1999 Outstanding Program Awards
Submissions
General Governmental Services

Submission Categories (click below to see the submissions in each category)

Public/Private/Non-Profit Partnerships * Human Resources/Training * Purchasing & Fleet Management * Public Works * General Governmental Services * Technology/Technology Application

Arizona - Healthways Arizona
aaaa Healthways is the state employee worksite wellness program. The program has annually been made available to more than 35,000 employees, their dependents, 7,000 retirees and 15,000 university employees since 1990. Total participation has increased from 13,000 in 1993 to an expected 29,000 in 1999.
aaaa The program is mandated by statute and is funded by a $1.30 per month assessment for each employee participation in the state health insurance program. Most services are provided at no cost to the participant. Occasionally, a modest co-pay of $1-$5 is assessed. Services include a variety of health education classes, a variety of health screening events, flu shots, walking programs, Weight Watchers at Work, and other specialized programs tailored to the needs of customers. The program also maintains a large lending library consisting of books, audio tapes, video tapes and a large selection of free up-to-date brochures on a wide variety of health issues. The program staff writes, publishes, and distributes a monthly newsletter and a calendar of upcoming events, WellNews. The monthly distribution is more than 56,000. An additional service provided by staff is an Internet search for those who do not have access.
aaaa Two full-time staff and a manager (an R.N.) who also manages the state occupational health services program serve the entire state employee workforce.
aaaa For more information, contact J. Elliott Hibbs, Director, Arizona Department of Administration or Mira Brown, Manager at 602-542-1500 or at mira_brown@ad.state.az.us.

Arizona - Risk Management
aaaa Arizona's Risk Management section is, in essence, the state's insurance company and is responsible for adjusting claims for workers' compensation injuries as well as property, liability and environmental losses; self insuring these various types of losses, and/or purchase commercial insurance to offset them; and employing safety measures to proactively prevent accidents/incidents which could give rise to property, liability, environmental or workers' compensation claims.
aaaa About three years ago, a strategic plan was devised and a variety of programs were implemented, the results of which led to RM winning the Governor's "Spirit of Excellence" Program Award. With an average of $64 million in losses from fiscal years 94-96, actual losses under the new management team were $54 million in FY 97 and $53 million in FY98. The cost reductions of $20.9 million were shown to be hard dollar savings because virtually all of them came from lower claim costs - the most fundamental component of any risk management operation.
aaaa The savings just described were made possible by a variety of new and improved programs that were implemented by the risk management team. En route to producing the cost savings, these programs were also of distinct benefit to many individuals and groups within Arizona government. The state's on-the-job injury rate per 100 employees declined by .10 - showing that safety programs were fast and effective. The number of severe claims for settlements and judgements over $1 million decreased from 6 in FY 96 to only 2 in FY 98. The number of loss prevention consultations for state agencies more than tripled and as a result fewer employees were injured due to unsafe conditions and budgets were spared additional costs by prevention of accident related losses.
aaaa Risk Management installed a variety of programs including: a $10,000 deductible; medical malpractice; insurance optimization; associates in risk management; owner-controlled insurance program; prisoner subrogation; loss prevention academy; fraud hotlines; and a performance incentive program.
aaaa For more information, contact Lee Baron, Assistant Director, Financial Services Division (former State Risk Manager) at 602-542-9997 or at adbarol@ad.state.az.us.

Arizona - Violence in the Workplace
aaaa The Capitol Police Department has experienced so much success with the Violence in the Workplace Program it began about 12 years ago, that it has expanded it to county and municipal agencies and even outside the state to 16 states across the country.
aaaa During these programs, which many times are specifically designed for different components of state government, the Capitol Police Department goes into great detail on how employees can recognize the early warning signals of violent behavior, how to learn to defuse this behavior, and all appropriate action they must take. In addition, it is one of the few programs in the country that offers employees how to survive violent confrontations if they occur in the workplace. In addition, there is much detail given to how to de-escalate situations to deal with intimidation, harassment over the phone, domestic violence, weapon offenses, court orders, and numerous other information on violence in the workplace prevention.
aaaa Because of the success and effectiveness of the program members of the capitol police have appeared on videos in conjunction with the National Safety Council and have spoken at the National Committee on School Violence.
aaaa One example of the successful program is: A state employee who was recognized as deteriorating in the workplace, after the employees attend the training they alerted the Capitol Police Department and were able to arrest the individual the day he was going to commit a violence in the workplace homicide.
aaaa Due to this program, and the hundreds of seminars that have been given, there are many examples of lives being saved.
aaaa For more information, contact J. Elliott Hibbs, Director, Department of Administration at 602-542-1500.

Connecticut - DAS Annual Report
aaaa The Department of Administrative Services Annual Report apprises all state agencies of the pool of resources and services available to them. Through the annual report, DAS highlights its successes in the fields of human resource practices, strategic planning, fiscal and administrative resources, procurement and communications, continuing to be a vital cost-saving tool for Connecticut state government.
aaaa The DAS Communications office saved three Connecticut agencies a total of $46,000 in fiscal year 1998-99 by providing copy, design, and layout services. By contracting with DAS instead of using outside vendors for various projects, these agencies were able to do their jobs quicker, cheaper, and better. The DAS Communications office continues to market its services to other agencies, in turn, saving Connecticut agencies and taxpayers money.
aaaa One specific example involves DAS' Communications consulting services to the Department of Social Services (DSS) on the production of its first annual report. DSS originally received a quote of $86,000 from an outside vendor. Utilizing the DAS Communications Offices resources of design, layout, writing, and proofreading skills, the Department of Social Services came in well under budget at about $57,000 - a savings of $29,000.
aaaa For more information, contact Barbara Waters, Commissioner, Department of Administrative Services, at 860-713-5100 or at barbara.waters@po.state.ct.us.

Connecticut - DAS Property Distribution Program
aaaa Over the past three years, the Connecticut Department of Administrative Services has re-engineered its process for redistributing surplus state property and equipment. DAS took a multi-faceted approach to revamping the state surplus distribution program.
aaaa To correct the inefficiency, they focused on five areas: improving service to customers and increasing the customer base, reducing costs, expanded use of technology, use of a commercial auction service, and increased emphasis on charitable donation.
aaaa The cornerstone of the redesigned program is a "virtual warehouse" that allows users to exchange information about available surplus property via the Internet. During a period of 10 business days, state agencies, and then municipalities, have an opportunity to claim the items. After that, unclaimed items are picked up for auction by the vendor at no cost to the state.
aaaa The auctioneer is responsible for all administrative costs associated with each auction, including advertising, staffing, traffic control and clean up. The auctioneer receives a buyer's premium paid by the successful bidder on the final sale price of the item. A recent auction in April 1999, netted a record $771,000.
aaaa The results of these combined efforts is an overall reduction in program costs of 50 percent, coupled with revenue increase of 52 percent.
aaaa For more information, contact Barbara Waters, Commissioner, Department of Administrative Services, at 860-713-5100 or at barbara.waters@po.state.ct.us.

Kansas - Central Mail Automation
aaaa Since 1991, the Kansas Department of Administration's Mail Office has aggressively implemented opportunities to obtain presort discounts and to automate the processing of mail. Initial savings came from establishing a manual, presort operation in-house, and this set the state for automation mail processing. As the U.S. Postal Service rolled out its program for work share, the Department's mailroom responded quickly, insuring that savings available from discounts were maximized, resulting in a highly efficient, cost-effective operation. The actions taken during this period established the foundation for mail automation which today allows for process more than 15 million pieces of mail annually, a 50 percent increase over 1996 levels.
aaaa Over the past 30 months, the automation of Kansas' mail center has increased processing capacity without increasing staffing levels, and provided lower overall postage costs. The implementation was planned and implemented by the mail center team, including educating and training staff on the USPS program, bidding and awarding equipment, and implementing and sustaining equipment under a self-maintenance program.
aaaa The automation includes technology that earns a 6.5 cent discount per mail piece and has allowed the tripling of mail process volumes, without increasing staff . The cash savings on the system yields a 94 percent ROI with a breakeven point of less than 12 months.
aaaa For more information, contact Daniel Stanley, Secretary of Administration, at 785-296-3011 or at delbertp@dasec.wpo.state.ks.us.

Maryland - Department of General Services: Facilities Planning, Engineering and Construction
aaaa The Maryland Department of General Services, led by Robert B. Taylor, has demonstrated exceptional creativity in initiating and implementing number of infrastructure management and environmental remediation programs that have proven of great value to the State of Maryland.
aaaa Highlights of these efforts include, developing and managing the implementation of $40 million in energy performance contracts funded from $4.1 million per year in energy and energy-related operation saving. In addition, providing conceptual energy systems an life cycle cost analysis of owned vs. privatized heating, cooling, and energy supply for three major facilities representing two million square feet of office and laboratory space; managed the development, negotiations, and award of a long-term 400,000 ton-hour/year chilled water outsourcing contract, resulting in an estimated $1.5 million in operating and capital cost savings over a 20-year period.
aaaa Pricing strategies were developed, along with market and economic evaluation and recommended award of a $6 million per year natural gas supply contract, resulting in a savings of $900,000 per year.
aaaa Also initiated and managed was a $25 million Chloroflorocarbon Phaseout Program, to replace, convert, and overhaul 150 chillers to reduce CFC refrigerant dependence. This program was recognized by the EPA as one of the first successful statewide refrigerant management plans implemented in the U.S.
aaaa Also supervised was a replacement/upgrade of the $2 million per year statewide underground fuel storage tank program for the Department of General Services in accordance with EPA mandated regulations. Currently, Taylor is managing the design and construction of the $4 million upgrade of 36 State Highway Administration fuel storage sites.
aaaa For more information, contact William R. Gluck, Chief, Project Management and Design Division at 410-767-4439 or at bgluck@dgs.state.md.us.

North Carolina - State Employee Incentive Bonus Program
aaaa North Carolina's State Employee Incentive Bonus Program is an inclusive program. All state employees who are contributing members to one of the state's retirement programs are eligible participants in the bonus program. Additionally, any employee who receives wages from the state as a part-time or temporary worker, but is not otherwise a contributing member of one of the retirement programs, is also eligible to participate. This broad and inclusive participation level has no equal in the country.
aaaa Each state agency has at least one agency coordinator to administer the program at agency level and is assisted by an agency evaluator and an agency review committee. The suggester receives 20 percent up to $20,000 of the realized savings. A team of suggesters may receive up to $100,000. The suggester's work unit will receive 30 percent of the realized savings. Three percent of the savings will be used for program management and administration. The remaining savings will revert to the General Fund to be used for nonrecurring budget items.
aaaa For more information, contact Katie Dorsett, Secretary, Department of Administration at 919-733-7232 or at Katie_Dorsett@mail.doa.state.nc.us.

Washington - Legislative Building Public Address System
aaaa The Legislative Building on the Capitol Campus in Olympia is the symbol and center of State Government for the State of Washington. The centerpiece of the building is the rotunda. Due to the size and nature of the rotunda, sounds echo, walls and floors bounce sound around, and hearing public addresses has been very difficult. Past public address (PA) systems for the rotunda have been of marginal use.
aaaa David Boyer, electrician has worked in the Legislative Building for the past 10 years and has tried just about everything to improve the sound system for the rotunda. Through a process of trial and error, experimentation, and seeking technical information he has succeeded in finding the correct balance. The state is now the proud owner of a sound system that works well in this difficult sound environment.
aaaa David observed that a few large speakers with lots of amplification had not worked. The converse to that was a bunch of little speakers with low amplification. David met with a sound engineer about the idea and came up with a multiple speaker system that operated on 70 volts. The speakers selected were medium priced, about $42 each. The next trick was to be able to make the system invisible in a historic building with very few wiring chases and no access behind marble walls. David's selection of small speakers, colored to match the marble was the first step. Surface mounting the speakers kept the number of holes through the marble to a minimum. The second step was to select wiring.
aaaa David was able to locate a manufacturer of a flat colored wire with an adhesive back that installed like tape. This did not damage the marble and was almost invisible. The third step was to find a location for the amplifiers and switching. This was no small feat in a building where almost every square inch of floor space is occupied during Legislative session. David located a small closet area on the forth floor and was able to get power and all of the speaker wiring to. David was fortunate to gain the assistance of a fellow worker, Jim Francis who did much of the speaker and wire installation. He also had the support of his supervisor Luann Taylor who provided funding for the equipment and allowed David's and Jim's time to be spent on this endeavor.
aaaa To date, approximately $8,000 has been invested in equipment and wiring, along with approximately 240 hours of David and Jim's time.
aaaa For more information, contact Jack Olson, PE, Manager Physical Plant Engineering at 360-586-5953 or at jolson@ga.wa.gov.

Washington - Local Government Self Insurance Program
aaaa The Local Government Self Insurance Program is responsible for establishing policies and rules governing the management and operations of all joint local government self-insurance pools and for setting standards for the financial soundness of the programs. Prior to the establishment of the program, the legislature reportedly heard from the commercial insurance industry and others that local government self-insured pools and programs were not as adequately reserved nor as sound as the commercial insurers are required to be.
aaaa An advisory board developed guidelines that assured pool administrations know beforehand the solvency guidelines and the expectations for pools in the State of Washington. In addition, the guidelines benefit all joint self-insured pools by information pool administrators and/or boards considering funding and/or operating their pool at the edge of the prudent criteria in the guidelines, that there may be increased regulatory presence and; strengthening the pooling industry in the state by providing an agreed upon set of guidelines which counter insurance industry contentions. These guidelines could be used by other state agencies which have regulatory or oversight responsibility with respect to self-insured risk pools. No significant modifications would be required as long as other entities concurred with the threshold points set for additional oversight involvement.
aaaa For more information, contact John Nicholson, Program Administrator at 360-902-7311 or at jnichol@ga.wa.gov.

Washington - Planned Space in a Traditional Leasing Process
aaaa The Washington Department of General Administration (GA) developed a policy in 1998 to add the option of leasing "Planned Space" to its traditional leasing practices, which included the leasing of existing space and build-to-suit facilities. GA leases approximately 11 million square feet of space from the private sector on behalf of the state's agencies, boards, and commissions.
aaaa Beginning in about 1994, the availability of office space in the state began to decline. At the same time, many state agencies were growing and needed to expand and consolidate their facilities. GA was left with the options of leasing converted retail space, leasing build-to-suit space, purchasing an existing building or constructing a state-owned facility to respond to its client agencies needs. These options were often not considered desirable.
aaaa This led to a new practice, which involved a revision to GA's advertising policy that allows the state to consider planned or proposed space when seeking space to lease. A hybrid between leasing existing space and leasing a build-to-suit facility, the change has increased available leasing options. The key piece in the development of this practice was defining the minimum requirements that developers must meet to qualify their proposals as "planned space." If the requirements were too onerous or expensive to achieve, then few developers could participate. Conversely, if the requirements were too lenient and didn't require a developer to make a substantial investment in the project, then the state could be inundated with proposals that were marginally viable, requiring a burdensome "weeding-out" process.
aaaa For more information, contact Mark Lahaie, Leasing Manager, Department of General Administration at 360-902-7386 or at mlahaie@ga.wa.gov.