ALEXANDRIA, Va.-NCUA opened its new Tempe, Ariz. office, home of the soon-to-be Region V headquarters, a day ahead of schedule with no foreseeable bumps in the road for the realignment. Cutting NCUA's regions from six to five was part of Chairman Dennis Dollar's Accountability in Management study and were projected to save the agency $27 million over 10 years, which agency officials have since said it should exceed. Both the Concord, Calif. and Tempe Region VI offices will be open temporarily during the transition, but, as of Jan. 1, the Concord office will close. The entire realignment plan will be completed by year's end, except for the Chicago office, which must remain open by Office of Personnel Management standards until April 3. The specifics, which were outlined in July, include keeping Region I in Albany, but taking on responsibility for the Michigan credit unions. Supervision of credit unions in Arkansas and Louisiana will shift from Region III to the Austin regional office. The Region II Alexandria office will take over West Virginia, while Indiana and Ohio will go to the Atlanta office. Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin credit union supervision, now under the Chicago regional office, will shift to the new Region IV Austin office, and Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, now in the Austin regional office, will be moved to the Region V Phoenix office. The timing of the realignment was planned to partially coincide with the retirement plans of two long-time NCUA regional directors. Mark A. Treichel began serving as NCUA's Region I director following the April 2003 retirement of former Region I Director Layne Bumgardner after approximately 36 years at NCUA. He had served as Region I director since November 1989. The second retirement was that of Region VI Director Bob Blatner, which Region IV Director Melinda Love took over. With Region IV's planned closure, Love was pleased to take Blatner's spot. She began her career with NCUA in 1986 as an examiner in Northern California. Also this year, NCUA Region II Director Tawana James became deputy director of Examination and Insurance, which left the director spot open. Effective April 20, Edward P. Dupcak, director of the Office of Strategic Program Support and Planning and the president of the Central Liquidity Facility, filled that post. He has served at NCUA since 1974. NCUA will retain two other regional directors: Region III's Alonzo Swann and Jane Walters, heading up the current Region V. [email protected]