UNION REP: GOVERNMENT KEEPS CHANGING ITS STORY
be moving to North Carolina, and an all-staff meeting in February was the first time she and her colleagues learned they would be affected by closures sooner than expected.
“It catches a lot of us by surprise based on what we were told 18 months earlier, which was, the chemists will be moving but everyone else can stay here for roughly five more years,” Pitchford said. “Some people even bought houses at that point, and then a year and a half later it’s like, ‘We’re going to pull the rug out from under you.’”
More than 50 government workers, contractors, volunteers and human resources personnel who work in the EPA’S offices in Las Vegas will be affected. The EPA office across Maryland Parkway east of UNLV has 17 human resources staff members, Pitchford said, and 33 of the agency’s federal employees under its Office of Research and Development are on the UNLV campus in leased buildings.
The closures will end jobs for 26 contractors, Pitchford said, including student research assistants and a librarian.
Pitchford said the HR personnel have to be out of their Las Vegas office by June 30, months sooner than the Sept. 30 date given to the rest of the EPA staff. One off-campu office near UNLV will remain open, Pitchford said. The agency moved out part of one building and a greenhouse that UNLV turned into more parking.
The EPA’S lease budget at UNLV is about $2 million, decreasing as the agency vacates buildings. The university plans to put classes and labs in the now-empty spaces within the year, according to UNLV. The Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents had approved $2.9 million to renovate parts of the EPA complex.
Government employees in the closing offices have been given the option to relocate, retire or resign. Pitchford said a $25,000 incentive payment has been offered to those who retire by June 30, but that hasn’t been put in writing. The omnibus spending bill recently passed by Congress also created some confusion about whether it was prohibiting EPA office closures, Pitchford said. It appears that language in the omnibus bill only applies to regional offices, she said.
“People are trying to make decisions and just find it a constantly moving landscape,” she said.
Pitchford is part of a multi-expert research project into pesticides in the California central valley, and endangered species such as salmon that are affected in the Sacramento River. She said the group used cutting-edge geographic information to map hot spots for pesticides in the river.
She said she felt torn about retiring, which she is eligible to do, before the work was completed. The research is planned through 2020, and Pitchford said it made sense for her to be in the West to see the work progress.
“I feel a personal dedication to it,” she said. “To see it finish, to see it come to closure, to see the papers get written and information shared widely among the people who are concerned, the people who are the farmers.”
The EPA did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
“This brash move by the Trump administration and his EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, shows their blatant disregard for both science and the public servants of Las Vegas that have spent their lives protecting Americans from the dangers of pollution and toxic chemicals,” Elspeth Dimarzio, Sierra Club campaign representative in Nevada, said in a statement.
Pitchford said the original plan to consolidate by 2020 allowed people time to adjust. Most of those who will be affected are in the second half of their careers, and others who recently earned promotions want to stay on long enough to impact their retirement pensions, she said.
“We are highly educated, very motivated people and we’ll work this out,” she said. “But we are dedicated to EPA, and we do want to complete our work. So it’s very frustrating.”