A search committee for the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) in New Mexico last week interviewed candidates to become the organization’s new executive director, and could fill the post this summer.
The RCLC board panel expects “to negotiate a contract with the preferred applicant over the next few weeks and plan for the entire board to consider approval of the contract at their July 20 meeting,” Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess said by email Tuesday. Los Alamos County has been providing administrative support for the coalition while it is without an executive director.
The coalition, which represents local governments near the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in northern New Mexico, has been without a leader since the end of February, when the board did not renew Andrea Romero’s contract in the wake of a dispute over expense reimbursements.
Romero went on to defeat incumbent Carl Trujillo in a June Democratic primary election to represent the 46th State District in the New Mexico House of Representatives.
Formed in 2011, the RCLC pursues maximum federal funding for DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Environmental Management operations at Los Alamos. It also works to ensure local residents reap some of the economic benefits of the government lab.
As was the case with Romero, the new executive director will be an independent contractor rather an employee of the RCLC. The request for proposals issued by the coalition said the executive director would get an initial two-year term, with the potential for two single-year extensions.
The RFP sought an executive director to manage the organization, lead its mission, advise the board, be fluent on LANL issues, oversee public information campaigns, serve as chief RCLC spokesperson, and run a website. Andrea Romero Consulting was reportedly making $140,000 per year.
Now that Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth (FBP) has “pulled the trigger” on what the United Steelworkers considers an improper reduction in force this past week at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the union expects to take its case before an arbitrator.
“We’ve already filed a bunch of grievances” that go before the company’s labor relations department, where the union expects to lose, “then ultimately will be appealed to an arbitrator,” USW Local 1-689 President John Knauff said by telephone Monday. The union also anticipates filing an allegation with the National Labor Relations Board accusing FBP of bargaining in bad faith, he added.
Fluor-BWXT suspended all operations for this holiday week. The union says the Portsmouth decontamination and decommissioning contractor is violating its latest labor agreement with the United Steelworkers, ratified by the union last December, by forcing about 660 union members to either expend two vacation days this week or take two unpaid days off.
Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth said its decision is valid under the USW contract. Union members are by contract entitled to two days off for the Independence Day holiday, which this year fell on Wednesday. Union workers, who typically work four-day weeks at the site, would have preferred working two 12-hour days this week, without having to burn two vacation days, Knauff said. The company believes a two-day work week would be inefficient.
A company spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Knauff estimated the entire grievance and arbitration process could take a year. If the union’s argument prevails, affected members could recoup certain lost pay or vacation days, the USW local president said.
Two major federal contractors, Virginia-based BWX Technologies and Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering, announced new executive appointments in the past week.
Colin Jones, most recently with AECOM, is the new vice president and deputy general manager of Jacobs’ North American Nuclear business unit, the company said June 29. He has more than 20 years of experience in government and public affairs, along with business development, and will work closely with Jacobs’ government clients. Jones started the new job in June.
Jones had been vice president of strategy, nuclear, and environment, at AECOM for one year, and the prior two years had been vice president for key accounts at CH2M, which is now a Jacobs subsidiary. From March 2010 until March 2015, he worked at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, serving as a chief of staff and a senior adviser.
“We look forward to Colin’s return to the company as he brings valuable insight and expertise to our nuclear business, allowing us to deliver maximum value to our clients,” Karen Wiemelt, Jacobs Aerospace, Technology, Environmental and Nuclear senior vice president and general manager for North American Nuclear, said in a press release.
Jacobs work with both commercial and government nuclear clients includes decontamination and decommissioning, as well as site closure, and other services.
BWXT announced June 28 John Stewart has been named president of its Tennessee based subsidiary, Nuclear Fuel Services, effective July 1. Nuclear Fuel Services provides nuclear fuel for the U.S. Navy.
Since 2012, Stewart has been president and general manager of BWSR, a BWXT joint venture that provides decommissioning and demolition and other services for Naval Nuclear Laboratory sites. Before that he was chief of nuclear safety at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
A 25-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, Stewart worked as a staff engineer at the Naval Reactors headquarters in Washington, D.C., according to a BWXT press release. “John’s impressive history with BWXT and the U.S. Navy make him uniquely suited for this leadership role at NFS,” BWXT Nuclear Operations Group President Joel Duling said the release. Stewart replaces Duling as head of NFS.
The Jacobs release did not say who Jones is replacing.
