Forest Service "Pauses" Hiring While They Count How Many Employees They Have And How Much They Cost.
Also, the Oregon Burn Boss case moved to federal court. New court date set.
Last week on the show, I discussed the hiring freeze happening in the Forest Service. Dozens of people reached out and said their details and promotional hires were postponed or canceled. I also had some folks reach out who were adamant that there was not a freeze happening. When I pushed further and asked if there was a “strategic hiring pause,” they said yes.
A Forest Service memo went out this week after I reported on the “strategic pause,” which said the following:
“We are still under a 30-day hiring pause while the WO “Washington Office” determines how many employees we have and what the cost is.”
Also, I was provided the following statement on the pause from someone within the Agency:
“It’s happening. The Deputy Regional Forester has asked Forest Supervisors to pull together their actions that might need to come through in the form of a priority list. We have positions that could be moving forward right now, but we have been asked to prioritize our actions. So, yeah, that’s happening.”
When I asked if the 30-day “strategic pause” would last only 30 days, I was told it could possibly last longer.
The following types of hiring will not continue during the assessment:
Permanent and Term full-time non-fire positions without an official job offer to include hires made using Schedule A and VRA hiring authorities will not move forward during the assessment
Pathways hiring will not continue during the assessment.
Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) hiring for the FY 2024 cadre will not be moved forward during the assessment, unless an exception is granted to continue.
1890 Scholar new hire actions are impacted and will not continue during the assessment.
The Student Intern summer program announced through Pathways is also on hold.
Other Student Intern (e.g. Resource Assistant Program) hiring will not continue during the assessment.
What types of hiring and personnel actions will continue during the strategic assessment?
Fire (permanent and temporary) hiring will continue.
Hiring for the Temporary to Permanent project (13/13 Permanent Seasonal appointments) and other non-fire permanent seasonal appointments (13/13 and 18/8) will continue.
All hiring for individuals with an official (confirmed) job offer will continue.
Other personnel actions such as (but not limited to) lateral reassignments; conversions of employees on Pathways, VRA and Schedule A appointments into career appointments; career ladder promotions; within grade increases; and awards will continue during the strategic assessment.
A "conversion" is an action to place a current Forest Service employee in a non-career appointment.
The term "conversion" is sometimes used interchangeably to describe other types of employee movement or hiring (e.g., Resources Assistant Program hiring): however, for purpose of hiring actions that continue during the assessment, no further action will occur for these.
10 days ago, Chief Moore was asked in Congressional Testimony, “How is the recruitment going for the upcoming fire season? Is it going well?”
The Chief responded, “Yes, so far the recruitment is going good, but it’s tenuous… but so far it’s going fairly well.”
Here is that full response:
It sounds like, due to budgetary issues, there is an employee head count and cost audit happening. The pause has been scheduled for 30 days, and Forest Supervisors have been asked by their superiors for priority hiring lists.
So, if you are seeing a promotion, new hire, or a detail held up… don’t get pissed at your direct supervisor. It’s coming from much higher up.
Now, moving on to some big news out of Oregon, the Burn Boss case involving Rick Snodgrass in Grant County has been moved to Federal Court outside of the contentious county. Snodgrass was arrested in Grant County after a prescribed fire spotted on a neighboring property.
Since then, Snodgrass’s defense team has successfully moved the case to Federal court in Pendleton, Oregon, located in Umatilla County. People familiar with the case say they expect a more favorable environment and outcome now that the case has moved from the State’s jurisdiction and out of Grant County.
The defense team plans to file a motion to dismiss all charges against Snodgrass on May 10th, 2024. The next court hearing is scheduled for July 11, 2024, in the Pendleton Courthouse.
I agree that this is looking like a more favorable venue for this case to be held, and I would not be surprised to see all charges dismissed.
One thing a lot of folks have been asking for, but it has not been released yet, is the bodycam footage from that day. I think it would add a lot of context to this whole situation and provide some clarity to the events that took place that day with the Sheriff's department.
Maybe that will be released after the case is finalized.
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Some might get this: a rate of spread on a fire of 54 chains/hr = 1 ft per second.
A rate of spread for say an rx fire of oh say 9 ch/hr = .165 ft per second or actually 1.98 inches every second.
18 ch/hr is 3.96” every second! The width of the palm of your hand.
Unless this was ripping over 3 feet every second ( the maximum upper limit of foot travel in a single second) how do you not notice this?
Comparatively a fire at 380 ch/hr is traveling at 7 feet every second.
Wheres the bitch to provide this type of holding training? Oh wait it’s from those types that say i don’t have time to do math. Guess what, it would have told you what you needed and likely avoided this mess.
Snodgrass is the wrong one charged in my opinion
Is there body cam footage? Did GCSO have one on during the arrest?