BRAC mission merges under single directorate

  • Published
  • By Rachel Zaney
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  When the Air Force Civil Engineer Center entered initial operating capability Oct. 1, 2012, Director Joe Sciabica encouraged leadership to explore how AFCEC can build efficiencies heading toward full operating capability.

The Base Realignment and Closure team was one team that responded.

Leaders in AFCEC's Environmental and Installations Directorates agreed in April to merge all BRAC program staff into a single division.

Effective April 22, 45 staff including, civilian and support contractors, transitioned into the Installation Directorate's BRAC Program Management Division led by Dr. Stephen TerMaath.

"The consolidation of the BRAC mission helps us streamline operations with one directorate managing the program," Sciabica said. "This allows our customers and stakeholders to interface with a single point of contact and builds a more cohesive and responsive BRAC team. It's a perfect example of how we can align our legacy mission areas to gain execution efficiencies."

The reorganization will better enable AFCEC to meet the primary objective of the BRAC mission: to transfer former Air Force property back to local communities for redevelopment.

The newly formed BRAC team came gathered recently to discuss the revised organizational structure and members' roles and responsibilities. In his address to the team, TerMaath explained the primary reason for the reorganization.

"In discussing the move with AFCEC leadership, we all felt this was the most effective organization in support of the BRAC mission," TerMaath said.

This isn't the first time BRAC environmental coordinators have operated under TerMaath. Prior to 2007, BECs, the technical project leads for each of the 40 BRAC bases, worked for the Air Force Real Property Agency headquartered in Roslyn, Va. As AFRPA began to transition headquarters to San Antonio, leadership determined the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment would execute daily environmental operations for bases that had already completely transferred back to the local community and AFRPA would continue to run the program and manage real property pre-transfer operations.

The two agencies worked together for five years under a memorandum of agreement to ensure the cleanup and transfer of former Air Force land met environmental and regulatory standards.

Now that legacy AFRPA and AFCEE capabilities have functioned under AFCEC since Oct. 1, it's the appropriate time to bring the BRAC team together under one directorate, TerMaath said.

"This team has a history of working together to achieve the BRAC mission," he said. "By building efficiencies through this reorganization, we will continue to leverage our best practices to posture the BRAC program for success."

In addition to the BECs, who are physically located in Bldg. 171 here, others sit at offsite operating locations around the country in places like Limestone, Maine; Rome, N.Y.; Plattsburgh, N.Y.; and Lubbock, Texas. The BRAC team also has a Western Region Execution Center in Sacramento, Calif., at the former McClellan Air Force Base.