MSPB moves forward with consolidation plans
The Merit Systems Protection Board announced Friday that it is finalizing plans to close its Boston and Seattle field offices by the end of March.
The board, which adjudicates disciplinary disputes involving federal workers and agency managers, said it has decided not to move ahead with closures of its Denver and New York City offices, as it had considered late last year.
In a December memo to agency staffers, MSPB chief counsel Richard Banchoff announced that the board was anticipating closing its Denver field office in 2005, and might close its New York City office that year as well. But now, the board has no plans to close those offices or any others in the future, according to acting board chairman Neil McPhie.
It was not clear on Friday how many workers--if any--would lose their jobs, but the Boston and Seattle offices employ eight judges. MSPB administrative judges at the regional and field offices hear initial federal employee appeals of agency disciplinary decisions, and have the authority to overturn agency decisions and penalties. Employees can then appeal those decisions to the three-member board in Washington.
The Seattle and Boston offices hear the fewest number of cases per judge.
In December, the board announced plans to consolidate its offices in the Northeast region at its Philadelphia operational center. The board employs 15 judges in the Northeast region: seven in Philadelphia, five in New York, and three in Boston. After the consolidation, only 10 judges will remain. The memo did not indicate how many employees would remain after the consolidation. In addition to the judges, eight staffers work for MSPB in the Northeast region.
In the Western region, the board will consolidate operations in its San Francisco office. The board employs seven judges in San Francisco, five in Denver and five in Seattle. In addition, the board employs 11 staffers in the region.
The consolidation comes in response to widespread expectation that the Defense Department soon will create an in-house appeals system for its nearly 700,000 civilian employees, as it was authorized to do in personnel reform legislation passed in November 2004.
The Pentagon has announced no final decision on its new appeals system, but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that MSPB hampers the department's ability to fire workers for misconduct and poor performance. The department is expected to require that its employees make their first appeals to the in-house panel, rather than one of the 70 or so MSPB administrative judges stationed at field offices nationwide.
The Defense legislation, however, requires that the department continue to allow its civilian workers to make secondary appeals to the three-member MSPB in Washington.
The need to close any more field offices was averted, apparently, when the Homeland Security Department announced that it would continue to allow its staff to appeal disciplinary actions taken against them to the MSPB for all but the most serious offenses. It plans to create an in-house system for some as-yet-unannounced serious offenses that will carry only one penalty: firing.
McPhie said that he hoped the announcement would put minds at ease. "I realize that the last few months have been difficult ones for board employees. Change is never easy, but it is necessary to remain viable and effective," he said.
Over the next few weeks, the board will notify federal employees who previously appealed to judges in Seattle or Boston where they should file appeals in the future.