
Ramona Trovato Office of Regional Operations 382-4719
Herb Barrack Region 2 264-2520
Bill Wisniewski Region 3 597-3654
Leanne Boisvert Office of the Administrative Law Judges 382-4860
Dwight Doxey Office of Civil Rights 382-4569
John Ropes Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business 557-7777
Utilization
Kathleen Conway Science Advisory Board 382-2552
Diane Bazzle Office of the Administrator 382-4057
Ed Maddox Office of the Inspector General (Coordinator) 475-8960
Quote of the Month
"What sexier subject is there than a technology (genetic
engineering) that combines Faust and Frankenstein"
- David Padwa
Notice
Opening: writer, GS-9—12, OPA Division of Publications;
EPA Journal. Challenging job. John Heritage, 382-4359.
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OIG Goes to Jail
As part of the federal law enforcement effort, OIG is
interested in the punitive results of its investigative work,
so senior staffers took a tour of the Fort Worth Federal
Correction Institution in December. This minimum-
security prison houses mostly white-collar criminals and
nonviolent drug-abusers. OIG visited inmates quarters,
dining halls, classrooms (attendance is mandatory) and the
factory, where inmates produce high-quality products for
sale to federal agencies through Unicor Industries.
Particularly impressive was the prison's state of hygiene
and the industriousness and elan of the inmates, who,
though their remuneration is a mere $0.22 to $1.11 an
hour, really hustle. Several of the inmates OIG spoke to
agreed that they probably worked harder in prison than
outside because of a sense of teamwork and the need to
keep busy to make the time go faster.
Warden Turnbo said that while Fort Worth is a
minimum-security facility without walls or fences, inmate
counts are conducted five times a day. Though many
inmates are wealthy, the only possessions allowed are
their own clothes and toiletries. The facility houses almost
as many women as men but, typical of Anglo-Saxon
prisons, physical contact is forbidden. The press refers to
the facility as a "country-club", but inmates' time is highly
regimented and accommodations are spartan. The warden
claims that no member of the press has ever accepted his
offer to vacation at this so-called country-club, n
Human Resources Innovations
The Office of External Affairs Human Resources Forum,
comprising volunteer delegates representing all grade
levels, continues to be active. The goals of the Forum have
been formulated explicitly in response to staff requests for
accelerated progress in promotions, training and career
development.
A recent OEA Forum, meeting in full session, ratified a
series of "bottom-up" committee proposals as to how it
should be constituted, what procedures it should follow,
and how it should communicate results to Assistant
Administrator Joy Wilson, to the Agencywide Forum and
to OEA staff at large. Then, in a subsequent retreat with
input from support staff, the Forum put together detailed
recommendations for Wilson on how to get around the
normal delays. All parties are determined to make this
innovative approach pay off in real opportunity for those
whose careers have inadvertently been side-tracked, a
Rotating for Success
Two years ago the Office of Administration
implemented its Rotational Assignment Program to move
OA employees periodically among OA divisions and other
organizations, broadening their perspective and exploring
the unique abilities of a diverse staff. This program takes
OA specialists and turns them into generalists and
fully-fledged professionals. There are no limitations on the
number of participants, grade levels or occupations. To
date, almost 40 employees have participated, from grade-6
secretaries to grade-15 branch chiefs. Several individuals
have enjoyed multiple rotations, and many more have
found new permanent positions.
Most participants have been enthusiastic in describing
the benefits. The most common "lessons learned" were:
• an appreciation for the pressures and workloads of
various organizations
• new skills and approaches
• seeing how each division supports the OA function.
Participants have recommended that assignments be at
least 12 months long in order to maximize benefits. This
recommendation will be implemented, depending, of
course, on cross-training needs of future participants. OA's
primary goal is to develop a broad-based cadre of
individuals capable of dealing with complex issues, a
"feeder group" for leadership positions in OA and
throughout the Agency, n
SEE
Administrator Lee Thomas has forwarded a report to the
Congress on activities of the Senior Environment
Employment (SEE) Corps at EPA.
The SEE Corps continues to provide full and part-time
employment to hundreds of older Americans in jobs
relating to the prevention, abatement and control of
environmental pollution, including surveying toxic
industrial chemicals, educating the public on areawide
water planning, managing Agency environmental libraries,
presenting educational programs on the use of pesticides
for farm workers and performing surveys of environmental
oncogens. EPA is expanding opportunities for
participation of the "geriatry" at all levels. The Office of
Research and Development, Office of Exploratory
Research, has developed a SEE handbook to guide
operation of the Corps within EPA, and a pamphlet for
distribution to the public.
The Office of Toxic Substances found that older
workers, with their common sense, reliability and vast
experience in dealing with people, do an excellent job
relating to top managers in schools, on school boards and
in state offices of public instruction regarding the possible
hazards of asbestos materials in public buildings and
monitoring for compliance. A nucleus of senior citizens
we can call upon from time to time has been recruited and
trained to do surveys and generate pesticide-usage data.
These data help EPA establish statistically valid
information so states can monitor the kinds, amounts and
location of pesticides being applied.
EPA has also looked to SEE workers to develop training
materials on certification of foreign cars, assuring that they
meet U.S. safety and emission standards. Through SEE the
Agency has supported poison-alert programs at the local
level and monitoring of landfills for gas seepage. Further,
seniors are now being employed to develop community
awareness programs on hazardous waste designations and
landfill management.
Older workers are stationed at Headquarters and all ten
EPA regional offices, twenty laboratories, various field
sites and several state offices. With new legislation and
regulations continually being written, the need for senior
citizens is never-ending; therefore EPA is totally
committed to the SEE Corps. It provides splendid
opportunities for society's elders to add to their income
while safeguarding our common environs. D
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