DRAFT
Agency Liaison Meeting Minutes
August 24, 2005
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Surgeon General’s Conference Room
Attendance:
Ms. Jane Leitner, CMS
CAPT Russell Green, FDA Rep. Maj (Ret.) Rob Twitty, IHS
CAPT Austin Hayes, CDC/ATSDR CAPT Maria Dinger, U.S. Marshals Service
CDR Ben Brown, BOP Liaison CAPT (Ret) Ken Diepold, NIH Liaison
CDR Lou Ann Rector, HRSA Liaison CDR Joan Harding, D.H.S.
CDR Joselito Ignacio, DHS, USCG CAPT (Ret.) Bruce Immerman, AHRQ
CAPT Cindy Pond, Dept. of Ag. Liaison CAPT Paul McSherry, IHS
CAPT Richard Rubendall, HIS Liaison
Ms. Sonya Cokley, Nat’l Park Service
PSC Staff OCCO Staff
CAPT Greg Stevens
Guests LCDR Rhondalyn Cox
CAPT Ana Balingit-Wines, DHS/FEMA CDR Margie Wallace
LCDR Ron Keats, IHS LCDR Camille Hawkins
LCDR Jacqueline Thomas CDR Claire Karlson
CAPT Jan Dumont
CAPT Don Hutson
OSG/OFRD OCCFM Staff
CAPT Gilbert Rose CAPT Martha Kent
CAPT David Kelly
CAPT Lawrence Furman
The meeting was convened by CAPT Stevens and attendance was taken around the room as well as on the phone.
Approval of Minutes –CAPT Stevens
· The July 28, 2005 Liaison meeting minutes was approved as written.
NACI Clearances-CAPT Dumont
· NACI stands for National Agency Check and Inquiry.
· CAPT Dumont gave a background as to why this is important. OCCO did a check to determine how many officers have a background check in their files and found many do not. It used to be that the paperwork for the clearance was sent out to the officer candidates when OCCO sent the orders out. OCCO noticed that they were not getting a lot back and so determined that 2400 officers have no documentation. OCCO then ran this inquiry in the EOPF and found more that have been entered into Wang. And now the list is down to just above 1400. These officers are assigned to HRSA, DHS, CG, Immigration, and BOP (Immigration and BOP do their own security clearances that are at a higher level). Because of Immigration and BOP there are really significantly less than 1400 clearances missing.
· CAPT Dumont had the remaining list broken down by Agency and emailed the list to the Agency Representatives (and also had the lists in hard copy at the meeting). CAPT Dumont asked that if the Agency has any NACI results to please share them with her. Also, please let CAPT Dumont know if the completed NACIs are not found and then new forms will be sent to the officers with a deadline.
· So that this is not repeated in the future, OCCO is sending out the forms with the processing letter. OCCO will also have a letter attached that says not to complete these (NACI forms) until the new officer is offered and accepts a position, because Boyers has a 90-day shelf life for their results. They will not be called to duty without OCCO receiving these completed NACI forms.
· Right now OCCO is just doing the basic level NACI, and if an Agency requires a higher level they need to pay the difference ( actually, they are C-NACIs…to make sure there is no record of child abuse by the applicant).
OFRD Update-CDR Beck
· No representative present.
OCCO Update-CAPT Stevens
· CAPT Stevens announced the OCCO has two new HR Specialists , Wesley Danforth and John Kern, and a Program Assistant, Ms Liz Hamilton. CAPT Stevens added that LCDR Maryanne Robinson is currently in training., and CDR Michelle Everette will be Joining OCCO.
· Colts update: The transition to CCPayroll is now about 6-mos to 1-year delayed (due to complexity issues). CAPT Hayes asked that there be a clarification memo sent to Leave Maintenance clerks stating this fact and because of this delay they still need to enter and maintain leave records. CAPT Stevens agreed to do this. CAPT Furman added that there will be an e-bulletin that will go out about available forms on the website and will address the issues around leave. Also, CAPT Furman reminded the group that there will be a policy issuance that will move our leave system to the fiscal year, as opposed to the calendar year. This would make PHS consistent with the other services and he would best happen before the new fiscal year begins (i.e., October 1). Carry-over leave issues will be settled at a later date.
· CDR Wallace stated that OCCO has been in discussion with OCCFM on COERs and it looks like they won’t be coming out until around October 3 to the officer, October 14 to the rater, to the Reviewer by November 4, and then November 18 to the electronic OPF. The COER Manual Circular will be available on the MIS website very soon. Additionally, there will be guidance to the officers on the narrative statement as it pertains to Officership, Leadership, and Force Readiness. The rater is not asked specifically to make a statement about Officership and the CPOs will develop guidance on this. Officers will also be asked if they have a 2005 performance contract-yes or no.
· CDR Wallace explained that OCCO is currently working on the 2005 permanent grades and assimilations. The rates for assimilation are 75% for the lower board and 10% for the upper board. As for the rates for the permanent board it will be 40% for the O-6, 80% for the O-5, 80% for O-4, 100% for O-3.
· CDR Wallace added that the 2006 promotion cycle elidgibles are not going to be ready in September due to IT issues…probably October. Another facet of this is the Agency Precept (the triple H-precept) Workgroup that will be providing an option paper to the Asst. Secretary and the Surgeon General and will be delivered in the next day.
· The other issue is the 2006 Benchmarks. LCDR Mitchell presented yesterday to the CPO Board the feedback received by the Promotion Boards which will assist them in fine tuning their 2006 Benchmarks. The CPOs are to give to OCCO these new Benchmarks by September 15. The goal is to have all the 2006 promotion loose ends completed by the October Liaison meeting. CAPT Hutson interjected that the workgroup with the 6th precept has yet to meet to define what constitutes an 3-H designation and it will be difficult to apply the 6th precept when we have no idea what to apply it to.
· This week OCCO convened the Chief Officer Selection Board for the Environmental Health Officer Category. CAPT Hutson ran this Board and is in the process of getting this recommendation package to the Surgeon General.
· OCCO is also working on the Flag promotion Board coming up in the next couple weeks. The flag promotion packages are due COB tomorrow to CDR Wallace. We will then get ready to get a Board to review these in the next few weeks.
· LCDR Hawkins added for the 2003 Assimilations there are two officers that still have not submitted the remainder of their paperwork. The 2004 Assimilation Cycle packet is now in the Senate and hope it will be acted on in the next 90-days. The 2005 package is in the review process right now and the lines have been drawn and some administrative reviews need to be done before the officers are notified. Request for travel and shipment of household goods: Liaisons need to know that when an extension request for shipment of household goods goes through orders are actually cut and the order will be forwarded to the officer and forwarded to their OPF. If there is a request for an early move an order does not get generated for that, it’s a memo signed-off by CAPT Canton and sent to the officer. Orders do get cut for retirement extensions. You must have approved orders to ship household goods.
· The 2006 COER is not on the web as yet and the secure side of the MIS website may state “you are not eligible for promotion”. It has not been updated as yet for the 2006 cycle.
· OCCO has a Retirement/Retention Board set for October 6 and lists of officers up for 30-year retirement will be going out to the Agencies in the next couple days and Liaisons need to know that in order to go through the retention process their officers must meet “Basic”. The take home message is that the“Basic” requirement is all important for being considered for any Board.
OCCFM Update-CAPT Furman
· There will be a multi-year contract for the revitalization of the CCPM. There may also be some changes with various policies and regulations but the main thrust is to put a new face on the CCPM, update them with current dates, and include some of the organizational changes. It will take two years to accomplish this. There will be a taskforce of workgroups that OCCFM will assemble during the fall and more on this later. CAPT Kelly will be the project officer on this.
· The second contract is a joint effort between OCCO and OCCFM so we can do a systems review of the appointment process. We will have a contractor look through the entire process and then develop the recommendations and help find the resources. OCCFM is hoping to do the first phase within 90-days.
· Another contract was let last week for the creation of an anonymous customer service survey for the Commissioned Corps. This will be web-based for active duty officers only. The questions will be “customer service” type questions. A report will then be generated and then disseminated. The Acting ASH wants to know whether the officers in the field are satisfied with the services provided by OCCSS, OCCO, OCCFM.
· Last month OCCFM sent out two wallet-sized cards to the Liaisons that contain phone numbers. One contains the Mission Statement of the PHS Commissioned Corps and the other has frequently used phone numbers.
· CAPT Furman wants a special meeting to discuss the following issue: One meeting with the CPOs and one meeting with the SG PAC Reps and Liaisons. OCCFM provided information yesterday to the CPO Board and at the combined meeting this morning it was expressed that this information OCCFM has prepared should go out to all the members of the CPO PAC, PAC Chairs, and SG PAC/Liaison members. This information centers on those officers that were not promoted and what their profiles look like. In terms of how well did they fare in the various precepts the differences between officers was parsed. This information has not yet been distributed CAPT Furman and would like to do this with a meeting with the CPOs in mid September…no date yet is scheduled. He would also like to have a meeting with the Liaisons and the SG PAC Reps so he can talk about Agency specific information. The personal identifiers have been stripped out which makes it easier to share (the CPOs still will have the personal data within their category). OCCFM has prepared but not fully initiated a multi-variate analysis of the data to determine what it is that gets officers promoted and conversely what are the factors that keep officers from being promoted. In actuality, we have a policy that is a four and freeze, because the Agencies can choose to put that officer forward for the fourth time. OCCFM provided in this analysis attempts at promotions, with each grade. CAPT Furman asked that by COB the next Monday to email him possible dates to meet…possibly Sept 7 AM , or 8, 9 in the afternoon.
Agenda Items for Next Month
· Flag Billets. RADM Knouss to be invited.
· Board for Corrections, CCPayroll update, Colts Updates.
Round table:
- CAPT Stevens said a future agenda item will be to discuss the flag billet selection process.
- LCDR Daisy Mitchell will be leaving OCCO, Oct 1, who was our Promotion Coordinator, and will begin looking for her replacement.
- CAPT Dinger announced that the Marshal Service has a vacancy for a physician (internal med or family med) with Top Secret clearance to work in the Federal Witness Security Protection Program. This is an O-5/O-6 Billet with mostly administrative duties and will also be implementing a Medical Director position for the Marshal Service, based in the Washington, DC area.
Meeting adjourned at 1500.
Next Meeting will be September 22, 2005.
· Meeting minutes prepared by CAPT Gilbert Rose, OSG.
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