JBER town hall briefing addresses civilian employees' concerns

  • Published
  • By David Bedard
  • Fort Richardson PAO
FORT RICHARDSON, Alaska --  The Joint Base Enterprise hosted four Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson "HR Plan" town hall briefings, two on Oct. 21 and two on 22, at the Fort Richardson and Elmendorf Air Force Base theaters, respectively. The focus of the briefings was to address civilian employees' human resource concerns stemming from the ongoing transition of the 3rd Wing support functions and U.S. Army Garrison Fort Richardson. 

Col. Jeffrey Vinger, 673rd Air Base Wing (Provisional) commander, opened the briefings by explaining the basis for JBER hinges upon the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission released by the Department of Defense and approved by President George W. Bush. 

"We have to do it; there's no choice," Vinger said. "But the bottom line is it makes sense, joint basing makes sense for us. Since 1947, we've been working together as Army and Air Force here at Elmendorf and Richardson under Alaskan Command. There's not even a fence between the two bases." 

Vinger said U.S. Army Garrison Fort Richardson and 3rd Wing installation support functions will merge into the 673rd Air Base Wing with the end result being transparent to Soldiers and Airmen. 

"The goal is to make this as much of a non-event as possible," Vinger explained. "The Soldiers on the Fort Rich side will see no change. Where they go to get their services right now, those store fronts will remain...The only thing that will change is the 673rd will stand up with the 1,200 Army personnel that will be transferring from the garrison." 

Vinger said the 673rd ABW will open for business next June when it begins initial operational capability, achieving fully operational capability Oct. 1, 2010. 

The unit will consist of four groups--673rd Medical, Logistics Readiness, Civil Engineer and Mission Support groups with garrison agencies aligning with a group and subordinate squadron based upon functional area. 

Vinger assured employees they would continue to have a job under JBER, saying the joint installation will add 180 positions to meet increasing support demands. 

"(The Office of the Secretary of Defense) has established what they call COLS; common output level standards," Vinger elaborated. "Those are standards we have to meet under joint basing. With those standards, we have identified that we don't have enough people to do the job that we're doing." 

Vinger said ultimately the wing will consist of approximately 5,800 civilian and uniformed personnel and command a budget exceeding $600 million to meet the needs of JBER mission units. 

Representing Headquarters, Air Force Manpower and Personnel, Debbie Warner addressed concerns about the mass transfer of Department of the Army civilians to the Department of the Air Force. She said the process has been proven most recently at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., where the integration of the only tri-service installation provided a foundation for future joint basing. 

Warner said the transfer of records will prove seamless, using what the Air Force terms the modern-to-modern process. 

"The modern-to-modern basically takes a snapshot of your personnel record with the Army and moves it over to the Air Force," she detailed. "Also, we want to make sure we move over your leave, information with regard to your pay, etc., across the line as well." 

Analogous to the modern-to-modern process, Warner said the data-to-data process will provide payroll data transfer of Form W-4, direct deposit, thrift savings plan and other financial paperwork. 

"There is no requirement when you transfer to fill out all those forms again," she said. "That was good news that we could actually pull that data across the payroll system." 

Fort Richardson civilian employees will be required to exchange their common access cards for Department of the Air Force credentials before October 2010, Warner said, with plans underway to spread the creation of new cards over several months. 

"We can certainly not afford to be doing hundreds of new CAC cards next October," Warner related. "We needed to have a process in place where we could create those cards in advance, hold them in abeyance and when FOC happens and you transfer, we make that transition with you." 

Angie Horn, Non-appropriated Fund human resource director, said there will be specific NAF JBER town hall briefings in the future, but took the opportunity to answer a few NAF concerns. 

Horn said NAF health benefits will remain the same while Army 401K retirement plans may be retained or converted to an Air Force 401K plan. 

NAF human resource officers will meet with each employee individually to address specific concerns they may have with the transition. 

Fort Richardson Civilian Personnel Advisory Center director Dana Duval said great pains were taken to minimize changes in employees' duties and pay. 

"You will transfer over in your current position, using your same pay schedules, same series, same position description," she assured. "For Air Force, they're going to take our Army position descriptions and add a coversheet to that position description to add the Air Force specific information that needs to be with that position description. 

"When we say that possibly your duties may change, we're talking about maybe changing within the framework of the position description you have now," Duval continued. "For instance, Air Force and Army have different policies, have different processes and because of those kinds of differences, the way you do your work...may see some differences." 

For Army bargaining unit employees, Duval said upon transfer to JBER, current Army unions and their collective bargaining agreements will remain in effect. After FOC, the Federal Labor Relations Authority will determine unit representation based on clarification of unit petitions filed. 

For worker's compensation, Duval said appropriated fund employees claims will transfer to JBER and be worked by an Air Force human resource specialist while NAF employees' ongoing claims will remain with an Army caseworker. 

Duval addressed skills coding, a process the Air Force uses to process an employee resume and assign codes crediting experience for use in considering the employee for future positions. Although she said the Air Force is likely to abolish the system, she recommended employees prepare a resume in a word processor or in any one of the federal employment Web sites. 

Duval also recommended employees should review their leave balances and time off awards, saying although annual and sick leave will transfer seamlessly, unused credit hours and regular compensatory time will have to paid at transfer. Time off awards will not be transferred. 

Air Force Lt. Col. Richard Elmore, 3rd Contracting Squadron commander, said Army contractors should see no change during the course of their contract. 

"It's a seamless transition," he said. "If you are an Army contractor, you will still perform under that Army contract until it expires. The oversight and management of that contract will come over here to the 673rd Contracting Squadron Oct. 1 (2010). So, until that contract expires, it's business as usual." "At the time of expiration," Elmore continued, "We will look at ways to migrate that type of service into our contracts to do the same strategic sourcing and potential cost savings." 

"We've been working this merger meticulously for some time to ensure that we fully support the missions at JBER," Vinger said. "We've focused on maintaining the services our Soldiers, Airman, and military families deserve. Likewise, we owe it to our combined civilian workforce to ensure we do this right. Efficiencies won't translate to job cuts; that's not the goal of this initiative. We're looking for best practices from both services. Our goal is to be the best joint base in the DoD."