When the US Forest Service Deputy Chief of State and Private Forestry testified before members of Congress on April 5 that a firefighter hiring event “went very well”, the event had not started yet.
“We just completed an additional fire hire event in California at the end of March and those numbers are still coming in,” Ms. Jaelith Hall-Rivera said. “I do think we are on pace. By all accounts that hiring event went very well. Importantly what we are seeing is a very high acceptance rate in our permanent and seasonal permanent firefighting positions, which is what we want.”
In an article published today, Brianna Sacks of BuzzFeed News reported that the hiring event actually began April 11, six days after Ms. Hall-Rivera’s testimony, and is scheduled to go through April 29.
Ms. Hall-Rivera’s statement was in response to a series of questions from Rep. Katie Porter from California. You can watch this exchange in the video of the hearing we posted April 5 as part of a summary of the testimony before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands. Rep. Porter’s excellent questions begin at 138:35.
Below are excerpts from the BuzzFeed article:
A Forest Service spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that the deputy chief made an “error” because she “didn’t have all the information in front of her.”
“There are several hiring events throughout the year, and I think she was thinking of a different one in a different region,” the spokesperson said, but he did not provide specifics as to which one that might have been. The spokesperson also did not have hiring numbers that might back up Hall-Rivera’s assurances.
Interviews with firefighters in Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and California, as well as internal communications, hiring data, org charts, and surveys from the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, also tell a different story.
For example, in a Feb. 15 meeting hosted and attended by senior Washington officials, fire directors from across the US shared their issues with hiring, according to meeting notes obtained by BuzzFeed News. In New Mexico, where fires are currently raging, leaders said multiple hotshot crews would not be fully staffed. In the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, leaders said there is a “lack of candidates” and they are “unable to staff seven days in many places.” There is a “continued decline of folks to do the work.”
As California, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Colorado gear up for fire season, interviews with three Forest Service employees familiar with hiring say the situation is grim. Without a serious staffing push, engines will sit idle, helicopters won’t be able to fly daily, crews won’t be able to start the season on time, and those who have worked multiple seasons in the field aren’t sure how much more they can stretch themselves without falling apart, they said. The Thomson Reuters Foundation, which also recently investigated systemic staffing issues, highlighted retention issues due to pay and housing.
In parts of Montana and Idaho, which had 700 seasonal workers last year, only 460 have returned for this fire season, a source familiar with the numbers said. And after last year’s Fire Hire, California had filled only 56 of 781 open positions, according to data obtained by BuzzFeed News. As of April 8, two days before this year’s hiring push, California had more than 1,560 vacancies, according to a review of the state’s openings.
More and more articles like this are being published documenting the hiring and retention difficulties that face the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
From Thomson Reuter Foundation News, April 25, 2022:
An engine captain involved in temporary hiring in northern California indicated that almost all Forest Service forests in the area expected to have less than 65% of full staffing for firefighters this year, some below 50%, according to a federal firefighting source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Fundamentally, people don’t want to take jobs because they can’t find a place to stay,” [Kelly] Martin [of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters] said.
One female wildland firefighter – who lives out of her camper in California to save on rent – said proposals to increase base pay would not make up for the lack of an attractive career path for more experienced firefighters.
“Just raising the wages for those coming into fire is not going to be enough to keep people around,” she said, asking not to be named.
The agency has to severely under pay us. They need us to be overtime dependent. If we made more money then we may be able to actually have a work/life balance and then the agency wouldn’t be able to count on us to be there at every single incident literally driving ourselves sick and mad. They need us and this is the modern slavery.
If the forest service actually valued and cared more for their employees especially fire fighters I would of stayed. I got hired on a small rural fire department with a wildland division as a Engine captain this year in New Mexico, making more then a GS 8/9. All equipment is in excellent condition and the leadership actually LISTENS and values the firefighters needs first. Not sure how a small department with a sliver of the budget the feds have can be better but it sure is nice. And before those Badge protectors start jumping me, when was the last time one of your ideas to make the crew and general life on the line easier was not only met with open arms but items purchased and changes made by end of shift?
Working for the FS is like being in a relationship with a narcissist, a psychopath and/or a sociopath. You can either stay in the relationship and complain about it or you can leave. I mean no disrespect. I had a call this week with the FS and they got really upset when they realized they could not control me anymore. So, my advice, get out of the relationship, leave the agency, find another job and live a wonderful life.
The going plan is to rely solely on contractors and phase out federal firefighters. The politicians can then say they’re “shrinking the government” even though contractors cost triple the money. Yes, there are some decent contract crews/engines but most are mediocre at best and it’s impossible to get overhead experience as a contractor. The the “Infrastructure Bill” money was nothing but a bait and switch to get people to stay for another season with the hopes something would change. Nothing has happened…
Let’s not forget that contractors on a larger fire can help stick a finger in a buckling dam and limp these fires to the finish line. But it’s mind boggling that we try to pull these contact resources into the district level for severity more and more. Not only do they not have the training to be able to jump and pounce on an IA and keep it small but they are not granted any type of delegation of authority to IC any new start. It solves nothing as we end up having to break up our local crew to send a qualified IC with them and leaves us just as crippled as we were without them even. We are begging for people to get hurt or worse with setup we have in place!
I believe I understand a lot of the frustration. I also retired as a FS firefighter in 2007. One of the last in the old CSR system. Yes, it is a good pension but alas I truly grieve for those still in the “cup trenches” on the fire lines. The leadership example is oh so typical and has evolved into something I can scarcely recognize as what leadership USED to be in the USFS. We truly do reap what we sow! Our next CHIEF, whew!
Old “Smoky Bear” is definitely rolling over in his grave. The old days are gone and in some ways for good reason. Controlled burning is now more acceptable and that is a good thing. Having qualified people lead gives us that. Having obviously totally unqualified people who are either illiterate or just don’t give a f*** and are in it to advance themselves or some “woke” agenda is literally destroying our country from within.
We don’t need Russia to destroy us. We’re doing it to ourselves and some (the most vocal) are proud to do it.
Even though I long for the “good old days” for the sake of the agency, I’m happily in my retirement pasture and enjoying every minute of it!
I am standing strong with JA. Hearing about a Chief and a deputy chief in charge with no fire experience, and having this Ms Hall- Rivera in charge who lied to Congress doesn’t make me want to continue work with this agency. We don’t make things up on the fire line. Why don’t we have a fire leader? Leaving this agency. Been in for a few years and the lack of fire leadership is showing me that nobody cares about the firefighters. It’s an agency with no fire leadership and they appear to make the rules without our voice as firefighters. They shove things down the pipeline and expect us to obey when they give us things that don’t make sense. Like “This is who we are” Why can’t we have a national fire agency? People who lead us who have done the job? I don’t understand. Young but wondering.
The agencies lack of understanding in addressing these issues is truly atrocious. Everytime I get emails from the the cheif that talk about integrity and investing in our people I just shake my head. But this just shows how corrupt and incompetent our government is from the tops down. They spend money on dumb Sh#t and care nothing about us who have to go out and deal with these fires. I have been with the agency almost ten years and as a GS 7 step 2 my take home base pay is a piss poor $35k a year!! I’m done holding out hope that the agency is going to properly compensate us. As of this year I’m planning to leave the agency and never look back.
Maybe that same congressional committee should hold another hearing for an update on the hiring process. And step up the process to get people paid better.
Good idea. I actually mentioned that in my letter, email and calls to each of the 12 members of the committee. Specifically, I asked what their plans were, including dates, for asking and receiving an update on the hiring process from the three agency representatives that were present at the first committee hearing and specifically from Ms. Hall-Rivera. I also mentioned that I would also include a verifiable list of hiring numbers once the season has begun. I have an excellent source who has been providing me with information as well as where it can be found for documentation/verification purposes.
And hopefully the petition will have enough signatures to be noticed and I will present that info as well:
https://chng.it/bmZW7pNZBQ
Burt, that is probably the truth!!!! Damn, this train is so far off the tracks!! Need to just let it crash, and then start over again as others have mentioned.
Dear NPS/FS, WAKE UP!!! You need to make some changes. 1) When posting a position make sure someone can qualify for that position. Look at the quals and ask yourself can I qualify for this job? Look at the questions too. And stop giving that personality test. It’s illegal!!! 2) During the interview, do not ask about diversity. It is not our problem…it’s yours…fix it. Oh, and don’t ask women how they pee in the woods. There’s no good answer to that question!!! 3) Fill the positions faster. 6 months to a year to hire someone is not acceptable! 4) Onboarding Process….it is not acceptable for a person to go to Aspire to Retire before they go to New Employee Orientation. Seriously, it takes 2 – 9 years to go to New Employee Orientation and many people still haven’t gone to Funamentals. 5) Pay…OK, We’ve kicked this dead horse…Do not post a job at a GS-3/4/5 when you use to post it at a GS-9/11/12 and then complain that you are not filling jobs. Seriously, pay people what they are worth. And employees if you’re not getting paid what your worth walk off. Find another job and walk off…quit the NPS/FS. Show your managers that they have to pay you enough money to live in that location. 6) Get rid of HRT! Do it NOW!!! 7) Fix your moral issue!!! Treat people with respect. Give your employees cookies or pizza or oh, yeah, more money!!! Listen to your employees and then do what they say….A good example….we want more money…then pay them more money. Seriously, management, you don’t have to go to Congress every time, you can do your job and get people raises…oh yeah, but that cuts into your raise…yep, but that’s what a good manager does…put his/her people first. Seriously, NPS/FS you’ve lost that loving feeling…once upon a time people wanted to work for you, but you have lost the public’s trust and no PR propaganda is going to fix this…you have to do the hard work…look at yourself and fix it…Low bar fixes…fire men who rape women…fire women who enable men to rape women…fire men and women who drive government vehicles drunk or high…fire people who comment fraud…if you have a guy that inappropriately touches women don’t say oh, that’s how he is…stop his behavior or fire him. If you have a guy running around with his balls hanging out don’t fire the manager who tells him to change his clothes…fire the man who is indecent in front of children. Yeah, R8, I’m talking to you!!! Come on guys you know what to do…Do it!!! You are hemigering people…Make the necessary changes! Stop hiring narcissists, psychopaths, and sociopaths and then complain that you have a problem with managers. Managing people is a skill. Just because you are a good firefighter does not mean you’re going to be a good burn boss or good FMO. NPS/FS make the necessary changes because I’m tired of seeing people’s houses burn down and I’m tired of going to funerals because the NPS/FS f’ed up again. Congress, stop kissing these people’s a$$es and hold these people accountable. If not, make a new agency…I don’t care what you call it oh, or just kick the NPS/FS out of your state. If you’re going to take women’s rights away why not take the NPS/FS rights away…they’ve destroy so many houses and so many lives..NPS/FS change or we’ll kick you out of our state!!!!
Sign the petition! At least it can bring some recognition to the prevarications she presented to congress! Could be valuable ammo when she is being considered for the job of chief.
https://chng.it/bmZW7pNZBQ
Hey! You should all be ashamed of yourself! She’s the future chief of the forest service! She’s doing such a good job! Where did she lie? (Sarcasm for you gullible)
Sometimes you just need a GS-5 to figure stuff out.
Take heart, and remember the old adage: ” It’s a good thing we don’t get all the government we pay for…”. Semper Fi!
White Buffalo, with scorch marks ( ex-parkie: 1957-2000)
L.C.Briggs
The stage has been set for this multi faced problem for a long time. In fact, many of us old timers (Retired in 2002, after 32 years) we’re dealing with this and trying to change the trend in the late 90’s. There are way to many obstacles on a Forest and Districts to make this right. Resource turf issues, project priorities other than Fire and dollars pulled for other priorities. Major Fire facilities for example have been a low priority for a long time. I’m sure this applies to BLM and NPS as much as the FS.
I really think it’s time to look way outside the box and look at a Federal Fire Organization since In many areas there are no municipal or State Fire Organizations available even if you wanted to contract firefighting out to them.
At the same time establish a Multi Agency Committee to look at how to interface a Federal Fire Organization with a Forest, BlM District or National Park. This could be accomplished thru Master Mutual Aid Agreements. In this way the actual funds that are being appropriated could be directed towards Pay, Housing , Hiring etc. If a Forest or BLM District has a large project or even a small project have them create a project accountability contract that outlines the work, provides the equipment and the funds separate from Fire to get it done. and coordinate with the local Federal Fire Coord. for scheduling.
It’s either time to look at Federal Firefighting a different way, or give the responsibility to adjacent agencies at 3 to 4 times the cost. Unfortunately, this latter option doesn’t even work In many Fed responsibility States and locations.
I get really tired of hearing the FS saying we have to do it the same way we have, because thats the way it’s always been done and it still isn’t working even as well as it was when I was there!
Well said Lonnie!
Doesn’t matter if fed resources aren’t staffed, contractors or municipal departments will fill the gaps. One of my old supervisors used to say, “if you have a fire, call the Fire Department”.
90% of the contractors I have worked with over my 20 years are mediocre at best great intentions, but mediocre, some of them are great if you can line them out properly, but none are proactive enough to fill the gaps of fed resources…Local government is an extremely mixed bag, the ex-Feds are great if your luck enough to find them…but the vast majority of them don’t have the fire slides to effectively manage large fires in the wilderness…For most of them it’s a payed vacation in the woods with a huge payday at the end of it… I think the main reason many of the big fires in Nor cal got so big last year was because Feds didn’t have enough people to fill DIV and Other OPs roles, it was a complete cluster, + it’s 4 times more expensive, because the Feds are paying for the local government firefighter, and also their backfill at their stations. It’s a scam, if you were in Quincy anytime last year and saw the parking lot full of local government engines and City firefighters with the lawn chairs out getting rich off the federal gov.
Agree, and yet there’s more and more out there every year, and will continue to be more as long as they meet the minimums. Just saying, it’s sad to see it come to this.
That comment used to be pretty accurate. However, lots of fire departments are staffing really good wildland firefighters, many of whom are sick of the fed /ABQ ‘Service’ Center BS. As wildfires become increasingly more complex and burn in the WUI, I have found that many FD overhead with IHC and fed experience are great allies on fires.
It turns out that ex hotshots that got a city job that provides Hazmat, utilities, and EMS training do pretty well. People that work in busy FDs and have legit wildland experience are great leaders. I used to dread a FD TFLD or DIVS, but I’ve seen some great leadership from them in the past 5 years.
The DOI/USDA used to have the best resources on wildfires, but the federal government dropped the ball on retention and pay. I have seen some municipal FD crews that are on par with fed crew when it comes to commo, tactics and dealing with chaos. They cost more $$ but also bring a skill set that many feds don’t have. I often wish I didn’t stick to the FS and went to a place with better retirement and work/life balance. I can’t fault a FD employee that did.
The first part of your statement is spot on, and par with what I said. The municipal departments that are picking up wildlanders’ are building their reputation up for sure, but departments still value seniority over experience. I know hotshot Supts that went over to city departments that are riding around in the back of their fire trucks when they have 100x more wildland experience than their captains up front. In addition local gov does not just cost more money they cost a crazy amount of more money like 10x as much when you factor in portal-a-portal and backfill at their stations.. I am not taking anything way from the diversity of their skill set…Also, I have yet to work with a Muni-crew that is on par with the good fed crew… If legislators or the public ever took a good look at the amount of money structure firefighters make on wildland incidents they would be appalled.
It’s not that those positions aren’t being filled with qualified candidates it’s that suppression in general went to “big box” or “biggest box” and set the record for the largest fire ever competition is going on. No one wants to work hard like the old days. Everything is a “safety issue” so we go to the next ridge or road rather than get in and get dirty when things calm down to work hard in a safe manner. Not to mention everyone wants to “fire off” their section of line rather than go direct then inevitably loses it and another 10k acres. Bottom line is work ethic is in the toilet influencers can’t fight fire and that’s what today’s generation of firefighters are. Phone glued to their hand trying to get the next pic for their IG.
Not in my neck of the woods-most of the FDs where I live are staffed by volunteers. The city is doing city stuff. The Feds are the only game in town…and the state could never afford to cover everything.
Clearly, we have all chosen the wrong line of work.
Also, the BLM isn’t doing much better-we have staffing for one truck out of three. I’ve been in the game a long time-my advice to any young employee is to get out now, it’s just not worth it.
With today’s climate in many areas, the USFS is a FAILED Agency ! Let the States take over firefighting in OUR National Forests !
You nailed it! Abolish the Fire program in the USFS. A retiree with 37 yrs.
States would be broke in one fire season. Your taxes would go through the roof and you would complain about that. Education would suffer as they robbed from the general fund to pay the bill, then when the states were totally broke they would start selling it off to the highest bidder. This would eliminate public lands and then you would complain about that. I doubt you or anyone else on this forum complaining has the money to buy your favorite piece and manage it, let alone allow the public to enjoy it.
And your solution is…………? It’s time for a Plan B because this Agency’s plan A sure as hell not working !!!!!
I just looked at her employee profile. It says she makes 172,000 dollars a year. When she started in 2008 her starting salary was 98,000. Clearly if she started out making that much she has never stepped foot on the fireline.
This is not isolated to the Forest Service. The BLM has very similar issues. I remember my early days hotshoting. I relished being able to push through every summer without complaining and just telling friends and family “I’ll see you in October”. Sometimes I feel ashamed now for wanting time off with my family, more money, housing stipend, better equipment, disability pay, and more to offer incoming seasonal employees. I really could care less about being called a “FIRE FIGHTER” Oh so fancy.
We can give 33 billion to Ukraine, but we can’t take care of our own firefighters.
Contact your reps. They control who get what.
Big nothingburger here. I would say her verbal gaff is pretty minimal considering the world we live in. I’m currently checking my IRPG and I guess I don’t have the new new that explains congressional testimony… She chose administration as a career, we all chose field work. Everybody got choices.
As much as it pains me to say this, it may be time to take a page or two from Cal Fire, they appear to have a grasp on hiring, Cal Fire is a professional FD, CDF had a vision in the 80’s and 90’s to transform their Dept. I used to think….man I am glad I do not work for those guy’s……but in the early 2000’s I became a bit envious.
Let Cal Fire have all suppression in CA, they will do a bang up job, the USFS is in rough shape, great folks, poor leadership……this did not happen overnight……..
If you want a career in fire then go find a career in a real FD/agency, if you do not like your situation then change it, as I have said many times money is not going to fix the problem that the USFS has with hiring, it will help “Bandaid”…….GO CAL FIRE……..you will have a real future……And you will look good doing it…..
Shoot even switching to the NPS would be a move in the right direction, same pay issues, but a great work environment, folks really care, working for the NPS was the very best part of my career…..The Best…..
The Biden administration team hired Moore. Moore hired Ms. Hall- Rivera. Neither have any fire experience. They can’t relate to us. Their poor decisions for years (in previous positions) are now coming out. They both have had negative attitudes toward the fire program. They don’t understand us – the firefighters. Now they lead us. Give me a break. Money doesn’t fix morale. People leave because they know leadership is disconnected.
I’ve got a wife and two kids in daycare. Lots of problems but mainly for me the morale issue is financial. I feel like a deadbeat dad dragging my family down when my paychecks don’t cover either rent, or daycare costs alone, much less all the other costs of life. Increased pay would help morale.
I know exactly how you feel man. It sickens me to be a permanent full time GS 7 and I have to work no less than 500 hours of overtime every season just to scrape by. Everyday I feel like I chose the wrong path and that I’m a failure. As a result, I’m not waiting anymore for the agency to fix these problems. I’m planning to leave the agency, get my life back, and hopefully make money.
I think your frown will be turned upside down once you take the required “This is who were are!” training.
In “This is who we are” training do y’all talk about the harrassers, pediphils, rapists, and murders too?
You hit the nail on the head. I don’t think the Forest Service will ever recover from the past decades of ignoring the wants/needs/complaints from the people that implement the program. We are seeing in real time the effects of this. I didn’t go to a single fire last season that had adequate HEQB, TFLD, or DIVS. Not to mention the majority of these roles were being filled with trainees without any trainer. I have a very real fear that we will be paying with serious injury and fatalities over the next decade due to the lack of experience. Then we add more and more responsibility to those senior firefighter/assistant captains/squad bosses that simply don’t have the slides or bandwidth to deal with these situations.
I haven’t spoken to a single person in the USFS that has any desire to work beyond their first eligible retirement date. Most are wondering if they will even make it. I have long talks with all my seasonals/job corps kids I run into/ Americorps/ etc about the reality of the future of the agency and I absolutely recommend other fed agencies or state/local fire orgs.
The FS is a sinking ship and the people that can fix it have no desire to do anything about it. My district has been sitting and 70% vacancies for 2 years. Every hiring cycle gets screwed up. Not to mention hr has a huge amount of vacancies leaving the hiring folks to process dozens of new hires.
If you can make it to retire do it. If you jump ship, no one cares that should care. I honestly haven’t spoken to a single FS firefighter in the past couple years that isn’t looking for a way out or another fire agency. Now to just get brave enough to follow my own advice…
This sounds eerily familiar to the state agency I work for, and for several others based on accounts from close friends. You can sum up our management with the old addage “F*** up, move up!” Problem is in many outfits, there are individuals like this entrenched up and down the chain of command. It will take someone with a real pair of gamete-producing organs to get rid of the know-nothings/do-nothings!
Here you go folks!!!!!!
Lets make a change! Sign it, pass it around.
https://chng.it/bmZW7pNZBQ
Signed! (And passed along to quite a few others) I hope others do the same.
I saw the same thing, she should stick with wine and interior decorating…and leave the Forestry and firefighting to someone else…anyone else for that matter!!!!!!!
We should ALL sign a No-Confidence letter and send it to the Committee!!!!!
I don’t care for her testimony but you looking up and then telling us how she decorates her house is super creepy.
Shocker… Too bad she won’t be held accountable.
I have a bit of spare time so I decided to send the facts (contradicting the prevarication of Ms. Hall-Rivera), written out in a clear and concise letter to each member of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands. I received one response almost immediately from an aide asking me if I had the dates for the hiring events in California, which I just sent.
Next I’m going to ask the Deputy Chief (and frankly, I’m not too proud to have someone like her in charge or at the very least responsible for relaying accurate information to a Congressional committee) if she could back-up or verify the information she claimed to be true to the committee.
And, as I’m writing this I received another response from a committee member (aide).
Clearly, this part of the agency does NOT have its act together (to put it lightly). And… as with most things we do in fire, sloppy work can actually directly and indirectly result in the loss of lives. I wonder how she sleeps at night… Yeah, I know, stupid question.
Take a look at this metaphor for incompetence. It’s no wonder this agency is a sinking ship. I am willing to bet that Ms Hall-Riviera has likely never even set foot in the field and she is CLEARLY hopelessly out of touch with reality. This was a shameful, incompetent and bungled “performance” by this person and it saddens me that THIS is our representation in DC.
Does Rep Porter know the real story?????????
Yes.
Right on, Ms. Hall-Rivera. When the national media asked me about Forest Service hiring and staffing yesterday, I told them it was going the opposite of very well. Come on now; I don’t even work for the FS anymore, and I know hiring is a mess. How do I know it’s a mess? Because I talk to the forestry technicians and ask them how it’s going, you GS Fantastics should try it sometime.
Where is Ms. Hall-Rivera from, and what are her qualifications? This is just more propaganda from the once proud FS. Their consolidation of HR and Finance to the Albuquerque Service Center has been a huge failure, yet “leadership” is either too dumb to realize it, or too arrogant to care. FireHire is a terrible program, and has been since it was implemented. The Bean Counters keep raising rates on Government housing, making it almost impossible for a GS-5 to stay there, let alone a GS-3 or 4 (thank goodness it wasn’t like that when I started as a GS-2!). Public housing is even more expensive in most places. And all we ever get from Washington is lip service. And the WO wonders why morale sucks and nobody wants to work for the outfit? Hell, even Ray Charles could see the problem!! And the kicker is that Congress is actually showing that they care and want to make changes to improve the situation, and our WO “leaders” still do nothing. They should be really embarrassed.
I can’t remember the year either 2016 or 2017 the committee I sat on had the pleasure of talking directly to the acting director of fire and Aviation for the BLM. She wanted to talk diversity and we as a whole shifted the comversation to retention and hiring difficulties. We saw this coming but no one wanted to listen. It’s just going to continue to keep getting worse. The point of housing is huge. Seeing it first hand how much seasonal employees were having to pay for the dumps they lived in at my station was astounding. Soon there won’t be federal fire fighters to have to reclassify. Maybe thays what IPM is counting on.
I don’t know much about law, but if you lie under oath isn’t that pergery? So, with that logic, did Ms. Hall-Rivera perger herself? Is there a penalty for pergery?
They are so far removed from reality and ground ops it doesn’t matter.
Good Idea Fairy, I totally agree. I watched the hearing and I couldn’t believe what Ms. Hall-Rivera was saying, especially when she was talking about hiring. I applied for a job 6 months ago and just now heard back from the hiring manager, but still no interview. Still no job. So, when Ms. Hall-Rivera said they were hiring all these people I couldn’t believe it.
Well, it’s either perjury or abject incompetence.
Either way, this person is unfit for the job they hold. For an E1 making $172k per year and tasked with ensuring we are staffed it is unacceptable. I have GS-5’s working for me that would most certainly be better informed and competent.
Robert, but if I get pulled over for speeding and I say I didn’t know the speed limit…I still get a ticket. I might even get fired. Should we not hold our management to the same standards that we hold our fire fighters?
I’m thinking she is an improvement over many of her predecessors who
were liars and/or incompetents and arrogant too.