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U.S. Office of Personnel Management |
Remarks by John Sepulveda, Deputy Director,
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Good morning. Thank you, Leroy (Warren) for that very gracious introduction. I am honored to have this opportunity to speak with you today. Let me take just a moment to recognize some of my colleagues who have joined me here today. OPM's Director of Congressional Relations, Cynthia Brock-Smith; our Associate Director for Merit Systems Oversight and Effectiveness, Carol Okin; and our White House Fellow, Army Major Barrye Price.
Today, we celebrate the birthday of a great man. We celebrate the life of a man whom for many Americans personifies the struggle for racial equality and justice for all Americans. On this day in 1929, Michael Luther King, Jr., was born.
That's right, Dr. King's father so admired the resolve of the leader of the German Protestant Reformation, that he changed both of their names to Martin Luther when young Michael was only five. Looking back today, how fitting it was that he acquired the name of that great leader. Like his namesake, hundreds of years ago and half a world away, Martin Luther King Jr. revolutionized the way we view each other and the world around us. And he did this through the power of prayer, ideas, inclusion and cooperation, and vision.
Over the course of this weekend, we will all become reacquainted with Dr. King's timeless words uttered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial thirty-seven years ago. I know that I am not alone in allowing the words that he spoke and the world that he imagined inspire me to this day. His dream is our responsibility. In our personal interactions, as a nation and as a Federal government, we have made important strides towards realizing his ambition for us. Still we have fallen short. The dream is still under-construction and we all must play a role in completing it.
As Dr. King so eloquently reminded us the day before his assassination: "I guess one of the great agonies of life is that we are constantly trying to finish that which is unfinishable. Life is a continual story of shattered dreams...the thing that makes me happy is that I can hear a voice crying through the vista of time, saying: "It may not come today or it may not come tomorrow, but it is well that it is within thine heart. It's well that you are trying. You may not see it. The dream may not be fulfilled, but it's just good that you have a desire to bring it into reality. It's well that it's in thine heart."
Sadly, every once and awhile we are sometimes reminded of our shortcomings as a society still struggling to address issues of blatant racial intolerance and discrimination. My agency, the Office of Personnel Management was confronted with this issue last month.
We were scheduled to hold our annual Symposium on Employee and Labor Relations, a conference with close to 1,000 participants, at the Adam's Mark hotel in Denver, Colorado. Subsequent to the time of our planning, this hotel chain was sued by a group of African American patrons, the NAACP and the Justice Department, among others for a despicable litany of civil rights abuses. According to the lawsuits, African American guests were forced to pay their bills in full at registration, wear orange wristbands and pay higher rates and deposits than other guests for inferior rooms and services. OPM's response to the situation was immediate. Director Janice Lachance, my boss, terminated OPM's contract with Adam's Mark and issued a statement in which she said the allegations 'offend the sensibilities of all Americans'.
I raise this example to illustrate an important principle. We strive to showcase the Federal government as a model for others to follow.
Particularly, in the extension of equal opportunity and the confrontation of discrimination, we bear a great responsibility to provide leadership. We must not lose sight of the challenges before us and we must never lose our resolve to fight the good fight.
Recognizing this challenge, I am honored to address you and I thank you for the opportunity to discuss this Administration's commitment to create a government that looks like America and befits our great heritage.
When President Clinton tasked OPM with building a Federal government that looked like America, he wasn't stating a wish, he was voicing an imperative. He understood that America must utilize the full talents of all of its citizens if it is to succeed.
Quite simply, we can not have a truly representative nation or democracy until everyone is represented.
We value diversity because our private sector, our government, and our nation are all learning the same lesson, that diversity means strength and vitality, and that exclusion means division and weakness. Diversity encourages us to use all of our skills and talents and invites the best performance from all of our nation's institutions, especially our government.
As President Clinton has said, "Quality and diversity can go hand in hand, and they must." And he has followed through. As we enter the eight, and final, year of the Clinton Administration, we can look back with a sense of pride at this President who has appointed more African Americans, more women, more Hispanics, more Native Americans, more Asian and Pacific Islanders to senior level positions than any President in history.
No one understands the importance of this accomplishment more than you. For more than ninety years, the NAACP has led the fight for true equality and your activity and advocacy have moved mountains.
Your interest and active partnership with us will be invaluable in creating a Federal workforce that is truly representative and a model for others to follow.
In that spirit of partnership, I would like to discuss with you the state of African Americans in the Federal government and what we, together, can do to advance our collective goals.
OPM's predecessor, the Civil Service Commission was created in 1883 in reaction to the outrage over political patronage determining Federal employment particularly arising from the shocking 1881 assassination of President James Garfield by a disgruntled office seeker.
The Civil Service Commission was charged with the responsibility for institutionalizing and protecting a career civil service based on merit, replacing the disastrous 'spoils' system. This Merit system that was created then has basically remained in place for the past 117 years.
The creation of the merit system opened up the ranks of Federal civil service to many groups of Americans who were previously left out. In 1881, African Americans represented .57% of Federal public service. By 1910, after the implementation of the merit system, the percentage of African Americans in Federal service had grown to 5.86%.
As you can see, the inclusion of African-Americans into Federal service was linked to the creation of the merit-based civil service. It is this tradition, which guarantees equal access to all Americans and ensures fundamentally fair personnel policy, which OPM protects.
It is this merit system that opens the door, and levels the playing field to allow all Americans the opportunity to compete fairly for Federal employment. Let me assure you, we take our responsibility to protect the merit system very seriously. The merit principles are the fundamental foundation upon which all of our efforts are built. Let me be clear: no initiative, no pilot, no demonstration project is exempted from fulfilling these merit principles and all Federal employees are protected by them.
However, as I said, the creation of a merit-based civil service represented only a beginning in the effort to create a truly representative Federal workforce. Let's now take a few moments to examine the position of African Americans within today's Federal workforce.
When we do examine the statistics, we find significant gains and great reason for optimism. As of September 30, 1998, African Americans represented 17.1% of Federal workforce, as compared to the 11% of Civilian Labor Force.
They accounted for 19.3% of all permanent new hires and 19.6% of all promotions during FY98. Their representation at the top of the General Schedule (Grades 13-15) and senior pay levels have steadily increased in recent years, highlighted by a jump of African-Americans in the senior pay levels from 4.9% in 1993 to 6.5% in 1998.
Special hiring programs have also shown great promise. For example, this year's White House Fellowship class is 63% minority. OPM's representative from that class, Major Barrye Price, whom I introduced earlier, is making significant contributions to our agency as a Special Assistant to the Director (with his doctorate in history, he is also serving as our resident historian).
Despite the promising statistics that I just pointed out, I recognize and am deeply disturbed but certain underlying trends which threaten our mission of a high quality, diverse workforce. Although African American's are well represented in the Federal workforce, they are still disproportionately employed at lower grade levels.
Consider this, African Americans comprise almost 1/3 (28.9%) of all employees in clerical occupations, whose career progression does not extend to senior pay levels. The average General Schedule grade for African Americans is 8.1 compared to the average grade of 9.4 for the total Federal workforce. African Americans are disproportionately under-represented among the ranks of supervisors and managers.
These statistics scream out for action. To ignore this discrepancy or sweep these statistics under the rug is unthinkable. These statistics can breed distrust, and a perception that African Americans cannot advance in public service and should therefore not consider it as a career option. This not only hurts the employees directly affected, but the entire Federal workforce and the national interest.
Just as we are addressing the problem of Hispanic under-representation in the Federal workforce, we must also address this situation of African-American under-representation head on. And like the problem of Hispanic under-representation, this situation will not be remedied without aggressive action.
President Clinton's senior level political appointments have begun to make a difference. These appointments do not just represent diversity for diversity sake. They are a fundamental statement about the importance of diversity to a functioning democracy. As African Americans in key positions have taken on the challenge to make America a better place, they have not neglected policies and issues affecting their communities. They have made sure that the economic, social, and political progress that the country is experiencing includes African Americans. Because for each of them inclusion and diversity are not just policy, they are personal. All of us have a role to play. If we are not at the table when these crucial policies are being developed - if we don't have representation commensurate with our community - they simply won't receive the goods and services that those policies are designed to deliver.
But these high-level political appointments can only take us so far. To institutionalize this progress, to guarantee that future Administrations respect what all Americans have to offer, we must achieve a fully representative, diverse career workforce.
Our challenge, and our mission is to build on the success that we have achieved in bringing African Americans into Federal service, and ensure that they are entering careers with the opportunity to advance to the pinnacle of their chosen fields.
To accomplish this objective, we need the support and commitment and partnership of Federal agencies, Federal employees, the NAACP and other national organizations.
As we enter the new millennium, we are creating the workforce of the 21st century. In the human resources profession, this is truly a revolutionary time.
The skills that were in demand just a few years ago, have been replaced as the needs of organizations change. This is true, not only of government but the private sector as well.
Agencies and employees must work together to develop the skills needed to best meet the goals of the organization. We cannot allow a 'skills gap' to develop. Agencies must develop and support career development opportunities that prepare employees fully to meet the needs of the agency. But employees must take advantage of these programs and get the education and training they need to succeed and to serve our nation.
Public service should offer employees opportunities for both professional and personal growth. If that does not happen, we are not getting the most out of our workforce and we are not serving the national interest.
The key is to build, maintain and respect diversity as we create the workforce for the twenty-first century. As Labor Secretary Alexis Herman has said: "We live in such a uniquely multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural society- and it's becoming more so each and every day. America's growing diversity means opportunity and, yes, there will also be workforce challenges along the way. But we can all succeed in the next century, by taking advantage of that diversity, helping us to compete and win everywhere ... from the global marketplace, to the corner market. And very soon, when one out of every two workers will be a person of color, pay discrimination, and lingering gaps- in skills, opportunity, and jobs- will matter to us all, very, very, much."
Success, for our diverse workforce, will come from expanding employee's access to training opportunities. It will also require employees, you and your colleagues, to take full advantage of these opportunities.
Last year, President Clinton established a Task Force on Federal Training Technology, chaired by Director Lachance. The goal of the task force is to enhance employees' training opportunities through the use of technology and individual training accounts.
In addition, OPM oversees three state of the art training academies for Federal employees. They offer a wide range of courses that prepare 5,000-8,000 Federal managers each year for the tasks that they will take on.
This fall, I had the privilege of working with the leadership of our Federal Executive Institute and Management Development Centers to establish a course called "Diversity: A Business Necessity for the Millennium". The course was designed for Federal managers to learn how to respect the value of diversity, improve leadership skills and addresses the critical issue of how to harness the benefits of diversity to strengthen our government.
I am proud to say that the course is winning high praise from its attendees and registration has been high.
I want to work with you to communicate the availability and importance of these programs to all agencies and organizations.
Beyond meeting the need for skills with appropriate and accessible training, we need to make sure that we continue to recruit a quality, diverse workforce. Grades 9-13 represent the critical pipeline to senior management positions, and we must ensure that African Americans are well represented.
Under the leadership of Director Lachance and I, OPM will fight to preserve and strengthen all efforts to recruit talented minority candidates to Federal service.
Part of this process is to reach out to organizations like the NAACP and educational institutions. For example, in our effort to recruit new college graduates to Federal employment, we have recently placed touch-screen kiosks that display Federal employment opportunities at 14 Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the nation.
In addition, OPM maintains USAJOBS on the Internet. This website, accessible to everyone with internet access, offers those seeking Federal employment, the best means to get the information they need and compete for those positions. USAJOBS also offers current employees a great tool for career mobility to advance in Federal service.
Please join us in our outreach and encourage others to pursue public careers. Share this information with those in your offices and communities.
Director Lachance and I are accountable to you, as we are accountable to the President, and to the nation, to create a government that truly represents the American people. We are counting on you to help us as we strive to meet this goal.
Finally, we must also create a government where all public servants can feel comfortable and proud of their service. In the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) report, Fair and Equitable Treatment: A Progress Report on Minority Employment in the Federal Government (August 1996), 55 percent of African Americans surveyed believed that members of their community were subject to 'flagrant or obviously discriminatory practices' in the workplace. By contrast, only 4 percent of whites had this view about discrimination against African Americans.
If we ignore this perception, we can never achieve our goal of a quality, diverse workforce poised to meet the challenges of public service. It is a perception which I know troubles the President, Vice-President and this entire administration. I want you to know that Director Lachance and I will work with all agencies to guarantee a climate of genuine equal opportunity for all Federal employees. Discrimination has no place in our government or our country.
I want to begin a dialog with you here today. I invite you to take a seat at the table to help us extend the opportunities of Federal employment to strengthen minority communities and our nation. We have made significant strides, but we have a great deal still to do. Once again, ours must be a cooperative effort if we are to succeed. As Dr. King said on the Birmingham campaign, "We were seeking to bring about a great social change which could only be achieved through unified effort."
I am looking forward to meeting this challenge, realizing this dream, with you as our partners. Thank you very much.
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