Message from the Chief Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 18:25:33 GMT To: "A - Division Chief and Staff", "B - Branch Chiefs and Offices", "DC - All District Chiefs", "Alice A Sabatini, Administrative Officer, Reston, VA" , "Robert R Mason Jr., Hydrologist(Engr), Reston, VA" , "Ernest F Hubbard, Assistant Chief, OSW, Reston, VA" , "Gail E Kalen, Computer Specialist, Reston, VA" , "Anna M Lenox, Chief, Intl Water Resource, Reston, VA" , "Thomas C Pierson, Geologist, Vancouver, WA" , "S. Ernest Dreyer Jr., Hydrologist, Reston, VA" , "Kenneth J Lanfear, Network Info Products Coord., Reston, VA" , "Kathleen R Wilke, Supervisory Hydrologist, Denver, CO" , "Rodger F Ferreira, Associate District Chief (Bio), Albuquerque, NM" , "John P Borland, Supervisory Hydrologist (Eng.), Albuquerque, NM" , "Joel R Schuetz, Supervisory Hydrologist (Chem), Cheyenne, WY" , "Theodore C Bartke, Physical Scientist, Cheyenne, WY" , "William J Kratz, Admin Off, Carson City, NV" , "George S Outlaw, Hydraulic Engineer, Nashville, TN" , "Mary J Schlotfeld, Admin Off, Lincoln, NE" , "Glenn B Engel, Supv Hydrologist, Lincoln, NE" , "Harry C Rollins, Assistant District Chief, Louisville, KY" , "Dennis A Wentz, Willamette NAWQA Chief, Portland, OR" , "Richard A Hollway, Computer Scientist, Portland, OR" , "Marjorie S Davenport, Supv. Hydrologist, Columbia, SC" , "Paul M Buszka, Supv Hyd (GeoChem), Indianapolis, IN" , "Charles G Crawford, Supv Hyd (EnvSci), Indianapolis, IN" , "Stephen W Lipscomb, Supvy Hyd, Boise, ID" , "John J Vaccaro, Supervisory Hydrologist, Tacoma, WA" , "Gary L Turney, Hydrologist, Tacoma, WA" , "Alex K. (Sandy) Williamson, Central Columbia NAWQA Ch., Tacoma, WA" , "Merle F Wyant Jr., Administrative Officer, Tampa, FL" , "Walter F Holmes, Supv. Hydrologist (Engr), Salt Lake City, UT" , "Geoffrey Freethey, Supv. Hydrologist (Engr Geol), Salt Lake City, UT" , "Kidd M Waddell, SUPERVISORY HYDROLOGIST, Salt Lake City, UT" , "James R Kolva, Supervisory Hydrologist (Engr), Salt Lake City, UT" , "Kenneth W Toppin, Supv Hydrologist, Bow, NH" , "George A Irwin, Hydrologist (QW Spec), Tallahassee, FL" , "Clifton F Bell, Hyd(Geol), Richmond, VA" , "Hugh W Lowham, Supervisory Hydrologist(Engr), Cheyenne, WY" , "Kimball E Goddard, District Chief, Utah, Tucson, AZ" , "Robert E Davis, Supv Hyd (Geol), Helena, MT" , "Claude O Geiger, Supv Hyd (Engr), Lawrence, KS" , "Russell A Gadoury, Supv Hydrol(CivEng), Marlborough, MA" , "Louis C Murray Jr., Supv Hyd(Engr), Altamonte Sprg, FL" , "Norman G Grannemann, Hydrologist (Geol), Lansing, MI" , "George E Harlow Jr., Hyd(Geol), Richmond, VA" , "Allen R Brockman, Hyd(Geol), Richmond, VA" , "William D Mcfarland, Assistant District Chief, Portland, OR" , "Rafael W Rodriguez, HYDROLOGIST, San Juan, PR" From: "Robert M Hirsch, Chief Hydrologist, Reston, VA" (Robert M. Hirsch) Subject: Greetings from Reston Greetings from Reston: I don't have much to report beyond things you have seen in other e-mails but I just wanted you to know about issues we are thinking about. After Policy Council meeting this afternoon we are having a conference call among part of the Reston Senior Staff and the Regional Hydrologists. We have decided to postpone our planned senior staff meeting that was to have taken place next week in Denver. Our thinking is this. The most important issue for our consideration will be coping with the aftermath of the shutdown and we don't feel that we will have the necessary information to do that next week even if we were up and running some time in the next day or two. Certainly when we get up and running we will undertake an intensive effort at assessing our situation in terms of 1) employee morale issues, 2) Cooperator and OFA relationships, 3) fiscal status. After a couple of weeks of this kind of data gathering and evaluating options I think we will be in a position to get the Senior Staff together and work through the solutions. I want you to know that we in headquarters are very cognizant of the very substantial liabilities that are being created every day in Co-op and OFA programs (on the order of $1 million per working day). If you have done any sort of assessment of your own we would be interested in seeing what you came up with. We won't hold you to it. It is pretty clear that the approach of charging furlough time to reimbursable accounts as we did under the much shorter November furlough is probably not workable this time. We are working through the ECO problems as best we can. We may be asking for your help in a day or two. We have just made another partial payment to ECO and there is some chance that their paychecks will get covered in a few days. It is pretty clear that ECO has major problems in their accounting and billing systems. The people in BFM are working hard to get on top of the problem. You should get an e-mail from Alice Sabatini in the next hour or two describing the partial solution to getting to work on OFA funding. It is clear that there will be several hurdles to jump over to get up and running on OFA and you will need to evaluate carefully if you want to start down that road. You will note that the memorandum from the Director that Alice will transmit is silent about State and local funds. This was not an oversight, we (the Policy Council) considered the issue extensively and decided not to open that up. I know that some of you will be unhappy about that (as if we are happy about much of anything these days). I know that you are all working hard and that this is a very demanding responsibility. We appreciate your efforts and the positive tone that we hear from you. Hope to have better news soon. Bob ********************************************************** * Robert M. Hirsch Phone: 703/648-5215 * * Chief Hydrologist Fax: 703/648-5002 * * 409 National Center Internet: rhirsch@usgs.gov * * U.S. Geological Survey * * Reston, VA 22092 * **********************************************************