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The agency contends its plan would use taxpayer money more efficiently,
but critics fear the service would reduce staff and lose expertise.

Forest Service plan would privatize jobs
The Bulletin
By Jenn Wiant
March 6, 2006

WASHINGTON - Under a draft proposal by the U.S. Forest Service, roughly 21,000 of the agency's jobs would be considered for privatization during the next four years.

If the draft proposal came to pass, critics say hundreds of the 548 Forest Service full-time equivalent employees in Central Oregon could lose their jobs.

But Washington-based Forest Service spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevitch said it is very unlikely that many jobs would be cut.

"Ninety-five percent of all fulltime employees that we have studied have stayed in-house," she said.

Members of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union representing about 20,000 Forest Service workers, said that outsourcing - even if it's only 5 per cent of the work force - would be harmful to the agency.

The plan, which has not yet been approved by the Forest Service, stems from a push by the Bush administration to make
federal agencies more cost-effective by using competitive sourcing - a process to determine if it is cheaper to hire private contractors than government employees.

The Forest Service already has begun looking at its communications and public affairs, fleet management, aviation and geospatial service jobs. In a two-step process, a team of employees first conducts a study to determine what tasks each employee performs. The next step, called an A-76, determines whether the job should be "competed," or compared with the private sector.

Roland Giller, spokesman for the Deschutes National Forest, said the first step will be for each forest supervisor to determine which jobs in that national forest are "inherently governmental" and which could be candidates for outsourcing.

The forest supervisor will make decisions about how to classify each job based on criteria that the Washington headquarters will send out, Giller explained.

Jim Campbell, an Eastern Oregon resident who is president of the National Federation of Federal Employees for the Deschutes and Ochoco national forests and a Forest Service employee for almost 30 years, said the agency's reputation for having employees who can multitask doesn't fit with the competitive-sourcing model.

"(The process) is designed more for large organizations where each worker bee has one function," he said. "But with us, most people do more than one job."

He said some outsourcing has already affected the agency. Information technology jobs, for example, have been reorganized under the competitive-sourcing plan. Now, instead of having someone in the office who fixes computer problems, Campbell said he must call a help line, wait to talk to someone about the problem and wait for a service technician to make the two-hour drive to the office.

National Federation of Federal Employees members say they do not oppose making the Forest Service more efficient, but they oppose the "Competitive Sourcing 'Green Plan,'" the draft Forest Service document creating a framework for feasibility studies on jobs in recreation, timber, law enforcement, fisheries, forest pathology, entomology, wildlife management, archaeology, aviation, fleet management, dispatch, public affairs, fuels management and planning.

Roland Giller, spokesman for the Deschutes National Forest, said the first step will be for each forest supervisor to determine which jobs in that national forest are "inherently governmental" and which could be candidates for outsourcing.

The forest supervisor will make decisions about how to classify each job based on criteria that the Washington headquarters will send out, Giller explained.

Jim Campbell, an Eastern Oregon resident who is president of the National Federation of Federal Employees for the Deschutes and Ochoco national forests and a Forest Service employee for almost 30 years, said the agency's reputation for having employees who can multitask doesn't fit with the competitive-sourcing model.

"(The process) is designed more for large organizations where each worker bee has one function," he said. "But with us, most people do more than one job."

He said some outsourcing has already affected the agency. Information technology jobs, for example, have been reorganized under the competitive-sourcing plan. Now, instead of having someone in the office who fixes computer problems, Campbell said he must call a help line, wait to talk to someone about the problem and wait for a service technician to make the two-hour drive to the office.

National Federation of Federal Employees members say they do not oppose making the Forest Service more efficient, but they oppose the "Competitive Sourcing 'Green Plan,'" the draft Forest Service document creating a framework for feasibility studies on jobs in recreation, timber, law enforcement, fisheries, forest pathology, entomology, wildlife management, archaeology, aviation, fleet management, dispatch, public affairs, fuels management and planning.

Of the 548 full-time equivalent employees in the Deschutes and Ochoco national forests, all but the district ranger and district staff officer jobs would be studied under the plan as it is now written, according to Bill Dougan, an Alaska resident who is president of the federation's Forest Service Council and a Forest Service employee for almost 30 years. Dougan sent a letter to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth in late January stating the union's opposition to the Green Plan.

Dougan also said the agency was "delusional" to think that it had the resources and capability to conduct studies on 21,000 jobs.

Valetkevitch at the Forest Service agreed that the $3 million allocated by Congress for the agency to complete competitive sourcing studies this year is not nearly enough for that many employees.

But Forest Service employees in Oregon are still worried. Ron Glover, president of the federation chapter representing the Fremont and Winema national forests in Oregon, said the study process itself is "altering the business practices of the agency."

He said employees see the feasibility studies "as a potential threat to jobs and a: disruption to work when the studies are being conducted" because the employees must spend time meeting with study team.
.
Forest Service spokesman Dan Jiron emphasized that the Green Plan "isn't an approved agency final document." He said it will have to be approved by Bosworth and then sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture officials for further review. Other agencies within the government, such as the Office of Management and Budget, also would review the document. He did not expect a plan to study 21,000 jobs to be implemented this year.

“This 21,000 is so speculative,” he said. “We’re afraid that people are getting a little too excited about this.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PLAN
● Some 21,000 jobs would be evaluated over four years.
● A team would study what tasks each worker performs.
● The agency would then evaluate whether the private sector can perform those duties more efficiently.
● Opponents say hundreds of Central Oregon workers could lose their jobs.

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Note- Sweeping changes are taking place at our Forest Service offices in Bend and in Oregon. Many jobs have been quietly eliminated! Thankfully, some of our experienced local people have been chosen to take over responsibilities in all of the Districts in the Deschutes National Forest. Long time positions in Sisters and Ft. Rock have been eliminated, and the employees have been laid off. --Webmeister Speik