Posted on 02/04/2018 8:49:49 AM PST by rktman
Don’t misunderstand this article.Civilian personnel are not there to fill slots in most cases. They are there to free up military to do the direct work of the mission.
Example, the highest ranks of each to what would be considered being able to fill a slot that would be handled by a field grade officer are Captain and GS-7. The base pay for a GS-7 runs at just over $35K a year. The base pay for a captain is just over $63K. And that’s without rations and/or housing allowance. This is to do the same job. I didn’t try to figure COLA for either as that will vary with the area. So, cost is an issue with replacing the position with military. And some jobs require a higher rank based upon the requirements.
The other two possibles, wage grade and non appropriate funds staff, are paid from the installation budget. And to keep the doors open at those facilities, 24 hour staffing may be required. That costs money and is hard to get a O-3 up to work as their recall needs mess that up.
The only place you save money is when a unit receives a call for a large deployment. The back fill positions for the jobs they leave will not exist because other military, like reserves, are designated in most cases to fill the slots as needed. The other alternative is to shut down a facility. But how do you shut down maintenance, transportation, communication, food services, and the many other needed operations?
Are there a few that misuse their position? Absolutely, there is in any field, in the military or the outside world. I saw to it they got fired for violating directives. But I’ve also handed out a lot of counselling letters and pushed for court martial for military for the same things I’ve processed civilian personal for. It’s just people. And just like cops, everyone hates the civilians in the military because they don’t know what it means or what is happening. If they knew, the civilians probably still wouldn’t be loved, but they wouldn’t be singled out either.
rwood
“So, is he resigning?”
No. the rats are jumping ship.
rwood
Conflict of interest. Federal employees should not be able to donate money to presidential campaigns.
Look at the FISA Courts and the IRS....
The reason it was easy for the FBI to get FISA permission to spy on Trump was because spying on Conservative Americans WAS the FISA norm during the Obama years. Same as Lois Lerner targeting conservative groups.
History is written by the victorious. If Trump succeeds, he’s the victor.
Good start and also the Unions, then maybe the USPS can deliver the mail on time and AMTRAK can stop crashing its trains and killing people.
“Lots of “elite” civil servants are corrupt too.”
I agree, just like any other job. So the difference between the military and civilian workforce is money, not dishonesty.
Some agencies (and some positions within other agencies) are excluded from these provisions. Although they primarily operate on a merit basis also, they have their own hiring systems and evaluation criteria. These agencies are called excepted service agencies. But they are called civil service to have a fund to pay them, not to answer to. Kind of like taking funds from Medicare to pay for Obamacare. That was the backup.
The primary common denominator of the agencies and positions not on the radar you are talking about is that they have national security and/or intelligence functions, such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Secret Service, and the NCIS. Attorney positions, Presidential Management Fellows, Presidential Innovation Fellows, and Foreign Service positions are examples of positions excepted across-the-board in all Federal agencies. These people are not competitive positions in civil service. They are appointees in lead positions from the president or his representative. They are hand picked, not promoted to.
You mentioned Lois Lerner as an example. She was not a promoted competitive civil servant. In January of 2006. she was appointed Director of Exempt Organizations by Steven T. Miller, Commissioner of the IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division. Even if I had had the grade and the experience, I was not competitive for that position as he didn’t want me and his was the last say. It had nothing to do with competition.
So please don’t be mislead by titles. They are not always what they seem. Appointees have only to answer to the powers that be and very little under DOD regulation. And, even though she retired, her emails disappeared almost completely, her hard drive “crashed,” and she was close to sentencing from congress, the FBI could find no evidence to support criminal prosecution. And that has nothing to do with civil servants either. They are law enforcement and are exempt from normalities just like her.
rwood
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.