Fall 2004 Awards Ceremony
Fall 2004 Awards Ceremony
Process Used:
Judges:
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Governor's Award for Quality and Performance
UCC Reengineering of Document Management
Department of Licensing
In every state in the nation, there is an organization called the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). This organization is responsible for maintaining records of financing statements filed on loans where personal property is used as collateral. Lending organizations use this filing service to establish their priority against the collateral in case a borrower defaults. Lenders also use the service in researching a debtor’s other loans. Lenders need this information so they can process loans quickly.
Historically, Washington’s UCC services took up to 24 business days to perform. Delays meant that farmers were sometimes unable to obtain loans for seed in time for planting. In 2001, a model law was adopted requiring a 2-day turnaround that helps farmers (and others) obtain loans in a timely manner.
UCC’s program underwent sweeping changes to meet the new requirements. All processes (manual and automated) were reengineered through a combination of imaging technology and Internet-based functions.
Today, lenders can get all filing or searches completed in two days or less. Using the new online service, 55% of lenders now obtain instantaneous results, make easy electronic payments, and save 25% in fees.
Team Members:
| Jim Counihan Alicia Craddock Len Devenere Jeff Dickason Jon Donnellan Jackie Gansberg Sue Gordon Paul Hodnefield Jeff P. Johnson Kirk Kaiser Wendy Kalat Inita Kazi |
Mike Mayfield Linda Mead Janie Peterson Hung Quach Dasari Rao Charlie Serna Kim Summers John Swannack Dan Tormanen Margaret Vogeli Anh Vu Kathy Young |
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Governor's Award for Quality and Performance
Amber Alert Web Portal (AAWP)
Washington State Patrol
In 1996, nine-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered in the Dallas area. In response to this tragedy, broadcasters and law enforcement in 49 states, including Washington, implemented early warning AMBER Alert programs to engage the public to find abducted children.
Washington broadcasters and law enforcement raised concerns with their original manual alerting process – it was complex, time consuming and information was inconsistent and hard to find. They wanted a single place to find information.
Local and state agencies partnered with private organizations in the DIS Digital Government Academy and implemented a powerful new approach to conduct AMBER Alerts. Participants developed an AMBER Alert Web Portal (www.AMBERAlert911.com) enabling law enforcement to distribute detailed information simultaneously to thousands of sources including law enforcement, broadcasters and the public via pagers, cell phones, e-mail and faxes. Participants streamlined the AMBER Alert process and implemented a public-private partnership enabling the use of the Portal at no cost.
Team Members:
| Mark Allen, WSAB Nelsa Brodie, WSP John Bruun, DOT Glenn Cramer, WSP Bob Cutcher, WSP Fred Fakkema, WSP Tim Gormley, E2C Nancy Jackson, DIS Dan Kimball, TCSO Dave Kirk, DIS Marty Knorr, WSP Jim LaMunyon, WASPC Randy Maynard, KPD |
Susan McClafferty, E2C Don Miller, EMD Lisa Murdock, DOT Aaron Nixon, E2C Joan Partin, CAPCOM Geoff Pohl, WSP Jim Shanafelt, DOT David Sorrell, DIS John Specht, DIS Chris Warner, E2C Walter Weiblen, DOT Anna Kim-Williams, GOV Debbie Willis, WSP |
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Governor's Award for Quality and Performance
Using Tax Discovery to “Level the Playing Field”
Department of Labor & Industries
The Department of Labor and Industries administers Washington’s workers’ compensation system, which provides benefits to workers who are injured or become ill as a result of their job. The system is funded with premiums paid by employers and workers. The premium is based on hours worked and the hazards of the job. A tax discovery project was launched after employers told us it was critical that everyone pay their fair share: employers who evade the system shift the cost of industrial insurance to employers who pay their premiums. That gives illegal employers an unfair advantage and undermines the integrity of the system.
L&I determined that the problem was worst in the construction industry. In response, nine teams worked across programs, adopted best practices from other organizations, and introduced innovative ways to track down and stop contractors who weren’t paying premiums. The results? After one year, L&I had collected $4.5 million from construction firms that had underreported their hours – an increase of 42%. At the same time, L&I completely retooled its approach to finding and dealing with fraud and abuse – ensuring even greater results in the future.
Team Members:
| Stuart Bammert Steve Benfield Scott Bird Brad Davidson Robert Diolata Pete Doellinger Gary Doolittle Dale Edwards Bob Esparza Gilda Felizardo Bridget Flory Don Fuqua Candy Gleason Carl Hammersburg Kim Hardeman Nick Harper Ted Hay Diane Johnson Marie Jones Paula Kerr Kathy Kimbel Bob Koshman Ernie Lapalm |
Doug Mathers R.T Nelson Doric Olson Janice Orcutt Judy Paine Reuel Paradis Dale Paris Jim Rainwood Candria Rauser Carla Reynolds Kent Schweikert Marty Sharf Larry Simon Dean Simpson Bruce Springer Maureen Strand Jim Stoeser Doug Stroud Alicia Squibb Ted Thomas Katherine Vargas Sharon Vlastelica Tom Wolfe |
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Governor's Award for Public Value and Benefit
Governor's Award for Organizational Learning
El Protector
Washington State Patrol
It became apparent through Washington State Patrol’s (WSP) Strategic Advancement Forum data collection process that we had a very high number of fatal and injury collisions in our state among minority drivers, specifically among the Hispanic population. In 2002, Hispanic-surnamed drivers were involved in 29.6% of the fatal and injury collisions in the Yakima area, totaling a loss of 16 lives. Through partnerships within the Hispanic community, troopers identified there was a communication gap regarding Washington’s traffic safety laws due to the language barrier with non-English speaking drivers.
We created a performance measure in our agency Strategic Plan aimed to reduce fatal and injury collisions by 5% annually on state and interstate highways. We took this goal one step further by concentrating on educating the Hispanic population about this mission.
With the support of many stakeholders, we launched an El Protector (“The Protector”) pilot program to open lines of communication, reduce traffic-related crime, and heighten the Hispanic community’s awareness of Washington’s traffic safety rules. In addition, we created an El Protector citizen advisory board and a law enforcement committee in order to gain access to key organizations and to guide the process with the involvement of the Hispanic community.
Since implementing the pilot program in 2003, we have experienced a 16% decrease in the number of Hispanic fatal and injury collisions in District 3 (Yakima). The number of collisions involving fatalities dropped by 2, or 14.3%, from 2002 to 2003. Injury collisions dropped by 27, or 16.3%. In 2003 only 2 lives were lost compared to 16 lives lost in the previous year, for a reduction of 87.5%. WSP plans to implement this program statewide in other areas with increasing fatal and injury collisions among the Hispanic population.
Team Members:
| Raul Almedia Antonia Alvarado-Jackson Gary Bainter Abel Campos Kevin Carle Lucy Cartagena Ascendcion Castillo Joel Chavez Rick Contreras David Cortinas Glenn Cramer Oscar Garcia Erick Garza-Homage Ramiro Gomez Celia Gomez Reynaldo Gomez |
Randall Grady, KVEW Marcos Guzman Jeff Jackson David Karnitz Eva Madrigal Nancy McClenny-Walters Jason Nunez Lowell Porter Theresa Quezada Saul Reyna Ron Sabin Steve Sutton Maria Vera Lynda Lou West Bill White |
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Governor's Award for Public Value and Benefit
CHILD Profile
Department of Health
CHILD Profile is a coordinated health promotion and immunization tracking and notification system operated by the Department of Health (DOH), in partnership with the Department of Social and Health Services, Medical Assistance Administration (DSHS - MAA). The system is designed to ensure children receive necessary immunizations and other preventive health care.
CHILD Profile assists healthcare providers in tracking immunizations and public health professionals in identifying those who are under-immunized in case of disease outbreaks. Parents and guardians can access records necessary for childcare and school entry and receive reminders to ensure their children receive appropriately timed well-child checkups and childhood immunizations. The system makes health and safety information available to help parents and health care providers make informed decisions critical to the health and well-being of children.
Team Members:| Janna Bardi, DOH Belinda Baker, DOH Ruth Francis-Williams, DOH Pamela Johnson, DOH Dahlia Kupfer, UW/CHDD |
Jackson Williams, DOH Diana Larsen-Mills, DSHS Sherry Riddick, PHSKC Denise Farrand, PHSKC |
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Governor's Award for Customer Service
Veteran's Benefit Enhancement Project
Department of Social and Health Services
Many veterans and their spouses are missing out on benefits that they are entitled to from the U.S. Veterans Benefits Administration. A joint project to help veterans locate the health benefits they are due for their patriotic service is also paying a bonus for Washington State taxpayers. Together, the Department of Social and Health Services and the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs are identifying veterans on Medicaid and reviewing their benefits. In many cases, the federal government should have been picking up the costs of their care. In other cases, additional benefits were identified - such as prescription drug coverage - which the veteran and his or her family didn't realize existed.
The project's success hinges on a multi-state consortium called Public Assistance Reporting Information System (PARIS). PARIS provides a data interface with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Veterans enrolled in Medicaid now get help locating all the benefits they are due. The project enhanced benefits for over 3,000 veterans.
Another key benefit to veterans and their families is avoiding estate recovery. Medicaid must legally pursue reimbursement of its costs from the estates of deceased recipients. Veterans using Federal dollars to cover their health care costs can reduce their reliance on Medicaid. This drastically cuts the amount their families might ultimately need to reimburse the state government.
Team Members:
| Bill Allman Penny Black Andrew Clark Jorge Company Tim Dahlin Alex Deluao Jean Du Steve Gill David Hanig |
John King Kevin Krueger John Lee Kathy Leitch Barbara Logan Charlotte McDowell Chandra Moss Jim Rising Steve Wish |
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Governor's Award for Financial Management
Data Warehouse Project Team
Department of Revenue
Each year Washington State loses millions of dollars because some businesses underreport taxes or fail to register their business. This creates an unfair business climate for those paying their share of taxes and it is ultimately unfair to all state citizens. The Department of Revenue’s process for compiling and accessing relevant data to investigate these businesses was time consuming, difficult, and the data was often inconsistent.
The Department formed a team to analyze the gap in information sources, time delays, and other data integrity issues while exploring options to fix the situation. The team generated several recommendations that led to the creation of a data warehouse and better tools.
The results:
Team Members:
| Richard Cason Greg Charles Amos Chong Colin Corbin Gary Davis Diane Fisher Scott Garrison Charles Henry Julie Hoke Sandra Hurley Long Le |
Randy Littlefield Sonja Long Linda Nelsen Kathy Oline Parrish Preston Rob Rice Seawillow Rolly Drew Shirk Tremaine Smith Brian Smith Steve Wolford |
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Governor's Award for Internal Process Management
Connectivity Team
Washington Lottery
Instead of waiting in line to buy Scratch tickets, customers often access Lottery’s stand-alone Instant Ticket Vending Machines (ITVMs). Over 900 ITVMs are placed in retail outlets across Washington to make Scratch, our best-selling product, easy to buy.
Keeping ITVMs stocked with colorful, latex-coated Scratch tickets is up to our retailers. However, on sales visits, Lottery representatives often noticed empty bins. No tickets = no sales! Research into why bins were empty showed the primary cause was supermarket retailers who filled their machines with tickets only once/day and didn’t check again that bins were stocked.
We challenged our game vendors to transform the ITVMs from basic vending machines into communication devices that alerted retailers when a bin was empty. Vendors programmed the ITVMs to “self-diagnose” when out of tickets. Trials of phone, cable, and radio transmission eventually identified the best data channel for relaying information between an ITVM and its retailer. Connectivity implementation is underway, with resultant gross sales increase of $4 million.
Team Members:
| Todd Bauman Tim Brunner Bill Chamberland Cindi Fleener |
Bill Funk David LaCroix Michael O’Hern Ellen Smith |
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Governor's Award for Organizational Learning & Growth
WorkSource Columbia Basin - Customer Driven One-Stop Services
Employment Security Department
In January 2003, WorkSource Columbia Basin piloted a project to improve service to Unemployment Insurance recipients. The improvement efforts involved three primary customer groups: job seekers, local business, and other community service groups. Teams produced complimentary recommendations for improvements based on survey results, focus groups, performance reports, and stakeholder interviews.
The implemented strategies involved assuring every customer getting an appropriate job referral with each office visit, follow up letters to Unemployment Insurance claimants who had never visited the office, management seminars for local businesses, and expanded access and services for underserved populations including non-proficient English speakers and people with disabilities.
Results achieved include:
Results have been sustained: every month the number of job referrals per customer continues to climb by an average of 3.9% and the number of jobs listed by 7.9%.
Team Members:
| Josie Acob-Campbell Dawn Adams Candice Bluechel Daryl Campbell Cos Edwards Diana Hamilton Kay Hamilton Josh Hanson |
Les Logsdon Michelle Mann Becky Mellinger Donna Noski Joe Perez Tiffany Scott Marla Skoglund Patty Wlaznak |
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