Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
4/24/2015
House lawmakers are pushing for all of the members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to have a greater say in senior staffing decisions. Language in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, reported out of subcommittee this week, would require the DNFSB Chairman to obtain the approval of the Board before either appointing or removing senior Board staff members related to one of three areas: budgetary and general administration matters; general counsel; and technical matters. Currently, the Board’s enabling statue allows the DNFSB Chairman to exercise the appointment of Board employees “subject to such policies as the Board may establish,” but does not contain language explicitly calling for Board approval of senior hiring decisions.
The House bill comes in the wake of a significant period of apparent staff turmoil within the DNFSB, which at times has involved senior Board staff. General Manager Marcelyn Atwood was fired in 2013 after joining the Board on a probationary period and Technical Director Tim Dwyer was demoted to serve as a Group Leader after serving on a temporary assignment, according to officials familiar with Board issues. Last year, the Board’s then-General Counsel, David Jonas, was placed on indefinite paid administrative leave by the Board’s then-Chairman, Peter Winokur, after raising concerns about a hostile work environment in the Office of the General Counsel. Jonas has since left the DNFSB after lodging an Inspector General’s Office complaint about the conduct of Winokur.
More recently, the Board’s acting General Counsel, Richard Reback, was placed on administrative leave last month after the Department of Energy revoked his security clearance. John Batherson is currently serving as the acting general counsel while a search is conducted for a permanent replacement to Jonas. DNFSB Vice Chair Jessie Roberson declined to comment on the House bill this week.
Board Looks to Do ‘Joint Review’ With DOE
Meanwhile, the Board this week proposed to DOE performing a “joint review” of the processes by which the Board works with the Department to identify potential safety concerns in the design and construction of new facilities. “The goal of the process is to minimize schedule and cost impacts of resolving safety issues by identifying them as soon as design information is developed. We believe that the process achieves its goal, but we also believe that after eight years of experience with the process both our organizations might benefit from a joint review to identify any lessons learned or potential improvements,” Roberson wrote in a letter to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. “We expect a joint review will seek to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of both your organization and ours,” she wrote. DOE did not respond to a request for comment on the Board’s proposal this week.
