IR State Bureau - 05/26/05

HELENA -- Stillwater Mining Co. presented a dozen palladium medals to Gov. Brian Schweitzer that he will use to reward the state employee who each month comes up with the best idea to make government more efficient.

John Beaudry, Stillwater Mining's vice president of external affairs, and Joe Mazurek, a Helena lawyer and former state attorney general who sits on Stillwater's board, gave the first year's medals to Schweitzer for his Governor's Efficiency Award program.

Schweitzer thanked Stillwater Mining for its generosity and its support of the project. He said the market price of palladium is about $200 an ounce and estimated the value of the limited edition medals to be $350-$400 apiece.

"I am committed to finding ways we can make government more efficient," Schweitzer said. "State employees know more about the operations of state government than anyone else and many of them have already submitted their ideas on ways we can cut costs or be more efficient."

During his campaign for governor last year, Schweitzer proposed rewarding state employees who come up with ways to save money or make government more efficient. Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger and his staff will evaluate the ideas.

Schweitzer also has been soliciting ideas from the public. So far, the governor's office has received more than 1,000 ideas submitted through its "good ideas" Web site, with about one third coming from state employees.

To submit a suggestion, people may go to this Web site, www.governor.mt.gov, and click on the "good ideas" icon. State employees may also submit ideas using their MINE system, which is an internal Internet system. Employees of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government are eligible to participate.

The award for state employees will be given monthly, starting this summer, with Schweitzer catching up on back months missed during the Legislature and until the coin-like medals were received.

In addition, under a previously existing state law, the winning state employees monthly will receive cash awards if their suggestions is adopted. The cash award will be $500, or 10 percent of the actual documented cost savings, either immediately realized or following the first 12 months of implementation, up to a maximum of $17,000.

Among some of the state employees' suggestions so far are:

n Selling surplus state property on eBay, an Internet auction.

n Sending bulk mail instead of normal postage.

n Allowing those owing child support to pay online via credit or debit card.

n Investing in faxes and copiers with newer technology that require less expensive toner.

n Increasing the emphasis and staffing of state government field offices around the state to save travel time and costs for employees who now travel from Helena.

n Creating an information/personnel/customer service specialist in each agency to direct phone calls to the right person and avoid multiple transfers of calls trying to find the right person.

n Using e-mail more to send materials to case workers instead of sending it through the U.S. Postal Service at higher costs.

n Encouraging state workers using ink-jet printers to set the default printing at "fast draft" to save both printing time and ink cartridges.

n Placing the state phone directory on the Internet, where it could be easily updated, instead of publishing it annually.

n Not mailing out pay stubs to state employees.