EXECUTIVE ORDERS LET DISTRICT DONATE USED COMPUTER GEAR TO SCHOOLS, INDIAN TRIBES

LMO's Romano Caturegli (right) arranges computer donations with Salesian High School's Luis Marquez

President Clinton’s ranged from designating the Adriatic Sea as a combat zone to seat belt use to the Lake Tahoe Ecosystem. President Bush’s have ranged from the Bob Hope American Patriot Award to five separate ones on Iraq.

They are executive orders, defined as official documents through which the President manages operations of the federal government.

The District, in the missions carried out by Romano Caturegli and Glynn Alsup, has put two such executive orders to good use.

One is No. 12999, April 17, 1996. Among other things, it “streamlines the transfer of excess and surplus Federal computer equipment to our Nation’s classrooms….”

The other is No. 13270, July 3, 2002. “Tribal colleges,” it reads, “are both integral and essential to their communities. Often they are the only postsecondary institutions within some of our Nation’s poorest rural areas. They fulfill a vital role….”

Logistics and Management Supply Officer Caturegli declares simply: “I give (computer equipment) to people who can use it. I don’t sell it. I don’t make a profit. Why not give it to people who can use it instead of just gathering dust?”

Some Corps Districts turn over their outmoded computer gear to the Defense Reutilization Marketing Office. “They just throw ‘em into bins, pulverize ‘em and sell ‘em to contractors to be used to fill potholes in the streets,” Caturegli says.

Because Los Angeles District must compete with other public agencies and the private sector for customers, its information technology must be cutting-edge. That means there’s a lot of turnover in computer gear, leaving dozens of computers and computer peripherals available for free distribution. “Once a year on my trips (to inventory Corps equipment) I take them to Indian reservations and schools,” Caturegli says. “(Tribal Liaison Officer) Glynn does too. It’s the trickle-down theory.”

In 2004 Caturegli clocked 4,598 miles on his government van, inventorying equipment at 33 District offices and leaving a trail of smiling computer customers in his wake.

Among the closest was Luis Marquez, who had to drive only as far as the District Baseyard to pick up equipment from Caturegli. Eight used computers and eight used monitors may not sound like much to most people, but for Salesian High School in suburban Los Angeles, it was a Windowsfall.

Marquez is the school’s computer specialist, and after the two men loaded the gear into his vehicle, he said he’d noticed steady progress in his students’ computer skills over the six years he’d been in the job. “This is awesome,” he said after closing the doors on the computers and monitors. “In the past we put some of them in the lab, others we raffled off for kids.”

Principal Manuel Villareal also appreciated the donation. “”We’ve had a lot of kids doubling up because we didn’t have enough computers,” he said. “Right now everybody in the class has his or her own computer and they’re thrilled. We saw that their quality would function for a high school setting.”

Terri Allison, a coordinator at the Santa Barbara Charter School HomeBased Partnership, voiced a similar reaction. “It’s been fabulous,” she said of the computers, monitor and printer they recently received. “We’re able to do a lending program with some of our home-school families that don’t have computers. We’re really appreciative.”

Like a frontier circuit preacher, Caturegli wended his way through the Great Southwest this autumn. At the San Lucy District of the Tohono O’Odham Nation in Gila Bend, Ariz., he left 14 computers and 14 monitors. “They seem to be in pretty good shape,” said Albert Manuel, chairman of the Indian district.

For the Apache Tribe on the San Carlos Indian Reservation in rural northeastern Arizona, Caturegli left 14 pieces of computer gear with Brenda Victor at the Boys & Girls Club.

In Flagstaff, he left one at South Beaver Elementary School and in Mesa, at Sousa Elementary School, 15 computers and monitors were donated.

“It’s a satisfying feeling to be able to help people like that,” Romano reflected. “We don’t remove the Corps of Engineers stickers from the computers, so it’s good PR. You’re not afraid to say, ‘I’m from the Corps of Engineers.’