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 at a table near the front window. Harry always preferred to sit by the front window. After ordering, they sipped hot tea and looked out the window towards Hillsborough Street. The restaurant was just east of NC State University, west of the downtown State Capitol area, and just south of Cameron Village.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss working in the North Carolina environmental agency's Fayetteville Regional Office, located in the Systel Building on Green Street in downtown Fayetteville. Jack had only recently begun working in the agency's Fayetteville office. 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.
"I think it's fair to say that an important word is 'workarounds,' Harry said before pausing.
Jack thought about this for several seconds before responding. "What do you mean?"
"Like many large organizations, the state environmental agency is structured as a 1970s, old-style bureaucracy. And much like in Louisiana, most of us in state government in North Carolina tend to be rather conservative and resistant to change. It seems to be especially true for the bosses in the field offices. However, the good news is that there are always workarounds to sidestep any bureaucratic barriers," he said with a tone of confidence before pausing again."
Harry was nearly the same age as Jack's father. Like his own father, Harry could be a bit long-winded in discussing the past. He seemed to enjoy making comparisons between North Carolina and Louisiana, and then presenting his observations and conclusions to others. Mostly, the conclusions seemed reasonable and made sense. However, at times Jack was a bit skeptical.
"The key is to get to know as many people as possible and to familiarize yourself with each individual's area of work and specific expertise. Also, it certainly helps to keep track of the scores and top stories for ACC football and basketball," Harry said before pausing and chuckling.
Jack made a mental note of this specific chuckle moment. He and Lori called it Harry's chuckle patterns.
"I genuinely liked nearly all of the people I interacted with in the agency. One of the most interesting but challenging aspects of the job are the significant differences between the agency's Raleigh office and its seven field offices scattered around the state. The resulting tensions and turf battles are striking."
Harry stopped to sip his tea. After a minute of silence he suddenly started chuckling again.
Jack wondered if this was a chuckle related to Harry's previous comment or something else he was about to say. Jack waited quietly.
"I eventually started referring to the Division of Air Quality permits office in Raleigh as the EIB Permits Network. Working in the various offices, Raleigh, Winston-Salem, and Fayetteville, allowed me to learn that the EIB Network point-of-view is common among the middle-aged men working in the agency, as well as in the communities throughout North Carolina. I think this is important. It helps in understanding the feelings and perspective of the people we work with on a daily basis. Prior to working at North Carolina's environmental agency, I was not aware of the prevalence of this viewpoint since I usually only listened to music stations while driving in my car."
Harry stopped to sip tea again.
"Working for an environmental agency in a state like North Carolina we can easily be mocked and dismissed as environmental wackos or tree huggers," Harry said chuckling again.
Harry had faced some stereotyping challenges during his years working in Louisiana in the 1980s, prior to the popularity of the EIB Network in the 1990s and 2000s. While living and working in the midwest, he had always described his career as "working in environmental science and engineering." He eventually learned that in Louisiana being called an "environmentalist" was essentially a slur. Harry was once called as an expert witness for an adjudicatory hearing involving a hazardous chemical spill in Baton Rouge. The first question the defense attorney asked him was, "are you an environmentalist?" Harry responded, "No." The defense attorney then agreed to accept him as an expert witness on hazardous chemical spills and releases.
Harry now had a question for Jack.
"What do think of the Division of Air Quality permits workgroup meetings you have attended in Raleigh?"
"They are interesting meetings. And as a newer employee, I am learning a lot."
Now it was Jack's turn to pause and sip coffee before continuing. However, Jack did not chuckle.
"The air permits workgroup meetings in Raleigh involve a lot of showboating and unprofessional behavior. The meetings remind me of middle school."
Harry chuckled at this description of the Raleigh permits office meetings. Harry had worked as the Fayetteville office permits coordinator prior to Jack and attended those same meetings. Jack waited quietly for Harry's response.
"That office reminded me of my 9th grade school cafeteria. Some of the boys were very immature, and they especially enjoyed mocking the girls and throwing food at them. I never saw anything quite so unprofessional during my years working in Louisiana and Michigan. Even the taxicab companies in Michigan were more professional than the Division of Air Quality permits office in Raleigh. The permits office in Raleigh was essentially an Enron-like, 'smartest guy in the room' office culture," Harry said now speaking with a serious tone.
Harry explained that when he first began working in Raleigh in 1993 the agency's Division of Air Quality permits office led by Director Aiden Klimek and Loren Butler had a respectful and professional office culture. But it did not stay that way. Eventually, the culture in the agency's Division of Air Quality changed significantly.
Jack and Harry had the same reasons for wanting to work in the environmental agency's 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.
Also, 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, lots of 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. Like many of his peers, he was old school and 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 the early 1990s, 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 an upper floor of the fortress-like Archdale building adjacent to Peace College 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.
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