5/15/2009 MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT: Publishing Daily Working Schedules (PDF version, 2 pp., 573K, about PDF)

FROM: M. Allyn Brooks-LaSure
Deputy Associate Administrator for Public Affairs

TO: Deputy Administrator
Assistant Administrators
Regional Administrators

Administrator Lisa Jackson’s 23 April 2009 memo to EPA staff directed “senior Agency officials, including the Deputy Administrator, the Assistant Administrators, and the Regional Administrators, to make their working appointment calendars available to the public” similar to the manner in which her working calendar is currently provided. The Administrator’s memorandum outlined her broader effort to make the Agency’s activities more transparent, and thereby more accessible, to the general public.

This memorandum is responsive to that directive and provides more specific guidance for complying with the Administrator’s instructions. For the purposes of this memorandum, “senior Agency officials” include the Deputy Administrator, Assistant Administrators and Regional Administrators as well as officials serving in an acting capacity in those positions.

Content

The Administrator’s expressed intent is to capture, and transparently note, meetings senior EPA officials are scheduling with members of the public. To that end, your daily working calendars should note the time and participant names for meetings on your schedule. This includes the names of the senior official or agent leading a meeting on behalf of: foreign governments, corporations, trade associations, non-profit organizations, state and local governments, and other non-Executive Branch representatives or agents.

Internal staff briefings and planning sessions should be noted as “staff briefing” or “staff meeting.” Meetings to discuss personnel matters (including interviews with job applicants), enforcement activities, or other non-public information, should not be listed on these calendars. Meetings with representatives and senior management of Executive Branch agencies should be noted as “Meeting with Administration Official.” Senior Agency officials, as defined by this memorandum, should continue to maintain their official calendars in accordance with the requirements on the Federal Records Act and EPA Record Schedule 111.

Below is an example of the Administrator’s working schedule that would be made available on the internet.

	Administrator Lisa P. Jackson Working Schedule: May 4th, 2009
TIME	EVENT
9:15-9:45am	Meeting with Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco EPA Headquarters Closed Press
10:00-10:30am	Staff Briefing EPA Headquarters Closed Press
10:30-11:30am	Meeting with Japanese Minister of the Environment Saito EPA Headquarters Closed Press
1:00- 4:00pm	Meeting with Administration Officials Eisenhower Executive Office Building Closed Press
4:30-4:45pm	Staff Briefing EPA Headquarters Closed Press

Web Presence

The OPA Office of Web Communications will work closely with the designated official in each affected office to coordinate web posting and uniformity in design and content. In addition to posting calendars on each respective regional / program area page, all available calendars will be listed on one central web page and accessible from the EPA.gov home page.

Officials impacted by this memorandum should direct their staff, no later than 18 May 2009, to send Christine Dibble in OPA (dibble.christine@epa.gov) the following information: names of scheduler and backup in the respective office; names of relevant Web staff and backup; URLs to be used for schedules (directory structure and page template is left to each office / region, provided the table format follows the standards).

Timing

Daily working schedules should be posted no later than 10:00 am local time each morning, Monday through Friday. If for some extenuating circumstance your schedule is not available, please direct your staff to post “The schedule is not available on <insert date>.”

Launch Schedule

Officials should begin posting their daily working schedules on the internet no later than 26 May 2009. To facilitate this transition, Assistant Administrators and Regional Administrators should strongly consider posting their daily working schedules on the EPA intranet during the week of 18 May 2009. OPA will create an internal intranet site linking to these pages and will confirm posts are working properly.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this memorandum. Thank you for your support and assistance in meeting our Agency’s transparency goals.

CC: Public Affairs Directors
Communications Directors
OPA Office of Web Communications

5/15/2009 MEMORANDUM

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