You can't fire a Fed? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    Patronage in the Federal Government is not "dead" as we have been led to believe. And "patronage" is not the sole purview of either party. They both do it. Of course the justification is that having troops in place who have been appointed by the party in power will help to ensure that the policies espoused by the "ins" will have a chance of being implemented. People in these positions are, by and large, paid according to the General Schedule (GS) pay rates. Most of them are paid at the GS-15 pay rate which ranges between $99,628 and $129,517 which does not include the cost of living adjustment provided for high cost locations. As I recall the non-high cost location people are paid an additional 13%.

    Did you ever hear of the "Plum Book"?? I don't know if it got that name because if is "plum" in color or if the contents represent some real plum jobs. It is a listing of thousands of government jobs which can be filled non-competitively by whichever administration is in power. The jobs are commonly referred to as Schedule C jobs

    To learn more than you ever wanted to know about Schedule C jobs, click here. Nice work if you can get it

    These jobs, which I believe are mostly at the GS15 level aren't bad paying jobs. In fact a lot of folks (including me) would view them as pretty well paying jobs. The down side (from the Schedule C employees standpoint) is that they do not enjoy the "job protections" enjoyed by ordinary Civil Service employees. They can be terminated virtually at will by the same forces that employed them to begin with.

    At the end of each administration (even when the party in power is expected to remain in power) many if not most of the schedule C folks are terminated and they are replaced by schedule C folks chosen by the new administration. Normally a few stay but most are replaced.

    So at about this point in every administration as it is approaching the end of its rule, a great many of these Schedule C folks who have become friendly with the "regular" employees begin to "work the system" in an effort to get converted to a "regular" employee status. Many of them will be successful and move into non-Schedule C positions where they cannot be removed by the new administration's people.

    And so it will undoubtedly be with a lot of the Anointed One's Schedule C folks. There are lot of folks (including me) who believe that converting to a "career" position ahead of a change of administrations (or at any other time) leaves a lot to be desired in the ethics department. What will make the situation particularly egregious this time is that the Anointed One's troops tend to be almost rabid in their devotion to the outlandish changes that are being heaped on the unsuspecting public. As "career employees" these academicians, community organizers and other liberal sycophants will certainly be in a position to help thwart the implementation of new policies intended to "undo" many of the job killing, economy wrecking policies, and outrageous Executive Orders put in place by the Anointed One. Somehow this migration needs to stop.

    Now that General Shinseki has resigned, we are hearing comments about the type of experience which should be required for his replacement. That sounds like a good place to start. We also hear the talking heads telling us that it is virtually impossible to fire anyone in the Federal work force.

    We need to remember that here are quite a few Schedule C employees as well as Senior Executive Service (SES) employees at the VA. I have always been under the impression that SES employees "gave up" some of their traditional Civil Service protections in return for the higher salaries with which they were rewarded as SES employees rather than General Schedule (GS) employees. One of the traditional protections I believe they gave up was "job protection". (I'm relying on really old memory here - but I am quite sure that's the way it was when the SES started.)

    The departure of Gen. Shenseki needs to be accompanied with the departure of his Schedule C employees and a lot of his SES troops. There is really no other way to engender an organizational culture dedicated to fulfilling the mission for which the VA was established - rather than simply "playing office" as currently seems to be the situation.

    To see the Plum Book listing of Schedule C and SES positions applicable to the VA, click here.

    The point is that we keep hearing folks talking about not being able to get rid of employees. Whadda 'ya mean you can't fire a Fed.?? I believe that there is no question about the Schedule C employees. They can be terminated at will. The VA's Schedule Cs are "Shinseki's folks". They need to go.. Also, and equally important, someone needs to comb through the SES folks' performance and get rid of those whose performance leaves even a little to be desired.. The VA organizational culture needs to be changed - one would hope for the better..

    D'ya Think??