Bacon's Rebellion

Chris Saxman’s latest email update contains a few recommendations for how the state can actually save money through — of all things — managing its printing and paper use more efficiently:

Printers, copiers, and paper are essential to government operations and while we all recognize that, sometimes we don’t consider the cost. Consider that the state has a printer and copier inventory of more than 34,000. In FY06, the cost of these and related devices was $29,607,712. In FY06, the cost of paper was $7,499,837 and the cost of outside printing services was $37,702,417. The team offered the following recommendations:

Recommendation 1: Promote a printer, copier, and paper savings awareness campaign—promoting print efficiencies, cost-savings, and best practices.

Recommendation 2: Implement print management best practices

Recommendation 3: Move toward phasing out fax machines. Personal computers and multifunction machines now have the capability to fax documents. Significant cost reduction could be realized by eliminating fax machines and performing these functions on personal computers or multifunction machines.

Recommendation 4: Move toward or transition to the implementation of managed print services–as appropriate for meeting agency and department mission and goals. Managed print services (MPS) are services offered by an external provider to optimize or manage an organization’s document output. A MPS contract can include assessment services, asset management, output management services, and support services. The external service provider either owns or leases the hardware, with the customer paying a monthly or quarterly fee—based on a cost per page or cost per seat. Gartner suggests that candidates for MPS are midsize or large organizations with 100 or more employees. Agencies and departments should document their print needs and determine if the use of managed print services would reduce their print cost.

Recommendation 5: Encourage agencies use of high-volume print shops for large print jobs. Virginia Correctional Enterprises (VCE), a printing service within the state, continues to demonstrate its ability to produce quality and timely print for state agencies and departments—at a cost savings. In addition, state procurement regulation mandates that goods and services produced or manufactured by state correctional facilities be purchased by all departments, institutions, and agencies of the Commonwealth (there are some waivers to this regulation).

Saxman has a lot more in his note, but this list gives a fairly good look at some of the ways government can shave its operating costs and still provide the services people demand.

And with the threat of state budget cuts looming, any amount of economizing will be welcome.

Now if only Chris and his colleagues could find a way to rebate those savings to taxpayers…

The latest idea for combating illegal immigration in Virginia: Build a detention center capable of holding 1,000 illegals arrested for certain categories of crimes. That comes from the State Crime Commission, reports the Washington Post. The usual nervous nellies are worried that someone’s rights will be violated — as if the same risk weren’t true of illegals held in local jails.

Meanwhile, Fairfax County estimates that it holds about 4,500 illegal immigrants in its jail, about 16 percent of the county’s inmate population, reports Examiner.com. Previous statewide estimates by the state crime commission had run around 8 to 10 percent.

Meanwhile, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is talking tough on illegal immigration, castigating the federal government for the “bankruptcy” of its policies, even as he argues that it’s not the states’ job to police immigration, reports the Associated Press.

From the New York Times comes a story about Riverside, New Jersey, one of a small number of localities that passed tough anti-illegal immigrant laws but are now rethinking them. Snip:

With the departure of so many people, the local economy suffered. Hair salons, restaurants and corner shops that catered to the immigrants saw business plummet; several closed. Once-boarded-up storefronts downtown were boarded up again.

Meanwhile, the town was hit with two lawsuits challenging the law. Legal bills began to pile up, straining the town’s already tight budget. Suddenly, many people — including some who originally favored the law — started having second thoughts.

So last week, the town rescinded the ordinance, joining a small but growing list of municipalities nationwide that have begun rethinking such laws as their legal and economic consequences have become clearer.

Virginia counties that have jumped on the populist, anti-illegal bandwagon most likely won’t face the same fall-out. They have far stronger economies, for one, and most likely could fight any future challenges without inflicting harm on other parts of their budgets.

Nevertheless, the consequences, both in economics and perception, are real.

That’s how Richmond city councilman Marty Jewell characterizes the latest, weirdest spat between Doug Wilder and the Richmond School Board.

For the life of me, I can’t fathom why the Mayor felt the need to pull a Bob Irsay and try to eject the School Board in the middle of the night — complete with a phalanx of cops! Yes, he’s made it clear that he wants the Board out of City Hall in order, he says, to save money (a charge former Wilder aide Paul Goldman disputes).

It’s also clear the School Board is either incapable, or more likely unwilling, to accept the eviction notice.

And now the City Council is getting involved, opening yet another chapter in its long-running battle with the Mayor over who wears the pants in Richmond government.

It’s enough to make one pine for the good old days, when all city government had to offer were the tirades of Sa’ad El-Amin, the antics of Reva, the occasional hunger strike by Rev. Gwen.

Sometimes you’ve got to wonder what kind of impression Virginians are making on the world. If it’s not Abuser Fees snagging national headlines, it’s what you read on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Just today, two Virginians, both from Prince William County, figure prominently in separate articles.

Bundling up for Hillary. Pamela Layton, a resident of the Bristow community, donated $4,600 to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in March, the Journal reports. That’s quite generous for someone who says, “I don’t even like Hillary. I’m a Republican.” It turns out that Layton works for William Danielcyzk, founder of a “Washington-area private firm” (apparently McLean-based Galen Capital Corp.) and a major Clinton fund-raiser. The money she donated was not her own, Layton says. She says Danielcyzk reimbursed her husband and her. Danielcyzk denies the allegation.

If the charges are true, it looks like we have a Norman Hsu-scale scandal brewing, and Northern Virginia is at the eye of the storm.

Theological Offshoring. The Rev. John Gurnsey, pastor of the All Saints’ Church in Woodbridge, has been anointed an Episcopalian bishop — by the Anglican Church of Uganda. Although Gurnsey accepts the idea that women can serve as ministers — his wife is one — he takes issue with the Episcopal church’s disregard for Old Testament teachings castigating homosexuality. In that regard, he shares a lot in common with the traditional-minded Anglican churches of Africa. Like many socially conservative Episcopalians, he is looking to the African church for identity and support.

Whatever one thinks about the gays-as-ministers debate, we can take consolation in one thing: The idea that a Virginia minister would seek theological legitimacy from an African church leader would have been utterly unthinkable a generation ago. Racial identity among social conservatives in Virginia seems to figure a lot less prominently these days than it does to race hustlers like Jesse Jackson, who has just accused Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of “acting white.”