On
May 4th the Thomas Jefferson Institute
hosted the Innovations
in Government Conference at Markel
International Headquarters in Glen Allen.
The conference was put together in
partnership with the Office of the Governor, Cost
Cutting Caucus, the Virginia Association of
Counties and the Virginia Muncipal League.
National experts and practitioners on
government reform, performance based budgeting and
competitive sourcing spent the day with close to
130 government officials talking about how to make
the Commonwealth work more efficiently and
effectively.
More
than half of the 130 participants coming from
various state agencies; city and county officials
filled out the rest.
Del.
Chris Saxman, R-Staunton, the chair of the Cost
Cutting Caucus, kicked off the event comparing how
his family business operates differently from how
the state operates—highlighting several key
differences in personnel and acquisition.
He fielded several questions about how to
change incentives and encourage more state
employee input, often referring to legislation he
has sponsored in the past few years to encourage
and reward innovative employees.
Scott
Pattison, the Executive Director of the National
Association of State Budget Officers and former
state budget director, discussed the importance
and value of performance-based budgeting.
He suggested that agencies keep it simple
and that they not get mired in details and
process. Indeed,
he cautioned about setting up a process with a
series of check-offs that improperly puts the
focus on the check-offs, not on the results.
Pattison
also discussed the “priorities of government”
model of budgeting employed by the State of
Washington
,
and most recently in
South
Carolina
.
The lesson was simple—“there is never
enough [money]; whether you’re a conservative
Republican or a liberal Democrat to fund everything we may want to… We must focus our resources on our
priorities.”
Former
Fairfax County Supervisor Stuart Mendelsohn talked
about the many lessons he learned while service in
office. Most
importantly was his call to work with everyone,
especially employees, when trying to enact reform.
For starters, the employees are often some
of the best innovators (agreeing with Del. Saxman),
“making great sound bites” doesn’t bring
change or make your governments work better.
Mendelsohn
suggested that crisis presented a great
opportunity to change, but cautioned against quick
fixes. He
did concede that serious reform is a long and
arduous process that requires commitment over
time.
Perhaps
one of the more enlightening discussions came from
Deloitte Consulting’s Bill Eggers who discussed
his new book Governing
by Network. Eggers
described the trend where governments are relying
more and more on outside contractors and partners
to provide services. However,
Eggers said that governments don’t always know
how to manage these relationships.
Eggers argued that not only must government
learn how to manage, but they needed to embrace
the relationships and see the positives—the
results and outcomes that can be achieved in a
fruitful partnership.
If not, he fears that results will be
lackluster and then mounting pressure could result
in returning the old model of service delivery
simply because it’s familiar.
The
Governors’ Chief of Staff Bill Leighty provided
some concluding remarks, which included lavish
praise for Del. Saxman’s efforts and leadership
of the Cost Cutting Caucus.
He noted the Caucus’ success, its
willingness to work with the governor and his
commitment to make Virginia a better place.
Almost in direct response to some of the
presentations that day, Leigthy discussed the move
toward a services- based budget that will be
unveiled with the Governor’s next budget.
Leighty
noted that we live in a “consumer-driven
government… that our governments [at every
level] are too responsive… It only takes a few
letters to get a law or a regulation passed.”
And he mentioned that 30 percent to 40 percent of
government expenditures are to “keep track” of
the other 60 percent of the spending.
To highlight this, Leighty provided a
chilling story of “needing” to conduct a print
study before buying a new printer for VDOT.
The study cost the state $40,000; the
printer was only $12,000!
Noting this outrage, Leighty called for
lowering the cost of compliance.
The
most interesting comment from the state and county
employees in attendance was that state laws
and regulations often stood in the way of
innovation and efficiency.
The
ball is now in the practitioners’ court.
Ideas were exchanged, processes described
and implementation widely encouraged.
The challenge now is to make positive
change happen. Not
yet known is whether those in positions of
authority will take the necessary steps and
support employees who have the courage and the
creativity to step forward with ideas.
--
May 9, 2005
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