Askew Awards Recognize Management Practices Excellence

By Paula Green, CPM, Management Practices Committee Chair
Paula.Green@okdhs.org

Fourteen public sector projects from across the country were recognized in September with the presentation of the 2006 George C. Askew Awards.

Arkansas – Emma Lay
Idaho – Gina Wescott
Iowa – Marcy Cable
Kansas – Lt. Shane Hoobler and Lt. Michael Kolbek
Kentucky – Charlotte B. Faeth
Mississippi – Mark Holley
New Jersey – Susan Duron and Michele Walsh
North Carolina – Marwan Zabaneh
Ohio – Kurtis Brzyscz
Oklahoma – Barbara Baumeister
South Carolina – Charles W. Hightower and Robin S. Mack
Texas – Stephanie Brim
Utah – Jim Dunker, William Atkin, Anita Knowley, Robert Pelly, Pam Kramer, Diana Vos and Mark Hadley

Awarded by the American Academy of Certified Public Managers® (AACPM), the Askew Award recognizes the completion of an exceptional curriculum project in nationally sanctioned Certified Public Manager® programs across the country.
The Askew Awards were jointly presented by AACPM President Bill Herman, CPM, of New Hampshire and AACPM Management Practices Committee Co-Chair Paula Green, CPM, of Oklahoma during the AACPM Annual Awards Banquet held as part of the 18th  Annual Professional Development Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

The following is a description of the Askew Award recipients by jurisdiction, and a description of their award-winning project.

Arkansas – Emma Lay, Improving Quality of Non-monetary Determinations

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) adjudication staff does not consistently issue quality eligibility determinations. This problem is attributed to lack of formal training in interviewing techniques, fact finding, and application of Arkansas Employment Security Law and policies. A Training Project designed  to improve the overall quality of UI eligibility determinations will take three years to complete. The training sessions will be prioritized according to the subject matter that will have the most immediate impact on improving the quality of eligibility determinations.

The training will enhance the Agency’s quality of service to both claimants and employers. Adequate training will enable our adjudicators to consistently issue quality non-monetary determination   Adequately trained adjudicators will restore the Agency’s ability to meet the quality performance standards for all future quarterly Performance Measurement Reviews conducted by the United States Department of Labor.

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Idaho – Gina Westcott, Shelter Home Shelter Home

Gina Westcott developed her Certified Public Manager® Program based on an acute awareness of the need to collect, compile, and make more visible and useful shelter home resources to increase the efficiency of her staff and enhance the satisfaction levels of external customers.

Her analysis included a description of events since World War II where institutionalism of severe mental illness changed focus to that of deinstitutionalization. This promoted the use of community treatments, often called shelter homes. The selection of the most appropriate shelter home has become a key facet of the rehabilitation of a client.
Due to the stigma of having such treatment within a residential area and the many changes in shelter home staff, accurate information about their location, availability, culture, and specific service was lacking. The Division of Health & Welfare workers found it difficult, if not impossible, to supply information to clients in an accurate and positive manner. This coupled with the distress of the client to have to enter such a home made this service a frustrating, and often unsatisfying, endeavor. Processes robbed the clients of knowing where they were going and shelter homes did not know the condition of the potential resident.

Gina’s goal was to develop an improved method of finding shelter homes for mentally ill consumers in a systematic and reliable fashion and which also allowed them involvement in the decision making and placement process. Her solution was to develop a shelter home resource directory on CD, with the possibility of on-line access. This CD would be available to state agencies, hospitals, consumers, and various case managers.

Gina used CPM Program principles by undertaking a partnership process, using a problem solving methodology, group dynamics, citizen input, and facilitation skills. She worked with several teams and focus groups in her agency, with shelter home providers, and among the client base. Using these perspectives, she was able to develop an effective process and create a “mental model” change.

The result is a user-friendly Shelter Home Resource Directory which not only includes the outside and inside pictures of shelter homes, but the specialized information regarding benefits, requirements, types of services, community access, bus routes, payee expectations, maps, and client and customer quotes regarding service. Both client and case manager have all the information needed to make a mutual decision.
Efficiency was found in time savings which equates to money saved. The time saved by case managers who were originally required to make many calls and look through various files was tremendous. A case manager could save man hours equating to approximately $6,000 per year. This amount, multiplied by the number of case managers having access, resulted in healthy savings.

Effectiveness was apparent in that there is an element of autonomy for the client, more information for the shelter home, greater flexibility for the case worker and, ultimately, a far greater probability that the placement would be successful – a real plus for Idaho state government.

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Iowa – Marcy Cable, Patricia Harmeyer, Kanan Kappelman, Jane Mild, Roxanne Petersen, City of Des Moines: Improving Rental Inspection Processes - Team Inspectors

Similarly, the City of Des Moines, Department of Housing Services (a federally funded housing agency, hereafter referred to as Section 8) also conducts rental-housing inspections, but only for rental units that fall under the Section 8 low-income housing program.

Housing officials within Section 8 identified the duplicative nature of their existing inspection process: the rental inspection staff conducts a required inspection and those units qualifying for federal Section 8 housing funding require an additional inspection. During April – May 2005 – Collected and cleansed housing inspection data. Section 8 should establish a set appointment system for rental inspections, as Rental Permits currently provides. Establish a standard process to notify the other department any time either Section 8 or Rental Permits revokes or cancels a rental permit. Develop a process using Rental Permits’ inspection data in conjunction with the 60-day benchmark identified by Team Inspectors to benefit Section 8. Replace annual Section 8 inspections with Rental Permits inspections as possible, based upon the 60-day timeframe data.

Kansas – Lt. Shane Hoobler and Lt. Michael Kolbek, Community Policing: Implementation Plan for the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office

The benefits to the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office is a more efficient, well–defined and measurable process by which top-down operations are conducted within the agency. Most importantly is how our operations have improved our ability to provide a service to the citizens of Shawnee County and be more responsive to their needs. A more personable approach to policing, recognizing that “the police are the public and the public are the police”.

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Kentucky – Charlotte B. Faeth, Replacing a Retiring Employee's Position with a New Position

The purpose of the project was to find a candidate for employment who was capable of performing the varied job duties of an Engineering Technologist position, using the structured behavioral interviewing technique. Included in this process was a job analysis of the critical knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for the position. Once these relevant dimensions for the position were ascertained, questions designed to solicit behavioral responses were written. Completing this process resulted in the hiring of a qualified individual.

Mississippi – Mark Holley, QC Data Management Tool and Format

In 2001 my agency began the process of implementing a construction management tool known as Site Manager. This tool assists in the management of data on construction projects. The tool is currently being used in about 8 states nation wide and is currently being implemented in about 15 more. Site Manager required all project information to be entered into a computer database and makes payment to contractors based on that information. My agency began using this tool on all projects February 16, 2005.

One difficulty in the implementation of this tool was the fact that my agency relies on contractors for “Quality Control” (QC) on certain materials. These materials require a large amount of data from QC tests performed daily by the contractor to be submitted before payment can be made. In previous contracts these tests results were submitted via a daily fax report and someone had to manually check and approve them.

This project entitled “QC Data Management Tool and Format” designed a computer program that allows the contractor to electronically submit their QC data and then in turn it can easily be transferred into Site Manager.

The result of this project is a program that will reduce the number of errors associated with having to enter all QC by hand and that will not burden employees with additional duties of retyping QC data into the Site Manager system.

An additional result for this project was the development of other similar applications to enter Quality Assurance (QA) test results performed by my agency into Site Manager by the same method. The states of Alabama, South Carolina, and Vermont have also contacted my agency with the request to review the method we developed for possible use in their system.

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New Jersey – Susan Duron and Michele Walsh, Incarcerated Fathers Project

This project demonstrated a combined effort between two New Jersey State agencies, the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Department of Corrections. The two agencies worked together to implement an important change within the Department of Corrections by utilizing resources of the Administrative Office of the Courts.

North Carolina – Marwan Zabaneh, Bail Bond Program

This project outlined key process improvements, efficiencies and service enhancements to ensure that valid bail bond judgments are paid to Clerks of Court throughout North Carolina. Through his effective leadership of an interagency team of customers and stakeholders, and his sound application of problem-solving, quality improvement and data analysis tools, Mr. Zabaneh produced an exemplary CPM project.

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Ohio – Kurtis Brzyscz, Developing a Storm Water Utility for the City of Ashland, Ohio

In preparation for new federal and state Environmental Protection Agency regulations, the City of Ashland decided to develop a storm water utility. Assistant City Engineer, Kurtis W. Brzyscz, adopted this challenge as his project in the Ohio Certified Public Manager program. The project aligns well with the initiatives of the OCPM program and the AACPM Askew Award criteria.

Before this project was implemented, the city's storm water efforts were funded through the general sewer fund, which left very little revenue for the city's storm water efforts. The goal of the project was to create a perpetual and dedicated revenue source to specifically fund the city's storm water management program and ensure consistent compliance with federal and state EPA regulations.

Kurtis combined a team of engineers, managers, and leaders (stakeholders and customers) from several city departments and the community. The development process spanned nearly a year and involved detailed planning, organizing, data collection and analysis, and passing legislation. The data collection process involved discussions with the city mayor, city council, citizens, and the media.

On January 17, 2006, the Ashland City Council passed Ordinance No. 5-06, which established a storm water utility for the City of Ashland, Ohio. The storm water utility:

• Has its own funding source of approximately $540,000 per year for five (5) years.
• Alleviates some of the financial pressures on the general sewer fund.
• Serves as an instrument to drive the city's new storm water management program.
• Facilitates the new programs involved with the federal and state's EPA storm water rules and regulations.
• Saved a significant amount of money by eliminating the need to hire engineering consulting firms to accomplish this task.
• Accomplished all the stated goals of the project.

Efforts and processes are in place to ensure appropriate implementation and operation within the city's Billing and Finance department.

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Oklahoma – Barbara Baumeister, Development of a Staging Function to be Implemented During a Bioterrorism Event 

Barbara developed a new plan for effectively using volunteers during an emergency situation such as a bioterrorism event.

South Carolina – Charles W. Hightower and Robin S. Mack, Preventing Leaking Spill Containment Basins and Reducing the Resulting Environmental Impact

The purpose of this project is to reduce the number of spill containment basin failures and to find leaking spill containment basins in a timely manner to diminish environmental impact. The issues identified in the project include the contamination related to releases from non-tight spill containment basins and the cost of assessing and remediating the associated releases. Information gathered during the execution of the project will aid in identifying the needed policy, process, and regulatory changes that should reduce the number of releases associated with spill containment basin failure. The ultimate goal is to have fewer releases to the environment and create a significant cost savings for underground storage tank owners and operators, as well as the state of South Carolina.

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Texas – Stephanie Brim, Implementing Succession Management Planning in Huntsville Texas City Government

Assistant to the City Manager, Stephanie Brim developed and worked toward implementing a succession management plan designed to address a major concern in the City of Huntsville, Texas. That concern was for the City of Huntsville to provide for the orderly succession for the city’s workforce.

Stephanie’s plan was needed by the organization to survive the forthcoming changes in customer service demands as well as to manage the City’s workforce in the most effectively manner. The planning and development of the City of Huntsville Succession Plan is proving to be a beneficial and effective way to provide for orderly transition of City of Huntsville employees within the City’s administrative Structure.

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Utah – Jim Dunker, William Atkin, Anita Knowley, Robert Pelly, Pam Kramer, Diana Vos and Mark Hadley, Utah’s Wild TV Team, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

For nearly eight years, the Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) produced and aired a monthly television show entitled “Utah Wild.” Production and airing of the show ended in 2003 due to budget constraints within the agency. In 2005, with an improved budget, DWS prioritized funding to produce and air a new wildlife television program. Utah’s Wild TV Team was chartered to develop recommendations on the structure, content, and timing of the new show. Utah’s Wild TV team used a variety of methods to gather data about the programming needs mentioned above, including one that is not typically utilized by Course 3 teams – the use of focus groups. But first the team gathered some preliminary data. The team interviewed by survey and phone hundreds of people across the state from different demographic areas in order to understand the interests of people across various strata of populations. They contacted all of the states in the U.S. to see if they had an existing program, what their budget was, how often it aired, content, viewership, etc. Finally, the team contacted local television stations, and personally interviewed television executives to understand market share, timing, costs and the complexities of producing such a show. The aggregate effort yielded much information to sort and process. The team employed matrices, charts, etc. to discover patterns and desirable outcomes. From there, the team formed some basic opinions of what might be possible. Using this information, the team developed a focus group format along with sample shows, and conducted two formal, recorded focus groups to see what the groups liked and disliked about structure, content and timing of shows. Based on all of this information, Utah’s Wild TV Team came up with several well-supported and practical recommendations for DWR’s new TV program. In addition, the team presented valuable data, organized in a useful manner that was well received and easily understood by the chartering agency.

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Wisconsin – Mark Pankow, Wausau Police Department Tactical Training Plan

The purpose of this project is to establish and implement a practical, scenario-based training plan for officers in the Wausau Police Department, to receive current and on-going instruction in matters pertaining to the proper tactical response to conflicts. The plan is intended to provide officers with lessons that are consistent with Unified Tactics guidelines established by the State of Wisconsin Department of Justice. The plan contains a brief history of the department's training in this area in the recent past, analysis of the effect of this past training, and the projected (and realized) outcomes of the current plan. This project also includes a comparison of training plans used by similar law enforcement agencies, future goals and the consideration of alternatives to the plan.

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© Copyright 2006, American Association of Certified Public Managers®