NEWS: Nov. 2, 2016 Public Workforce | The Nation White House Moves to Institutionalize Efforts to Improve Federal Hiring Process A little less than a year after the Office of Personnel Management began a new campaign to improve the federal hiring process, the White House wants to put agencies on a path that institutionalizes those lessons so they live on into the next administration. New guidance from OPM and the Office of Management and Budget details three objectives to help agencies better recruit and hire new talent. >> Federal News Radio FDA Struggles in Hiring Competition with Drug Companies The Food and Drug Administration, under fire for taking too long to approve new drugs, has more than 700 job vacancies in its division that approves them, and officials say the agency is struggling to hire and retain staff because pharmaceutical companies lure them away. >> Washington Post More Career Federal Execs Got Bonuses in Fiscal '15 Seventy-one percent of federal career senior executives earned bonuses based on their job performance in fiscal 2015, up 2.8 percentage points from fiscal 2014, and average individual awards increased by about $200 over that time, OMB reported. >> Government Executive Chicago Teachers Union Approves 4-Year Contract Deal Members of the Chicago Teachers Union voted to approve the four-year contract deal that was reached with Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration just prior to a strike deadline last month. >> Chicago Tribune The Military | The Nation Recruiting Review Targets 'Overly Restrictive' Rules Defense Secretary Ash Carter has launched a sweeping review of the military's recruiting standards, saying current screening rules may be "overly restrictive" and preventing talented young people from joining the ranks. Among benchmarks that will get new scrutiny: fitness standards, marijuana use, tattoo regulations and a reluctance to allow single parents to start military careers. >> Military Times Pentagon IG OKs Fired General's Rent-Free Living An Army National Guard general fired from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for an extramarital affair will not be sanctioned for living rent-free in the home of the contractor because their long-standing friendship allows such gifts, the Pentagon's inspector general has decided. >> Army Times
| Charles Richman, Don Guardian | Public Finance | Atlantic City, N.J. State Rejects City's Plan, Sets Stage for Takeover The state rejected Atlantic City's recovery plan, saying it was unlikely to achieve financial stability and setting the stage for a possible state takeover of the cash-strapped seaside gambling hub. Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Charles Richman said the city failed to make tough decisions and took "virtually no concrete actions" to turn its budgetary problems around. Mayor Don Guardian has said the city would appeal a state rejection of its plan. >> Reuters, The Press of Atlantic City Public Safety | Los Angeles County New Civilian Panel to Oversee Sheriff's Department The county Board of Supervisors created a new civilian oversight commission for the sheriff's department and appointed its nine members, moves aimed at restoring trust in an agency that has been racked by years of scandal over abuses in county jails. >> Los Angeles Times Suspect ID'd in Slayings of Two Iowa Police Officers Police identified a suspect they say should be considered armed and dangerous in the deaths of two Des Moines, Iowa-area police officers in apparent ambush-style attacks early this morning. >> Des Moines Register The Presidency | The Nation White House Moves to Preserve Its Social-Media Record and Tools Barack Obama was the first president to use @POTUS on Twitter and the first to use Facebook live in the Oval Office. The White House has committed to preserving the outgoing administration's digital information, including social media, and to helping the next administration use and develop the digital tools it has created. >> FedScoop FBI Draws Clinton Rebuke for Releasing Pardon Documents The FBI gave the Hillary Clinton campaign another unpleasant surprise, releasing 129 pages of documents from a 2001 investigation into Bill Clinton's pardon of fugitive Marc Rich. The move drew an immediate rebuke from the Clinton campaign. >> USA Today Public Officials | Philadelphia City's 1st Black Fire Commission Dies Harold B. Hairston, Philadelphia's first African-American fire commissioner, died at the age of 76. Hairston, whose career with the Fire Department spanned 40 years, was appointed head of the department in 1992 by Mayor Ed Rendell and served in the post for 12 years until he retired in 2004. >> Philly.com Paper-Industry Exec Named Wisconsin State Forester The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources named Fred Souba Jr., a veteran paper-industry executive who currently is a consultant to the industry, to the post of chief state forester. >> Milwaukee Journal Sentinel >> Follow GovManagement on Twitter >> Share this edition: | VIEWPOINT Public Workforce Christopher Ketcham The Emboldening of Extremist Copycats With the jury acquittals of Ammon and Ryan Bundy and their accomplices in last winter's 41-day armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, the lives of federal land managers in the American West got a whole lot more difficult. The Bundys landed a blow against a culture of public service embodied by the federal employees responsible for maintaining law and order and protecting our wildest Western landscapes. The federal land managers I've spoken to--almost all of them so fearful they won't go on the record--worry that extremist copycats who seek to undermine the federal public-lands system will be emboldened by the verdict. >> New York Times | More commentaries QUOTABLE “It seems like every year or two, there's a new initiative.” U.S. Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican who chairs a Senate subcommittee on federal management, reading through a list of government projects going back to 2008 that promised to bring new life to the federal hiring process while noting that between 2013 and 2015 the average time it took to hire a new federal employee went from 90 days to 99.6 >> Washington Post | More quotes DATAPOINT 58% Percentage of federal employees who think that as president Hillary Clinton would be very effective or somewhat effective in managing federal agencies and their workforces, compared to 35 percent who say the same about Donald Trump, according to results of a Government Business Council/Government Executive survey of nearly 1,100 federal workers released Oct. 13 >> Government Executive | More data UPCOMING EVENTS
Recent Changes and Pitfalls in Federal Grants
TODAY | 1 p.m. ET
Presented by Andy Rinzel, this webinar will focus on how the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget's "Super Circular" will affect governmental entities across the country. For more information on the webinar or to register, click here. |
Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Fall Research Conference Nov. 3-5, Washington, D.C. Center for American Progress Book discussion with John B. Judis: "The Populist Explosion" Nov. 3, 10-11 a.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Heritage Foundation and American Legislative Exchange Council Report release and discussion: "How State and Local Governments Have Racked Up Nearly $5.6 Trillion in Unfunded Pension Promises and What They Can Do About It" Nov. 3, noon-1 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Reuters Webcast: "The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election: Examining Possible Health Care Futures" Nov. 3, 12:30 p.m. ET Urban Institute and University of Wisconsin La Follette School of Public Affairs Lecture: "Improving Opportunities for Children: Advice for the New Administration " Nov. 3, 12:30-2 p.m. ET, Washington, D.C. American Society for Public Administration Webinar: Public Safety Applicant Testing and Assessment" Nov. 3, 1 p.m. ET Government Technology Webinar: "Take Time and Money out of Government Processes" Nov. 3, 2 p.m. ET >> Full events listings
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