Centralization within the office of the Architect began many years ago when the Congress authorized a single appropriation for professional, technical, and administrative staff, which allowed the opportunity to provide professional architectural, engineering, and administrative direction and support from the central staff to the Building Superintendents, Chief Engineers, Landscape Architect, and Facilities Managers. That central professional expertise present in the office of the Architect provides direction throughout the various entities that comprise the Capitol complex and organizationally offers the opportunity for efficiency in financial terms as well as consistency in the protection and preservation of the $3.5 billion worth of historic assets. Centralization efforts would continue to provide some portion of maintenance services, for example, separately for the Capitol, House, Senate, etc., thus assuring adequate response to the needs of each entity and at the same time taking advantage of the efficiencies associated with centralization such as is done on most university campuses. The most critical issue to making centralization work will be the coordination to assure that a central entity is in a position to assign personnel around the complex on a priority basis. This would also provide a circumstance in which contracting out a reasonable portion of the maintenance work could be accomplished, if, after analysis, that would result in additional cost saving. It is estimated that over time up to five percent of existing maintenance staffing and associated costs could be reduced if vigorous centralization took place. As with reductions in custodial areas, these reductions should be made gradually so as not to disrupt the present maintenance support structure. There is existing authority that provides a broad framework for such centralization, but some clarification could be made that would strengthen the legal authority. The AOC will provide to the Subcommittee recommendations for this language in order to achieve such centralization economies. On the basis of funding only the core mission programs, and by additional centralization of maintenance activities, a permanent work force of approximately 1,625 employees for House, Joint and Senate operations would suffice. For House and Joint items, the total would be approximately 1,200, a reduction of 415 positions, or 26%, from a total level of approximately 1,615 positions. That might be further reduced to an approximate level of 1,100 employees for House and Joint activities by contracting out additional functions provided, of course, that analysis indicates that arrangement would be a cost saving measure. |