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June/July 1999
More than 400 enthusiastic employees attended the Transmission Business Line’s 2nd Annual Awards Ceremony Thursday, May 27. Senior Vice President for the TBL Mark Maher acted as master of ceremony for the ceremony, which took place in and around the High Voltage Lab on the Ross Complex. RIF and the Early Outs played during lunch and after the ceremony.
About 120 employees received awards for outstanding efforts on behalf of the business line in several categories: Outstanding Leader, Skilled Trades and Crafts, Professional Excellence, Cus-tomer Service, Environmental Services, Cost Cutter, Technical Support Excellence and Tenacious Teamwork. Special guests Administrator Judi Johanson and George Bell, former TBL senior vice president, presented two groups of awards. Bell came to present the award for exceptional public service to Terrie Jones, Laura White and the Ross Canyon Social Club — Bill Murray, Colvin Henderson, Gary Grant, Kathy Baker, Katie Masters, Mike Conners and Virginia Stabler. Johanson presented the Doris Ray Keeler Mentoring Award to Brian Emery, Cindy Frank, John Schaad, Mike Raschio and Paul Johnson.
Vickie VanZandt presents awards to (from left to right) Larry Tobkin, Huy Ngo and John Stafford while Mark Maher looks on.
Keeping up with the competition in today’s electricity industry means more than offering kilowatt-hours at a low price. It also means attracting high-caliber skilled electricians, linemen and substation operators at a time when these crafts are in high demand nationwide.
There is a lot of competition right now for journeymen electrical workers, according to Orion Albro, manager of the Transmission Business Line’s Olympia region. Nationally, the industry is about 1,000 workers short, and the situation isn’t going to ease up soon, at least not for BPA. Over the next five years, 60 percent of the agency’s 130 substation operators will be eligible to retire, Albro said, and the TBL will be looking for 75 to 80 good men and women to fill those and other critical jobs.
BPA has stepped up recruiting and embarked on several paths to prepare for the demand. Pat Alvarez of personnel management in Seattle was part of a BPA employee team that went to Los Angeles and Phoenix in March to interview about 45 journeymen applicants from among the hundreds of people who had responded to local newspaper advertisements. In deciding where to advertise, Alvarez said, the team picked geographic areas that have large, diverse populations and a utility system similar to BPA’s.
“We were selling BPA,” she said of the interviews, adding that the team was impressed with the quality of the applicants and the level of interest people showed in relocating to the Northwest. Alvarez said BPA will evaluate the out-of-state recruiting project and decide whether to carry out a second one elsewhere, perhaps in the Midwest.
Another of the team members, Bill Ward, chief substation operator in The Dalles district, said BPA expects to get seven journeymen-level employees as a result of the trip. “It’s a short-term plug,” he observed.
One of the difficulties in finding qualified candidates is the complexity of BPA’s high-voltage transmission system, Ward explained. BPA get applicants who have experience with 66-kilovolt lines but not many with 115 kV and above. And some parts of the system, such as the Celilo Substation, are one of a kind. There are training grounds for alternating current system operators, but, Ward pointed out, the direct current intertie is unique.
BPA’s four-year apprenticeship program is another source of skilled craft employees. Albro said BPA has historically tried to fill half of the craft vacancies in-house through the apprentice program and the rest through external recruitment.
Lynn Marzette, manager of technical training and continuing education, reports that apprenticeship enrollment is at a record high of 35 and growing. BPA attracts apprentices through cooperative education agreements with a number of community colleges and technical institutes. “We’re now tapping into some other arenas,” Marzette said, including the military, other federal organizations and an Web site for external hires.
There are also opportunities for BPA employees to come into the apprenticeship program from other fields, he pointed out. The agency has had a public utilities specialist enroll, as well as people from other administrative jobs. Some parts of the agency are being downsized, Albro noted, and this is an avenue for retraining.
Deregulation has opened several new Transmission Business Line career opportunities and put a fresh spin on the skills required. Because of open access, the number of transactions that move over the power grid has grown to hundreds per day, and skilled transmission schedulers will be sought after, according to Orion Albro. Outage scheduling has also taken on more complexity. The lead time for scheduling maintenance on a critical transmission path is 45 days now; it used to be seven, he said. Multiple transmission users mean far more planning and coordination is needed to take a major line out of service.
Computer skills, including network and Ethernet technology, have to be added into the equation these days, Fred Hennige of Columbia Basin College’s cooperative education program points out. People skills and the ability to deal with change are also on employers’ radar, according to Lynn Marzette. In its selection process, BPA is looking at the way people interact and resolve conflicts, he explained. In addition to the technical skills, the agency needs a person who can be agile and has the flexibility to adjust — skills geared toward a changing industry.
Every audience wanted to hear more from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Darlene Olson when she talked about the FAA’s Personnel Reform initiative.
Olson, who is in the office of the assistant administrator for Human Resources Management, spent a fleeting hour at Portland headquarters on May 11 talking with employees. Earlier she had met with members of the Administrative Efficiencies Project team and had lunch with agency executives.
The Personnel Reform program is the FAA’s version of BPA’s Administrative Efficiencies Project.
The FAA adopted reforms because it felt squeezed by internal and external pressures to be more efficient and effective in its use of personnel. Externally, the airline industry and passengers wanted more service while the industry was, and continues to be, reshaped by deregulation and advances in technology. The agency also was under congressional threats of privatization or outsourcing and under pressure to follow National Performance Review initiatives. Internally, procedures were overly complex and rigid (“we were spending too much time on process”), workforce demographics were changing and employee morale was low because the agency had been through what Olson called “six years of reform-like activities.”
The 48,000 employee agency took a look at the government corporation route but it didn’t pan out. The route the agency took toward reform should be familiar to BPA employees. The agency went to Congress to obtain permission to change its personnel and acquisition systems. The FAA is an appropriated agency so it didn’t try for financial reforms.
The outcome was legislative language that Olson characterized as “more vague” than BPA’s draft AEP legislation. It said, “The FAA shall develop and implement…a new personnel management system…that provides for greater flexibility in the hiring, training, compensation, and location of personnel.”
Along with the permission to create a new personnel system, Congress included an expectation that the FAA would become so efficient it could reduce its budget by $2.4 billion dollars a year.
The FAA followed the example of some other agencies and separated out from title 5 what it considered to be employee protections — labor relations, “whistleblower” protection, veterans’ preference, prohibition against discrimination, retirement, leave and insurance — and got exemption from the rest.
Congress passed the draft legislation in November 1995 and gave the FAA 180 days to design and implement its system. But, it had less than that because Congress wanted to see the plan 30 days before it was implemented. Congress also wanted to review the plan three years after implementation.
The FAA came up with systems and concepts in the required time frame, but full implementation is another issue. The agency has simplified hiring procedures, implemented incentives to fill hard-to-fill positions, reformed polices on overtime and premium pay, simplified and standardized position descriptions (eliminating 15,000 position descriptions) and developed its Core Compensation System. But it is still piloting the implementation of that compensation system in 1999. The goal is to phase in implementation so each step can be evaluated and any problems can be fixed before moving on to the next step.
FAA is creating a performance-based compensation system. Its goal is to improve individual and organization performance (efficiency, productivity and quality), attract and retain critical skills, pay people for what the agency values (skills, knowledge, abilities, contributions and performance), exercise greater control over annual expenditures, place greater emphasis on performance (as individuals, business lines and an agency) and refocus the total workforce.
In answer to a question, Olson said that it was true that some people would be paid more and some less under the new system. “That’s the point,” she said, of a performance-based system. “Some will get higher pay because they perform better.” She said that the age of entitlement in federal employment is over and that change is coming whether organizations or employees want it. She noted that the culture of the workplace needed to change to build the government services of the future.
The FAA is trying to build in individual and organizational incentives to support the agency’s goals of providing safety, security and efficiency in the air. The underlying support of these goals is through acquiring, developing and deploying required expertise (people) where and when needed; creating Human Resources systems that support employees’ achievement of the organizational goals; having more effective leadership and management; being perceived as a desirable place to work; and having Human Resources Management systems that are more efficient and adaptable.
The unions and employees were involved in the design stages. The unions supported the changes early on but are not participating in the implementation stages, taking instead a wait-and-see attitude. Employees participate on task forces that design the changes. “People know what is wrong with the process and systems,” she said. So the FAA put “real workers” on the teams.
When asked about grievances, Olson said there were very few, fewer than 50 cases in three years. The agency instituted a process termed Guaranteed Fair Treatment for disciplinary actions. It shortened the appeals process from a year to three months. When the personnel reform process began, it did not include appeals to the Merit System Protection Board. Language permitting such appeals was added later to make it an option. The goal of the Guaranteed Fair Treatment program, Olson said, was to “create flexibility and options.” The hope is that people would sit down and work out their differences at as low a level as possible. The agency wants to avoid appeals by settling issues through dialogue.
The agency did reduce its staffing level through voluntary reductions. “We do all we can to avoid a RIF,” said Olson. “We’ve never had one.” The agency wanted to avoid the many downsides of a RIF, including losing women and minority employees. Further, the agency wanted to “make the best work environment possible.”
Reductions did not mean there were no opportunities. “It created opportunities for those willing to train and learn,” she said. One of the problems the agency faced was getting people to move to what were seen as less desirable work locations. The reforms did create movement.
Change at FAA was a two-way street, she said. Employees must have a willingness to learn and acquire new skills while the organization must put tools and a support system in place to help employees make the change. She said the agency wanted a committed workforce that is rewarded for good performance.
Line managers were targeted to make the changes. This required that they be trained and supported.
When asked if the drive for business-like behavior had the potential for a conflict between public interest goals and efficiency, she said that, in the case of the FAA, the autonomy between the business lines prevented any such conflict. She did, however, acknowledge that the question was important and said that such conflicts are part of being the government.
Employees hungry for more information can turn to the Personnel Reform Update on the FAA Web page at www.faa.gov/ahr/PERSREF/News.htm
The site is a bit dated, but it provides background on the reform effort and a one-year update on its progress.
All BPA employees are completing Federal Energy Regulatory Commision Standards of Conduct training this year. Anything that could give one transmission customer an advantage over others has to go on OASIS first. It’s important for BPA people everywhere – not just in transmission – to avoid passing information around that might give BPA’s power business line an unfair advantage. Standards of Conduct training explains what you can’t say unless you say it on OASIS.
| Public Responsibilities | |
On Target |
BPA conducts itself under the standards of conduct such that there’s no need for remedial action by FERC. |
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On 9/30/99, BPA will be on track to have a final power rate case Record of Decision by 12/15/99 that will result in firm power rates that: (a) are at least 1.5 mills/kWh below market; (b) result in no average rate increase; and (c) are in compliance with the fish funding principles endorsed by Vice President Gore. |
On Target |
On track by 9/30/99 to achieve federal consensus on a preferred alternative for the Unified Fish & Wildlife Plan that meets BPA’s fish and wildlife obligations: (a) by establishing performance standards and other measures to be undertaken by the hydropower system; (b) by defining requirements for “off-site” mitigation for hydro impacts (e.g.,hatchery, habitat and harvest programs); and (c) while preserving below market, at-cost power. |
| High system reliability/availability/sufficiency: | |
| On Target |
- Transmission: Outage frequency and duration for transmission circuits do not exceed Control Chart violation limits; and |
| On Target |
- Generation: Weekly Heavy Load Hour targets for available generation are achieved. |
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Sell at least 30 aMW of preferred power products at a premium over the basic subscription product, limiting BPA’s net cost for renewable resources at no more than $15M. |
| On Target |
Mechanisms are created that result in substantially greater progress toward the Regional Review goals for energy efficiency and renewable resource development. |
| On Target |
Meet Biological Opinion spill requirements and reservoir operations criteria unless the operations criteria are unnecessary for meeting spring/summer flow targets. |
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Tribal government satisfaction index > 6.3 and composite state/federal entities/constituent index > 6.9. |
| Customer Satisfaction | |
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Composite Agency customer satisfaction index >7.5. |
| Finance | |
| On Target |
Treasury payment made on time and in full, with agency net revenues >$54 million. |
| High-Performance Organization | |
| Below target |
Recordable injuries < 2.4 per 200,000 hours worked (100 employees) and no fatal injuries occur to BPA or contract employees working on BPA facilities. |
| On Target |
Number of developmental assignments (both formal and informal) involving minorities is increased over last year |
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Satisfaction levels increase for key gap areas identified in FY 98 work environment survey: - freedom from “turf” issues > 75%, - workload distribution > 85%, - recognition (formal and informal) > 75%. |
| Targets Met |
Critical business systems are improved: - BPA completes Y2K remediation on its transmission system and business systems by federal deadline of 3/31/99. |
| On Target |
 - Implement a system for regularly assessing, reporting and managing agency and business unit risks. - Develop an FCRPS-wide capital budgeting process that includes risk-adjusted rates of return; implement for BPA capital in FY2000 SOY budgets. - Business Solutions Project: Finalize contract negotiations to acquire PEOPLESOFT/INDUS and develop phased workplans for completion of the Conceptual Design Phase by May 30, 1999. Develop an implementation plan for design and replacement of targeted systems and processes by June 30, 1999. Targeted initial implementation to be complete by 9/30/00. - Revenue Process Study: Develop and propose a set of comprehensive change recommendations designed to improve the quality and timeliness of agency and business line revenue information by 6/15/99. |
| On Target |
Administrative Efficiencies Project legislation is introduced in the Congress by 9/30/99 with administration and union support. |
| (?) Indicates results doubtful or dependent on survey | |
By now, we’ve all heard of OASIS – the open-access same-time information system – a computer system power marketers use to reserve space on BPA’s transmission lines. Nationwide, OASIS is considered the key to opening power grids to competition in a deregulated market.
But deregulation isn’t finished. And neither is OASIS.
The computer program to schedule open-access transmission on BPA’s grid hasn’t been invented. The best tool for the job today is a team of sharp-witted humans armed with several smaller computer programs, plus phones, E-mail, fax and some sharp #2 pencils.
“It’s very manual,” said Barbara Rehman, BPA’s OASIS policy manager and representative on several industry-wide teams to develop national standards for the use of OASIS.
“This is the most complicated period,” Rehman said. “We’re having to do the old and the new at the same time, and the new hasn’t gelled and keeps changing.”
Right now, there are three systems involved in using the transmission system: reservations, scheduling and tagging. (See box)
“We don’t actually schedule transmission directly on OASIS, yet,” Rehman explained. “FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is asking the industry to devise a way to do electronic scheduling.”
Rehman said companies are designing software to automate scheduling to effectively manage the volumes of schedule procedures and to “E-tag” — tag and validate electronically — transactions where BPA and other utilities now use fax, phone calls and manual checking after the fact.
“It has to be electronic,” Rehman said. “The large volume of transactions demands it.”
“Automation would lend greatly to our ability to respond to customers and would help allow discount pricing of excess transmission,” said real-time schedule supervisor Gloria Carter.
“I hope will happen,” Carter said. Automation wouldn’t it reduce the number of people BPA needs, but it might help stabilize things, Carter said. “But the speed required of a system to manage what we do, we haven’t seen thus far. No one’s come close.”
Until automation catches up, BPA is running the three systems manually, with four pre-schedulers on duty for 10 hours a day, plus four real-time schedulers on duty 24 hours a day, plus two more crews to handle OASIS reservations and after-the-fact verification.
Wes Hutchison, who leads the reservations and pre-scheduling teams, explains why it’s so complicated. “We used to have one schedule for a bundled product that included power and transmission,” he said. Now there are many power deals rolled into different transmission schedules. And there are many types of transmission services – firm, nonfirm, daily, monthly, weekly.”
Rehman thinks the goal is worth the effort. “This is the cutting edge,” she said. “We’re helping to shape the direction the industry will be going in the future with respect to how to do business.”
FERC’s goal is to increase competition by opening access and to increase the supply of electricity by encouraging innovation in energy production, Rehman said. North American Electric Reliability Council’s goal is reliability. BPA must meet both needs.
One thing is certain. Scheduling electricity is a growth industry. “About 12 years ago, BPA had one real-time scheduler on duty,” Hutchison said. “Now the Transmission Business Line alone has four real-time schedulers at the duty station 24-hours a day plus however many people the Power Business Line staffs.”
From left to right: Julie Rogoski, Mary Donald, Mike Matthew, Zina Castro and John Darnell.
There’s no voice mail. Every telephone call is supposed to be picked up on the first ring. There are hundreds, some times thousands, of calls every day, and the data from each one has to be accurately understood and immediately recorded.
911 dispatcher? No. BPA real-time transmission scheduler.
“We schedule about 2,500 transactions on a normal day. Spring runoff makes it even higher,” real-time supervisor Gloria Carter said. BPA’s volume is high because its large system is heavily interconnected with Northwest utilities and with other systems throughout the western United States and Canada, she explained.
“It’s a juggling act,” said Carter. “You’re constantly on the phone. You’ve got pencil and paper, and the numbers needing to be in the right account. It takes a very meticulous person who is also able to hear a lot of conversations.
“We have at least three, usually four, people on shift all the time,” scheduler Mary Donald said. Teams work together for a year and get so they can practically read each other’s minds, Donald said.
They need to. “We typically get calls from three different parties for each transaction – the seller, the receiving party and the transmission contract holder,” Carter said. “Knowing when someone’s already taken a call on the same transaction avoids duplications.”
All that hard work is not without its rewards. “The first thing most people see is the grade level and the benefits of being able to take off blocks of time,” Carter said.
And team members support each other to keep the shifts covered. “I traded shifts last August so I could attend my daughter’s wedding,” Donald said.
Of the four real-time schedulers on duty at any time, one focuses on transmission schedules for TBL’s largest customer because of the volume of those transactions. Another handles transmission wheeling through the BPA system. The third does trouble shooting, backups up the first two positions and deals with specialized transactions and capacity monitoring on all major ties and constrained paths. And the fourth focuses on OASIS and on tagging all the transactions to meet North American Electric Reliability Council reliability standards.
It is stressful; it is high pressure. “But if you want a sense of fulfillment, to know you’ve earned your pay, this is the place,” Carter said. “It’s easy to calculate your value to the agency.”
Lynn Baker is a writer in communications
“It’d be good to have more ways to pay people. The current system can’t pay for the time the job requires.”
That’s the bottom line for real-time transmission scheduler Mary Donald. The folks who keep the lights on for BPA today are working literally around the clock – in 12-hour shifts with no scheduled breaks, not even lunch. There’s an automatic 15-minute overtime before each shift for briefing on any major events and issues to pay special attention to on the transmission system. It’s meaningful, rewarding work, but not exactly easy. The demands on family and the individual are high.
Under special arrangements with the union, real-time schedulers get a week off for each week on duty because they work rotating shifts from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. But other utilities constantly compete for the skills of talented people who like this tough work. One of BPA’s real-time schedulers just moved over to Seattle City Light.
Trail builders – Several BPA folks gave some real muscle for wildlife at BPA’s Earth Day in May. (photos #1-4) Jill Banks, Larry Purchase, Roxane Freeman, Fev Pratt, Ron Thorkildson, Guy Kyle, Ken Kane, Jack Odgaard and others helped students build a quarter-mile gravel trail across the Johnson Lake wildlife area. Afternoon showers brought out the raincoats for most volunteers. Fev Pratt (tank top T-shirt) was an exception, prompting Freeman to comment, “That Fev is a real animal.” |
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While out on the trail – (photo #5) (Left to right) Roxane Freeman, Ron Thorkildson and Cheri Larson discuss the right load size of trail gravel for a wheelbarrow. |
(photo #6) Freeman loads the wheelbarrow. |
At the control center – (photo #7) Leaders go over Madison High School’s Academy of Science and Natural Resources project for Johnson Lake near the Portland airport. (Left to right) Academy coor-dinator Pilar LaValley, student Jalene Braun, BPA organizer Cheri Larson and student Erica Brauer. |
(photo #8) Pugilist pruners Don Davey and Ken Kane got carried away in their work as they attacked a mound overgrown with blackberries. |
(photo #9) Employees, students and parks workers muse over a five-wheelbarrow pileup on the trail under construction. |
Planting for wildlife – (photos #10-12) Lynn Baker, Nancy Baker, Mollie Gratreak and others planted shrubs for wildlife food. Gratreak had two reasons to help with BPA’s 1999 Earth Day project. She’s also a graduate of Madison High School whose students planned the project. It wasn’t all hard work – It wasn’t all work and no play at BPA’s Earth Day in May outdoor project as these snapshots show. |
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(photos #13-15) Grappling with overgrowth – Carlene Stenehejm, Cheri Larson, Stacy Mason and Perry Gruber pruned, lopped, dug and chopped to clear overgrown areas. |
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“The Pluralism Council is here to address everybody’s diversity issues,” says Andy Thoms, chairperson. No one said itwould be easy when Thoms agreed to take the helm of the PC when attorney Mark Eissler stepped down in December. And it hasn’t been, Thoms said.
The Pluralism Council is starting its eighth year at BPA. Thoms says the council “is not just drumming up the past but moving on to the future and trying to look at what’s going on in the present.”
BPA and the PC have come under fire recently for events sponsored by the Christian Values Resource Group as part of their Christian Values month at BPA. The issue is new, but the controversy is not. According to eastern area power manager Rick Itami, the PC has had “a pretty colorful history” since its inception in April 1992.
Itami was the first liaison person between management and the council. He said that role was “one of the most stressful assignments I have had in BPA. There were many dynamics going on among the players. There was widespread lack of trust. People had different agendas and there was much misunderstanding. This situation turned much more positive as the different groups started really listening to each other through team-building sessions facilitated by an expert diversity consultant from outside BPA. The team-building sessions were intense. There was anger, hurt and tears. But, in the end, there was reconciliation. That’s when I knew the Pluralism Council would succeed as it has to this day.”
The council’s Web page describes its mission as “an employee network dedicated to effect positive change by promoting the value of diversity.” Change is a tall and nebulous order. The Shared Services Redesign teams recommended changing the culture as key to maximizing savings. Rewards and Recognition focus groups across the agency agreed that, while the current recognition program wasn’t broken, the environment/culture must be changed.
Change is slow, difficult, painful, and crucial. In Managing a Diverse Work Force: Regaining the Competitive Edge, John P. Fernandez says “no matter what a person’s race, ethnicity, gender, or work level, most are not free from a variety of prejudices about groups other than their own. . . . These potential conflicts in a diverse work force must be resolved, at least in the workplace.” Pat Blanco sees the council as the catalyst in the process. “The pluralism council’s work is about surfacing and encouraging the organization to work through these issues.”
Thoms agrees and adds it is hard work: “We grind through issues most people don’t want to face.” Perception of the council varies, but many employees have negative feelings. During the Human Resources redesign, one segment of clients identified the PC as the only effort for elimination. According to Thoms, “One of the bigger problems is that people view resource groups as a bunch of whiners. But there are real issues that these people face and the council addresses.” This helps the agency and helps individual resource groups see what others are facing.
In addition, as Chief Operating Officer Steve Hickok points out, “Diversity can mean understanding our similarities, too. The operation of employee resource groups in a council environment helps this.”
Tracking PC accomplishments over the past seven years is challenging. Thoms acknowledges that while “problems haven’t gone away, they may have morphed into something better, decreased in size or totally changed. It’s a very dynamic thing, like hitting a bead of mercury.”
Thoms sees the PC as strong and growing. He believes management “support will continue to be as strong as the council. If the council becomes weak, support will be weak. If the council members are divisive, support will weaken.” Agency response to recent media and employee prodding regarding April’s Christian Values speakers bears this out. BPA issued talking points March 30 supporting religious expression in the workplace. The Sunday Oregonian of April 18, quoted BPA’s Dulcy Mahar: “This is a way of achieving cohabitation. We don’t ask people to agree with the views or accept them, but we want to have a workplace climate where employees with differences can work together.”
Similarly, PC member and visual information specialist Karen DeLano told the Willamette Week (April 4) that she is “a true believer in free speech. I am assuming that the resource group is going to maintain this non-threatening, non-harassing environment.”
Hickok recalls the controversy surrounding the proposed formation of the Christian Values Group. The group (originally Traditional Values) “caught some people off guard.” Proposed membership then was based on a shared belief in Judeo-Christian principles. Hickok says, “Some people questioned whether this was proper in the context of a government agency.” Resolution came, Hickok explains, through “common sense, as well as a look at the legal issues. There’s nothing wrong with forming an employee resource group around a set of issues that are defined by those employees’ religious beliefs and traditions. And, of course, other resource groups based on traditions that are not Judeo-Christian are also free to form.”
Godfrey Beckett, head of Human Resources, Diversity and EEO Services is also management’s liaison to the Pluralism Council. He says the PC is still needed. “It’s an asset. It’s been a positive influence at BPA,” Beckett says, “and it is still evolving.”
The council’s profile is not always as high as it has been recently. Much of its success is through influence. For example, the PC introduced the popular courtyard barbecues during prescheduler Allan Willis’ tenure as president. Thoms hopes to bring the barbecues back. We need “activities that bring us together. BPA is not just a place to work, it’s a place where we can meet each other on neutral turf.”
The PC, consisting of one representative (or a designated alternate) from each resource group, meets the third Monday of each month. All BPA employees are welcome to attend the meetings. Thoms says there are occasional guests but few enough that most of what the council does is behind the scenes. The council shares information from the bottom up, according to Thoms, and works issues up and down. Management may ask the PC to look at an issue, or resource groups may bring an issue to management through the council.
The Pluralism Council provides a “forum for views to be expressed; a forum for taking positive steps to look at them,” Thoms says. As for the challenge of dealing with the various resource groups bringing separate agendas to the table, Thoms is glad they’re there. Watching a “vocal antagonist turn into a protagonist” is very rewarding. Beckett concurs: “The group has worked through most of the intra-group conflict. If not totally resolved, it’s at least worked out.”
As chair, Thoms could spend 10 hours a week on PC and resource group business. He spends more than that, but most of those hours are on his own time. “If I charge 10 percent of my PC time, that’s a lot,” Thoms says. Much of his commitment is reflected in late nights and off-duty hours. If council business occupies a good part of his workday, he stays at night to complete his work as fish and wildlife biologist. It’s a tough balancing act.
Balancing the role of the PC as an employee voice to management is tough, too. The council has no negotiating power with management. BPA’s three bargaining units do. The unions have allowed the council to operate as employee advocate in the sole area of diversity. Beckett says he’s been in discussion with the unions to reach a balance regarding the PC and the union roles. “We’ve been on a tightrope, trying to resolve” this issue of turf and representation,” he says.
Thoms knows the importance of the unions and their contractual representation of employees. He welcomes union representatives at the monthly PC meetings as an opportunity for better understanding of “how we work and what we’re doing. We’re consensus based and weigh issues in depth.”
In spite of the long days and sometimes intangible results, Thoms does not hesitate when asked why he spends so much time on council business. “It’s worth it. To be able to bring cultural flavors into Bonneville, be they food or be they events, is important to the psyche of everyone here. It’s worth it.”
Carolyn Stokke is a program analyst in personnel services
Resource group leaders – left to right Tina Conover, Andy Thoms, Pam Brandis, Steve Dunne, Karen Delano, Libby Herrera and Ann Juarez.
BPA chartered the Pluralism Council in April 1992. Chief Operating Officer Steve Hickok, then executive assistant administrator, led the 1991-92 team that established the harassment-free workplace policy and instituted several systems to support it. The Pluralism Council was one of the resulting initiatives.
The council is composed of one representative and an alternate from each of the resource groups. The number of resource groups has not been constant. Initially, there were four resource groups; now there are 11. (The first groups are still active.) Each group sponsors one month each year. The groups are free to bring in speakers or to plan other events connected to their group mission and identity. The council does not have a budget per se, but each resource group is allocated $500 to support its activities.
The PC charter allows for three officers: chair, vice chair and recorder. Andy Thoms is chair. Ann Juarez is recorder. The vice chair is vacant since Thoms moved up to chair in December after Mark Eissler stepped down.
The Pluralism Council Web page (http://webip1/corporate/kgh/pluralismcouncil/default.htm) provides current and historical PC information. It can also be assessed through the Diversity site. The PC meets the third Monday of each month at 11 a.m. Information regarding the PC and resource group meetings and contacts appears in This Week.
BPA’s resource groups, in alphabetical order are:
Work to convert the headquarters main entrance to a park-like setting moved into high gear this spring. BPA is converting the cul-de-sac from a car course to a people’s park.
Earlier this year, BPA installed park benches along the entrance walkway and the sidewalk around the cul-de-sac. In April and May, workers made landscape changes. They removed the sod along the window corridor between the 905 and 911 buildings and planted various shrubs, trees and flowers there.
Last month, workers placed several large planters around the cul-de-sac. Three of those contain large trees that will create a natural barrier from the street and provide shade. During June BPA installed more park benches around the cul-de-sac.
The paving surface in the cul-de-sac itself will stay. Doug Van Ness, who is overseeing the project for office facilities, says one reason is the cost. Besides removing the paving, BPA would have to replace it with paths and landscaping.
But, Van Ness says, the circular paved area also will be more useful and practical as it is. BPA and groups may hold outdoor functions there as in the past and the pavement will require less maintenance than other options.
The renovations are paid for by the General Services Administration as part of its maintenance budget for the building.
The cul-de-sac facelift will make the headquarters front more usable and people-friendly. BPA planned the changes after the GSA closed the cul-de-sac as part of its effort to close direct public access roads to government buildings in 1997. That action came after the federal building bombing in Oklahoma City.
In 1992, BPA took the first steps that would lead to ownership and maintenance of its own telephone system. Although it was ahead of the official Competitiveness Project, the move was driven by cost savings, service needs and competition.
Wayne Kallio, technical lead for BPA’s telephone operations, said, “We were paying the General Services Administration $100,000 per month for headquarters phone service and that didn’t include phone moves, added units and changes.”
In February 1993, BPA installed its own new switch at the Ross Complex in Vancouver. When the administration picked BPA to be part of the government reinvention laboratory in July 1993, the agency stepped up its efforts to acquire and operate its own system at the Portland headquarters.
“Service was the biggest problem and complaint we used to have,” said Kallio. “Before BPA took over our own phone system, when we wanted to install or move a phone or have any service done, we had to fill out an order request to GSA. GSA then filled out a form for US West. And US West then did its own form to Deane Communications, the contractor that actually did the work.”
By late 1995, BPA had acquired its own telephone system at the Portland headquarters. Kallio says the Vancouver and Portland telephone system acquisitions “save BPA more than $1 million per year.” And service to customers and clients has improved dramatically. Telephone changes and moves that used to take several days to a few weeks to put through, BPA now handles in between one and five days — from the time it gets a request on the one-and-only form.
Tasha Maltzeff checks a card on a multiplexer that connects off-site telephones at the 700 building. |
Wayne Kallio and Jim Shellito trace a wire on the main distribution frame at headquarters. |
Wayne Kallio replaces a line card in the telephone switch. A card handles 24 telephones. |
Patrick O’Neill prepares to do telephone system data base backup at Ross. |
Jeff Gannaway enters data base information on telephone system computers at the Ross Complex. |
The arrow from Administrator Judi Johansen’s name points to a specific telephone wire on the main distribution frame for BPA headquarters. Jackie Quinn moves a wire for an employee who has recently moved work locations. |
Jim Shellito checks a floor opening for phone moves. |
Telephone switch room – Telephone office employees work at computer consoles in the phone system’s “brain” room. During an emergency, BPA staff can operate the phone system on backup power to keep BPA’s main communications lines open. |
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BPA employees are known for taking the initiative. Many times they do things out of the ordinary. When they help others outside of BPA, the agency gains recognition and appreciation.
Kyra Chatfield is a recent example. Last fall, the regional relations specialist in Seattle created a program to help another federal agency.
Each year Chatfield works with other BPA staff to set up exhibits and hold field classes for school kids at the Wenatchee Salmon Festival in Washington. Chatfield leads BPA’s Kids in the Creek programs and teaches other people to lead the outdoor classroom. Kids in the Creek gives children hands-on exercises to check the health of streams. School kids wade into streams, take water samples and check insect and other aquatic life forms. They then discuss their findings with the leaders.
At most such festivals, classes get BPA’s full program. But the scheduling at Wenatchee required shorter times. So BPA’s Kids in the Creek focused on long-term stream checks.
Last year the Bureau of Reclamation joined BPA and others as a sponsor of the Wenatchee event. Reclamation wanted to have an activity for kids. So Chatfield came up with a solution. It dovetailed with BPA’s abbreviated Kids in the Creek program.
Chatfield designed a Watershed Detective program for the Bureau. It uses an illustrated investigation report for students to complete. Fish cartoons “talk” the students through the report. The kids wade into the stream and check the short-term indicators of the stream’s health.
At the end of the activity, the kids talk about steps that would help improve the steam’s health. They then fill in a pledge for a specific practice they will follow to protect a stream near their home.
Chatfield printed the first batch of Watershed Detective forms and carried all the needed testing supplies to last fall’s Wenatchee event. She trained Reclamation folks before the school groups arrived. During the festival she stayed to help the Reclamation’s Kayti Did-ricksen who oversaw the program.
In 1999 and future years, the Bureau will have its own Watershed Detective program for 4th and 5th grade students. And BPA will continue its Kids in the Creek program and training for other people. The two will go hand in hand at Wenatchee. Thanks to the initiative and helping hand of BPA’s Kyra Chatfield.
(Editor’s note: The idea and most information for this article came from Betty Olsgaard, a public utilities specialist at Seattle. Betty said she was “so impressed with work done by Kyra Chatfield … (that) recognition of a superior job is in order.” We agree with Betty, as you can see.
We invite employees across the region to send ideas or details about fellow workers who do things out of the ordinary. Especially things that help people outside of BPA – other agencies, community groups, kids, adults and anyone in the public.)
In the field – Kyra Chatfield from BPA’s Seattle office shows students how to test stream water during a Kids in the Creek outdoor classroom.
'Tis the season for symposiums and seminars. And this spring, BPA shone at itsbest in the special programs it sponsored.
In mid-March, more than 300 people from around the U.S. and other countries attended BPA’s Electric Revolution at the Portland Convention Center. The first of its kind conference and trade show brought together people from a wide energy spectrum. They included conservation experts, pioneers of new technologies, and businesses looking for ways to save energy and cut costs.
BPA organized the event that was cosponsored by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. The Northwest Public Power Association and Public Power Council were supporting sponsors. The two-day program included talks on new energy technologies and advances in others.
Speakers showed slides and charts on several efforts in the field of distributed technologies. Topics included small combustion turbines, fuel cells that can stand alone to power a house, and use of hydrogen for fuel and cooling. Others spoke on new designs in wind power, solar power and other energy sources.
| The printed version of the Circuit contained several errors in the clues and grid of the crossword puzzle. Additionally, the answer to the May puzzle was incorrect. The correct answer to the May puzzle is available online, however, a corrected version of the June/July puzzle will not be posted. The online crossword puzzles will resume in the next issue. |
