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dangerous for Bonneville to pick and choose among measures in the 

 Council's plan, cancelling some actions such as reservoir drawdowns by 

 refusing to provide funds — dangerous because the agency undermines the 

 legally established proceedings by which the Congress and the region have 

 tried to avert a public policy "train wreck" over salmon recovery. 



Instead of competitiveness, Bormeville should develop some 

 competence. Instead of second-guessing the Cotmcil, the agency should 

 perform its proper duties to implement the regional power plan and the 

 Colimibia Basin fish and wildlife program. 



Bonneville's habit of compulsive "leadership" has spawned a large and 

 expensive staff. I personally know many BPA staffers \rtio are professional, 

 hard-working, expert, and eager to carry out the agency's proper duties. But 

 the Northwest simply can not afford such an obese BPA. 



This is especially true of the top-heavy, top-level management at the 

 agency, which clogs the staffs ability to conduct BPA's business effectively. 

 To exercise "leadership," Bonneville carries a dense mass of deputy 

 administrators, assistant administrators, executive assistant administrators, 

 deputy assistant administrators, assistants to the administrator. The BPA 

 acronym apparently stands for "Big Pile of Administrators." 



To solve this problem. President Nixon two decades ago provided the 

 most effective tool for reforming Bonneville: it's called the Reduction in 

 Force (RIF). The agency should aggressively apply the RIF to a top-level 

 management which apparently has nothing better to do than convince itself 

 that free -flowing rivers kill salmon. BPA will survive and probably thrive ^ 

 without so many assistant executive deputy administrators who "planned" 

 their way into a 15.7 percent rate hike, and then whined about 

 circumstances beyond their control. 



Similarly, since we no longer care what BPA thinks is best for the 

 salmon, since Bonneville will no longer second-guess the Northwest Power 

 Planning Council nor the duly established resource agencies and the 

 sovereign Native American Tribes, the agency need no longer carry an 

 expensive staff of 60 for its fish and wildlife programs. Bonneville must 

 retain a few biologists to write contracts for implementation of the fish and 

 wildlife program. However, if and when the Council, the fisheries agencies, 

 or the Tribes head down the wrong road — biologically or economically — 

 with their fish and wildlife plans, BPA does not need staff to put them back 

 on the right path. We can rely upon BPA's customers emd their associations, 

 especially the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, to 

 complain early, loudly, and often. 



Following current law and applying a RIF to its bloated bureaucracy 

 would take BPA farthest and fastest toward reform. In this Ught, all these 



Siena Club — Page 9 



