A vocal senior manager at the US National Weather Service has been dismissed after speaking to the Washington Post about the ways budget cuts were to be implemented.
According to a subsequent article in the newspaper William Proenza, who led the Weather Service's southern region, said he was fired in retaliation for going public with the organisation's plan to shut down weather radars on sunny days in the south. This was in order to cover a $100,000 budget shortfall in Proenza's jurisdiction.
Proenza acknowledged in a front-page story that the move could pose a danger to the public if a storm were to pass through undetected. He told the newspaper: "It's penny-wise and pound-foolish to try and save a few dollars if you're going to degrade our capacity to deliver our mission."
The Weather Service is preparing for $85bn in automatic spending cuts if congress does not agree on a deficit reduction plan by 1 March. However, the Weather Service has stated that Proenza was dismissed due to events in June 2012, when his budget staff moved $528,000 from a local forecasting account intended to pay for radars, a decision authorised by officials in Washington. According to the Washington Post the practice of reallocating funds, sometimes called "reprogramming", was widespread among financial managers trying to deal with deficits at the time but has since stopped.
Dan Sobien, president of the National Weather Service Employees Organisation, said Proenza was known for being vocal on important issues, and had been reprimanded for speaking to the media last year. "Bill has always been outspoken," he said, "but he has always spoken out in support of the National Weather Service."
He believed that there was a "political" element to the decision, as Proenza had often expressed views that differed from others in National Weather Service management.
Acting Weather Service director Laura Furgione said there was "no connection whatsoever" between Proenza's firing and his media comments, but that it was "unfortunate" that he had been a casualty of the reprogramming controversy.
In accordance with termination policy for US federal employees, Proenza is on a 30-day period of paid leave, and plans to appeal against the termination.
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