Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 3, 2004
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Gov. Locke Presents State Quality and Performance Awards

Gov. Gary Locke today presented the 2004 Governor’s Awards for Quality and Performance in a ceremony held in Lacey.

“The improvements we’ve made in state government are a direct reflection of our outstanding state workforce,” Locke said. “I believe Washington has the top state employee team in the country. The award-winners today are truly the best of the best.”

The Governor’s Awards for Quality and Performance are presented every six months. Locke recognizes agencies that have achieved significant, measurable, sustainable improvements in the services that they deliver to their customers, and the value they provide to the public.

Agencies recognized today include the departments of General Administration, Health, Social and Health Services, Revenue and the Washington State Patrol.

A screening panel considered agency applications. Project finalists were notified and each presented their program to a panel of judges who selected winners in each category.

Judges included Anna Kay Dykes, Vice President, Performance Improvement, Providence Systems; The Honorable Fred Jarrett, Washington State House of Representatives; Larry Peck, Deputy Director, Department of Fish and Wildlife; Fred Stephens, Director, Department of Licensing; John Vicklund, President, Washington Manufacturing Services; and Beth Worthington, Quality Manager, Science Applications International Corporation.

“The projects we’re recognizing today have one other critical characteristic in common – they are all examples of caring about and helping people,” Locke told the recipients. “We are at our best when we remember our fundamental purpose – to serve the public and help people. I am proud of today’s award-winners, and proud of all our state employees.”

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Editor’s Note: A complete list of award winners is attached.

GOVERNOR’S AWARDS for QUALITY and PERFORMANCE


Governor’s Award for Quality and Performance
Strategic Advancement Forum Team
Washington State Patrol (WSP)
The Washington State Patrol’s Strategic Advancement Forum (SAF) process was modeled after the COMPSTAT process created in the New York City Police Department. COMPSTAT is a weekly forum where managers report orally to executives on how they are deploying their resources to achieve their goals. Managers are held personally responsible for the activities within their units, and are expected to report on their units’ progress, respond to questions about the causes of emerging issues and their plans to address them. Typically, the managers’ reports include graphical displays of computerized data to illustrate progress toward their goals.

Each bureau in the patrol is required to report monthly at the assigned Strategic Advancement Forum. Using visual presentations of current data, bureau chiefs report to executive management on emerging trends, share progress with peers and recognize achievements of the staff in their units. The clear alignment of District/Division operational plans with the agency’s strategic plan, coupled with the visible progress toward those plans, reinforces an agency-wide vision of direction and mission, both short and long term. By using accurate and timely data, effective tactics, rapid deployment and relentless follow-up, WSP has measurably improved our performance in all major areas of public responsibility. The WSP also improved job satisfaction and employee development.

Governor’s Award for Public Value and Benefit
Tobacco Prevention and Control Program
Department of Health (DOH)
Tobacco use, the nation’s number one cause of preventable death, is a childhood-onset disease. Magazine advertisements, movies and retail marketing have shaped a youth culture that views tobacco use as glamorous, grown-up and rebellious. When the project began in 1999, 65 youth in Washington began using tobacco every day; one-third of them eventually would die from it. To address this public health threat, the DOH Tobacco Prevention and Control Program launched a comprehensive and innovative campaign to prevent youth from beginning tobacco use.

The Tobacco Program deployed science and data-based approaches in schools, local communities and the media. All were developed with extensive input from stakeholders, prevention and media experts, the state’s own experts and youth themselves. The success of the department’s youth prevention efforts has been demonstrated through annual survey results and data analyzed by the department, other state agencies and independent research companies. After only two years of implementation, the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program and its statewide partners, including the American Lung Association and American Cancer Society, successfully reduced the number of Washington kids smoking by approximately 53,000. This 40 percent rate of decline is nearly double the national rate of decline.

Governor’s Award for Public Value and Benefit
Northwest Deaf Addiction Center Project
Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS)
DSHS is an umbrella agency that provides a safety net for the most disadvantaged of Washington’s citizens. Within DSHS, the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse (DASA) and the Office of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing serve deaf and hard of hearing citizens who struggle with alcohol or drug abuse. Through these two parts of DSHS, the state provides addiction treatment to low income deaf and hard of hearing citizens in an appropriate communication format, usually American Sign Language (ASL). The combined costs of these clients are considerable. DSHS is always looking for ways to better serve these clients at lower costs. By establishing a treatment program that included staff that could communicate with sign language, this project reduced costs for deaf and hard of hearing clients by over $70,000 per month for an annual savings of $880,000. This project worked to help deaf and hard of hearing clients to obtain alcohol or drug abuse treatment more efficiently and effectively by eliminating barriers to treatment. Deaf and hard of hearing clients receiving substance abuse treatment through the new system had much better outcomes than deaf and hard of hearing clients historically. The outcomes included lower costs, excellent client satisfaction reports and improved treatment completion rates.

Governor’s Award for Customer Service
Division of Child Support (DCS) Secure Card
Department of Social and Health Services
DSHS DCS helps families avoid or break the cycle of poverty by ensuring that families receive their child support payments as quickly as possible. Since April 1994, the Electronic Funds Transfer Direct Deposit program allowed DCS to make deposits directly into bank accounts. However, some families could not use the program because they did not have a bank account. To fill this need, DCS now offers stored value cards, called the DCS Secure Card. DCS deposits child support payments into a card account maintained by a vendor in the name of the custodial parent. The card provides the convenience of electronic deposit with the ability to use the card at any merchant that accepts credit cards. The program also gives families a monthly statement to track child support expenditures. DCS saves by reducing administrative costs. It costs less to make an electronic disbursement than to cut a check and costs created by lost or stolen checks are reduced.

Governor’s Award for Financial Management
Initial Contact Team
Department of Revenue (DOR)
At any given time, the DOR has 65,000 to 80,000 accounts that are delinquent. To become an “account” a taxpayer may be delinquent in payment of taxes or may have missed a deadline for filing a tax return. DOR couldn’t get to all the accounts quickly enough. The Initial Contact Team (ICT) project created a call center utilizing a predictive dialer to efficiently handle a high volume of collection calls. Predictive dialer technology makes and screens phone calls at an extremely fast and inexpensive pace. This allowed the DOR to contact more taxpayers, more often, without hiring more employees. From July 2002 through December 2003, the ICT collected a total of $20,297,545. The improved work flow process has given the local field offices more time to collect their accounts which helps the agency reach its yearly performance measure goal for collecting tax revenue. The benefits gained from this project repeat month after month resulting in increased dollars going into the state general fund and therefore public services.

Governor’s Award for Internal Process Management
Use Tax Targeted Education
Department of Revenue (DOR)
Although it’s been on the books since 1935, Washington’s use tax is poorly understood by many businesses. State and local governments lose millions of dollars a year because businesses buy items from out of state and fail to pay use tax equivalent to the sales tax they would pay had the item been purchased locally. Noncompliance has increased significantly over the last several years as more businesses purchase products over the Internet. To address this problem and meet revenue commitments, the DOR launched a targeted education program in which it sent clear and understandable letters to businesses that had not reported use tax in the past year. The letters asked these businesses to review their records and remit any use tax due or use an interactive voice system to report that no use tax was due. The project brought in $2.7 million in state and local tax revenue during fiscal year 2003, nearly twice the goal. This project proved to be a cost-effective way to collect unpaid taxes, ensure that all businesses paid their fair share and help educate taxpayers.

Governor’s Award for Organizational Learning
UW-Bothell Project Team
Department of General Administration (GA)
Rapid population growth in the Seattle area during the 1980s strained capacity at community colleges and public universities. State studies conducted at the time identified northern King County as having the greatest need for increased access to higher education. The legislature responded by creating the University of Washington, Bothell and Cascadia Community College, mandating that the institutions share a campus. Most of the 127-acre site selected for the campus was covered by wetlands. Only a few acres on a steep hillside could be developed. GA led a multi-agency, public/private project team to construct the state’s first, new co-located campus. The $197 million project was completed on time and under budget, allowing GA to return $6.5 million to the state. In addition to constructing campus buildings, the project featured the restoration of 58 acres of wetlands and the return of 3,200 feet of North Creek, a salmon-bearing stream, to its original floodplain. The restoration – the largest ever attempted in the Northwest – included the planting of more than 400,000 native trees, shrubs and plants. More than 4,000 students now attend the two institutions.

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