The Federal Managers Association has a new president: Pat Niehaus, a labor relations officer at Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

Niehaus will be sworn in this evening to replace Darryl Perkinson, who served four years as president and declined to seek another two-year term.

"We had great success last year, and it was an opportunity to turn it over in a positive light," Perkinson said. Niehaus "is a person who I respect and am willing to work for to enable her to do what's best for the organization."

Perkinson will continue to represent FMA on the newly formed National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations until the White House and Office of Personnel Management finishes a routine background check on Niehaus.

FMA is discussing its legislative agenda this week at its national convention. Perkinson said FMA will push Congress to improve federal managers' training, and the organization will try to counter the perceived growing hostility from the public and some lawmakers to federal employees and their salaries.

"We've got to find out from [lawmakers], if that's their impression, we've got to tell them how good we are," Perkinson said.

FMA also will try to work with the Pentagon and lawmakers to find a legislative way to keep several thousand employees from having their future pay raises capped as they transition out of the National Security Personnel System. John James, the Defense Department official in charge of transitioning 225,000 employees out of the performance pay system outlawed by Congress, said laws governing the General Schedule prevent the Pentagon from changing the rules governing retained pay status on its own.

Perkinson, who is a manager at the Norfolk, Va., Naval Shipyard, said he has been involved in national FMA issues for 12 years, and said he felt it was the right time to take a step back. But he said he will continue to work with FMA locally, and will offer Niehaus his advice.

"It's time for me to talk to my wife," Perkinson said. "I wanted [to step down] while I was still healthy and could do some things with my family."

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