DEP Chief Fears Problems as Employees Retire
Charleston Gazette
17 May 2011
By Phil Kabler
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State Department of Environmental Protection
Secretary Randy Huffman told legislators Tuesday he fears a brain drain
at the regulatory agency, as many longtime employees are reaching
retirement age.
Huffman said that many of those employees joined the DEP in the 1970s
and early 1980s, as environmental regulations were being enacted, and
devoted themselves to careers in public service.
However, Huffman told a Joint Government Organization interim committee
meeting that the new generation of employees does not have the same
level of commitment.
"That sense of loyalty, that sense of public service that caused my
generation to stay, they don't have that," he said of younger employees.
He said younger employees today are much more likely to leave the DEP
for private-sector jobs in regulated industries, something that rarely
happened in the past, despite higher salaries in the private sector.
"They're basically out here on display for the companies we regulate to
determine who the best and brightest are," Huffman said of younger
employees. "We end up competing with the private sector for that talent
pool."
He noted that DEP's turnover rate, which had been 3 percent a year, has
jumped to 6 percent recently.
Huffman said he is concerned about a "significant drain" of
institutional knowledge as more and more longtime employees retire.
"If we lose an experienced veteran, that loss is extremely high," he
said.
Huffman stressed that the Office of Oil and Gas needs to hire more
inspectors, with the anticipated growth in Marcellus Shale drilling.
Currently, the office is budgeted for 17 inspectors and has one vacancy.
However, he said the shortage of inspectors is not as severe as critics
claim.
"I get a little disturbed when I hear people say, '17 inspectors for
60,000 gas wells,'" Huffman said, noting that once a well is installed
and operational, there is usually no need for additional inspections.
Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.