ML20236W594
| ML20236W594 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 11/13/1987 |
| From: | Zech L NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8712080102 | |
| Download: ML20236W594 (8) | |
Text
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UNITED STATES o
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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W ASHINGTON, D. C. 20555 g,
,p November 13, 1987 CHAIRMAN The National Public Service Awards Selection Committee 1120 G Street, N. W.
Suite 500 Washington, D. C. 20005 Gentlemen:
It is my pleasure to nominate William J. Olmstead, Assistant General Counsel for Hearings, Office of the General Counsel, for the 1988 National Public Service Award.
Mr. Olmstead is a valuable employee of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
He possesses keen analytical and creative legal talents and has been assigned to some of the mnst difficult policy initiatives associated with rulemaking.
In addition, his innovative approach to management has produced maximum efficiencies and improved service to the public.
Mr. Olmstead is a dedicated and committed senior executive who is a credit both to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and to the Federal Service.
Enclosed is our nomiration which details Mr. Olmstead's qualifications for the 1986 National Public Service Award.
Commissioners Bernthal and Rogers were unavailable to participate in this response.
Sincerely, W.
Lando W. Zech,
Enclosures:
As stated 87120B0102 871113 PDR COMMS NRCC CORRESPONDENCE PDR
5 Nomination of Mr. William J. Olmstead for 1988 Nat'ional Public Service Award I.
General Information A.
Name, address, day phone, title,'and organization of:
1.
Nominee - Mr. ' William J.
Olmstead, Assistant General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Comis-
.sion, 1717 H. Street.N.W., Washington, D.C. 20555, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Comission, 1717.H Street 2.
Nominator N.W., Washington, D.C. 20555.-
3.
. References ~ -
a.
Mr. William C. Parler, General Counsel U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1717 H Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20555 b.
Mr. Victor. Stello, Jr.,
Executive Director for Operations U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1717 H Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 70555 c.
Guy H. Cunningham, III, General Counsel Battelle Northwest Richland, Washington B.
Certification by Nominator 1.-
"I certify that all the information provided in this nomination.is accurate and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief, and is made in good faith."
2.
Signature:
3.
Date: & W $ /V(
.. II.
Information on Nominee A.
Description of Responsibilities Mr. William J.
Olmstead is the Assistant General Counsel for Hearings in the Office of General Counsel at the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Comission.
In this capacity, he assists the General Counsel in the development of legal policy and is responsible for the representation and counseling of the Commission's staff in public hearings conducted in conjunction with the licensing of the use of nuclear materials and facilities.
All attorneys in the agency who appear in the agency's licensing adjudications are assigned to organizations reporting to Mr. Olmstead.
In addition, he is designated by the Commissinn as its negotiator in a negotiated rulemaking proceeding involving over 20 states, Indian
- tribes, public utility organizations, and the Department of Energy.
This proceeding is critical to the development of procedures which will govern the licensing of the nation's first deep geological high level waste repository sometime in the 1990s.
B.
Statement of Achievement 1.
The political and institutional environment.
Mr. Olmstead has been employed by the Commission as an attorney since August 1974.
During this time be has held progressively more senior and demanding positions and has rapidly achieved higher grades and increasingly responsible positions. He is regularly assigned to the agency's most difficult policy initiatives to bring keen analytical and creative legal talents to bear.
Before assuming significant executivb responsibilities in 1979, Mr. Olmstead was regularly assigned to be the senior attorney on the agency's most demanding adjudicatory proceedings.
In 1975 he represented involving the Generic rulemaking(GESMO).
the agency in its mixed-oxide Fuel This proceeding 1
Environmental Statement on Mixed Oxide was a novel hybrid rulemaking involving multiple participants in a formal i
proceeding conducted before five of the nation's foremost technical and legal
)
experts.
Parties to the proceeding included major industry and utility groups, states, and several national environmental organizations.
In the course of his early assignments with the agency, Mr. Olmstead was a principal participant in developing the agency's position on the legal I
requirements for notice and comment rulemaking and contributed i
substantially in developing the legal theory which led to the agency's i
successful defense of its fuel cycle rule in the United States Supreme Court.
i This is now one of the leeding cases governing federal agency rulemakina.
(Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp.
v.
Natural Resources Defense Council, l
Inc., et al. 435 U.S. 519 (1978)).
Es Assistant Chief Hearing Counsel, Mr.
l DTiisteiT was regularly assigned to personally oversee and conduct nuclear l
facility licensing proceedings which involved multiple parties, including states, environmental organizations, and utilities.
These proceedings were frequently characterized by protest demonstrations, heavy media coverage l
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. by regional and national press organizations, and multiple appellate actions within the agency and in the federal courts.
In 1981 Mr. Olmstead was pro-moted to the position of Director and Chief Counsel of the Regulations Division, which became the position of Assistant General Counsel for Rulemaking and Fuel Cycle when the agency's two legal offices were consoli-dated.
In this capacity, Mr. Olmstead was the senior executive in the agency responsible for the ' legal oversight of all NRC rule and regulatory guidance development, interpretation, and implementation.
This position involved Mr.
Olmstead in regular interactions with Congressional committee staff, state government officials, major nuclear vendors, public utilities, and public interest and environmental organizations with significant national consti-tuencies.
He was the principal legal advisor to the NRC office directors responsible for state programs, nuclear material safety and safeguards, and research.
He had regular interaction with the Executive Director for Operations and the Commission.. The agency's materials licensing function frequently involved Mr. Olmstead in discussions with national medical organiza-tions interested in new regulatory initiatives involving medical applica-tions.
During this time the Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, which required substantial additions to the Commission's rules and major ne.w and novel interpretations, including the timing of contractual obligations which utilities had to achieve with the Department of Energy, new training regulatory policy for reactor operator licensees, rules governing the licensing of the Department of Energy's high level waste program, and revisions to existing rules to recognize the special status given to states and Indian Tribes by the Act.
At the same time, Mr. Olmstead was completing rule revisions as the result of changes the Commission had directed after the Three Mile Island Accident and he was regularly advising the Commission and overseeing the development of rules to implement the Commission's regulatory reform initiatives.
These major activities required Mr. Olmstead to travel around the country and meet with organizations such as the Association of Attorneys General, subcommittees of the organization'of states, state legisla-tive committees, Indian tribal councils, industry quality assurance organiza-tions, and Department of Energy contractors' groups.
In his current position, Mr. Olmstead has been designated to continue as the agency's chief negotiator on these matters.
In addition, he has assumed executive responsibility for all legal representation in the Commission's licensing hearings.
These hearings involve major controversies surrounding the nation's nuclear power plant licensing.
One of the more controversial matters which Mr. Olmstead must address involves the Commission's emergency planning rules. Mr. Olmstead must maintain effectiv-liaison with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and with the legal representatives of affected state and local governments.
In addition, the staff of Congressional oversight committees regularly seek information from Mr. Olmstead and members of his staff concerning the issues involved in the most controversial cases.
B.
2.
Innovations and Creativity Mr. Olmstead's service is best characterized by his balanced approach to his executive responsibilities.
In each position he has held, he has retained capable persons, strengthened and emphasized those organizational attributes which were successful for his predecessors, and implemented new m----
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and innovative management systems where maximum efficiencies and improved service could be realized.
When he took responsibility for the Regulations Division of the office, the attorney rulemaking work load was increasing 'at a rapid rate.
Budget projections indicated that four additional staff attorneys and a number of additional support staff would be needed in the near term.
It was unrealistic to expect increases in budget authority for the office due to Congressional passage of the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction statute and pressures within the agency to deploy more personnel into technical. and engineering - activities.. As a consequence, in 1983 Mr. Olmstead developed a proposed pilot automation plan which would place personal computers at each attorney's desk within his division. These units were connected with secretarial word-processing equipment.
At the time, a project of this size and scale had not been attempted within the agency nor within many of the nation's largest law firms.
Mr. Olmstead was convinced, due to extensive research he had done on his own time, that attorneys using personal computers could be more efficient and productive than they could be with dictation and transcription equipment..
After making a proposal E.nd having. it audited and reviewed in the agency, Mr. Olmstead developed a strategy to prove his theory, which included training his entire staff and carefully auditing attorney and support staff efficiency before and after implementation of the project.
To insure accuracy, Mr. Olmstead arranged to have an evaluation of the impact of these changes made through a contract with the U.S.
General Services Administration, Federal Office Automation Support Center.
A study carefully designed under that. contract measured both qualitative and quantitative performance data gathered before and after the project's implementation.
The study's executive sumary concludes:
"With a 30 %
increase in work load when using the PC's, the attorneys were still able to produce significantly better quality documents than were. completed before."
The study indicates that Mr. 01mstead's initiatives improved attorney performance by 50% to 100% depending on the type of work assigned.
According to the study, if qualitative improvements were quantified by assuming it took less time to achieve a maximum quality product and by placing a dollar value on this improvement, then the value of Mr.
Olmstead's initiative in a single division was over $1,000,000.00.
Mr.
Olmstead's reputation as a creative and innovative manager led to his t
appointment in 1986 by the Executive Director for Operations to head a J
special task force for NRC to reorganize and restructure the information resource management functions of the agency.
In this capacity, Mr.
Olmstead reviewed the agencies telecommunications, document control and distribution, office automation, and automated data processing organizations and budgets, and recommended to the Comission a major restructuring of these functions within the agency.
Based largely on the recommendations of Mr. 01mstead's task force, the Executive Director recommended and the Commission accepted, a reorganization plan which consolidated the agency's budget and organization for information resources in a single Office of j
Administration and Resources Management.
This brought together under a single executive several divisions and branches which had previously been in three entirely separate organizations. Within the Office of General Counsel, Mr. 01mstead's initiatives have made it possible to consolidate the two existing legal offices and to reduce staffing to less than 70% of its l
previous size while the workload of the office increased.
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Mr." 01mstead's management of substantive legal matters assigned. to him -
has _ been ' equally, impressive.
His implementation of major new. regulatory programs as _a ' result,of the passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of-1982 1(NWPA) wes innovative ' and creative.
As j ai result' ofc his staying ' current o
and abreast, of major new.. legal developments throughout a the nation,. Mr. -
'Olmstead. took. note' of the Administrative Conference of the -United States' recommendations ' concerning the. use of Alternative! Dispute Resolution 1
mechanisms in 1 agency rulemaking. activities.
Congress - had established. very -
tight.. deadlines for. NRC actions under JNWPA.-
As. a consequence, the-Comission - directed the General Counsel's : office: to ? develop 1 regulatory initiatives designed to meet.. the Congressional: direction.-
Mr.: Olmstead developed a proposal 'to - establish under the. Advisory c Comittee_ Act an
~
advisory.committec.which _ would.
have as
. participants the.. major contestants in: the High' Level; Waste : repository : siting disputes.
.By contracting forL a neutral.. organization to - mediate ' the disputes,x a rule acceptable to'- most ' of. the _ participants could be _ developed ~through'
-negotiations -with the committee members..
In addition,. :Mr. Olmstead-directed that major, new initiatives being implemented by the federal courts.
to control complex litigation be explored. This effort led to an examination
'of,how automation and litigation could be used to' streamline; litigation while at;the same time protecting each party's rights to fully develop'its position on : issues the' Comission would have to decide. ' Over' the course of the past four; years, Mr.. Olmstead has ' met with -numerous states,. Indian _ tribes," the Department of. Energy, OMB, and citizen's groups to describe. how automation
'might be used to shorten litigation,; enhance case preparation, speed motions
- practice, and reduce or eliminate costly discovery among. the ' parties.
As-a result, the Comission established an.' advisory committee to negotiate the details: of these procedural refoms and appointed Mr. _Olmstead as. its chief negotiator.
A measure of-his success in this endeavor was indicated - at Congressional hearings where - the ' status ' of the Comission's negotiated rulemaking: effort was~ discussed.
The' vast majority of comittee witnesses commented favorably on this initiative.
While~. this effort!is still in progress, it is a model of creative and. innovative approaches to complex and-
. controversial matters which is characteristic of Mr. Olmstead's work.
B.
3.
Changes and Impacts as a result of Mr. Olmstead's Work
' Mr. Olmstead has been responsible for changes and improvements 1.n
' the agency's delivery. of services to the public, and his. effort has resulted in the Comission having more flexibility in its ability to improve the administration of.its public health and safety responsibilities under the
- Atomic Energy Act.
As noted in the previous discussion, he is' responsible for a major reorganization in how. attorneys do their work, which has resulted in a more efficient and cost effective office.
In his current position, _ he has reorganized his division to reduce from four to two the number of organizational units reporting to him.
As a result, he has reduced by two the number of Senior Executive Service employees needed to manage the division and reduced by four the number of other supervisors.
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> The support staff necessary to accomplish legal production work has been reduced by four people in addition to the savings earlier realized throughout the General Counsel's office as a result of Mr. Olmstead's work with the office automation pilot project.
Mr. 01mstead's staffing level for the division is currently at' the reduced level projected to be achieved in two additional fiscal years.
In addition, the case load for individual attorneys assigned to the division is higher than it has been for two years with no noticeable deterioration in quality.
These changes and improvements in efficiency have not been achieved by massive reorganizations or sudden disruptions in assignments.
- Rather, Mr.
Olmstead has listened to suggestions from his managers anu subordinates, and has gradually made changes when opportunities for change presented themselves by virtue of personnel reassignments, promotions, or resignations.
At these times, rather than merely - reassigning the same work and activities to another person or organization, Mr. Olmstead compares the work activities to the goals and objectives he has set for his division and seeks input as to how these objectives can be better met within the context of the opportunity presented by a particular personnel change.
This approach regularly results in opportunities to enhance the careers of his most talented professionals while at the same time making the existing service delivery system more efficient.
B. 4.
Commitment to the Public Service Mr. Olmstead is a dedicated and committed career senior executive.
While he has been approached by private employers on numerous occasions, Mr. Olmstead has made it clear that he feels a strong comm.itment to public service.
He seeks to inspire his subordinates to feel the same commitment and sense of purpose.
When he was given a promotion to his current position, the employees of the Rulemaking Division indicated their strong approval of Mr. Olmstead's character and supervision by presenting him a bronze plaque and " employees' outstanding manager" award.
In addition, Mr. Olmstead was awarded the President's " Meritorious Executive" award in 1985, an award which a member of the Senior Executive Service can only qualify for once every five years.
Mr. Olmstead has been awarded four bonuses for outstanding performance for the past four years, has received the Federally Employed Women's Equal Employment Opportunity Award, and has received numerous other agency special achievement awards and high quality increases.
He is widely recognized and respected within and without the agency by superiors and subordinates for his dedication, candor, and effective interactions in a highly charged and controversial environment involving the nation's nuclear energy goals and programs.
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-i III. Biography Education:
B. A. - 1966 Southwestern College, Winfield Kansas
'1974 _Washburn, University, Topeka, Kansas, Assistant Notes J.D.
Editor, Washburn Law Journal 1973-74 Military:'
.Capt. USAF 1966-1971, 449th Bomb Wing.(H), Kincheloe, AFB, Mi, Electronic Warfare Officer.B-52H, Wing Penetration Aids Staff Officer and Chief EW Standardization Officer.
NRC:
Attorney 1974-1979; Assistant Chief. Hearing Counsel 1979; Deputy Chief Hearing Counsel.1980; Director and Chief Regulations Counsel 1981-1986; Assistant General Counsel for Rulemaking and. Fuel cycle 1986-87; Assistant. General Counsel-for Hearings 19W to present.
BAR:
Admitted to United States' Supreme Court, Supreme Court _ of 'the State of.' Kansas, and the United States-Federal District Court for Kansas.
Member. of the American Bar Association and the Kansas Bar Association. Member Delta Theta Phi Legal Fraternity.
Civic:
'Vice President for Area 1 Montgomery County Council of PTAs, Chairman of Council on Ministries for Hughes United Methodist Church, Wheaton, Md.
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