I. Welcome (Johanna Heller) Guidelines for Building Evacuation and Shelter-In-Place Conditions

Johanna announced to the CAPPS attendees the procedures for an evacuation in the event of an emergency and/or a “Shelter-In-Place” crisis situation.

II. Update on NFC Action Items Status (Johanna Heller)

Number of Employees Actually Logging Into EPP - A request will be sent to NFC.GESDREQUEST to place EPP usage statistics on the Reporting Center.

III. STAR Web 5.0 Update (Randy Speed)

There were some issues with STAR Web 4.25 that have since been resolved. CICS and Microsoft applications were causing the issue with STAR Web 4.25. Ninety-two percent (92%) of T & As were transmitted for Pay Period 18. A patch for a software system called PPS (not part of the STAR Web application) was installed and used to resolve the problem. STAR Web 5.0 will be available after the fiscal year end. It was recommended by some agencies that STAR Web 5.0 be delayed until Pay Period 21. In the future, they will try to run STAR Web 4.25 version and 5.0 at the same time, transmitting agencies gradually into STAR Web 5.0.

FOCUS reports can be run on accounting codes and hours charged but not actual cost. There may be some STAR Web 4.25 issues that are applicable to STAR Web 5.0 and more testing will be performed. STAR Web has been defined to the FOCUS DB2 language. Shavon Butler (PSA) asked why STAR Web did not reject 428 hours for Week 2, however NFC discovered the error. Gary Gaspard stated to report this error to her contact point for review. Shavon also stated she had 4 T & A’s rejected, but when resent with no corrections, they were picked up and processed with no problem. Gary stated it was probably because a personnel action was not processed. Gary then stated that a request be sent to Andrea Robinson (NFC-Customer Support) by email for an explanation on why these T & A’s rejected in STAR Web but had no errors. A request was to be sent to NFC Payroll Operations for an explanation of why the T & A’s rejected.

Jingie Miller (AOC) asked for a report that runs after TIME but before PAYE.
Cost will not show until PAYE runs then it will show for all agencies.
Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian Institute) asked if he would be able to capture the information under FOCUS that is sent down before TIME can process it. Johanna Heller stated that research would be performed in writing a report against the DB2 database. Bulletin 06-13 under the Title 1 on the website provides instructions on how to access the STAR Web database and DB2 database on the mainframe.

IV. LEO Hourly Rate (GL Pay Plan) (Donna Speed)

1. LEO (Jo Bonner) – NFC will be implementing OPM’s mandated changes for the LEO’s effective October 1, 2006 (PP-20). However, we will be processing these actions retroactively in PP-22. This will allow NFC and the agencies extra time to test the changes prior to implementation.
   
   1. NFC will be sweeping the PMSO Master Record (MR) to change the pay plan from GS to GL. Our criteria to change the pay plans will be to look for employees who are: Pay Plan = GS; LEO-Indicator = A or Y; Pay-Rate-Determinant = 5 or 6; and Grade = 03-10. If they meet this criteria, we will generate an 894 action to change them to a GL Pay Plan and take them out of the special salary rate (SSR) table “0491”.
      
   2. NFC will be sweeping the IP records to change the pay table code for those employees using the “0491” pay table. An employee who is classified as LEO eligible, but who is also entitled to a higher SSR table will not have their SSR pay table changed. However, the employee will receive a pay adjustment that shows the new higher GL base rate in lieu of the current GS base rate.
      
   3. We have encountered some Master Records that are shared by “0491” and non-0491 covered employees. If these individual positions are classified properly and established in PMSO correctly this cannot happen. The duties that would qualify an individual for LEO entitlement are grade and/or pay controlling and thus non-0491 entitled persons should not be on the same position description as “0491” entitled persons. The reports that were handed out prior to CAPPS show those positions within your organization where this is an issue. If you did not get a report, it means your agency did not have any positions where this had occurred. Only AG, DHS, and DOJ received reports. Agencies need to review these cases and clean-up PMSO prior to PP-22. When NFC does the sweep at the beginning of PP-22, we will by-pass any POI where there are both LEO and non-LEO IPs sharing the same MR and the agency will have to do manually process the adjustments themselves for all employees in the POI. We do not have a choice in this matter because if we sweep the records for individuals who are not covered, the programmers would have to manually intervene the next time an action is required for that person.
      
   4. OPM has not issued new LEO tables and since the salaries themselves are not changing there is no real need to do so. NFC did contact OPM about naming preferences and they have none. For TMGT purposes NFC will start all LEO tables with “L”. Therefore, the base table will become “LLEO” instead of the current “0491”. In addition, NFC will be loading the LEO locality tables into TMGT – for those who were not aware of the process, NFC had been calculating these figures based upon the applicable locality percentage. Loading the LEO locality tables will eliminate the occasional “pennies” problem where the calculated percentage is not the exact amount posted on OPM’s table. NFC will follow the nomenclature for the current locality tables, but with a preceding “L” to designate them as applicable to the LEO’s. For example, the LEO locality for Boston will be “LBOS”.

   Q: Treasury – Will NFC still require the “LLEO” table to be entered in PMSO? How will this relate to the PRD code of a “0”? All other records where the PRD is a “0” have no entry for the pay table code.

   A: NFC – Yes the pay table code will be “LLEO” and not “0000” for all employees in the GL pay plan unless they are covered by a SSR table.

   Treasury requested that NFC reconsider this and use 0000 for the pay table to keep it standard for all PRD “0” cases. DHS supported this request and other clients with LEO’s indicated that they had no preference. NFC agreed to reconsider. POST MEETING UPDATE: NFC did discuss this at length and cannot accommodate this request without major reprogramming. Therefore, all IP records that meet the above mentioned sweep criteria will have “LLEO” inserted for the pay table code in lieu of the “0491” table. The pay table value submitted to CPDF and EHRI will be “0000”.

   Q: DHS – The tables are already loaded with this nomenclature but they are loaded as “GS” tables and not “GL”. Why is that?

   A: Jo Bonner apologized for this. When she submitted the tables to TMGT, she forgot to mention that they were not “GS” and the individual preparing the tables was not aware that they should have been “GL”. GS is the standard and that is what was loaded. The “L” tables will be corrected in time for testing and will only be listed with the GL pay plan for grades 03 through 10.

   5. In PP-22, NFC will generate a personnel action for all individuals whose PMSO record meets the sweep criteria outlined above. Per Mary Carter at OPM the personnel action will be an 894 ZLM with the narrative of the authority reading: "P.L. 101-509 dated 11/5/90". The action will be processed with an effective date of October 1, 2006. As criteria for generating the personnel action is LEO indicator of "Y" or "A"; grades 03 through 10; and PRD of 5 or 6. NFC is reviewing the cases where all the criteria are met but the PRD is E or F. Our programmers are trying to ensure this can be done with a sweep without complicating the retention data.
      
   6. NFC recommended that agencies review other employees on staff who are NOT documented with one of the above PRD's but have either the “0491” pay plan code and/or LEO indicator "Y" or "A", to determine if the current PRD is appropriate and/or if the employee should be moved to the GL pay plan. Agencies should review the records for individuals in this situation to ensure that they are not miscoded. NFC will NOT be sweeping these individuals as they are currently coded.
      
   7. OPM does not plan to assign a remark code. However, after being informed of the citation, which is from 1990, it seems prudent to explain the change. We will be entering a standard remark on all of the actions to explain this in more detail. The remark will be “LEO” and can be used by any agency that has to process these conversions manually.
      
   8. NFC is planning to start testing the GL conversions the second week of PP-20. The goal is to have a test environment and code ready to do the sweep, generate and apply the 894 action, and let the agencies do some testing.

   Q: DHS – Where will we be doing the testing and what are the criteria that need to be submitted to security to participate?

   A: NFC did not know at this time, but will alert the clients when the information is available.

V. EPIC User Group Update (Kathy Orpin)

Randy Speed spoke about the initiative to rewrite the Client Server version of EPIC to a .NET Application. He stated he would establish a team to accomplish this task. There will be 4 more people hired in his section that will probably be part of the team working on this project. The .NET Application will convert the EPIC application to a full web environment. The EPIC User Workgroup will assist with some of the requirements. The meeting will be held on 9/21/06 in the Lincoln Room. Kathy Orpin stated notes from that meeting would be shared with the CAPPS community. Johanna Heller advised the customers to contact Kathy if they want to join the EPIC User Group.

Q: Cheryl Cotton (DOJ) – in regarding the Wage Grade Shift Rate – asked if NFC/EPIC User Work Group should take a survey to find out if the agencies will process manually or put this back before the database change.

A: Jo Bonner replied that the codes regarding the Wage Grade Shift Rate will need to be entered manually or implemented.

Karen Queen (DOB) reported problems with requests being sent to the PPO box and Call Center. There is a delay in the response time. Ed Cochran (Operations – Call Center) stated that the Call Center is responding with the requests in a timely manner. Johanna stated that training had to be provided to some of the new employees in the Call Center. Penny further stated that an additional staff has been working with the Call Center to focus on the payroll/personnel issues. She also stated that the Knowledge-based project has started up again.

VI. Missing/Incorrect Categorization of ERI (Jo Bonner)

The ERI code is the “Ethnicity & Race Identifier” and is required for all accession hired on/after January 1, 2006. NFC was able to get the quick fix out there in PP-09, please reference NFC bulletin 06-6.

Q: CFTC – What criteria was used for the report? We have only hired two people, but we had six on the report?

A: NFC – Anyone (1) hired on or after January 1, 2006, (2) who did not have an entry in the “ERI” field, and (3) who was not separated.

Q: CFTC – Were volunteers included?

A: NFC – Yes, it did not occur to me to exclude them since many agencies do not even document them.

Q: Can we get a copy of the report with names on it?

A: NFC – The name of the FOCUS report used to produce the data that was e-mailed was actually specified in that e-mail. The report is located in the NFC library and does contain “remarked” code that, if enabled, will print the names. Reps are free to copy and modify this report as needed.

VII. Military Leave (Jo Bonner)

1. DC Parade & Encampment Leave –
   
   1. Background - As authorized under 5 USC 6323(c), an employee who is a member of the DC National Guard is entitled to unlimited time for “DC Parade and Encampment duties”. At some point - pre 1992 - it was determined that NFC would be programmed to give an extra three days (24 hours) for this purpose. If more time were needed, the agency would have to utilize TINQ. However, many timekeepers are not capping employees in the DC metro area who use regular military leave at the 120 hours per fiscal year limit and are letting the system process the cap. As a result these individuals are being allowed to use an extra 24 of military leave to which they are not entitled. In addition, members of the DC National Guard are not required to live in the DC metro area. As long as the individual returns for drills, orders, etc., the individual can live anywhere. The location code “4” methodology does not include all an individual in this circumstance can use for extra military leave for any DC Parade and Encampment duties. Therefore, this work around is being terminated effective this pay period, Pay Period 18 of 2006.
      
   2. New Programming - NFC is planning to implement new programming for the DC Parade & Encampment Leave after the database change next year. It will be based upon the use of a transaction descriptor (TD-01) assigned to the T&A transaction code currently used for 22-day offset leave (TC-68).
      
   3. Offset Requirements - In doing the research for the 44-day Military Reserve Technician, we stumbled upon a change in the guidance for the DC Parade & Encampment leave. After a few hours in the law library tracking the legislation back through time we concluded that the updated references ARE correct. DC Parade & Encampment leave MUST be offset by the employee’s military pay for the same period of time. Many of you may go back to your offices and dig out hard copy references you have from OPM where this is not stated. I did the same thing and have a hard copy of OPM’s guidance on Military Leave printed from their website on October 9, 2001. However, if you go to that same guidance today it does indicate that the leave must be off-set in accordance with 5 USC 5519.
2. Regular military leave -As referenced above, NFC is modifying the edits that have allowed an employee with a location code of “4 - DC metro area” to earn up to 144 hours of regular military leave. This will enable the FY 2007 CO balances to be based upon the true 120-hour limit. All employees with military leave will be limited to the 120 hours per fiscal year with a maximum of 120 hours carryover from the previous year.
   
3. 44-day Military Reserve Technician (MRT) Leave - Until recently, NFC did not have clients who used this type of leave and thus had not programmed for it. The programming is dependant on new fields so it will be done after the database change. Since the leave will not be offset, it will be a type of TC-65. Agencies who need to document this type of leave should use TC-65. Because of the hourly limitations on basic TC-65, agencies will need to use TINQ to reduce the “hours used” as appropriate to ensure that the employee is able to use all of their entitlement to MRT leave.

PSA -We have been instructed by our policy office to use TC-66 (time off without charge to leave, e.g., admin leave) for these individuals since TC-65 is for regular military leave, but the system will not take it if the employees are on LWOP-US. We were told to role the LWOP-US action off the database, submit the T & A’s for payment and after they have paid, re-apply the LWOP-US action.

NFC - You should not be doing this. The employee’s share of the FEHB premiums is to be paid by the agency for up to 24 months if the employee is activated in support of a military campaign. This payment is triggered by the LWOP-US action. This means that when you have paid the employee, their FEHB premiums were withheld. You need to submit paper work to reimburse the employee. When you reapply the LWOP-US action, the 24-month counters are reset and a new 24-month period is initiated. This has to be fixed via the non-pay counters in TINQ. TIME is programmed to reject a T&A with 80 hours of TC-66 if the employee is on LWOP-US because there should be no circumstances when this code should be used for this purpose.

PSA - What am I supposed to do since I have to follow DOJ’s guidance?

NFC - I will talk to your policy person (this individual was also at the CAPPS meeting) off-line and we can work out new policies.

VIII. Fiscal Year End Closing (Gary Gaspard)

There will be no split T & A’s prepared for fiscal year end for 2006 for Pay Period 19. New accounting codes will be available after the weekend of 10/7/06 because prior to that changes to the MASC Table need to be performed. Cheryl Cotton (DOJ) asked about processing awards for Pay Period 19. There was a question relating to awards being processed in Pay Period 19 to default to 2006 and awards being processed in Pay Period 20 to default to 2007. Gary Gaspard replied by stating the awards should be coded with the correct accounting code. Pay Period 19 should have 2006 accounting and Pay Period 20 should have 2007 accounting.

Jo Bonner reminded agencies that they should be submitting T&A’s for any individual on LWOP-US in PP-19 even if it is for 80 hours of LWOP. This is needed in order for the military leave counters to update properly for the new FY year.

Q: Is this a new requirement?

A: (Jo Bonner) No it is just one that was not well known until recently. We have always had the occasional employee whose military leave balances were not updated at the beginning of the new FY. When researching this last year, the programmer indicated that the update process is triggered by TIME and thus if there is no T&A for the employee in TIME, it will not update. This information was in the FY 2007 FY End Closing bulletin that was issued in July.

Q: Should this be done in PP-19 or PP-20 since PP-20 actually starts the new FY?

A: (Jo Bonner) I’m pretty sure it is PP-19, but double check the bulletin when you get back to your office. We researched it for the bulletin and the pay period listed in the bulletin is correct. Refer to NFC Bulletin, Title 1, 06-1, dated 7/6/06 for information and instructions about year-end processing.
POST MEETING UPDATE: The correct pay period IS PP-19.

IX. Benefits Update (Jody Nyers)

1. TSP Quarterly Meeting Update -

• Several regulation changes including the passage of the Pension Protection Act (PPA). Jody shares all the details via a separate email.
  
• Elected Deferral Limit (that’s the $15K max per year) was supposed to sunset this year; however, the current formula, which is tagged to the COLA, will continue. We won’t know what the new limits (i.e., $15K or higher) will be until the IRS announces them later this year.
  
• TSP Participation Survey will be conducted next month (Oct 2006). They are randomly selecting 20,000 participants. Stamped, reply envelopes will be included and hopefully employees will not think it is junk mail but will complete the survey and return it. The last time a survey was conducted was in 1990 - almost 17 years ago. Survey will be looking for overall satisfaction with TSP, what influences participation, how employees would like to receive services, etc. Results next Spring 2007.
  
• L Funds are the hot item and doing better than expected as far as participation goes.
  

2. OPM Update

• Dental/Vision - at last month’s meeting, DHS asked about the document type for dental/vision and that document type will be 101. Remember, agencies/HR offices will not elect, change, or cancel these benefits as it is an employees responsibility to elect/change/cancel these new dental/vision benefits. An employee can have either or both of these benefits. This is similar to FSA’s plan and dental/vision is handled between the provider and the employee. The national dental plans will be Aetna, GEHA Dental, MetLife Dental, United Concordia, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The regional dental plans (limited to certain states) will be GHI Dental, Comp Benefits, and Triple S Dental. The vision plans will be Spectera, VSP and BCBS. OPM is holding a meeting on October 17th to discuss these benefits in detail and that meeting would be for your Benefit Officers. The effective date of this coverage will be 12/31/2006. The reason for this is because OPM was mandated to make these benefits effective sometime in 2006 and they chose the last possible date. The first deduction will not occur until the processing of PAYE for PP 01 (01/07/2007) but coverage will be effective 12/31/2006. Additional information is available at www.opm.gov .

Q: Will NFC publish a bulletin regarding what errors an HR office could receive, and what will be the user ID associated with the plans?

A: Theresa Trentacoste stated NFC will try to publish a bulletin to include the requested information.

• OPM will hold a network meeting on October 5th to discuss the Retirement Systems Modernization (RSM) project. This has been around for several years but has not been active on the HR/Payroll front but rather behind the scenes. They will provide up-to-date information on this project and will report more in October.
  
• FEHB Open Season dates are November 13 - December 11.
  
• FERCCA Update - We may be starting up a small workgroup to discuss these cases since there are so many issues and we will call for volunteers. USDA, DOJ & IRS offered their services as part of the workgroup.
  
  Additional Benefit Questions:

Q: Has the remark for LWOP-US as it relates to FEHB been updated from 18 months to 24 months?

A: Jody checked and OPM has just recently updated this remark, B66, and it has since been updated in the NFC system, TM052.

There is concern over the calculation of retirement deductions for Re-employed annuitants covered by CSRS Offset. DOJ discovered this problem when FBI converted and NFC has corrected it in Pay Period 16; however, this may affect many employees. It was suggested a bulletin be prepared discussing this change. Jody asked DOJ for additional information and will work with Theresa Trentacoste (Directives) on this issue.

X. Lagniappe

Cheryl Cotton (DOJ) asked about the proposal for cash awards being increased from $500 to $700. Jo Bonner stated the proposal is to increase the maximum amount that can be paid via the 840 PAY spot award when the C100 award code is used. An email will be sent to customers requesting feedback and if they have any issues with this proposal.

There was a discussion about OPM to approve a plan for the performance appraisals level to be raised to more than 5 levels. OPM has to approve and assign them patterns for this change.

Sharon Hill (USAID) stated that there is an error with the SF 50 (Personnel Action Form). In the Remarks Section on the form the remarks are being duplicated. She further stated that she was informed that the programmer was supposed to resolve this problem. Gary Gaspard stated to send a request by email to Andrea Robinson (NFC-Customer Support). He further stated that he would be working with the Development Section on resolving these issues.

Shavon Butler (PSA) asked what was the problem with the employees not being placed in the right PMSO and also why is FQ/CT – 1023 getting 2 copies of the 113A and 113G reports. They have been other agencies reports being mixed in with their agency’s reports. Jo Bonner stated the report could be connected to the department code, the agency code, and POI codes. Jo Bonner advised that when requesting these reports to indicate the department, agency and POI codes. Randy Gonzales stated there would be a new version of PMSO by 10/1/06 and a notification will be sent out to the customers on status.

Q: What is the status of a format for Excel Spreadsheet on the
Reporting Center?

A: Johanna Heller replied that it should be ready in the new OPM
format by October 2006.

A representative from DHS asked why IRIS displays an appointment action at the bottom of the screen when it belongs at the top. Jo Bonner responded by stating this feature has been there for as long as 30 years and the programmers do not think that they should make this action a priority for changes.

There was a question about sending instructions for testing the 491 LEO Table and how to send security request and what type of information is required. Randy Gonzales stated that customers will be notified when testing will be available but do not know what test areas they will use. The two testing areas that will be used are 61 Dict02 and 61 Dict03. Another question that was presented was would an email be sent out to the customers providing the accounting listings and who would meet the criteria for this testing. Randy Gonzales stated that will probably be the case.

Attendees:

Linda Gandara (ARC)
Ethel Clayborne (AOC)
Jennifer Joyner (CFTC)
Gwendolyn Holmes (CSOSA)
Kelynn Lewis (DHS)
Mike Mire (DHS)
Grindl A. Legrand-Brewer (DOC)
Michael Tabb (DOJ)
Karen Queen (DOJ)
R Blount (DOJ)
Cheryl Cotton (DOJ)
Deborah Berry (FCC)
Juwan Samuel (FERC)
Yvonne Jackson (FHFB)
Sue McMenamin (FMCS)
Eugenie Thomas (GAO)
Anita Banks (GAO)
Sandra L. Moore (GPO)
Rosa M. Dortch (HUD)
Willie Smith (IBWC)
L’Tanya Sesker (NEH)
Caroline Heard (OSC)
Maltida Hunter (SBA)
Teresa McNair (SBA)
Bill Turner (SBA)
Terri Cannon (SBA)
Jerie Kindred (SBA)
Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian)
Kathy Orpin (Treasury)
Coleista Salatich (Treasury)
Ginny Peck-Towe (TR – BPD)
Shawn Hill (USAID)
Jody Nyers (NFC)
Jo Bonner (NFC)
George Morris (NFC)
Shavon L. Butler (PSA)
Lynn Booker (IMLS)

Call-Ins:

NFC Staff
Jingy Miller (AOC)
Willie Smith (IWBC)