JUNE 21, 2002

JOE KEHOE IN CHICAGO

By
Duncan Giles
President, NTEU Chapter 49

I had the opportunity on June 12th to be on a conference call with the other SB/SE Chapter Presidents in Area 7 and SB/SE Commissioner Joe Kehoe.  It was sort of illuminating.  Below are my notes.

First, Mr. Kehoe said that SB/SE will be hiring 1,500-2,000 frontline employees and 100-200 TEC employees.  Later on in the call I asked that if our expected bump in pay to match the military is not funded by Congress, won’t we be in the same mess we are in now?  He stated that the IRS has talked to OMB and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill to make sure that we don’t get caught in this situation again.  Unfortunately, I’m not as optimistic as he is on that score.

He talked extensively about the need to retrain our Revenue Agents to do different types of work than they are doing now.  He cited abusive trusts and off shore credit card accounts as the type of work RAs should be doing.  He stated that 10-13% of Agents are doing that work now and the Service is trying to get that up to a figure as high as 80%.  He realized that not only would that take a tremendous amount of training resources but they would also have to look at grade levels, as the majority of the work he was referencing is Grade 12 & 13 work.  Speaking personally, I would love to see this happen, but I don’t foresee IRS getting this to start rolling before FY 2004.

On Revenue Officers, Mr. Kehoe said he realized their importance and seemed a little taken aback when we told him that the reworking of the Offer in Compromise (OIC) program was not going to put nearly enough folks back in the field to make a dent.  Management is supposed to be looking to see how this works out before trying to figure out how many more ROs are needed.  He was told a lot.  He also agreed that we need to backfill but we couldn’t get any firm commitments on that from him.

I also broached Partnership with him and he stated that he believes strongly in that and there was a lengthy discussion on the fact that they come up with one thing in Washington D.C. and quite another version is practiced in the field.  He was “going to look into this” and asked me to contact him with specific instances (which, of course, I will be).  

Overall, he seemed very willing to listen.  But as I told him, having the Territory Managers there in person and us on a 30 minute conference call was almost a slap in the face to NTEU.  We will see what happens with these items, since actions speak louder than words.

CALL SITE CHANGE?

By
Duncan Giles
President, NTEU Chapter 49

I’d like to address what I know so far about changes at the Call Site from SB/SE to W&I.

Colleen Kelley sent a VMS (voice mail) to chapter presidents stating that she had been INFORMALLY told by IRS management that several SB/SE Accounts Management Call Sites would be switching over to W&I (Wage & Investment).  She told them (quite properly) that when management was sure they wanted to proceed in this direction to give her formal notice so should could move forward with bargaining over the proposed changes nationally.  To my knowledge, as I write this (Monday, 6/17) that notice has still not been given.  

From my understanding of the informal proposal, Indianapolis would become a W&I site under the direction of Kansas City.  The reason that was given to Colleen for wanting to make this type of adjustment was that there were more W&I calls than anticipated and fewer SB/SE (Small Biz/Self Employed) type of calls than they had planned.

Where does that leave our Call Site, and where do we go from here?  First off, we are not closing!!  I want to try and head off the annual rumor before it gets started.  It is going to be a big effort locally and a huge concern nation-wide to retrain people from SB/SE type work to W&I call work.  This may be giving IRS pause nationally now that they realize that this will not be an easy undertaking for anyone, much less how much it will cost if they implement this by October 1 (as they originally thought).  Just don’t panic.  Be rest assured that if this does indeed come to pass, NTEU will be looking out for your interests every step of the way, locally as well as nationally.

IRS OVERSIGHT BOARD

The IRS Oversight Board was created by the 1998 IRS Restructuring Act.  Former National NTEU National President Bob Tobias serves as the employee representative on that body.   When the panel met on June 3rd & 4th in Washington, the members discussed the new IRS commissioner and the state of the agency’s budget.

One job the law gives the board is to identify the list of candidates to replace retiring Commissioner Charles Rossotti.  The board hired a search firm, conducted interviews, and sent a list of potential candidates for the job to Secretary O’Neill and the White House.  Member Tobias says proof is always in the practice, but it is his belief that the candidates submitted (based on their experience and interviews) would do a good job as commissioner, and would maintain a constructive relationship with NTEU.   The board wanted to have a person nominated by the president in time to go through the Senate nomination process to take over when Commissioner Rossotti’s 5-year term expires in November.    

The board also has the job of proposing a budget for IRS.  The board called for an increase of $1.8 billion in the agency’s FY 2003 spending plan, but the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) eliminated $111 million from that figure.  The board will be focusing on urging Congress to fund the $68 million unfunded pay increase, change the law requiring certified letters saving $19 million and enact a $20 million OIC user fee.  The board is also monitoring IRS efforts to reduce rent expense.