This article originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

May 17, 2011

DEP chief fears problems as employees retire

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.

Also during legislative interim meetings Tuesday:

• Workforce West Virginia Executive Director Russell Fry told legislators the state Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund did not run out of money this spring, as had been previously feared.

The fund dipped to a low of about $38 million in early April, but has rebounded as payments for unemployment benefits have declined as the economy has improved, Fry said.

During the 2011 session, the Legislature passed a bill allowing short-term loans of up to $20 million to keep the fund solvent, but Fry said Workforce West Virginia did not have to use that fund.

"We have not and do not project we will have to borrow any money from the fund you so graciously provided for emergencies," Fry told the Joint Committee on Government and Finance.

• The state Children's Health Insurance Board submitted its request March 31 to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to expand eligibility for CHIP coverage to children from families with incomes of up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, but has not yet received approval, Administration Secretary Robert Ferguson told lawmakers.

For a family of four, that would increase the income cutoff to $67,050 a year, making an estimated 720 uninsured children eligible for CHIP coverage.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.