Weather Service Workers Downcast Over Move to Oxnard

Employees at the National Weather Service office in downtown Los Angeles have had a tough time maintaining a sunny disposition lately. Few are looking forward to a proposed move to Oxnard.

They are so upset they went to court last week seeking to block the planned October relocation.

Attorneys for the National Weather Service Employees Organization filed suit in federal court Friday in New York, seeking to stop the transfer of offices from Los Angeles, New York and Boston to smaller outlying areas. A decision is expected by early next week.

The U.S. Department of Commerce, which operates the weather service, wants to relocate the offices as part of a $4-billion-plus plan to streamline and update the agency.

The weather service employees union, which represents National Weather Service meteorologists and technicians, contends transferring the three offices would violate a congressional act that requires the weather service to certify a change of location will not hurt services.

“They didn’t do anything. They didn’t certify. They haven’t even established certification criteria,” said Richard Hirn, attorney for the employees union. “They’re simply ignoring certification requirements.”

NWS officials declined to comment on the litigation.

“It’s generally accepted that the further away we get from the area we’re forecasting for, the worse the forecast will be,” said Stephen Starmer, union steward for the Los Angeles office. The office, in the Federal Building in Westwood, serves Ventura, Los Angeles, Indio, San Diego, Riverside, Imperial, and San Bernardino counties, and part of Santa Barbara County.

Restructuring, NWS spokesman Frank Lepore said, is needed to institute new technology. “What it comes down to,” he said, “is if you’re going to have effective modernization and integrate the technology, you can’t do that without making major changes to the structure.”

The 5,500-square-foot Oxnard office is being built at 520 Elevar St., at an estimated cost of $1.5 million. Ground was broken last September. The office would staff about 30 employees.

A move to Oxnard would bring forecasters closer to a state-of-the-art, $2.5-million Doppler radar system, scheduled to be installed atop Ojai’s Sulphur Mountain in early 1994.

Employees, however, don’t see that as much of a consolation.

“If we move the office, are we best serving the majority of the population we serve?” Starmer asked.

Starmer said his main concern is that employees living in the Los Angeles area will retire or transfer, rather than move or commute to Oxnard. Of the eight forecasters in the Los Angeles office, he said two or three plan to retire and that he and another forecaster likely will seek transfers.

“Their families are situated. It would require selling houses, spouses finding new jobs,” Starmer said. “It just would be a lot of work, a lot of inconvenience.” He said a change of personnel would hurt forecast ability.

“Right off the bat,” he said, “we’ll see a general decline in accuracy because of the lack of experience.”

Jerry McDuffie, area manager and chief meteorologist, sees things differently.

“We’ll certainly lose some expertise and experience when we move,” he said. “But I think it will be made up with younger, new, energetic forecasters who are up on the latest technology and ideas in meteorology.”

McDuffie, a Camarillo resident, said the move to Oxnard would mean more comfortable working conditions and would save money. Leasing the Los Angeles office, he said, costs about $140,000 annually.

He said the move should have no negative effect on forecasting.

“People think that once we move to Oxnard our forecasting for the L.A. Basin won’t be as good. But the data we look at now for the L.A. Basin is the same we will be looking at in Oxnard,” McDuffie said. “In Los Angeles, we happen to be on the 11th floor and we can see down to the airport and see what’s going on locally.”

As for the effect of a move on Ventura County forecasts, McDuffie said things might improve slightly.

“Where we would be sitting is an area, in many cases, right between the fog and the stratus, which comes into (Point) Mugu and Oxnard Airport and sometimes Camarillo Airport,” he said. “It would probably help improve our forecast.”

McDuffie said he would be happy to work in Oxnard. “I will have an eight-mile commute instead of 45 miles,” he said.