Mariners on National Maritime Center: Mission Not Yet Accomplished

Seafarer’s unions and others assert that Coast Guard credentialing program, which is now centralized along with the medical review process in the National Maritime Center in West Virginia, is fraught with inefficiencies and inequities. How to address those issues and what to do about them is another thing altogether. Last week’s Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation Subcommittee hearing on The National Maritime Center and Mariner Credentials served notice that seafarers are far from satisfied with the current state of affairs at the National Maritime Center (NMC). The meeting, which took place on July 9 at the Rayburn House Office Building, was interrupted to allow subcommittee members to attend several votes on the house floor. By the time it finally ended, however, pointed testimony from a host of individuals representing various sectors of U.S. mariner demographics had painted a scathing picture of inefficiencies and inequities at today’s NMC. Like many other subcommittee hearings organized and run by Chairman Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D – MD), the event was high on drama and light on substance. And although he cautioned the gathered witnesses and gallery that the day was not to be a venue for beating up on the Coast Guard, it sure felt that way from where I was sitting. Instead, said Cummings in a prepared statement, “We convene today to review the operations of the National Maritime Center and the issuance of merchant mariner credentials.” He went on to explain that over the past 18 months, the Coast Guard has consolidated the credentialing functions that were previously provided at 17 Regional Exam Centres into the National Maritime Center in West Virginia. Fair enough. Cummings then recited a laundry list that described the various changes in the way the Coast Guard is now managing mariner licensing and went on to say, “…I am hopeful that each change will, over the long term, significantly improve the licensing process and the services provided to mariners. That said, these hoped-for improvements have not yet been realized. To be frank, it appears that the Coast Guard did not adequately plan all aspects of the consolidated credential production process and the roll-out of the MMC – and this has led to extensive delays in the issuance of credentials.” So much for not beating up on the Coast Guard. Cummings, before yielding the microphone to others, continued with a rather extensive list of complaints which included, among other things, the Coast Guard’s new method for assessment of mariner fitness for duty, unaddressed items with regard to NTSB recommendations stemming from the Cosco Busan incident and the new, combined mariner credential. In his prepared statement for the record, Rear Admiral Kevin Cook, the Coast Guard’s new Director of Prevention Policy, insisted that there were intended, long-term benefits for the centralization and restructuring of the Mariner Licensing and Documentation program. These, he said, include: • Decreased processing time through a single evaluation and production facility and one process to monitor and improve; • Consistency of service – by centralizing evaluators, the Coast Guard is able to assure consistency while maintaining expertise through cross-training as well as both formal and informal knowledge sharing; and • Improved customer service - Centralizing creates economies of scale and process consistencies that make it possible for mariners to check the status of their credential application online. Clearly, however, and if the testimony of four less-than-happy industry representatives was any indication, RADM Cook’s goals have not yet been achieved. The approximate backlog of 6,800 credential applications is yet another clue that things are not yet running as the finely tuned machine promised by the Coast Guard as far back as October of 2007, when the migration of the individual REC's to West Virginia was only just beginning. But to hear the testimony of the gathered witnesses on the day’s second panel, one would have to conclude that nothing at all was going right at NMC. I don’t think that is the case. We contacted Captain Dave Stalfort, Commanding Officer of NMC on Wednesday to inquire about the “6,800” files. Stalfort told MarEx, “The 6,800 number was the number of applications that we had waiting for evaluation in June - our backlog. This backlog was primarily the result of three events, all of which occurred at the same time: 1. a surge of applications submitted by mariners in advance of the TWIC compliance date. 2. the results of our medical surge operations in the Spring, and most significantly, 3. the transition to the new consolidated credential where we experienced technical and software problems with producing the new credential. (Captain) Richard A. Block, Secretary of the National Mariners Association, was one of those who spoke in particularly harsh terms about the Coast Guard last Thursday. He claims to speak for as many as 126,000 lower-level, limited–tonnage credentialed merchant mariners, all of whom, he says, “are directly impacted by the quality of services provided by the National Maritime Center (NMC).” With that kind of constituency, one has to wonder why he hasn’t yet run for Congress. Nevertheless, Block’s written, stinging attack on the National Maritime Center and its Commanding Officer was one of the more particularly distasteful parts of the day. Block’s prepared statement went on to allege, "The National Maritime Center under the Command of Captain Stalfort has effectively sabotaged every effort our Association has made to deal with individual mariner credentialing problems by failing to answer a significant amount of written correspondence addressed to him." And in case you were wondering, we left in the fonts and attributes in that sentence exactly as Mr. Block delivered them to the subcommittee. Actually – and if I’m not mistaken – Stalfort has one of those “lower tonnage” licenses that Block claims to represent. I hope Stalfort is not trying to “sabotage” himself. Mercifully, the recess that allowed the members to go and vote also didn’t leave time for his entire performance, but you can read Block’s 23 page indictment by clicking HERE. For the record, I’ve probably spent as much time in Stalfort’s office and corresponding with him as anyone else and it’s not my impression that he is out to sabotage anyone. I do think that he has a thankless job at a particularly tough time for the Coast Guard. To be fair, the balance of the day's testimony from others was delivered in a cordial but direct tone. On the other hand, and in one particular instance, the practice of “venue shopping” was actually lamented by one of the witnesses as one of the things that had gone away since the consolidation of the REC's into the single NMC in West Virginia. And, while there might be some things which just don’t make a lot of sense at NMC today – or specific missions not being carried out in a particularly efficient manner – I have to say that the end to the practice of “shopping your file to multiple REC's until you get the answer you want” is one of the more positive things that has come out of the past two years. When I was still sailing in the mid-1980’s, I knew of more than one mariner who put considerable mileage on their vehicles doing just that, up and down the East Coast. Now, and without a doubt, there are problems at the National Maritime Center. Given the list of failures (Click HERE to access all of the testimony) recited at last week’s hearing, there aren’t too many of NMC’s customers who are happy about the current state of affairs. And, the old saying about “12 million flies can’t be wrong…” is probably an appropriate analogy in this case. Beyond this, and judging from the positions of just about everyone representing American mariners, I don’t know if today’s situation is very much improved from where we were about six months ago. MarEx readers can access our January 15th on line column referencing, among other things, the Coast Guard’s December 2008 NMC Performance Update, by clicking HERE. It is clear that there are issues at NMC, but these problems go far beyond the alleged simple mismanagement of a change in mariner credential policy. The failures in this area are firmly rooted in the historical lack of resources provided – obviated slightly in recent times – to the needs of the mission, the perceived dead-end nature of the job itself from within the Coast Guard and finally, the steady (and predictable) drain of personnel from the service who at one time had intimate knowledge of the people and processes that they were regulating. Repairing all of that isn’t going to take overnight, nor is the process of organically growing a workforce that can look forward to the remote possibility that they might make “flag” or “SES” some day. Mariner advocates at last Thursday’s hearing testified, “For mariners, licensing is not about metrics, action plans, surging resources or outreach to the industry. It is about their ability to maintain employment that provides for their families, maintains their health care and pension benefits, and allows them to advance in the seafaring profession.” I couldn’t agree more. If, as the officer’s unions say, mariners are losing work and benefits because of severe problems in Coast Guard medical review and credentialing programs, then immediate and concerted efforts need to be redoubled in order to stop the bleeding. But, there are civil – if not polite – ways to do that. Beyond the failings of Deepwater, I don’t think that there is any other mission within the country’s fifth uniformed, military branch that has received more scrutiny over the past two years. In general terms, I think Stalfort and his staff have handled themselves well in the face of all that. That said, the public whippings that seem to be the style of certain legislators are anything but productive. Here at MarEx, we’ll continue to report the facts and cover the story objectively. We’ve been known to express an opinion or two along the way, as well. Eventually – and I think sooner rather than later – the Coast Guard will get it right. Whether or not this sort of hearing will expedite that process is debatable. - MarEx