Making a Case for Moving With the Job

For thousands of people whose jobs are to be relocated to Fort George G. Meade in Anne Arundel County as part of the most recent round of military base consolidations, the big question has been: Move with the job or quit?

Last week, the Defense Information Systems Agency launched its first official push to get its 4,000-plus workers to move from their Northern Virginia offices and homes to Maryland.

Most of those workers are civilian employees who do not have to go where the military asks them to. At a daylong information fair hosted by the agency Friday, officials from Howard, Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Prince George's counties made a pitch to workers about moving, bombarding them with information on schools, recreation and housing in the area.

At least 300 employees attended the event at the agency's Falls Church office and many more from around the world tuned in via closed-circuit television.

"It was a good first step," said Richard W. Story, chief executive of the Howard County Economic Development Authority, who attended the fair. "My take on the whole meeting is that those who were in attendance were those who were most interested in moving. What we don't know are the plans of the other 90 percent who were not there."

The workers have five or six years to make up their minds. That's when the agency begins its move to Fort Meade. But when the agency last summer polled its employees, 75 percent of whom live in Northern Virginia, at least half said they would not move to Fort Meade; the remainder were split between going and being undecided.

Military and local officials in Maryland want the technically skilled, security-cleared employees to follow their jobs to Anne Arundel so that hundreds of replacement workers will not have to be sought in a tight labor market.

"I know that our people are the most valuable asset [the Defense Information Systems Agency] has, and I will do everything I can to make transferring to Fort Meade the best option for my entire workforce," Lt. Gen. Charlie Croom, the agency's director, said in a statement.

Croom said the fair was the first in a series of events to entice as many people as possible to remain at the agency. The agency already has adopted a more flexible telecommuting schedule and has begun allowing employees to work from home up to two days a week. Previously, workers could telecommute only one day every two weeks.

Michael Thiem, a spokesman, said the agency is also considering some financial incentives. Recently, the agency agreed to pay a "permanent change of station" cost, which includes moving expenses, for workers who move at least 10 miles closer to Fort Meade. "In D.C., 10 miles is quite a bit, especially if they cross through downtown Washington," Thiem said. "In terms of traffic, that can be hours."

Ideas From Near and Far

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In trying to create a more vibrant and pedestrian-friendly Town Center, General Growth Properties Inc. is getting its inspiration from places near and far.

The Chicago-based mall developer, which owns most of Town Center's undeveloped and commercial properties, has visited towns comparable in size to Columbia from Charlottesville to Racine, Wis. -- to gather ideas, said Douglas Godine, the vice president and general manager overseeing Columbia's development and redevelopment.

"We're trying to collect a repository of what works," Godine said at a meeting of the Columbia Association board last week. "Some of those things may not work at all."

Since General Growth purchased the Rouse Co. nearly two years ago, it has been engaged in a spirited debate about downtown's future. Godine said the company is setting up a panel of experts in various disciplines to generate ideas for Town Center. The task force should be meeting in two to four months, and some of those meetings will be public, Godine said.