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NEWS: Oct. 4, 2016
Trump: Today's Military Is 'Depleted,' 'Not Capable' Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump offered a bleak and dismal assessment of today's military on Monday, saying the force is "depleted," "not capable" and facing its most dire crisis since World War II--a gloomy portrayal at odds with the views held by many top military leaders and defense experts. Addressing a group of veterans in Herndon, Va., Trump seemed to imply that veterans battling post-traumatic stress disorder are not strong because they "can't handle" the "horror stories" they've seen in combat, and called for more assistance with veterans' mental health. >> Military Times, Politico Sailors to Get Refunds for $5.3 Million in Duplicate Fees Sailors whose bank accounts and credit limits were wrecked by duplicate charges from Navy child-care and morale-program fees should see the money in their accounts soon. Payment processor Bank of America has reversed all $5.3 million in false charges. >> Navy Times Public Officials | The West Under Fire, Park Service Official Retires Patty Neubacher, the deputy regional director for the National Park Service's six-state Pacific West Region who was accused of protecting her husband from charges that he mismanaged Yosemite National Park during an ongoing employee-harassment scandal, announced her retirement just days after her husband stepped down. >> Los Angeles Times Seattle Boosts Pay Range for Utilities' New Chief The Seattle City Council approved a higher pay range and a new title for the recently confirmed head of Seattle Public Utilities, allowing Mami Hara to earn a salary of up to $334,000 per year. >> Seattle Times
Surgeon General: Agency's Personnel System Hacked U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy warned his staff that their personal information may have been stolen. In an email, Murthy told "commissioned corps" employees of the Public Health Service--a cadre of about 6,600 medical professionals--that information including their names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, "may have been accessed by unauthenticated users" who hacked the agency's personnel system. >> Washington Post Court Upholds Cuts to Detroit City Retirees' Pensions A divided federal appeals court in Cincinnati ruled in favor of the city of Detroit in a lawsuit by city retirees whose pensions were cut in as part of the plan to get the city out of bankruptcy in 2014. Thousands of city-government retirees saw their pensions cut by 4.5 percent. >> Detroit News, Reuters Higher Education | The Nation Campus Shootings Have More than Doubled and Have Become More Deadly, Report Says Shootings on and near college campuses over the last five years have more than doubled since a similar period a decade earlier, according to a report by a New York City-based criminal justice reform organization that said the incidents have also grown more deadly, with three times as many people injured or killed during. >> Reuters Pennsylvania Universities, Union Reach Contract Deal Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education and a union that represents 700 professional employees in student services announced a tentative deal on a new three-year contract. >> Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Law Enforcement | Ferguson, Mo. Judge Dismisses Ferguson Protesters' Lawsuit A federal judge dismissed a civil-rights lawsuit alleging that police used excessive force against protesters in 2014 following the fatal shooting of a black man by a white Ferguson police officer. U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey ruled that many of the plaintiffs' claims were not backed up by video evidence or other testimony. >> St. Louis Post-Dispatch D.C. Police, Union Settle Overtime Dispute Washington, D.C., police and the union for rank-and-file officers have ended one of their most divisive disputes with a $9 million agreement to pay overtime for working All Hands on Deck, former police chief Cathy L. Lanier's signature crime-fighting program. >> Washington Post Federal Grants to Help 184 Agencies Hire New Officers Law-enforcement agencies around the nation will receive a combined $119 million in federal grant funding for hiring and retaining officers. This money will flow to 184 state and local agencies and will go toward the cost of about 900 entry-level career officers. >> Route Fifty
Treasurer Suspends State's Investments with Wells Fargo State Treasurer Michael Frerichs suspended $30 billion in state investment activity with Wells Fargo, joining a swelling chorus of outrage over the scandal which saw employees of the bank opening millions of phony accounts to meet sales goals. Frerichs' move closely follows similar action last week by California. And Chicago Treasurer Kurt Summers plans to divest $25 million the city has invested with Wells Fargo. >> Crain's Chicago Business Efficiency | The Nation $2 Billion in Contract-Consolidation Savings Cited Two years after the Office of Federal Procurement Policy embraced a consolidation-of-contracts strategy known as category management, federal Chief Acquisition Officer Anne Rung reported that the bulk-purchasing effort has delivered $2 billion in savings and said the program is "on track" to save $3.5 billion by the end of next year. >> Government Executive GSA Launches Push for Data-Sharing Across Governments The General Services Administration has launched an effort, called the U.S. Data Federation, supporting data interoperability and harmonization across federal, state and local-government agencies. >> Government Executive >> Follow GovManagement on Twitter >> Share this edition:
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Public Workforce | Paul R. Verkuil The Case for Bureaucracy Donald Trump has revived a Republican plan to reduce the federal workforce, in part by replacing only some of the employees who retire, as a way to pay for increased military spending and avoid exceeding limits on the size of the federal budget. He also says he wants to raise money by eliminating waste, collecting unpaid taxes and stopping improper tax payments. But these goals are actually contradictory. Reducing the size of government, especially in the arbitrary manner of not replacing retirees, makes it harder to achieve cost-saving goals because it gets rid of the very professionals who would be needed to bring about those savings. >> New York Times | More commentaries DATAPOINT $10,648 Amount that New Jersey residents now owe on a per-capita basis to cover the obligations of the state's badly underfunded public pension fund, the highest per-person debt among the states and one that compares to a national median of $806, according to a study by S&P Global examining the fiscal health of the state's pension system under new, stricter Governmental Accounting Standards Board criteria >> NJ.com | More data
“I thought, 'Let's designate people who were at the top of their game when they retired who have no vested interest in getting the permanent position, who could help me think about structures, efficiencies, effectiveness.' It's not a comment or criticism about the past. It's looking forward.” Judy K. Sakaki, who became president of California's Sonoma State University in July--the first Japanese-American woman to lead a four-year university in the United States--and quickly moved to put together what she calls a "dream team," choosing mostly experienced interim administrators whom she hired out of retirement >> Chronicle of Higher Education | More quotes UPCOMING EVENTS
American Enterprise Institute and Collateral Risk Network First Annual AEI Conference on Economical, Workforce and Entry-Level Housing Today, noon-5:30 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Partnership for Public Service Center for Presidential Transition Discussion: "The Business of Transition" Oct. 5, 10-11:30 a.m., Washington, D.C. National Association of State Chief Administrators Annual Institute on Management and Leadership Oct. 5-7, Olympia, Wash. Center for American Progress Discussion: "The United States and Japan: the Cornerstones of the Pacific" Oct. 5, 10-11:30 a.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Governing Tennessee Leadership Forum Oct. 6, Nashville Brookings Institution Discussion: "The Economic Costs of Internet Shutdowns" Oct. 6, 10-11 a.m. ET, Washington, D.C. U.S. Office of Personnel Management Webinar: "Prioritizing Inclusivity to Build Engagement" Oct. 11, 11 a.m. ET Engaging Local Government Leaders Webinar: "Local Governments and Local and Regional Food Economies" Oct. 11, noon ET >> Full events listings |
