TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2010
KLMNO
EZ SU THE FEDERAL WORKER A roaring tribute
What will happen if union-negotiated raises and Obama’s proposed pay freeze collide?
FEDERAL DIARY Joe Davidson
H
owwill the salaries of federal employeeswhose wages arenegotiated
throughcollective bargaining be affectedby the two-yearpay freezeproposedbyPresident Obama? TheWhiteHouse intends to
answer thatwithapresidential directive afterCongress gives final approval to the
freeze.The Senatewas expectedto vote onit Tuesday; ithas already been approvedby theHouse. After the freeze is approved,
ASTRID RIECKEN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
TheNational Zoo has revealed the names of its seven lion cubs, which made their debut in the lion yeard Saturday. The names, which were determined from sources including a public contest, the lion keepers and zoo supporters, are: John—named after Office of PersonnelManagement Director and former zoo chief John Berry—Fahari, Zuri, Leslie, Baruti,Aslan and Lusaka.
washingtonpost.com Q.
How many days off do you plan to take around the holidays? Does much work get done in government agencies during the holidays? Please e-mail your answer to
federalworker@washpost.com and include your full name, home town and the agency for which you work. We might include your response in Friday’sWashington Post.When answers are particularly sensitive, we will consider a respondent’s request to withhold full identification.
The Federal Page FED FACES
The world comes to her desk at the State Department
LauraM. Rosenberger State Department, Bilateral Politi- cal Unit Chief, Office of Chinese andMongolian Affairs
Ante up in Afghanistan
U.S. operations to maintain security are far from cheap. So who is going to foot the bill in the future —and how? Fine Print, A17
An informal gathering Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) lead a group that puts “everything on the table” about the federal deficit. In Session, A17
Best known for: When Rosen- berger landed a fellowship at the State Department in 2004, she never dreamed the two-year pro- gram would bring the world to her doorstep. In her six years with the department, the 30- year-old has worked on an array of issues, including human rights, nuclear nonproliferation and refugee assistance, and has provided briefings and support regarding Asian policymatters to the undersecretary for political affairs. Government service: After get- ting a master’s degree from American University, Rosenberg- er began her federal career as a PresidentialManagement Fellow at the State Department. She transitioned to permanent sta- tus, working as a foreign affairs officer with the Korean desk, a special assistant to the undersec- retary for political affairs and bilateral political unit chief in the Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs. Biggest challenge: It can be difficult at times towork on large and complicated issues without seeing tangible results, she said. This means getting energy and motivation from small victories
Obamawill issue adirective that contains guidance on implementation, includinghow negotiatedincreases shouldbe handled, according to theOffice ofManagement andBudget. BloombergBusinessweek previously reportedthe presidentialdirective. Wages are set through
collective bargaining for some federal employees, including air traffic controllers, thoughthat is not the case formostU.S. governmentworkers. NeitherOMBnor theNational
AirTrafficControllers Associationwouldcomment on the extent ofWhiteHouse authority overnegotiated increases. It isnot clear, for example,whetherObama could block a scheduled3percent raise in2011 for controllers orwhether hewouldhave to affirmatively exempt themfromthe freeze in order to allowthe
increase.The same is true for otherworkers withcollective bargaining agreements coveringwages. “It isnot clearhowanypay
Laura M. Rosenberger has worked for the State Department for six years.
or incremental changes in order to continue to push forward and ensure that, in the long term,U.S. interests are advanced in impor- tant and often immeasurable ways. Quote: “I often have to pinch myself to believe that I actually get paid to do my job — to contribute to advancing U.S. in- terests and to have the honor and responsibility of representing our country on the global stage.” — Fromthe Partnership for Public Service
Formore on Rosenberger, go to
washingtonpost.com/fedpage. Profiles of other federal workers are at
washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/ fedpage/players. Send your nominations for Federal Faces to
fedfaces@washpost.com.
freezewouldimpact these employees since theydonot get annual across-the-board comparability adjustments,” said
ColleenM.Kelley,president of the NationalTreasuryEmployees Union. “The increases calledfor under these agreements are tied to employeeworkperformance that alreadyhas been accomplished.” Kelley saidher labor
organizationhasnegotiated signedcompensationagreements for employeesunder alternative pay systems (other thanthemain General Schedule) intheFederal Deposit InsuranceCorp., the Securities andExchange CommissionandtheNational CreditUnionAdministration.
Freeze for contractors Energy Secretary StevenChu
has announceda two-yearhalt on salary increases andbonuses for department contractorswho manage theday-to-day
Pr.George’sman gets two life terms for killing two in home inOak Creek
Barnes, 52, did not react out- BY RUBEN CASTANEDA For 10 minutes, Delford M.
Barnes insisted to a Prince George’s County judge Monday that despite a Circuit Court jury’s verdict, he was innocent of the grisly home-invasion double- murder of a Ghanaian immigrant and his pregnant girlfriend. Standingat thedefense table in
an orange jail jumpsuit, Barnes said: “The evidence that was pre- sented, I have nothing to do with that. I’mnot that kind of person.” Barnes lamented that he
hadn’t testified in his own de- fense during the trial. At one point, he turned to the relatives of his victims, some of whom were struggling to hold back tears, and again insisted on his innocence. One relative, a woman, cried
out that he should tell the judge how many times he had stabbed one of the victims. CircuitCourt JudgeMelanieM.
Shaw Geter then meted out the maximumsentence allowable un- der the law: two life terms in prison without parole and an additional 20 years for a handgun violation. Each of the sentences is to be served consecutively. “This was a horrendous crime,”
Shaw Geter told Barnes. “It was particularly horrendous because it occurred in their home. We think of our homes as a safe place.”
wardly to the sentence. Relatives of victims Seth Aidoo, 40, and Eunice Baah, 36, quietly wept, hugged each other and thanked police and prosecutors. After a nearly month-long trial,
a jury convicted Barnes on Sept. 29 of two counts of first-degree murder and other offenses in the Jan. 12, 2009, killings of Aidoo andBaahin thehomethey shared in the upscale Oak Creek neigh- borhood.
According to evidence present-
ed by prosecutors, two men, Barnes and Samuel Culley Jr., entered the empty home and waited. Baah arrived first, and Barnes shot her in the head, pros- ecutors said. When Aidoo got home, he
fought with Barnes and Culley but was overpowered by the two men, who beat him, prosecutors said. Barnes stabbed Aidoo 43 times, prosecutors said. Culley, 54, pleaded guilty to
twocounts of first-degree murder and testified for the state against Barnes. He was sentenced to life in prison. Both men lived near the home
where the slayings occurred. Culley is the brother of Sheila
Aidoo, Seth Aidoo’s estranged wife. Seth and Sheila Aidoo were going through a divorce at the time of the killings. For a while, Culley lived in the Aidoo home, but Seth Aidoo forced him out
five months before the killings. Barnes was the boyfriend of
Sheila Aidoo. Barnes and Culley were moti-
vated by financial gain, authori- ties said. They hoped to profit from insurance policies held by Seth Aidoo, investigators said. According to court testimony,
Barnes and Culley got into the home by using a garage opener Culley had obtained from Sheila Aidoo. Sheila Aidoo has not been
charged. Prince George’s homicide De-
tective Benjamin Brown and oth- er investigators obtained a raft of physical evidence against Barnes, which was presented in court. Police found Barnes’s DNA un-
der Aidoo’s fingernails, prosecu- tors said. They said it got there when Aidoo tried to defend him- self. Police also found surveillance
video footage showing Culley and Barnes near the Aidoo home on the day of the killings. Sylvan Barnes, Barnes’s brother, testified for the state that he drove Barnes and Culley to the Aidoo home, droppedthemoffanddrove away. “To lay in wait to stab someone
43 times and to shoot a defense- less pregnant woman shows this defendant to be a cold-blooded, callous and calculated killer,” State’s Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said.
castanedar@washpost.com CHARLES DHARAPAK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Energy Secretary Steven Chu directed that department contractors have a two-year freeze on raises and bonuses.
“We are asking our contractor employees . . . to join the federal workforce in playing a part.” —Energy Secretary Steven Chu
Chusaid.
CSRSOffset and taxes Readerswhoparticipate ina
federal retirementprogram knownas theCivil Service Retirement SystemOffsetwant to knowwhether theywill get the 2 percent Social Security tax holiday thatCongress approved fornext year. The answer is yes. CSRSOffset employeespay
operations at certainagency sites, includingnational laboratories. Chu’s announcementFriday is
inlinewiththe two-yearpay freeze thatObamahas asked Congress to impose onmost federal employees. “As ournationcontinues to
recover fromthese challenging economic times,households and small businesses across the country aremaking sacrifices,” saidChu. “Inthis spirit,we are asking our contractor employees, who aredoing important research, operations, and environmental cleanupwork, to jointhe federalworkforce in playing apart.” AnEnergy spokesmansaidthe
departmenthas greater authority tomonitor the salaries of contractors thanis foundinother
agencies.The freeze,which begins Jan. 1,will affect about 75,000workers at 28
sites.At facilities thathave already approvedincreases, therewill still be a two-year freeze, but it will start inthe contractors’next salary cycle, according to the EnergyDepartment. “Ournational labs, the
country’s crownjewels for leading researchand development,will continue to attract andretainthenation’s top scientists andpursue some of the most importantdiscoveries that will leadus into the 21st century,”
into Social Security and, as a result, theywill get the reduction inthepayroll tax includedinthe tax relief bill, according toRep.
GeraldE.Connolly (D-Va.). “CongressmanConnollywill continue tomonitor this issue closely tomake sure that federal employeesunderCSRSOffset are treatedequitablyunder the legislation,” aConnolly spokesmansaid. CSRSOffsetparticipantspay
into Social Security andreceive a benefit fromthat systemthat causes anequal reduction, or offset, intheir civil service annuities.CSRSOffset generally applies to employeeswhohad beenunderCSRS, left the government, andthenreturned under certaincircumstances. The tax breakwouldnot apply
to other employeesunderCSRS, because theydonotpay Social Security
taxes.Theypay all of theirpayroll taxes towardthe civil service retirement fundand receive their entire benefit from that fund. About 80percent of federal
employees areunder theFederal EmployeesRetirement System. Theypay into Social Security at the same rate asprivate-sector workers andwill benefit fromthe payroll tax cut.Federalunion leadersdidpressCongress, unsuccessfully, to allowa 2 percent tax cut toCSRS employeeswhodonotpay Social Security taxes.
federaldiary@washpost.com
Staffwriter Eric Yoder contributed to this column.
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