Anonymously contributed:
Charles McMillan has been appointed director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and president of Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), the company that manages and operates the Lab for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The appointments were announced today by Norman Pattiz, chairman of the LANS Board of Governors, and are effective June 1, 2011.
84 comments:
UC appears to be reversing its normal trend by picking a "semi" (he's been there 6 years) insider for LANL, so I wonder if they will pick an outsider for LLNL.
If Mcmillan is an "insider" why does he endlessly repeat "at Livermore, at Livermore, at Livermore..." I seriously doubt he will even live in New Mexico. This just continues the downward fall of LANL. Neither UC, Bechtel, of NNSA really cares for the future of the storied and once-great laboratory. Too sad. Time for me to go. Somewhere far away where I never have to hear this excruciatingly sad story again. I feel sorry for the few left at LANL who experienced her greatness.
The real story here is that this means that Bruce Goodwin will be named LLNL Director, because he can go tow-to-toe with Charlie.
Also, "150 nominees and applicants"? Times really -are- tough for CEO fodder!
McMillan's success has been, and will continue even more so to be, intertwined with LANL's. It's not like there is any glory in it for him if the laboratory under his care craters. He's definitely "inside" now.
" I seriously doubt he will even live in New Mexico."
May 26, 2011 7:14 PM
Say what you want, it is a fact that only one of the current LANL leadership has a family in Los Alamos. Care to guess who it is?
The "Livermore Mafia" at Los Alamos.... WINNING!!!!
Expect Brett Knapp with his 'Adonis DNA' to be the next in line to be LANL Director once Charlie vacates the position. Knapp will soon be taking over Charlie's PAD spot, for sure.
While Charlie will be able to raise the LANS Director salary plus bonus to around $2 million (shhhh! It's corporate proprietary info!), I suspect Knapp will be able to up that to at least $4 million when he takes over the Director's spot in a few more years.
It's clear that competence and intelligence (shown by stronger candidates like Steve Younger) didn't matter one bit in this little LANS charade.
Thanks, LANS Board. Heckavajob! We'll just keep shuffling along here at LANL, wearing those famous "Shoes that GRIP!"
A farce is a comedy which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include sexual innuendo and word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases, culminating in an ending which often involves an elaborate chase scene.
Sound familiar? Sounds like there will be an exciting chase scene someday. That will likely be when Knapp takes over in his Porsche Cayenne.
The real satisfaction I will get from this decision will be to see Charlie kissing the toes of the local Native American Tribal Governors. Earn your pay Charlie!
The real story here is that this means that Bruce Goodwin will be named LLNL Director, because he can go tow-to-toe with Charlie.
May 26, 2011 8:54 PM
The real satisfaction I will get from this decision will be to see Charlie kissing the toes of the local Native American Tribal Governors. Earn your pay Charlie!
May 27, 2011 12:36 AM
What's with all the toe fetish comments?
While Charlie will be able to raise the LANS Director salary plus bonus to around $2 million (shhhh! It's corporate proprietary info!)
May 26, 2011 11:18 PM
It will be hard for him to dodge questions about being 'the 10 million dollar man' when it comes out what his total compensation package costs the Lab.
As the years go by, I bitterly regret the day that UC/Bechtel won control of Los Alamos during the contract competition. We have gained almost nothing from the UC /Bechtel LLC association and lost all the guarantees that UC once provided before the ugly LLC "for profit" era brought by Tom D'Agostino and the NNSA.
At least UT/Lockheed would have probably picked a capable guy like Younger to lead LANL. The LANS Board spent all of 10 minutes making this decision for Charlie McMillan. The "fix was in" from the very start, much like the LLC competition back in 2005.
Wonder what the recent NSF report will have to say about the decline of the labs under the Bechtel-ized "for profit" corporate regimes? Not that it will matter, mind you. It will follow a long list of official reports documenting the continuing decline of the US nuclear weapon national labs.
Let's not forget that it was LANL that caused the two labs to be privatized. And what is this BS that LANL was a once great lab. Give me a break. Livermore managers were chosen to lead LANL for a good reason, to change the culture that has existed at LANL for decades. Charlie was B-Program leader at LLNL and a good one. He'll be a good director at LANL.
Charlie was B-Program leader at LLNL and a good one. He'll be a good director at LANL.
You are so correct. The single experience required to lead LANL is having been a Division Leader at LLNL of less than 100 staff. You must have been consulted by the LANS Board prior to them making the decision to select Charlie. That discussion would have been in '06?
Let's not forget that it was LANL that caused the two labs to be privatized. And what is this BS that LANL was a once great lab. Give me a break. Livermore managers were chosen to lead LANL for a good reason, to change the culture that has existed at LANL for decades. Charlie was B-Program leader at LLNL and a good one. He'll be a good director at LANL.
May 28, 2011 12:41 AM
I agree with you that LANL was the cause for UC loss of the contract as a not-for-profit operator. You should not confuse that with Charlie's total and complete lack of qualification to lead such an organization, other than being Mike's personal pick for the job at the time LANS took over control. You are right, UC should not have picked someone that was from within the LANL culture. They had options of highly qualified candidates that were not given serious consideration. That is the sad, sad story here.
"Let's not forget that it was LANL that caused the two labs to be privatized."
You are wrong. It was the Congress of the United States of America, and their naive belief that privatization solves all problems. These are the same clowns who haven't delivered their legislative products on schedule in recent memory, nor has the legislation done what it was supposed to do. Maybe Congress should be "privatized" to solve the problem of their dreadful performance record ! Oh, Wait, ...
I performed a search for the peer reviewed papers that MacMillan has published. It came up empty. What are the technical accomplishments of this guy? I'm sure his resume and today's newspaper indicates he designed the entire stockpile. Yeah, bunk.
So let me guess, the next decision will be Charlie's to promote Knapp to Charlie's former job? Is this whole thing "staged" or what. When these guys "took over" they "took over" didn't they. You have to wonder who is being groomed at Livermore to take over Knapp's job. I'm sure Teller is have a good laugh right now.
It was interesting how Anastasio announced Girrens and Beard selection two days prior to the announcement of MacMillan. They made a huge deal about Girrens "done it all" career and "local boy" selection. For those of us who know Girrens aka Rambo, it was obvious he wrote his own history of accomplishments, including saving the W76 Program. These guys are kidding us.
You are so correct. The single experience required to lead LANL is having been a Division Leader at LLNL of less than 100 staff.
May 28, 2011 5:32 AM
Hmm, I believe McMillan also managed weapon physics at LANL for a handful of years. Surely he picked up a little local wisdom in that period.
Hmm, I believe McMillan also managed weapon physics at LANL for a handful of years. Surely he picked up a little local wisdom in that period.
May 28, 2011 11:36 AM
Yeah, his "local wisdom" has consisted of lecturing every meeting with "at Livermore...at Livermore...at Livermore..." I've never seen him listen carefully to an opinion that differed from his own. I find it ironic that his weapon program experience at LLNL was with a LANL weapon system.
"I performed a search for the peer reviewed papers that MacMillan has published. It came up empty. What are the technical accomplishments of this guy?" - May 28, 2011 9:25 AM
It usually helps to learn how to spell the name - plenty of papers and patents come up for CF McMillan. Looks like he has the best scientific record of any director since Browne, if not Sig....
Looks like he has the best scientific record of any director since Browne, if not Sig....
May 28, 2011 1:48 PM
You make me laugh. Sig, of National Academy, being compared to Charlie, of no external peer recognition whatsoever. Would you mind sharing some more of the KoolAid with the rest of us....
I see that the LANS ghostwriters have been busy putting out comments to shore up the obvious sham search and the even more evident lack of qualifications of the selected candidate. Come on people, wake up and raise cain that it was not a fair search and that he isn't qualified for the job!! If you don't object now then stay silent from now on while the Lab and her science get taken to the woodshed by this guy and his few blind followers that have no experience outside of a small subset of weapons physics area.
Rumor has it that AQ Khan turned it down,, didn't pay enough, no testing of new designs....
I saw MacMillan's resume indicating he worked on the W76. When? It's amazing how all these mangers are coming forward with experience on the W76. If the W76 were a a horse it would have 500 blankets on it's back.
Charlie was B-Program leader at LLNL and a good one. He'll be a good director at LANL.
May 28, 2011 12:41 AM
If Charile's so good why is he at Los Alamos? From what I have seen of Knapp and MacMillan I am less than impressed. We definitely got the "B-team" alright.
Come on people, wake up and raise cain that it was not a fair search and that he isn't qualified for the job!!
May 28, 2011 7:06 PM
Won't happen. I retired from LANL a couple of years ago, after getting mightily sick of LANS. The morale and cohesiveness of the LANL staff has been beaten down into the dirt, and I don't think it will ever recover. The appointment of a new Director with the experience, credentials, and gravitas of a Hecker, a Browne, or even a Younger, might have had a chance of re-forging the old LANL capability. But now, this is the final nail in the coffin. UC has bought into the NNSA and Bechtel vision of a compliant, mediocre, profit-making, unremarkable, drab, sad institution that has forgotten its own history and grandeur. It will never be again the subject of controversial Congressional hearings, which was the goal of the C students all along. They've won. The country has lost.
I expect to see more money coming to construction at LANL from this decision. CMRR will cost the country more money and will eat into the rest of the Lab. It will be sad to watch the the decay and rapid erosion of the multi-mission Lab. McMillan doesn't have the the experience to run such a complex organization and he will get taken by the construction projects. Too bad that UC passed over other more qualified individuals in their haste to elevate the pre-determined candidate.
Random list of possible other more qualified candidates with a few thrown in that may not.
Younger
Goodwin
Koonin
Miller, Pete or George
Romig
Wallace
Reese
Albright
Cook
Add or subtract. Lets see what you have to say.
Pete Miller was on screening committee, however, the way things work here I wouldn't have been surprised if he came up as the Lab Director by selecting himself. Between Anastasio, Mara, MacMillan, and Knapp all these guys have been doing since arriving at Los Alamos is promoting themselves and giving themselves raises, non-taxed bonuses, and flight benefits.
This result is a real black eye for UC, and for Pattiz in particular. I wonder how the UC Board of Regents feels about UC's reputation for academic and intellectual integrity being dragged through the dump on this one. The list of (at least potential) candidates was so large and so public that I can't imagine anyone other than Pattiz trying to justify this travesty. If Pattiz had any integrity, he'd resign. If McMillan had any, he'd refuse the appointment. Neither will happen.
"It will be sad to watch the the decay and rapid erosion of the multi-mission Lab. McMillan doesn't have the the experience to run such a complex organization and he will get taken by the construction projects." - 6:07 AM
Notice what has happened over the last few years at LANL. LANS/Bechtel has no interest in LANL being a diverse, multi-mission science lab. NNSA doesn't want this and LANS take their marching orders directly from NNSA. LANS executives get a lucrative payout for being compliant regardless of the outcome to science at the national labs.
Is it any surprise, really, that LANS and NNSA are focused mainly on efforts involving buildings and construction efforts for their lucrative "science labs"? Bechtel managers come from the construction trade world. Heck, just look at the huge, new directorate Mikey created two months ago to head up capital projects... with a new VP from Bechtel heading it up, of course!
The one place where construction activity might have actually helped with multi-mission science was the building that was planned for Wallace's directorate. This building plan for the "Science Complex" had been in the works for almost 8 years. Wallace couldn't get his much touted "Science Complex" funded to house the multi-mission scientists left floundering under his directorate. Many of his people still work in old, decaying buildings built way back in the 1950s. That should tell you something about just how important a diverse, multi-mission lab is to LANS, Bechtel and the NNSA. They would just as soon be done with it. The crowning of McMillan as LANL's next Director fits well with this chosen path.
Give Pattiz a break already! What do you expect from a radio and TV personality who owns a 60 ft, 100 ton yacht named "Vixen". This guy is a con artist, tried and true. Another Betchel "winner".
Billionaire Pattiz, 60, is founder and chairman of Westwood One, the largest radio network in the United States, with 7,500 stations. He's also an active force at the Israel Policy Forum (IPF) -- a think-tank that coordinates pro-Israel propaganda. IPF meets regularly with key Israeli politicians and hosts monthly roundtable discussions where prominent American Jews of the media and government meet with Israeli leaders in brainstorming sessions.
Pattiz created and now operates Al Hurra and Radio Sawa. Al-Hurra is an Arabic-language satellite TV channel that operates 24/7 out of Springfield, Virginia. It went online in 2004. The network cost U.S. taxpayers $62 million in its first year, including an extra $40 million for around the clock broadcasting to Iraq. It now drains $37 million annually for recurring operational costs.
UC has a long history of associating with disgraced personalities. Just look at the sordid history of the former UC President, Dr. Dynes!
I think the UC acronym must now stand for "Ultimate Corruption".
I find it amusing that a Zionist billionaire is now leading the U.S. nuclear weapon program. How we all got to this point is very disturbing, however explains a lot.
I find the story here to be about the process, which was only to make public the personal selection made by Mike years ago. I do not find much happiness in the way it was conducted. Charlie is off to a terrible start, and it will only get worse. If Mike and UC really cared about this, they would have run a full and open competition, not the sham that they pulled. Charlie may still have gotten the job, doubtful but not totally impossible. The issue is how the Director is viewed. Charlie is not seen as having gone through a fair process, so he starts with a handicap that is not small.
It may matter only to a small group, but the message that was sent by Charlie's appointment is huge. LANL is not a national security lab, it is a weapons ONLY lab. UC had people in the pool that had very strong national security credentials and they were not given full consideration. This is a sad, sad view of the future but there is no other way to make sense out of the UC decision. So, unless you work for Brett, you are not part of the lab.
If UC decided to hire a weapons person for the top spot then they should have said that up front. Instead they claimed to run an open search, only it was a front for the real process. In any event, there are far more qualified weapons leaders than Charlie.
Charlie is not seen as having gone through a fair process, so he starts with a handicap that is not small.
May 31, 2011 5:45 PM
Incredible understatement. His "handicap" is that he is not, by any measure, qualified to be Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Period. The fact that the past three directors were also not qualified is irrelevant. The only means by which UC and Bechtel will get away with this travesty is by the fact that Congress is preoccupied with reelection, and the general public has never known or cared what goes on in the US nuclear weapon community. Also, the New Mexico congressional delegation is so liberal that they won't squawk. They think anyone with "scientific credentials" is good. It is incredibly sad that the US and New Mexico forget the storied history of LANL and the immense respect that name once called up. McMillan is in no way an adequate successor to that legacy. Shame on UC and damn Pattiz.
But,but,but.... the PR that LANS is feeding the news media sez staff at LANL are overjoyed that "one of their own" has just been crowned the next Director. Read some of the latest news links on LANL's internal home page!
But,but,but.... the PR that LANS is feeding the news media sez staff at LANL are overjoyed that "one of their own" has just been crowned the next Director. Read some of the latest news links on LANL's internal home page!
May 31, 2011 10:37 PM
This blizkrieg is being brought to you by Pattiz and his billion dollar media. He can buy whatever he wants, including L.A. Laker player bench seats next to Jack Nicholson, a $400M mansion in L.A., and a $50M yacht. He claims he "get's a rush" by the players sweating on him, which is exactly what we are doing for him, "sweating on him".
Fidel anoints Raoul in Cuba.
Putin preselects Medevev in Russia.
Now Mike crowns Charlie at LANL.
The US Congress and the current Administration is letting UC run the nuclear weapons Labs by a dictatorship succession plan. Charlie is by far the least qualified Director selection ever in the history of LANL. Nanos was more qualified.
I find amusing that UC feel compelled to hold Lab wide meeting to 'introduce' new Director to staff. Perhaps if they had selected a more qualified person this wouldn't be required. Just a thought...
Watching McMillan doing his inauguration speech. yada yada yada, preceded by Bruce Darling who went through the sham selection process. Interesting that LANL pulled out all the stops with buses from outlying areas and the auditorium is still only perhaps 2/3 full. Mostly Managers, Secretaries and students.
I guess MacMillian should be judged not by his total lack of any qualification for the job other than Mikes pick. But by his actions. Action one was to elevate Knapp. Next action?
It may matter only to a small group, but the message that was sent by Charlie's appointment is huge. LANL is not a national security lab, it is a weapons ONLY lab. UC had people in the pool that had very strong national security credentials and they were not given full consideration. This is a sad, sad view of the future but there is no other way to make sense out of the UC decision. So, unless you work for Brett, you are not part of the lab.
May 31, 2011 5:53 PM
What I heard today was that LANL is a weapons factory. I did not hear that LANL is a science Lab. I heard Darling extoll the many virtues of MacMilan. I did not hear any mention of any external recognition for him.
I guess MacMillian should be judged not by his total lack of any qualification for the job other than Mikes pick. But by his actions. Action one was to elevate Knapp. Next action?
June 1, 2011 2:52 PM
First day on the job Charlie appoints Knapp as the Acting Principal Associate Director for Nuclear Weapons (PADNWP) and gives him a raise. Charlie's first really difficult decision. Charlie's next decision will be to select Knapp as the permanent PADNWP following the same heralded search process that was used to select Charlie. I sure do hope we have entertainment soon, like a missing disk or something, because this is getting really boring. Jessica, are you out there?
I find it amazing, just amazing that LANL will now be 'led' by MacMillian and Knapp. Get ready for the shake down boys and girls. Someone's gotta pay for their new salary. If UC had a shred of integrity remaining, they would make a public confession and ask for forgiveness.
So free busing couldn't get LANL staff to show up to bow down at the feet of the newly crowned ruler. Next time it will be required to attend. Just wait, this is coming. Knapp has had required attendance.
I do not know McMillan but his track record looks thin and weak. Who can tell us what UC saw in him that we are all missing? Did UC really not have more qualified people to consider? Is LANL so bad that proved leaders would not want to come here?
Has anyone noticed that the portrait put up of McMillan on the lab's internal web page looks exactly like the mug shot of the wide smiling face of The Joker from the first Batman movie?
Hmmmm.....
It's not going to get any better. LANS seems intent on wiping out the proud history of Los Alamos with massive doses of management mediocrity.
Has anyone noticed that the portrait put up of McMillan on the lab's internal web page looks exactly like the mug shot of the wide smiling face of The Joker from the first Batman movie?
Hmmmm.....
June 2, 2011 9:25 AM
I guess that makes Knapp fill the role of Robin. That's it! The "Dynamic Duo".
Unbelievable. Just un-f'ing-believable. MacMillian is Lab Director for a day. A DAY. And what does he do? He runs back to Livermore. What does that say about what he thinks about LANL??
Curious if Charlie will stop getting his hair dyed now that he's ascended to the throne. The vanity of the entitled class knows no bounds.
"Charlie is by far the least qualified Director selection ever in the history of LANL. Nanos was more qualified."
June 1, 2011 6:44 AM
Sad, but true. I challenge anyone in UC to dispute this fact.
Quite honestly I wish we could run these guys (MacMillan and Knapp) off and out. I am getting sick and tired of their brash and arrogant attitudes. While MacMillan has a degree from a decent school and "ran the codes at LLNL", where in the heck does Knapp "get off" thinking he's so "bad" with his Cal Poly degree. I cannot justify this guy's "existence". He nauseates me.
Definition of APPOINTMENT
1. a : an act of appointing : designation
b : the designation by virtue of a vested power of a person to enjoy an estate
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/
'vested power' = Mike
'an estate' = LANS
The saddest part of this story is Bruce Darling's 15 minute apology for the failure of the screening and search committees' failure to come up with someone better qualified out of more than 150 nominees. Not applicants, mind you, but nominees. To see this once proud institution stoop to this transparent subterfuge is appalling. But, if you can't make it as an institution of higher learning anymore, I guess kowtowing to the feds is all there is left. Student Spring may be right around the corner.
UC knows that as a result of federal and state budget cuts, it is about to become a third-rate academic institution. All you have to do is look at the recent mailings to employees and retirees to see that times are about to get very hard in California, and the UC regents will no longer be able to hold the dam. I fear for UC pensioners already years into retirement, and I fear for current UC students and their parents who will be facing major tuition increases. UC has lost its way. All of California has lost its way. And the current crop of regents and administrators seems not to have a clue.
June 2, 2011 8:56 PM:
"The saddest part of this story is Bruce Darling's 15 minute apology for the failure of the screening and search committees' failure to come up with someone better qualified out of more than 150 nominees. Not applicants, mind you, but nominees."
Now, now, it is not nice to put dirty laundry out for public viewing. UC knows that if the true story comes out they can not win. The only hope for them is for the facts to stay buried. Who was nominated and why the search committee did not consider them will never be made public by LANS. There were some highly qualified names that would have pushed MacMillian out if they were considered.
In the end, he may have been the best of those that were considered. The real story is how the committee made up the list of 'considered'.
If UC decided to hire a weapons person for the top spot then they should have said that up front. Instead they claimed to run an open search, only it was a front for the real process. In any event, there are far more qualified weapons leaders than Charlie.
May 31, 2011 6:11 PM
I strongly feel that to lead Los Alamos you must have national security credentials. This is not limited to nuclear weapons physics. I also see the position as needing someone that has a level of recognition beyond the nuclear weapons field. So the question is not who was the most qualified weapons leader, but of the 150 names did UC give serious consideration to anyone but MacMillian. I would like to see the list and for each one know who in UC contacted them and why they declined to be considered.
I wish MacMilian the best of luck. He starts a job that he knows was his for years but was picked in a false process. He also knows that the Lab staff have names of other more qualified people that should have been given full consideration. Poor guy. It must really suck to come to work with all that guilt.
Lakers lost in the playoffs. So now LANL also lost chance at good leader. Guess that makes it oh for two for Pattiz.
It is amazing to me that LANL is a taxpayer-funded institution, LANS is paid by taxpayers, and the stewardship of LANL is supposedly in the national security interest of the country, but no one here on this blog has even mentioned complaining to their congressional delegation about the travesty (and in my opinion, national security threat) of the appointment of an entirely unqualified director to this laboratory. Is whining all that can be done about this? Or is there a will to do something about it?
The only time I have seen MacMillan speak was for National Nuclear Workers Day at Fuller's Lodge. Up the time MacMillan spoke, several former nuclear workers gave poignant and touching speeches about being a nuclear worker. Then, MacMillan, in typical nerd fashion, with absolutely no emotion, no eye contact with about 200 people in the audience, in a monotone voice, read from a card a "statement", 4 whole sentences from LANS, and probably written by his secretary. I noticed he then crawled out the back door immediately following his "speech", not speaking with anyone. It was at that point it struck me that he would eventually be our new Lab Director. What an absolute disappointment!
The travesty about the selection process is that the Limited Liability Company (LLC) can just "flush" all the evidence of what was a joke of a process to select MacMillan. I hope all the high-level dignitaries that composed the selection team realize they were just "used" by Pattiz, they same way he is using all the employees at LANL and LLNL. LLNL will embark on this same journey. I got news for LLNL employees and it's selection team, the decision has already been made, and it's sitting on a yacht somewhere in the Bahamas.
UC knows that as a result of federal and state budget cuts, it is about to become a third-rate academic institution.
"Third-rate"? What hogwash. Undoubtedly they will lose some more faculty. They'll also get some new high fliers, too. A certain class of dons are in Brownian motion anyway.
UC will 'privatize' further by admitting more out-of-state students at higher tuition. It won't be pretty, but a lot of quality will be retained and many students will still be clamoring to get into the system.
Changes in the pension will not be a surprise. It will still be a good pension.
Changes in the pension will not be a surprise. It will still be a good pension.
June 4, 2011 10:23 AM
"Changes" like rescission? UC nor the State of CA has any legal obligation to provide a pension. How about a cap of 50% of top salary after 30 years, maximum of $50k a year? Lots of state government pensions are like that.
Remember there is a contract between UC and NNSA, so that could come into play. If so, everyone (TCP2 and TCP1 takers) would end up being in the same boat, counting on NNSA to keep their end of the bargain.
Pension benefits -- both UC and the labs -- will be frozen within about 3 years time. Don't count on McMillan to fight it at LANL!
" Pension benefits -- both UC and the labs -- will be frozen within about 3 years time. Don't count on McMillan to fight it at LANL!
June 4, 2011 4:20 PM"
3years? Maybe 2 at best.
Pension benefits -- both UC and the labs -- will be frozen within about 3 years time.
June 4, 2011 4:20 PM
UC pensions are controlled solely by UC and the California Legislature. The LANL and LLNL pensions are controlled by LANS and LLNS, under scrutiny by NNSA, that they comply with the contracts. There is no connection between the two, since the pension funds for LANL and LLNL were separated at the establishment of the contracts. McMillan doesn't have to "fight" anything. If LANS decides to cut or freeze any benefits, it will have to be with NNSA concurrence, or will require a change in the contract. Try to keep up.
Just so you know, 7:33 pm, NNSA has already put pressure on LANS to modify the pension at LANL, ala the "scr#w job" they did to the Sandia pension last year. Anastasio hinted as much at one of his All-Hands meetings last year. I'll at least give Mike credit for standing up for our pension (which he is part of) and pushing back on the pressure coming from NNSA to whittle away our benefits.
Will McMillan do the same? Hard to tell. However, one thing I do know is that you, 7:33 pm, are very foolish to think that DOE/NNSA don't have plans to bring the growing pension obligations to an abrupt halt, and soon!
I see nothing in 4:30's comments that implied common ownership between the pensions of UC and the LLC labs, 7:33.
The fact is that both the state of California and the Federal government are looking for cutbacks in worker benefits. You seem to be reading things into comments that don't exist. Try to keep up, ol' boy. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
** Poem in Tribute to Charlie McMillan's Success **
LANS & LLNS -- profitable subsidaries of Bechtel incorporated.
Lovely playthings of the super-rich, the corrupt, the policitally connected.
Bring the black limosine around to the back lot, Jives...
...I fear the natives are restless tonight!
Pattiz and McMillan's golden laced invites to the Bohemian Encampment are in the mail.
Remember.. no woman allowed!
Unless they are of the special kind for pleasuring of our rich, rascally boys!
"Weaving spiders come not here" - Have you not heard?
Hail, club members, to Dr. Dynes! Dynes insipred Old-Money/Old-Boys club lives on!
"Our trading post in the remote colony of Los Alamos is doing well",
Says Grand Bohemian Leader Riley Bechtel.
"However, we must continue to keep the local riff-raff outside the palace gates!"
So it is, and so it will remain to be. Nothing will change.
Welcome aboard our rotting Ship of Science, Charlie!
Hip-hip huraaah to the new Captain!
Your weekly ticket back to the California Homeland is under your desk, Brother.
Your weekly ticket back to the California Homeland is under your desk, Brother.
June 6, 2011 9:59 AM
Don't forget the tax gross-up bonuses (aka tax-free bonus), California housing allowance, and Audi/Porshe car allowance. I also hear Pattiz gives the dynamic duo (Million Dollar Man McMillan and Knappy) free time on his yacht and bench side L.A. Laker tickets.
Has Brett Knapp been "promoted" to Charlie's PAD position yet?
Has Brett Knapp been "promoted" to Charlie's PAD position yet?
Yes, in an acting capacity while they conduct a competitive search for the permanent PAD.
You can be sure that it will be just as competitive for Knapp as it was for MacMillan.
You can be sure that it will be just as competitive for Knapp as it was for MacMillan.
June 12, 2011 10:29 AM
It was will be far less competitive because Knapp has ensured he got rid of all his competition during the last 5-years.
If Bret is "acting" in Charlie's old position, who is "acting" in Bret's old position?
If Bret is "acting" in Charlie's old position, who is "acting" in Bret's old position?
June 14, 2011 6:45 PM
First, Bret chased off Dave Beck during the past month. Second, Bret never leaves a position he vacates. That is, he puts a puppet so he can make all the calls all the way down to the janitor. I assume that Craig "The Snake" Leasure is acting for Bret. I once saw Craig taking Bret's suits to the cleaners. I kid you not.
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