By Kevin Johnson
The USA TODAY
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Steady turnover among senior FBI agents at headquarters and field offices is raising concerns about the loss of experience in oversight roles and the long-term stability of the federal government’s chief law enforcement agency.
Critics, including Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, say the turnover puts less experienced agents in key security and supervisory roles.
FBI Director Robert Mueller “has run off agents with centuries of experience at the supervisory level,” says Gohmert, a former Texas judge and member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Donald Packham, who oversees the FBI’s personnel operations, counters that turnover allows talented agents to enter top ranks faster and stay longer. Turnover “is healthy,” Packham says, and “hundreds” of agents are interested in management. “We’re still struggling with how to do this,” he says.
In the past 16 months, 29 of 56 FBI field offices have gotten new chiefs because of retirements, resignations and promotions, a USA TODAY review found. Among the field offices with new leadership: Minneapolis-St. Paul and Denver, sites of this summer’s national political conventions; Detroit; Portland, Ore.; and El Paso.
New directors of counterterrorism or counterintelligence also have started in such critical field offices as New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
FBI officials say internal and external pressures are driving turnover, including lucrative jobs in the private sector, where Wall Street banks and Las Vegas casinos have bolstered security since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Separately, the FBI also has lost about 160 supervisory agents who left because a 2006 policy required them to move up the management chain after five years or take a slight demotion. Records show that 192 agents opted for the lesser-paying jobs. An additional 338 sought the promotions.
The rapid-fire appointments are emblematic of competing forces: Agents can retire after 20 years of service, and must retire at age 57. Yet it takes agents an average of 18 years to work their way to top management jobs.
Fred Bragg, president of the FBI Agents Association, says the constant churning can be unsettling. “You have to adjust to changing leadership styles, and that takes time,” he says. “Just when it seems like things are established, you start over.”
A 2005 Justice Department inspector general’s report said turnover contributed to the failure of a $100 million computerized case management system for bureau investigators. The report said 15 different information technology managers worked on the project.
Packham, a former top personnel officer with BP (formerly British Petroleum), is working to identify young talent and has asked each field division to nominate three agents who demonstrate the most managerial potential. He and a handful of other top FBI executives recruited from outside the agency are not subject to mandatory retirement, allowing for greater longevity.
Bruce Gebhardt, who retired in 2004 as the FBI’s second-in-command and is now vice president for global security at MGM Mirage in Las Vegas, sees the persistent turnover as positive. “I always thought that change was good,” he says.
Copyright 2008 The USA TODAY