Mr. BENJAMIN. Is that an hourly rate?

Mr. WHITE. An hourly rate.

Mr. BENJAMIN. You pay them for eight, and they only show up for six?

Mr. RAINES. No, they are paid at an annual rate, on a semimonthly basis.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Are they paid a salary or by the hour?

Mr. RAINES. A salary; $9,536 a year, on the same basis as congressional staff salaries, 30 days to the month.

Mr. BENJAMIN. So 1,200 hours a month. Are they employed 12 months?

Mr. RAINES. Twelve months; yes sir.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Ninety-five thirty-six?

Mr. RAINES. Yes, sir.

Mr. BENJAMIN. What do they pay an elevator operator in a commercial building?

Mr. RAINES. Probably around $6,500 or $7,000.

Mr. BENJAMIN. For this amount of time or for more time?

Mr. RAINES. I really don't know how many hours they would work in a commercial building.

Mr. BENJAMIN. There must be some general standard for that. Why don't you provide that for the record?

Mr. RAINES. Čertainly.

[The information follows:]

Elevator operators assigned to the 12:30 P. M. to 5:00
P. M. shift are required to remain on duty until the
House adjourns; all operators are required to be on duty
on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays when the House is in
Session.

(3)

5:00 P. M. to 10:00 P. M. Monday through Friday Elevator operators assigned to the 1:00 P. M. to 6:00 P. M. shift are required to remain on duty until 30 minutes after Senate adjourns; also, every third week the morning crew relieves the afternoon crew during late Sessions.

With respect to elevator operators in commercial buildings, we surveyed a number of hotels in the area and determined that the weekly rate for a 40-hour workweek ranges from $140 to $143, or from $7,280 to $7,436 per annum. Those wages are scheduled to be increased by $14 per week during 1979; thus, the rates will then range from $154 to $157 per week, or from $8,000 to $8,200 per annum.

By comparison, elevator operators at federal installations in the Washington area are being paid at rates ranging from $9,963 to $11,024 per annum for a 40-hour workweek.

NUMBER OF ELEVATOR OPERATORS

Mr. BENJAMIN. In 1977, how many elevator operators did we have?

Mr. WHITE. One hundred fifty-two.

Mr. BENJAMIN. In 1978?

Mr. WHITE. One hundred one.

Mr. BENJAMIN. And you are pricing in 94 this year, for fiscal 1980?

Mr. WHITE. Approximately $500,000.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Are you talking about total cost?

Mr. WHITE. Yes, sir.

Mr. BENJAMIN. I would appreciate that for each year, but I would appreciate knowing how many bodies we are talking about. Mr. WHITE. We are talking about 94 bodies.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Okay. Ninety-four bodies at $9,536, that comes out to a lot more than $500,000.

Mr. WHITE. I am sorry; we selected the wrong number from this list. It is closer to $900,000.

Mr. BENJAMIN. You have a number of elevators that are designated Members Only that are not operated as such, do you know, throughout the House Office Buildings, or at least in the Cannon Building?

Mr. J. RAYMOND CARROLL. No, sir.

ELEVATOR PROBLEMS

Mr. BENJAMIN. Let me give you one, then, on 1st and Independence, the west side of the Longworth Building, about 100 feet south of the intersection, a level entrance. You have a sign on that elevator that says Members Only, and you have a little button for Members Only. You have an elevator operator on there, but there is no way that particular signal works. I don't know if the intent is not to have a Members Only elevator, which I think is totally acceptable to most Members in the building. On the other hand, we have an elevator operator in there.

Mr. WHITE. If the signal for Members Only is not operating, something is wrong. It ought to be operating.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Well, let me give you that one to look at. Also let me give you one that is in the Cannon Building on the west side, approximately in the corner of-excuse me, in both instances New Jersey. In this one, New Jersey and C. You have an elevator that is completely out of order. It just floats up and down. I don't know if you have people inspecting these things.

Mr. WHITE. Yes, we do. As a matter of fact, at some appropriate time, I want to discuss this whole elevator mechanic question with you.

DESIRABILITY OF MEMBER ONLY ELEVATORS

Mr. BENJAMIN. Okay, let me point out to you frankly, I have no great desire to use a Members Only elevator, or don't care. If you are going to have a Members Only, I assume you are going to staff it with operators. If you don't have Members Only, I don't see the

need for the operators, particularly with the cost associated with this, and I would strongly suggest that you correlate the two. Almost every year that you have appeared, or the Architect has appeared, before this subcommittee, there has always been some discussion on elevators, and I, for one, have written you on several occasions about the lack of courtesy, the lack of attention; that is, attentiveness as to whether people are getting off or on, the doors closing on a person, and the dress of the elevator operator. I feel when the public is involved, they don't need to see somebody we are paying a large sum of money to that is completely incompatible with the situation of meeting the public.

DISCIPLINE OF PARTRONAGE EMPLOYEES

Mr. WHITE. Mr. Chairman, I absolutely agree, and we have discussed this before. We have, as you know, the continuing difficulty of discipline over patronage employees.

Mr. BENJAMIN. And I think we had this discussion in 1977, and I indicated to you that all my employees are patronage, but I would never tolerate that in my office.

Mr. WHITE. Yes. Well, we probably need to be a little more stringent with regard to discipline. I must say that the Patronage Committee has never prevented us from being disciplinarians, There is perhaps a hesitancy because of that kind of an employee to be to stern, but we certainly need to exert more effort.

In terms of the repair of the elevators, which is a separate question altogether, if it is appropriate, I would like to discuss that. Mr. BENJAMIN. Do you have time for them to go into that discussion, sir?

Mr. MICHEL. Sure.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Go ahead.

ELEVATOR MECHANIC CONSOLIDATION

Mr. WHITE. This is really, Mr. Chairman, a result of a suggestion or a question that you raised, last year or the year before, having to do with why we need so many elevator mechanics. I have made a considerable investigation of this whole question in terms of elevator mechanics. The results are perhaps applicable to other mechanical or electrical areas as well. And that is that because of the way the appropriations made are provided, and because of the law which prevents us from using appropriations made for one purpose for another purpose, we have elevator mechanics in the Senate Office Buildings, elevator mechanics in the House Office Buildings, elevator mechanics in this building, elevator mechanics in the Supreme Court, and elevator mechanics in the Library of Congress, I would like to propose on an experimental basis that we provide language which will enable us, and we have the language here, to utilize these elevator mechanics anywhere on the Hill, and by attrition, I feel reasonably certain we will ultimately reduce the number of elevator mechanics.

CENTRALIZED CONTROL

I just can't imagine that we need as many as we have if we centralize control. The control would then be removed from the

building superintendents to a central elevator engineering staff, which we already have, but which has a certain amount of difficulty in exerting control over the elevator mechanics presently since they work for the superintendents.

Now, all of these people work for me, but it is difficult for people to serve two masters; so the control isn't as direct and as complete as it might otherwise be.

We think that we can provide adequate service, the same as has been done, perhaps even better, and at less cost.

We thought it would be useful to begin with this area, which is something we have looked into in some detail, and, if it works, we may suggest that we do it in other areas as well.

It may be, for example, that in certain of the electrical areas this might be possible. We presently do that with certain electrical activities, such as the substation crews that service all the substations, and we presently do it for elevator inspection. That is done by one group of inspectors all over the Hill.

We have 161 passenger and freight elevators, 35 escalators, 8 sidewalk lifts, 13 dumbwaiters, 6 subway cars, and 4 kitchen conveyors, for a total of 227 pieces of equipment that these people are involved in, and if we do it centrally, we think it will be a useful thing to do, both from the savings of funds and from the service that we can provide.

Mr. BENJAMIN. I would appreciate it. I appreciate your follow-up. It was last year that we discussed that during the committee meeting, and you did follow up, and I thank you, and we will happily accept your language.

Mr. WHITE. Thank you.

[The proposed language follows:]