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Show 10 Hilltop Times ACTION LINEEXT. 77000 May 10, 1991 How can we use outside hire? Treat military, civilians equally civilian employee who received a ticket for traffic violation. Another car was pulled over for the same infraction, but a citation was not issued because it was a military member who was driving the car. It doesn't seem fair to me that civilians are required to pay fines for traffic violations when military members only get a reprimand or note on their record for the same violation. Why can't we have a more uniform system that treats civilians and military members equally? Ql ami ACTION' LINE is your opportunity to make Hill AFB a better place to live, v ork and play. When you call Fxt 771XX), or send on LOGDIS or Office Vision to ID "ACTION'," your comments w ill be recorded and stalled through the agency responsible for action. Tlease give your supervisor and chain of command the opportunity to work with you in answering questiors and solving problems before calling I The issue you raise illustrates the circumstances that apply to Hill AFB and at all Air Force installations in the United States: There are indeed two separate criminal justice systems here one for military members, who are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and one for all others. The latter group includes civilian employees, contractor employees, retirees, dependents, guests and other visitors. I won't try to talk around this disparity. Military members are simply held to different standards certainly to higher criminal standards than are citizens generally. When you think about it, we ask and expect more from military members. Specifically, we expect our soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen to risk their lives by putting themselves in harm's way during war. And that is precisely what we got from several hundred thousand of our military members in the recent war in Southwest Asia. This is why we have a separate justice system for military members. We learned from history long ago that a higher code is the best way to create the discipline that is needed for warriors to fight like an armed force and not like an armed rabble. Under our legal system, military members are issued a ticket on Defense Department Form 1408 for traffic offenses. It is not true that these always result in no action or just a reprimand. Some of them end up in forfeitures of pay under Article 15, UCMJ, and some of them are used to support involuntary discharge actions, at least in part. We have no blanket rules that prescribe how a squadron commander is to react to a ticket for any particular traffic offense. On the other hand, civilian employees and others who are not subject to the UCMJ are issued a ticket on DD Form 1805 for traffic offenses. Because of a poli-c- y decision long ago that base officials should attempt to traffic offenses by equalize the base response to civilians to the community response to similar offenses off base, we use a criminal court system to handle these At on-bas- on-bas- e e on-bas- e tickets. Because Hill is under exclusive federal jurisdiction in most parts of the base, that court is the U.S. Magistrate Court. Persons who are issued DD Forms 1805 may contest their tickets in that court if they wish, or they may in many, but not all, cases pay a fine in lieu of appearing in court. Some tickets require a mandatory court appearance because they are for serious offenses, such as drunken driving. I note that one DUI can be, and frequently is, a career stopper for military members. This is not the case for civilian employees. e Prior to this decision to apply a semblance of the system on base, there was no just or deterrent response available for traffic offenses by civilians on base. Why? Because civilians are not subject to the UCMJ like military members are. This does mean that civilian employees and other persons who are not subject to the UCMJ are treated more inflexibly for minor traffic infractions than are military members. It is possible that the response to a very minor traffic infraction will be less onerous to a military member than it will be to a civilian employee, much the same as the response to a more serious offense will be less onerous to a civilian employee than it will be to a military member. We are a government of laws and not of people. The systems I have just described are products of those laws. Perhaps you did not fully understand the source of the disparity between the two systems, and perhaps you may not fully agree with Congress that there is a need for the disparity now that you better understand the reasons for it. However, I earnestly hope that my explanation at least clarifies the issues for you. And I thank you for giving me the opportunity to elaborate on these very important issues for all the people who live and work at Hill. off-bas- Don't use afterburners at night Area C. It's 7 p.m. and there are aircraft Sj flying and they are using their afterburners. It really is loud. Is there a regulation about not using afterburners at night? I live in The use of afterburner is a safety of flight issue that is governed by the flight manual and various regulations. In general, if the aircraft is configured with one tank, the pilot can take off in either military power or afterburner. If the aircraft is configured with two tanks, it is mandatory that the pilot use afterburner for takeoff, day or night. The subject of quiet hour is a separate issue and is addressed in Hill AFB Regulation 60-- 3 under noise abatement. Paragraph 17b states, "Only initial departure and landings are permitted between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time. Flights by the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, 419th TFW and other fighter aircraft between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m local time will be held to a minimum number needed to accomplish training and exercise requirements and require the approval of the wing commander." I hope this has helped to explain flight activity and required use of afterburners at Hill. C ACTION LINE. This will help me better serve your interests through ACTION LINE. Moj. Ogden " -'- QI X career-condition- al The squadron filled a position at the Utah Test and Training Range located at Lakeside. Positions at this location are in a separate competitive area from the positions at Hill AFB. They do not compete with each other during a RIF. Lakeside is more than 90 miles by car from Hill and employees here cannot displace employees working at Lakeside. M i r ; L Gtn. DaU W. Thompson Jr. commander - saw on the SICM authorized and assigned status that 2S49th Support Squadron (Oasis) GS-4- , a picked up supply technician, in people from outside appointment. Why are we bringing force? in reduction in a are we when hire - - Charge proper price at commissary - J ALC Q Sometimes when I take items up to the cash register at the commissary they ring up at the regular price rather than the sale price posted on the shelf. Can something be done to get the sale prices into the computer so we don't have to go through the hassle of getting a refund when we discover the error after we get home? The commissary management apologizes for any in-- r convenience you have experienced. In continuing to provide the best possible prices for patrons, they negotiate for better prices on merchandise already in the store. This necessitates posting a sale sign and communicating the new lower price with the computer room for reduction in the scanning registers. On occasion, the sale price is posted prior to price changes being completed. Commissary employees have been instructed to post signs after approval of the computer specialist and remove all old sale tags at the conclusion of the sale, and prior to opening the store. However, on occasion, an item comes off the sale without a new shelf label being generated, and the sale sign is not removed. The current price is automatically input into the computer. With 12,786 line items carried, putting up the new shelf label and taking down the old label is sometimes missed. Patrons always receive the lowest price posted. If you should encounter this type of problem in the future, please contact a red coat manager for assistance. If you do not see one nearby, request the ID desk to page one for you. ii Explain blood leave policy Would you please clarify the base blood leave policy? Since employees are encouraged to serve as blood donors, a supervisor may excuse the employee from work without charging leave, unless doing so would seriously hinder mission accomplishment. Blood donation must take place during the employee's assigned shift. Excused time is consecutive, beginning when the employee leaves the work area, and covers travel time to and from the donation center, actual donation time and recuperation. Maximum excused time should not exceed four hours except in unusual circumstances. These requests are submitted through the Civilian Personnel Office for approval by the center commander on a e basis. Except for those approved, any hours in excess of the four must be charged to annual leave or leave without pay as requested by the employee. Written date and time verification of the blood donation from the donation center is required. The supervisor obtains the verification and ensures the donation was made during the employee's assigned shift. Suspect blood donor slips will be verified with the blood donor center and, when appropriate, disciplinary action may be taken. Supervisors should retain the verification slips for three payroll years for audit purposes. The employee must return to duty immediately if the donation of blood is refused. There is no provision which r excused in these guarantees a minimum of cases. Employees are encouraged to report to work as soon as possible after recuperation. If travel time, donation time and recuperation time take less than the maximum of four hours, employees should use only the time that is required. For more information on blood leave, contact Nancy Lucas, Human Resources Directorate, Ext. 76142. A r case-by-cas- two-hou- Make technical books available think the situation of getting technical books on base is absolutely ridiculous. It is such a hassle that we often have to go outside and pay out of our pocket for a book we need to do our job. With all the emphasis they are putting on quality these days, can't they do something to help us get the books we need? QI 4 agree with you; books should be more readily available when the need exists. The Quality Office has investigated your situation and will contact you in the near future on how to improve the process. As we move more into the Total Quality Management concepts, we must all continuously improve our processes. Thank you for your interest, and please let me know if this problem does not improve. Is was told that position descriptions don't matter If this is the case, would you please exthe plain performance rating system to me? QI 4 Position descriptions do matter, and it is the responsibility of the supervisor to ensure that each employee has a job description that accurately describes the work being performed. The supervisor, based on the duties outlined in the description, prepares a performance plan that contains the tasks performed by the employee and performance criteria for each task. The performance plan is then used by the supervisor to rate the performance of the employee on the annual performance rating. In addition to the performance plan being prepared based upon the duties outlined in the position description, credit for skills required to perform the work is also recorded on the description. These skills codes determine your eligibility for various positions on base, either by reassignment, promotions or reductions in force. If you would like additional information or assistance, please call Ray Marchant in the Human Resources Directorate, Ext. 77308. 1 donation tax deductible? If you donate leave to someone who needs surgery or something like that, is it tax deductible? f Mrs. Burleson of the Internal Revenue Service provided the following information regarding your question. IRS Publication 526, page 1, allows that a charitable contribution made to a federal, state or local agency is deductible if the gift is solely for public purpose. Gifts to individuals are not deductible. Therefore, a donation of leave is not tax deductible. For information on the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program, contact Nancy Lucas in the Human Resources Directorate, Ext. 76142. Publish base restaurant menus 0 Would it be possible to publish the restaurant menus in the Hilltop Times every week so that we will know what they are serving? full-sto- p M Don't job descriptions matter? The Hilltop Times publishes the lists of the three 1 base restaurants, Officers' and Noncommissioned Officers' Clubs, as well as the airmen's dining facility, the Hillcrest, in each week's paper. The menus are included in the Around the Hill section. There are times, however, when either the restaurants or clubs are unable to forecast their menus, making the listings unavailable for publication. However, we have not had that problem recently. Explain loss of benefits variable housing allowance was cut significantly and now I hear that the annual outpatient deductibles for Civilian Health and Medical Program for the Uniformed Services are going to be increased more than 100 percent. Can you explain the loss of these basic benefits? QOur I I'm glad to have the opportunity to answer your question, which is a valid subject of general concern for all of us serving in the military. Due to the financial pressures on our Congress, military spending, including our benefits, have come under very close scrutiny. The CHAMPUS program has been reviewed and, in order to cut costs without taking away this very important benefit, the increases to the deductibles you cited were directed to go into effect April 1. The variable housing allowance has been changed to reflect costs to the member. VHA is designed as a means of partially defraying different housing costs in various assignment areas around the country. VHA is a supplement to basic allowance for quarters. The amounts for this locality are established by the PerDiem, Travel and Transportation Allowance Committee, a joint committee located in Washington, D.C., using data obtained in surveys conducted every two years at Hill AFB. These surveys are sent out randomly to all ranks, asking the member to provide rentalmortgage and utility information. This information is then used by the committee to determine the amount of VHA for Hill. Unfortunately, the surveys at this base resulted in a reduction of the VHA allowance for all members assigned to this area. However, although VHA decreased, the 4.1 percent increase in base pay, subsistence and quarters resulted in a net increase in take home pay. If you have further questions on this subject, please contact TSgt. Kevin Ellis, chief, military pay, Ext. 71851. A4 |
