Jack pulled into the parking lot of the Jade Garden restaurant on Saturday at noon. It was one of Harry's favorite restaurants in Raleigh. He walked in and quickly spotted Harry sipping a cup of hot tea at a table near the front window.
The purpose of the meeting was to prepare Jack for his first inspection at DuPont Fayetteville Works scheduled for later that month. The site included multiple chemical manufacturing plants and was one of the most complex facilities the agency inspected in North Carolina. Jack had just begun working in Fayetteville earlier that year. He had been hired to fill the same position that Harry held until he left the agency for another job near the beginning of 2004.
Jack and Harry had the same reasons for wanting to work in the Fayetteville office. The Fayetteville region had multiple complex chemical manufacturing plants, which they were very interested in due to their chemistry backgrounds and their years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Secondly, it was a promotion to an engineering coordinator position. In addition to carrying out the usual inspection or permitting activities, the coordinator was expected to make sure the Fayetteville office and the Raleigh central office were working together in a consistent and positive manner. It was an excellent position for getting to know and work with other agency employees, as well as becoming familiar with the facilities and environmental challenges in other regions of North Carolina. In addition, the coordinator position included an increase in pay.
Thirdly, Fayetteville certainly appeared to be one of the most modern offices in the division. The Fayetteville air quality supervisor, Steve Mazada, was forward-thinking and trained as a scientist rather than as an engineer. Previously, the Fayetteville office was headed up by Kent Smock. Kent had worked for many years as an engineer in the chemical industry prior to the agency. After Kent retired as head of the agency's Fayetteville office, Steve Mazda became the air quality supervisor and quickly reworked the office's outdated operations. In Fayetteville, Jack got to work on everything, including inspections, permits, emissions reports, and responding to and investigating complaints, with interesting weekly meetings to discuss each employee's work activities and areas of expertise. The staff was fully informed on all projects and activities. There was a refreshing emphasis on stepping away from the paperwork and getting out in the field to look closely at the facilities and ask questions. Steve had also tried to get the Air, Water, and Waste groups in the Fayetteville Systel building to work closely and share more information. Unfortunately, on that particular effort he seemed to be encountering resistance.
Prior to working in Fayetteville, Harry's several years working in the agency's Winston-Salem office gave him a close look at the typical agency field office. It was a dedicated and very likable team in Winston-Salem. However, the office was managed as an old school, military-like operation with tight compartments and silos, and an emphasis on seniority and hierarchy. Despite having a "science-based mission," it appeared that most field offices had historically placed scientists at the bottom of the hierarchy and engineers at the top. There seemed to be little chance of reform and modernization in Winston-Salem until the long-time boss, an engineer and NC State College of Engineering graduate, decided to retire. He was entrenched.
Similarly, in many of the agency air quality offices the employees spent years working in narrow, tight compartments and silos. Harry had many conversations with others about this outdated system. However, the licensed engineers who seemed to have the positions of power in the division did not seem receptive to change. Historically, they were the top dogs in the organization. The people with the power, most of whom were graduates of the NC State College of Engineering in Raleigh, had workplace seniority. Perhaps not surprisingly, they seemed to believe they knew what was best for everyone else. And, after all, "it's always been done this way."
"Why did the agency separate conducting inspections from writing permits when they obviously go hand-in-hand," Jack wondered.
"It reflects the old technology," Harry explained. "Back in 1993, air permits were printed out on two large word processing machines located in downtown Raleigh. A team of permit engineers handed off templates with draft versions, changes, and edits to the two administrative assistants operating the word processors on the same floor of the Archdale building in Raleigh. As a result, it made some sense that a typical agency staffer was either a "permit writer" in Raleigh or an "inspector" in one of the seven field offices. After changes in technology resulted in the same hardware and software available on everyone's desk, allowing creation, peer review, or approval of any documents, it appeared that significant improvements could be made to the system. Steve Mazda immediately modernized the Fayetteville office, but many other agency bosses wanted to maintain the status quo. After all, some of the members of the General Assembly argued for the agency to be 'run like a business.' Not surprisingly, many of the bosses, long-time public employees, were more than happy to run a public agency office like it was their own private business.
"How was the lunch with Mark Jansen?" Harry asked.
"It was Indian food. And it was pretty spicy," Jack responded.
Since Jack was the new environmental engineer in the agency's Fayetteville office and assigned to be the inspector for the various chemical manufacturing facilities in the region, arrangements had been made for Jack and Steve Mazda to meet with Mark Jansen for lunch. Mark was the environmental manager for DuPont Fayetteville Works. The same type of lunch with Mark Jansen had taken place with Harry when he began working as an environmental engineer in the Fayetteville office several years earlier. Jack and Harry agreed it was very unusual. Harry pointed out this had never happened before during his years working in other environmental agency offices in North Carolina.
"The lunch went much like you described it would," Jack added.
Jack described how after leaving the restaurant he and Steve approached the car to drive back to their office on Green Street. Steve Mazda suddenly stopped and turned, looking directly at Jack. "You need to have a good relationship with Mark Jansen," he said with a tone of importance.
"Yes, that is exactly what Steve said to me when I began working in the Fayetteville office several years. It was a different Indian restaurant where we met Mark Jansen for lunch. Otherwise, it was the same," Harry added.
Of course, it was essential for an individual to have a good working relationship with everyone, including state and local officials, company officials, and citizens in the surrounding communities. It's usually spelled out clearly in the job descriptions. Any environmental manager at a company is unlikely to keep his job if he does not maintain a good relationship with the regulators. After working for many years in several states, Harry could recall only two cases where a company official expressed hostility towards him. Those were unusual cases. Of course, hired proxies and consultants might be a different story altogether.
Although unusual for North Carolina, the arranged lunch and the clear concerns of the boss provided very important information. It was apparent that Mark Jansen and his company were very powerful up in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Harry discussed how he had experienced something quite similar during his time working in Louisiana.
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