On 10/18/05, Reine Hauser <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Scary e-mail from the Public Employees for Environmental
> Responsibility....
> "Presidents come and go but the civil service is designed to serve
> whoever occupies the swivel chair in the Oval Office," Ruch added. "It
> is downright creepy that now every museum curator, supervising scientist
> and chief ranger must be okayed by a high-level political appointee."
Okay, and how is this different from any other government agency in
the US? I work for the Department of Defense right outside of
Washington, DC and interface with "political appointees" every day.
It's no big deal. While positions turn over every presidential term,
the people who really do the work underneath them stick around. This
memo isn't saying that all GS-13 positions and above will be political
appointments. It's saying that the people they hire will have to
ultimately be approved by the Assistant Secretary of Interior. It's
another rubber stamp in the hiring process.
The Assistant Secretary's assistant will come in with a stack of
papers with new hirees and say, "Here are the new hirees for you to
approve." The AS will say, "Are they all qualified?" The assistant
will say, "Yes, they all made it through the interview process and
were screened by HR." The AS will say, "Okay," scribble signatures on
the applications and hand them back.
Remember that to even get to the interview, people still have to go
through the federal hiring process grind. They aren't going to be
hand-picked and placed in jobs. HR people deal with hundreds of
applications for dozens of positions are using a generic checklist to
rate candidates and pass qualified applicants off to the actual hiring
official who does the interviews. HR people typically have little
knowledge about the job they are screening applicants for as they are
just HR paper-pushers, not someone who actually works at the parks
themselves and usually at an office far removed from the actual site.
No one is going to get to the interview stage unless they meet certain
minimum qualifications and know how to play the Federal hiring game.
By the levels of GS-13-15, they should know how to play the hiring
game and "time in grade" - the amount of time you've done your job -
counts for a lot. People get promoted because they've got enough time
in grade over people who have more talent all the time in government.
It's one of the downfalls of the system. On the other hand, it gives
people a chance to work their way up through the system and get rated
on the merits of their performance as opposed to who they know and
what college they went to 20 years ago or how many degrees they've
racked up. This will not change with the new hiring procedures.
The big park directors are probably already "screened" by the
Assistant Secretary of Interior in the first place so nothing is
changing there. Again, people still have to qualify for the job in
the first place and go through the hiring process. Now a few more
people will have to be rubber stamped. Again, they still have to go
through the same paper trail to get to the interview as before. So now
maybe someone who is a bit more rah rah for Bush will get a job over
someone else who is a bit more outspoken against Bush. No, I don't
like it but it's the way EVERY system works. If you think that's bad
in the Federal government, you should take a big name corporate job
and see the crap that goes on there. More brown-noses than herd of
pigs digging for truffles.
So I think we all need to take a breath and relax a bit. The National
Parks aren't going to be replaced by Bush's pod people. The NPS has
already been under pressure to be more "National" and follow Bush's
agenda so it's not like this is anything new. Now, it's just written
down on paper. And truthfully, how often do the higher-level positions
turn over in the NPS in the first place? Once you are in, you're in.
You can practically sit on your tush and do nothing and they can't get
rid of you. People usually leave feet first or with a really healthy
pension. It could be that they last another 3+ years without having to
hire anyone major and they'll have another agend to swear allegience
to.
Deb
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