Federal Agents... resulted in more than 7,000 individuals turning themselves in to law enforcement at a local church, which was more than the previous eight FS s combined. With an estimated backlog of over 30,000 outstanding warrants in the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Marshal Grubbs said he was eager to bring the initiative to Detroit. For over a year, Marshal Grubbs coordinated with local civic and law enforcement leaders to lay the groundwork for Fugitive Safe Detroit. Of the over 7,000 individuals who turned themselves in, 966 were felonies and 10,534 were misdemeanors. The numbers of individuals attempting to turn themselves in on outstanding warrants was so great that individuals who had misdemeanor warrants were given vouchers with instructions to contact the city’s district court, which would schedule a court date for them while offering them the same “favorable consideration” as if they had seen a judge at the church. The U.S. Marshals Service provided a mobile command center, posted at Detroit’s 36th District Court, to assist with the large number of individuals who received vouchers. Of the 966 felony warrants cleared, including one for homicide in commission of a drug trafficking crime, only three were taken into custody. Preliminary estimates are showing that approximately 11 ,500 warrants were cleared over the four-day span for the city of Detroit and Wayne County. Senate Appropriators Approve 3.9% Pay Raise Washington, D.C. - As expected, federal employees continue to be on track to receive a 3.9 percent pay raise next year. The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a fiscal 2009 funding bill that would provide federal civilian employees with a 3.9 percent pay raise - one percentage point higher than that proposed by the White House, and an amount in step with a 2009 military pay raise moving through Congress. Last month, in approving its version of the Financial Services bill, the House Appropriations Committee also voted to approve a 3.9 percent raise for civilian employees. At this point, it appears that House and Senate lawmakers intend to continue the tradition of “pay parity” in military and civilian pay raises, so that both groups receive the same pay increase. The Bush Administration initially proposed a 2.9 percent raise for civilian employees next year, and a 3.4 percent raise for those in the military.

Transportation Security Officers Need Standardized Pay, Training, Union Says Washington, D.C. - Low pay and “alarming inconsistencies” within the Transportation Security Administration (TSA ) are harming employee morale and public safety, American Federation of Government Employees National President John Gage told the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia. “TSA consistently ranks at the bottom of any survey of employee morale in the federal government,” said Gage. “This workforce is too important to be treated so callously.” Union officials contend that Transportation Security Officers (TSO s) are “drastically underpaid,” earning approximately $30,000 annually, significantly less than their counterparts in other law enforcement positions at the Department of Homeland Security. They say that TSO s are subject to a pay-for-performance system (PAS ) that is in “constant flux,” and that employees lack confidence in the pay system, believing it is based on favoritism, not performance. To make matters worse, Gage says that TSA Administrator Hawley recently admitted that TSO s are being “trained and tested on different standards, and these standards do not reflect how” TSO s do their jobs. The union leader stated, “Unfortunately, TSO s still have limited access to image test training, the new training software is not available at all airports and in some cases does not work, and trainers have given wrong information about identifying ‘threat’ objects during the test which directly led to test failure. TSO s with excellent work histories and commendations have been told they would lose their jobs because of failing to pass this testing. But instead of correcting the test and properly training TSO s, the agency regrettably has come up with another policy that continues to hold previous test failures against TSO s, and allows management to ‘retain and retrain’ whomever they want, making the ‘new and improved’ image testing more unfair than it was before.” AFGE is urging the subcommittee to end the PASS system, and instead place TSO s under the General Schedule, which applies to other DHS employees. “These workers need a rational pay system before the attrition rate climbs any higher,” concluded Gage. Editor’s Note: Sounds like “deja vu” to us.

 

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