Recognizably, vehicle registration fees are a source of income for the state. However, where is the value for the tax payers of this state? Government is supposed to provide value for value, and I do not see any value whatsoever (to the driver) in having to re-register a vehicle every single year. In my opinion, a lifetime registration would be far more effective. That way, when a vehicle changes hands, it can be re-registered. This would significantly impact the work load, and bureaucracy at the Secretary of State. If the State needs to cut back on the offices it leases and (thus saving big money), then working from home full time should be an option for any job position that would function correctly in that setting.

It should be an 'across the board' decision by the Governor based on feedback from the employees and their managers. It should not be ok for the director's to say 'No' across the board. If the federal government can make that happen while securing the privacy of government business, then the State should follow suit. Providing customer service should be the chief concern of all Michigan governmental employees.

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Instead (as in MDARD-AID) the customer IS NOT the citizen but rather the department emphasizes that our mission is to protect Michigan veterinarians. This concept is in diametric opposition to the mission statement and MDARD priorities.This furthering of the ‘good old boys club’ mentality places Michigan citizens in jeopardy by ignoring rules, regulations, and mandates by not enforcing such policies but rather looking out for the veterinarians’ interests. Providing customer service should be the chief concern of all Michigan governmental employees.

Instead (as in MDARD-AID) the customer IS NOT the citizen but rather the department emphasizes that our mission is to protect Michigan veterinarians. This concept is in diametric opposition to the mission statement and MDARD priorities.This furthering of the ‘good old boys club’ mentality places Michigan citizens in jeopardy by ignoring rules, regulations, and mandates by not enforcing such policies but rather looking out for the veterinarians’ interests. WHY are we opening the state up to more fraud. Technology is fine, let people apply online but send the applications to the local offices to process, not a centrally located processing center. ALOT of untruths are caught at the local office and can be questioned and researched before case opening when you know the area, the address they are applying with is a faternity house with a meal plan and not a building with an Apt #, as indicated on the application. It is almost as if we are encouraging fraud???

Our current delgated purchasing authority is $2,500. When trying to supply a 24/7 residential facility I have to make many more purchases of a much greater variety than a County Office does.

Many of these purchases fall between $2,500 and $5,000. Those must go through a sometimes lengthy purchasing process which prevents me from providing needed goods or services in a timely manner. Give me my annual budget and increase my authority to spend it. We can always be audited later to ensure that the money was spent correctly. When I worked for the federal government they had standardized travel 'bonuses' - so that instead of saving receipts and entering them on a computer (slow, time-consuming, and almost impossible to get right consistently) they just paid you about $31 each day you had to spend overnight, and about 2/3 or 1/2 of that for partial travel days. The State of Michigan expense reimbursement system is terribly clunky, and many many people are very frustrated with it. I travel enought that I am fairly confident with it, but most people travel so rarely that once they do, they cannot recall how to use it and it takes them 2 or 3 hours over a few days to be able to get it in there correctly to be reimbursed for something like $50 - $60 expenses.

Many IT development projects are trying to be 'all things for all people,' 'one stop shopping.' The workscope is unmanageable and the end result is a product that is WAY over budget, is not user friendly and often takes so long in development it is out of date by the time it actually goes into use.

The process and the product are extemely costly and inefficient.Assign platforms, parameters and process goals to vidual work areas for their processes and watch how fast and cheaply we can develop a truly user friendly product under budget. Many senior citizens in the State of Michigan do not have computers. They need to talk to a person and not push buttons on a menu as they don't have the dexterity or the stamina to weave through a maze of options on a telephone. This is especially true in the area of healthcare issues. My suggestion is to make it easier and friendlier for them to contact the State by providing a phone number with a person to talk to.

Unfortunately, in the short run this may not seem cost effective, but in the long run it is, if they don't have to call 911 or an ambulance or try to go to a doctor when they shouldn't be driving on the road and it results in a car accident, etc. Why does the Dept.

Of Corrections have so many documents that the employees are required to know? There are over 500 policies, procedures, memos, numbered memos, DOM's, work statements, OMNI memos, training idea, etc.Five years ago most agents felt they had a pretty good grasp of what they were doing. Today, no agent feels like they know what they are doing. There are attachments to policies in the DAS system but the policy they are suppose to attach to does not exist. The work statements have done nothing to improve the situation. They are difficult to read, not indexed, not bulleted.

They are nothing more than some bureaucrats vision on paper and blind to the other bureaucrats vision. To do the required, free, online training for Discriminatory Harassment I had to email our training liaison, get a form, fill it out, send it to my boss, have it sent back to the training liaison, receive a passkey, and then log in and take the training.

How much time did this waste for something that is already approved by SOM and is required for all new hires? This was on QuicKnowledge.com, where they have other free, online trainings that would be of interest to SOM employees as well. For things like this (trainings already approved by SOM that are online and free), we should only need to ask our supervisor if it's ok to do it--I don't see why we need to pass a form around for a 30 minute training I can do at my desk. I have 21 unique passwords and login ID's that I need to maintain in order to access the programs I use on a weekly basis. 11 of which are programs I access daily and are on my desktop.

3 of the 11 programs require me to re-login every time I want to access a subcategory. Besides the unnecessary quantity of passwords and ID's needed, I have to write them all down just to remember them all, which is a HUGE security issue! At minimum, 11 of these passwords could be reduced to 1, just by logging into my work station.

Further protecting the Public by conducting WRITS for prisoners by using video conferencing. At a minimum Michigan should be conducting 50% by video (Arraignments and Sentencing). This should be a mandate. There are over 6000 occasions a year that a prisoner is sent to a court room miles away from the secure facility. Lets reduce it by half. If you further want to reduce it.

There is a Judge in Baraga County that conducts his court room inside the Correctional facility. This would eliminate some of the remaining 50%. Lets advance public safety again protected the public from potential risk. The current expense reporting system takes numerous man hours for the employee to compile, supervisor to review, and accounting and finance personnel to complete their review process. On the Out-State team we travel 50% of the time and we spend a lot of time just taping receipts to blank paper even before I am able to enter the travel reimbursement data into the system.

Entering the travel information in the system takes a lot of man hours also. I think we should go to a Per Diem system like the Federal Government uses.

Per Diem would be based on the location of your client (in our case taxpayers). You would receive a specified amount for select-cities or non-select cities out-state and for those that travel in-state overnight they would receive a Per Diem amount for the city of travel. The Federal government separates it out by each and every city but I do not think we need to spend the time for that unless we just use the Federal Per Diem rate charts. Separating by select-city and non-select city would be fine for a Per Diem system here at the State. This would also eliminate the need for processing receipts and reviewing a lengthy travel reimbursement report. For example, if the Per Diem for New York City is $60 then the traveler would know exactly what they have to spend for meals that day and submission of the travel report would only take a few minutes as meals would not have to be separated out and the traveler would receive the $60 for each day of travel.

This would also save the supervisor a ton of time for approval. Accounting and Finance will save quite a bit of time for their review process using a flat Per Diem rate for each day of travel.

The cost savings in man hours using a Per Diem system similar to the Federal government would increasae productivity for all departments involved. If a state agency uploads a photo to the internet, another agency should be able to use it freely, right? A single, centralized database of images that SOM employees could access would be helpful.

There is a lot of cool content already, especially on various department Facebook pages, it would just be helpful if it was all in one spot and searchable! Too often I have a project that needs a good picture of something like the Mackinac Bridge or the Detroit Skyline.

It is difficult to find a high quality image that I can legally use! And a lot of times, I come across a really interesting and unique image that I think people much more creative than myself might enjoy using.Existing galleries, like this DNR one, are too department specific.

They are often outdated, low resolution, or impossible to find.This is a suggestion that I think would help improve the state's quality of presentation, and improve the consistency of what people see when it comes to SOM productions. There is no career path for employees who want to continue to do technical work. Once you reach a certain level cap you must get into management to continue getting level/pay increases. This is the primary reason why there are so many managers in the State, and why there are lots of bad managers.

Someone who is very good in the technical arena quite often does not make the best management material. So for people who enjoy doing the work there needs to be the same opportunity for advancement as those who what to get into management. The State's leadership has identified a way to save money by reducing leases for office space. In my role, I sit at a computer all day and write decisions.

Yet, to perform this job, I commute over 50 miles one way. I could easily perform this job from home if I had computer access to the files that I use to write these decisions. I believe it would be cheaper and more efficient in the long run for the State to go paperless with its unemployment appeals and to allow individuals like me to work from home. A new paper has been released by the federal government showing significant cost savings by adopting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies so that departments can support the use of employees utilizing their own phones and iPads and laptops, while decreasing the costs of purchasing new hardware.

Employees can volunteer to take part and receive a set level of reimbursement for work use. Significant savings were found.The State of Michigan often has to redo lots of development work when preparing to exchange data between departments and organizations due to a lack of standardized 'language'. The State of Michigan can achieve significant technology development costs by adopting the use of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM). While the automatic step increases have long been hailed as one of the perks of working for state government, they are one of the worst ideas to ever be implemented.

Unfortunately, the individuals who do not deserve annual raises, and the individuals who do not work hard enough or consistently enough to warrant a pay raise are still being rewarded with a pay increase automatically. This then leads to employees who do not have the proper qualifications, training, or ambition to then be at the level necessary to become a manager. Those individuals are able to apply for management positions based solely on what level they are currently at within state government, and it is leading to an overabundance of managers who have little to no training and no ability to actually act as a manager should. These managers do not have the experience necessary or the will to make the tough decisions, and because of this we are left with undesirable employees who are still employed because the managers do not have the strength or resolution to take the steps necessary to get rid of these employees. Training for the DHS has become to cumbersome.

New workers are sent to training at a centralized site in order to learn thier jobs. This creates additional costs in food and lodging for those workers and trainers who have to travel long distances, the salaries of the training staff, and milage reimbursements; while providing dubious results. Creating a universal training program of policy readings, system walk throughs, and mentoring can provide new employees with the same knowledge for a fraction of the cost. In addition, this allows the management staff the opportunity to introduce new staff to the processes of thier office without having to re-train or re-explain how the system works in practice compared to the training environment. I believe this is important because having worked at an SSPC then transferred to a local office I was sent to training a second time for the complete course and often found the training staff teaching incorrect material such as child care as earned income not self-employment. When asked about this, they advised that it was too much effort to update the training every time something changed and that the new workers would figure out the differences while in their home offices. The DTMB does not have the infrastructure to support streaming media, i.e.

Supporting video content delivery to PCs. YouTube provides this answer at no cost to the state. The departments can then tape training and seminars, and then make them available via YouTube.

Training that is repetitive need only be taped once and the lessons are then available to staff/public on demand. This process alone will save monies by not having to pay for the speaker for future sessions on the same topic. Taping of seminars enables those who could not participate (due to travel or time constraints) to view the event on demand. As YouTube is free, there are no third party hosting charges that are being currently paid by the departments.

The 'quality' of the product will be much higher with the use of YouTube. Currently we have to reduce the video quality in order to meet the third party vendor's hosting requirements. YouTube enables uploading of high definition files without any extra costs. The state can gain further efficiencies by consolidating the various video production and editing facilities.

This would enable use of professional video taping equipment and professional editing software. The dedicated staff can then be those skilled/educated in the field of video taping/editing. The skilled staff can then assure polished projects. Beginning in October of 2012 state of Michigan employees will pay more in their health care premiums. Though we are now in line more with the private sector, I believe it would be cost effective and helpful to the health and well being of employees to implement a preventative health plan. This would help those that are active, fit, healthy, and are not a huge burden on the health care system.

We should work out a contract with our insurance providers for those that take measures to prevent things like obesity, type 2 diabetes, other health issues, etc. Our offices should allow a certain amount of time to exercise during the work day. Studies show that healthy people are more productive workers.

The state would benefit from working it out with our health insurance providers to negotiate 'healthy habits' discounts! The level of case swapping in Foster Care is very high which causes delay and disorganization with case management. I get a case from intake after 30 days, work on it for 30 days until the relative caregiver becomes licensed and then hand the case off to a new case manager at the PAFC. Then the monitoring of the case goes to a case manager specifically dealing with PAFC cases.

Alternatively, a child may move to a new location or be returned home with services and then we have another case manager switch. I believe that we are compromising the quality and efficiency of our work with families by switching case managers so frequently. People need to learn to work with new case managers, new managers need to learn cases which delays services and the courts see a new person reporting on that case, many times with conflicting reports, every three months.

SOLUTIONS: Allowing a Foster Care Case Manager to keep a case from beginning to end will allow relationships to develop and will elminate inconsistency that occurs when cases switch hands. ALSO, instead of having one person with a 15 child case load, have teams of two people handling 30 cases, so each person automatically has a backup who knows the case, knows the family and who can provide consistent case management in the event the primary case manager is out of the office or leaves employment. SWSS has an option for 'Secondary Assigned Worker' but we never use this except for adoptions. Reducing bureaucracy should start with the upper management of every department. State employees should be empowered to make more decisions on a daily basis, starting with selecting appropriate attire for the scheduled work day.

For example, LARA has a prescriptive dress code for employees with the 'preferred' attire being business suits. Supervisors were told that there would be spot checks on the dress code and that they would be held responsible for any dress code infractions in their area. Can please refocus on doing our job instead of creating and enforcing ridiculous rules?

Please allow state employees to make simple decisions on their own without creating unnecessary rules that are morale killers. When there is little or no work:Allow employees to leave work early, using their annual.Allow voluntary time off schedule.Offer part-time positions.Internet Issues:Block AccessSet-up 3 computer stations just for access to internet based applications needed for work such as, DCDS, payroll, COLD, production ect.Email Issues:Block all outside emails coming in except for Webmaster.Gets supervisor approval for all emails going out (Since we are slow this should not be much of a burden on the supervisor). This is not a new idea. I know I’ve brought it up a couple of times in over the last 15 years and I’m sure most of us have had the same thought. Whenever someone comes out of prison (as well as some other facilities) the Department of Corrections will audit their financial accounts to make sure they are zeroed out and the balance is then sent to the parolee in the form of a check.

These checks are mailed by the Michigan Department of Treasury to the Michigan Department of Corrections parole office that is providing supervision. An agent may get a couple of these a month to hand deliver to parolees.

Envelopes, checks, postage @.45 each, and handling at all points will not break anyone’s budget, but it has to add up. I’ve seen these checks for as.04 and they probably average less than $10. Where I see the biggest inefficiency is that parolees hit the street owing a considerable amount of money for things like Supervision or Electronic Monitoring Fees so it’s always seemed a bit absurd when we could just apply the balance of a prisoner’s account to the fees they owe. The State is even contracting with a third party to attempt to collect fees from paroled offenders, so in theory we’re paying to return money (however small) and then we’re paying someone else to attempt to recover it.

Considering the expense in materials, labor, postage, and everyone that handles checks and mail and add in the collection expenses it seems like an easy decision, particularly when contrasted with a journal entry, however small. Worth ITWorth IT is a combination of Bureaucracy Busters (BB) and www.kickstarter.com. Provide a web site that state employees can post the kernel of a project where they can either build it up by adding ideas or break it up into more manageable or modular ideas. Provide declaration of support or lack of confidence with the twist of including private sector contributors.

Once a predefined time period has passed the project is either moth balled or gets moved on to a web site where Departments can weigh in with funding commitments up to and beyond an estimate of what is needed to complete the project. Projects that reach their goal can then be deemed “Worth IT” and adopted as official SOM projects. GoalsBreakdown the funding bureaucracy and provide validity by consensus Breakdown the communication bureaucracy and open the dialogue to allBreakdown the isolation and create cross talk between public and the private sectorsBreakdown the “go it alone” mentality and create open solutions to sharing among many departmentsBuild ideas fast, get consensus quickly, learn from what we did and reuse in the future. Options for Handling Stress:There needs to be research done to address stress in the workplace. If employees are not well informed on stress relievers in the work place this will continue to be their only outlet. (Internet, emails, chatting and/or wandering in the halls, texting) The reason employee’s break these rules are not because they want to be a bad employee it’s because it is an outlet for stress and boredom. By teaching stress related techniques and allowing employees to go home when the work is low or done should alleviate this issue.

Worth ITWorth IT is a combination of Bureaucracy Busters (BB) and www.kickstarter.com. Provide a web site that state employees can post the kernel of a project where they can either build it up by adding ideas or break it up into more manageable or modular ideas. Provide declaration of support or lack of confidence with the twist of including private sector contributors.

Once a predefined time period has passed the project is either moth balled or gets moved on to a web site where Departments can weigh in with funding commitments up to and beyond an estimate of what is needed to complete the project. Projects that reach their goal can then be deemed “Worth IT” and adopted as official SOM projects. GoalsBreakdown the funding bureaucracy and provide validity by consensus Breakdown the communication bureaucracy and open the dialogue to allBreakdown the isolation and create cross talk between public and the private sectorsBreakdown the “go it alone” mentality and create open solutions to sharing among many departmentsBuild ideas fast, get consensus quickly, learn from what we did and reuse in the future. There needs to be simplification and refinement done to the permitting process for homeowners and contractors in the construction industry.

Not only is it difficult, especially for our seasoned citizens to grasp, its administration and upkeep are by an out of state company. The software is unnecessarily complex and frequently out of service. We really need to make it easier for people to be able to comply with the necessary requirements. Maybe strategically placed kiosks in county offices for those that do not have internet access.

Or at least a system/software that is developed or administered by a Michigan company or even the State IT department. Why spread money out of state that can be utilized right here to bolster our own economy? One way to start saving money and ensuring the streamlining and appropriate work loads for all level of staff, is to review the job functions and number of 2nd line, senior manager, and analyst positions. Many of the job functions at DHS and other agency local offices could be combined and performed by a single manager or analyst.

All State agencies tend to be 'top heavy' with unneccesary and redundant management positions. This would also equalize the work distribution levels to match those of front line staff and managers. I would like to see DHS Policy totally overhauled. First of all we have to look in two different policies to find things. Then you have to jump from one policy item to another to another and something that was true in one policy item is not true in another policy item due to an exception. It would be better and more time effective if policy were written to represent one program.

EX: All of FAP policy would be found under FAP - assets, income, expenses, group comp., etc. Instead of having to jump from policy item to policy item.). The state continues to be stuck in the middle ages with a paper system for conducting most of its business. The DTMB should provide us an enterprise level solution for management of our paperwork.

Once the enterprise level system is rolled out, the state will make substantial savings as follows:1:Enabling the workforce to become mobile. When the records are available electronically, they can then be accessed when at home, or when out of town on assignment. This will facilitate a number of jobs to become suited for 'work at home'.

This enables saving on commuting (reduction of carbon footprint), savings in rental of state office space, and increased productivity/morale. In addition, we will no longer have to wait for a person to be 'back in the office' as the person can remotely address the issue with full access to the electronic records.2: Saving of rental space to store the paper. 3: No more wasted time in looking for files or refiling files.

Substantial savings in finding information by use of textual search versus slogging through paper files.5. Substantial savings in fulfilling FOIA requests.6: Substantially lower costs for offices as the only workspace needs are the computer and screen.7. Substantial savings in not having to physically move paper records through the chain of command for approvals/review. Substantial reduction of files that have to be stored at the Records Center.9.

No more need to fill out forms and opening/sealing boxes for files at the records center. Destruction of records is automated based on the Retention Schedule.11.

No more need to make copies for auditors: all we have to do is give them access and file location.12: The efficiencies in work will translate in the reduction of staff that normally just managed the paper (copying, filing, printing, mailing, and transporting). I have attended way more than one mandatory training that was held out of town in some fancy hotel.

We use state vehicles to attend the training. We are usually feed continential breakfast and a waiter delivered lunch. So the state has paid me to sit in a fancy room all day, paid for the vehicle I arrived in as well as gas, etc and 2 meals. Now mutiply that by hundreds. My suggestion.

Offer the training via the internet at our own local offices (webcam or skype) Save A LOT of money! And save workers time. And still save time (=money). In a customer based agency that requires original signatures and retention of all fiscal documents for each customer, I truly believe a dedicated Filing Clerk position would benefit not only the employees but also the customers. Additional duties could range from that of maintaining stock of routine office supplies and collateral to informal auditing of files for accuracy and confirming policy requirements have been completed. Primary agency staff currently spend time daily either filing their own paperwork or wading through piles of unfiled paperwork searching for sometimes one single medical report or purchase order.

An average caseload of 124 customers can create five to 8 hours of filing each week. Over the last four years attrition and transfers have accounted for a significant reduction in staff but the amount of paperwork we are being asked to retain has increased. If agency policy states we need to maintain records to survive an audit we should be provided with the means to maintain those records accurately without delaying or interfering with the delivery of nothing less than great customer service. Two issues regarding hearings - allow the local office to reject hearings when a client is excess assets, income or failed to turn in their redeterminations. Also, do not allow the client to continue their benefits when they have been denied. If it is found that DHS did something incorrect it will be corrected and the client can get their benefits at that point. FIP we do not recoup.

For during the hearing time frame (which can take months), FAP we will recoupe but the client is not going to pay or we are going to get very little back from their FAP benefits and MA they hardley go after for recoupement. This is a huge waste of tax payer's money - not to mention the amount of money that is being wasted by staff, hearings coordinators, and MAHS. While the goal is to make purchasing efficient and effective, in fact it hinders us at every turn. I believe each division within state government should make the decisions and be responsible for their budget. Rather than requirements to purchase office supplies (for example) through a specific vendor, allow us to save (sometimes 1/2) dollars by purchasing locally.

We CAN shop and save, we do it every day in our home lives. This is the same for air travel. I despise seeing what I am required to pay for an airline ticket that I could shop and save significantly for. This is just a couple of the examples. IT is another. I realize standardization is important, but couldn't standards be set and let us shop locally? I think it's a crime that a sole source gets ALL the business, while local vendors and retailers do not have the opportunities to sell their product.

Working in the DHS office, I have found that no benefits are ever cut from top level state workers (legislation, govenors, etc). I have also found that more and more is given to the people who don't work for it - DHS clients. All the while, benefits and pay constantly is being cut from the middle, the people in which the work force is based upon - our pay, benefits, raises, medical coverage, everything is being slowly wiped away, with little to no help from the unions. I believe that if top level employees receive the same compensation packages and treatment that the working class does it will help Michigan save a more vast amount of money by effecting fewer people. I also think that making more strict regulations for welfare recipients, cutting their benefits to bare minimum necessities, and by making work mandatory for all able bodied welfare recipients could benefit Michigan.Work could be provided in the agricultural field for both welfare recipients and prisoners - which would also help eliminate illegal immigration and free up funding for farm owners.Cash assistance programs should be cut 100% from state budgets and State SSI quarterly checks for $42 should be eliminated from state budgeting. There is a big disparity between people's workloads.

Some are overworked while others are underworked. In my position, the work is cyclical. Often staff in my section have nothing to do resulting in boredom and job dissatisfaction.

Most of us have other skills/knowledge from previous state jobs. Why couldn't we be paired with another staff member or section to help with overflow work as time permits. We would be keeping other skills fresh, possibly learning new skills and increasing productivity and job satisfaction. The creation of a central IT department, within DTMB has not been a success in all areas. We need to roll back the clock on certain functions.1: When IT was decentralized, each agency had IT staff to take care of their day to day PC needs and web postings.

With the migration of the IT staff to DTMB, the agencies were forced to create pseudo-IT staff to take care of the users' PC needs and web postings. This has required time and training for the web content manager.

This is a waste of our resources to have staff 'interested' in IT to do work that was formerly addressed by dedicated IT staff in the agency. The agencies cannot hire IT staff to fill the void, as the work is 'IT', and so we have to do workarounds. 2: When IT was decentralized, each agency had computer programmers to take care of their day to day database needs. With the migration of the programming staff to DTMB (along with the funding) we have seen a steady decline in service. We have had to just give up on a number of programming changes and rely on workarounds as we are not getting the service. In addition we spend an inordinate time proritizing work as the programmer pool is limited and we have no control over their work.

For routine database needs the program of choice is MS Access. However, DTMB has made its own call (without our input) that it does not support MS Access.

So we have the choice of spending precious programmer time on a higher end database program (SQL Server) or having our own computer savvy staff create an Access database. This has resulted in a network of agency staff that do the Access programming - again this is a poor use of agency resources in that we divert staff from their normal duties to Access programming. If we had our own programmers (as identified in item 2 above) we can then have the right people do the Access database programming. Due to the Settlement Agreement, there is a lot of pressure on supervisors to maintain caseload compliance, which is good. However, some of the solutions to ensure caseload compliance thus far have been to give incoming cases to workers who are able to keep their caseload low (efficient workers) and to take workers whose caseloads are high (less efficient workers) out of rotation. This punishes efficient workers with extra work, and rewards inefficiency.

I believe if more positive incentives were offered to workers it would increase productive output. For instance, a late start time for workers in compliance or with a low casecount, or the option of an adjusted work schedule. Right now, I believe most workers feel that being exceptional at their job does not offer many benefits over doing the bare minimum, and that needs to change if we want to increase quality. SOM should develop a partnership with PR (Prisoner Re-Entry), Mi-Works, Colleges, and Universities. This leadership TEAM will work together to develop a Learning Development Strategy to teach ex-felons, unemployed, and individuals a skill trade. 1.What is the Michigan REBUILDS program??Re-Education By Utilizing Individual Learning Development Strategies?Develop a labor training program designed to give individuals a viable opportunity to learn a skilled trades. While paying back the communities by repairing abandoned homes and businesses.

We have been told we cannot plug in electrical devices such as fans, heaters and lamps brought in from home in our office because it is considered a fire hazard. However, if someone gets a doctor's statement stating they need a heater or fan for their health, then it is approved as a 'reasonable accommodation request'. This seems like a double standard, as it's a fire hazard on one hand and a reasonable accommodation on the other. If a fan or heater would make an employee more comfortable, happier and more productive, this should be allowed. This is too much red tape for something simple that makes an employee more productive in my opinion. The label of fire hazard seems extreme, when there are other electrical devices in the building such as computers, microwaves, refrigerators, toasters, and they are plug in devices that are not considered 'fire hazards'. Thank you for your consideration.

MDOT hires contractors to provide engineering services without competetive bids, which wastes the tax payer money that is used to build and repair our roads and bridges. Since 1996, MDOT's top managers have refused to hire state workers to replace those that retire.

Instead, they choose to contract with engineering companies at much higher costs. Since 1996, more than 1200 positions have been lost within MDOT.

More than $150 million was spent in 2010 to hire no-bid contractors to provide design, inspection and testing services which in the past were provided at a lower cost by state employees. Although it is not a popular idea to expand the state workforce, doing so in MDOT would save tens of millions of dollars. The savings would be used for additional road and bridge projects which will create jobs.

No jobs would be lost, just transfered back into MDOT. No one else will say it, so I will.Since centralizing IT under DTMB, Michigan has fallen from the top 10 in technology ->to dead last. Everyone complains about their IT department, from fortune 500 companies on down, but they really have no idea of the pain, pointless bureaucracy, lethargy, and general failings of such a massive dead weight as DTMB. Our IT systems are 10-12 years behind any private system and dead last among other states.

IT always needs to be subordinate to production. This is common practice in the real world, but not the case in state government. When do our computer upgrades occur? Business hours, with workstations crippled.

Heaven forbid a DTMB IT person work late. Example #2 - 300 meg email limits? (for a government agency subject to FOIA? With decades of rules on records retention??) Google mail is free and 10x the size limits. Server space is the single cheapest IT cost. Instead of intelligent spending on IT to expand the computer system, we expand the DTMB payroll (already the largest state department expense in budget?) and institute 300 meg email limits which cripple our ability to work.

Very conservatively, the average state worker expends at least 20 minutes a week dealing with email archives, deletions, lost email, FOIAs, etc For 50k state workers spending 20 minutes at even $25/hr this moronic 300 meg email plan is costing the tax payers upwards of $400k a week!!! All to save the DTMB budget a $200 hard drive??? Forcing state workers from executives on down to expend scarce resources (time) performing IT functions so they do not have to? So we can archive critical email on desktops, not servers and have no backups? WE HAVE NO REAL IT SUPPORT.

We also have a huge barrier to getting any real production work done and the only cause is a four letter word named DTMB.Outsourcing DTMB functions would save the state hundreds of millions of dollars. Savings not just from their bloated budget, but in production increases across all departments, and better use of new technology. If not outsourced, at least start cutting with an axe to get to a department that has the right priorities. DTMB is now so far behind they need a 'roadmap' to find their way to 10 year old technology. There is no larger bureaucracy than DTMB, there is no larger barrier to production work, there is no larger waste of time/resources, and there is no larger potential savings to the tax payers of Michigan than addressing the bloated bureaucracy of DTMB. We operate in a structure that rewards employees for how long that they can sit in a cube, rather than their performance. The UIA does not even conduct performance evaluations anymore.

We are in the process of laying off nearly 1/3 of our workforce. This layoff is exclusively dependent on seniority. As a result, employees that I have shown simple computer tasks, like attaching a file to an email, will keep their jobs, while younger, more educated employees will be losing their positions.

In addition, many employees are facing hour-plus commutes to new worksites because they had the ability to 'bump' current employees out. This is all done because the Union mandates this. We can't move forward as a State until this blockade is removed, and the BEST employees work for the state. We can't even entertain the notion of working from home or 4 day work weeks without achieving Union approval. Yes, higher pay would be nice, but at the end of the day, civil service should be a calling for people that take pride in their work, rather than a landing pad for people to wait their time until it's time to collect their pension. Public Service Right to Work legislation will move us into the 21st Century.

Presently when I make a purchase I have to get the receipts, code,sign and date, and then reconcile it on a seperate form. It is then sent to District and from there sent to Lansing for payment (all done with original receipts).

I would like to suggest that offices that are able to, use 'BILL PAY' or something similar which is run through a local bank or Credit Union, funds would be placed in an account and used to pay all bills at the facility through the online bill pay process. This would eliminate all of the need for recording and using original paperwork. It would eliminate late payments and streamline the payment operation, and provide accurate information for up to three years, every vendor could be segregated and each bill could be tracked. We would be letting the financial institution provide the accounting process FREE of charge to the Department. To “Fix” or make improvements to an existing process you must be able to look at what you have and know why you have it. This is called “Mapping the Work Process”. ONLY then can anyone “LEAN” the process in to what works best.

If your taking suggestions as to harness the creativity and spark some innovative ideas. That can be used is one thing. We have done this before in modest ways over the years. Making change for the sake of change can be a big waste of time and resources at best and destructive and confusing to the process at worse. Contact me Or any group of experienced people to teach you what we all need to do to develop a 'LEAN' process that will last and give everyone a chance to make suggestions along the way. DHS adult services clients have providers who are paid through DCH dollars. DHS cases stay open longer than necessary to wait for payment to be authorized by DCH.

The two agencies have little contact at the local office level, so sorting out delayed payments becomes time consuming.Why can't these departments combine or put the resources in the department requesting approval of authorized expenses? DHS is at the mercy of DCH bureaucracy due to the newer golden rule: whoever has the gold makes the rules. IN MDOC, agents are not provided with the training they need. For example, we have a person in charge of victim's rights in Lansing, yet we have agents who don't understand what is allowed for restitution and what is not. Kensington Usb Pocket Mouse Driver there. We already pay to have an expert. Why don't we use her?

Same with sentencing guidelines. When I have found free training resources, I have received nothing but resistance and roadblocks.

As a supervisor, I've been told I can't train my own staff. All the sups need to agree and design amything we do. That way, nothing gets done. Current supervisor training is full of policies, policy procedures, and skills in dealling with things or people that are troublesome. While such material are useful, the overall emphasis is questionable.We need to change the tone of supervisor training.

Every supervisor should recognize and continuously review their first function that is to support and assist the agency's projects. Those projects, rather than the supervisor as an individual, should be the center of any given unit of the agencies.

I was recently bestowed with an iPhone by the state for work purposes. LIke everybody else, I also have a personal phone. Now a large number of coworkers and I are forced to carry around both phones 24/7. The personal one is needed during work time in case there is a family emergency, and the work phone is needed at night in case there is an emergency here.There are two potential solutions to this problem- both of which are Better, Faster, Cheaper, and Smarter:1) MDOT pays a portion of my personal cell bill and allows me to access Outlook. -OR-2) I pay a portion of the MDOT cell bill and I also have the work phone for personal use. The government is so eager to privatize foster care that they do not realize the damage that will be done. Whatever figures they are looking at regarding saving money is questionable and many of the numbers being looked at (i.e.

Timeliness of children returning home, adoptions, etc.) are skewed. First, if they want to look at the things that really matter, they should be talking to foster parents' and children's experiences and opinions of the private agencies. They should also not allow private agencies to chose the cases they want to manage and allow them to pick cases that are easier and close to permanency. Lastly, they need to track longer the success data.

Return homes and adoptions are being rushed and children are coming back into care. The hurry to privatize is dangerous! We are paying substantial fees to Microsoft for licensing the Windows operating system and the MS Office Suite (Word, Access, Excel and PowerPoint).The open source operating system (such as Linux) and office suite (such as openoffice.org) are free. There is some investment needed in retraining IT staff in the use of the open source software but it pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands we pay annually in Microsoft licensing fees. There may be some applications that cannot migrate easily to the open source environment: for these limited cases we can pay Microsoft the licensing fees and concurrently look for alternatives. With the continued stagnation of the economy, we cannot continue to be stuck to the status quo of paying a monopoly for its services.

A healthy debate on this issue is overdue. Switch from regular harddrives to solid state drives.1. Saves employee time with much faster computing. Faster Bootups, Shutdowns and application loads. Processes data much quicker 2. Saves energy because they generate less heat which leads to longer lasting laptop time3.

Solid state drives are much cheaper and economical4. Mainstream technology A. Over 50% organizations have deployed solid state technology and are satisfied with the results.5. Solid state drives have lower failure rates A. Regular harddrives are the most common part of a computer to fail. When a harddrive fails the user loses all Internet Favorites and configurations C.

When a harddrive fails, the user must wait for a replacement computer to be deployed. Who do you want in control of your prisons? And where do you want that money spent?

We have already exported jobs and money out of the state, do you want more tax dollars leaving the SOM?I ask are we looking at the facts before we do something that is going to cost more time and money. If this is truly about saving money, let’s start at the ground floor. Talk to the people that are doing the work, the state employees. We have cost saving plans already in hand but we’re not being invited to the table. Is there a reason? I believe there are hundreds of millions of dollars that can be saved by asking the great employees of Michigan. What is the real cost to operate a Correctional Facility in the State of Michigan?

While investigating fraud, increasing ways to report fraud, and requiring and increasing asset verications is huge step towards saving Michigan money in regards to the food assistance program, the government is missing the big picture. Michigan needs to look at the actual amount of FAP dollars that are going out to each specific household. The full benefit amount for a family of four with no income is enough money in food dollars to purchase SEVERAL months of groceries for any family size. This is where dollars are being wasted.

Budgeting classes should be a requirement for all applications before benefits are issued. Nutrition should be enforced. Job seeking should be enforced. Our FAP policies are currently teaching families to stay home, not seek work, in order to qualify for an over abundance of FAP benefits. At the same time there are working families and elderly who qualify for minimal benefits based on their income, while non-working families are not required in anyway through documentation purposes to be continuously seeking out employment. Currently local units of government have to submit an original signed letter requesting payment/grant reimbursement.

This process is not efficient and with all the approvals needed once it is in our system - the customer can wait months for payment. Allow local units of government/non-profits to submit payment requests electronically. If additional informaiton is required (based upon type of payment) have a system where it will automatically check for that. Allow State of MI staff to electronically approve and submit for payment - no paper required. Not only would this benefit customers, but save paper and space for storage of the documents. Acceptance of electronic signatures would also be a HUGE benefit.

Being that there's more money going to prisons than there is going towards schools.We can save alot of money if the prisoners do their own work.In the summer they should grow and mainatain a garden and then can their food for the winter.Sew, wash, iron their uniforms (no street clothes).They should attend classes ALL day (as students do).No cable tv. Only 1 hour recess per day.They could fix our roads instead of paying the state or other companies to do it. Prisons should be run like the military. TOSS THE PAPER for their RSDI/Medicaid Spend Downs and improve Customer Service for the MOST VULNERABLE CLIENTS.The inexpensive implementation of an EMAIL PROCESS with medical providers will consolidate the manual tasks of Eligibility Specialists and Family Independence Specialists within the Department of Human Services. Currently, it is required that an RFC be created (taking up to 20 minutes or more) after certain 'Break Fix' actions are completed. RFC's are to give notice and gain approvals from those who will be impacted by any scheduled changes to systems or applications BEFORE the work is to be done. This makes total sense.

However, if it is a break/fix situation, and the site requires immediate attention/changes and the site manager agrees to those changes because the problem is impacting their abilitly to do their jobs, AND the change won't affect another agency at the site, then it is a waste of time to have to complete an RFC AFTER the fix has been completed. The excuse is, 'Not everyone has Remedy, so they can't see what the problem was and how it was fixed.' IF it's that necessary for someone to see what WAS done at the site in order to fix the problem, then give them access to Remedy.

Don't waste peoples time creating RFC's and to gain approvals AFTER the changes are completed. Every time we get a new governor, the wind changes direction and many agencies get new 'directors' that are nothing more than political cronies.

To combat this trend, high level policy makers such as Deputy Directors should be classified positions, and should be home grown and promoted from within whenever possible. They should be in a position to resist negative and destructive changes from a politically appointed Executive, instead of fearing for their jobs. Nothing is more harmful than a politically appointed director with no experience in the agency they run coming in and changing everything just to have something to do.We need agency directors who earn their jobs, or are at least qualified based on their work experience.

The employees deserve this, and the taxpayers deserve this. You see where decades of politically appointed leadership has gotten us. I've noticed, sitting in several meetings, that many times the decision maker does not attend but sends one of their representatives in their place. This slows things down when the representative cannot make a decision on the spot and the whole team must wait for the decision maker to be brought up to speed to make the decision, then that decision reported back to the team. Many times this leads to another decision to be made and the process starts again. Such processes can make what could have been a quick fix into a many week or month process while valuable time is spent in meeting after meeting.I think the decision makers should attend such meetings themselves or empower their representative to make a binding decision for them.

This could reduce R&D time and costs to implement new processes. Parents elegible for child support abatements must make a written request to the Friend of the Court (FOC). FOC generates a letter to the custodial parent, giving them 14 days to object to the request. If there is no objection, the request is processed into the caseworker's workload. Payment generally appears in the form of a paper check some 2 or 3 months later (sometimes longer).

It seems the entire process could be radically revamped to expedite the entire process electronically via e-mail communication between parents and FOC. Then distribution of payment could be done electronically, just as it is with the original child support payments. Just a thought, the state has offices all throughout Michigan and often times one departments office is neighbors with another departments office. Why not combine resources and create a State of Michigan county building. These offices could centralize and streamline state services such as those provided by a Secretary of State office, Department of Human Services, and a State Police post.

I realize this will not work in all counties, but in more urban settings such as Lansing, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Detroit, and Flint (were often times you will see offices near one another, seperated by only a few blocks) creating a one-stop location would make it easier for our clients, one-stop shopping if you will. It would save the state money because each department could split the cost of the lease(and/or) property/buildings, utilities including internet services, water, electric, etc., centralize mail units, coordinate deliveries(including IDMail) and centralize the use of state cars, through the use of shared vehicles assigned for use to the county building, as opposed to each individual department. Equipment could be shared, resources pooled and distributed, and services streamlined and centralized.Also, employees could make greater use of things like car-pools and ride shares. Recently I was called for jury duty. At the end of the afternoon at least 60 jurors were released without having been asked to a jury room. This same thing happened the last time I had jury duty.

If in fact in Wayne County and other Counties the Clerk is releasing 50+ jorors per day, then decreased the number called on a daily basis by at least 75% of that number. That way you still have more jurors than you need, but each community will save the cost of holding that many citizens w/o need. The Video hid the last two boxes on this screen, so I have to submit this in the blind. Good morning,Good morning,I have worked for the State of Michigan for almost 12 years.

LOVE what I do. I am part of a mission to care for our American Heroes and are grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in the lives who have sacrificed so much for my freedoms.

I entered State Govornment at 23 years old as a Manager over a department of 30 staff from the private sector and WOW what a life experience and challenge curve I was faced with. I was raised in a dual working blue collar family so was not prepared for Civil Service rules and a Union. Needless to say I have spent the last 12 years trying to keep my mouth closed about the ineffective and less then efficient ways of Civil service. The system in my opinion is broken and it enables people to coast through work days being paid a lot of money for little work in return. People who do very little get rewarded with pay increases, accountability/ownership does not exist with the mentality that some, not all are protected by the union, individuals who have no business leading a team of people are leaders over departments, you are forced to hire people with horrible job fit, the list goes on and on.There are people who would give their right arm to work for the wages, benefits and time off within State but we are limited on how we can recruit. I bet if you did a survey on how many people now how to apply for a State Job less then 20% could answer that question. NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT NEOGOV?

Why is that not a billboard on the side of highways??? People think the State is broke so why would they think to find out how to apply for a job there? Our HR department is not proactive in education, helping people advance their careers or help with the hiring process. We don’t even have anyone onsite to assist the 100’s of people who come into to see if there are job opportunities and look at you like your crazy when you tell them go onto NEOGOV. We have over 500 employees at one location! No one onsite to help those 500 employees with paperwork, access HRMN, hiring, not to mention no training for a brand new Manager. We orient people to the facility but nothing as a new manager within a unionized, civil service environment so the good candidates leave quickly once they experience all the above.

We have had a turnover of some of our Top leadership recently that has brought hope in the conversations I have had, but actions speak louder then words so time will tell.Like I said earlier I am very grateful for my career, pay, wages, etc but in the big picture I feel State employment could use a good hard look at reinventing their systems and process.Pay for performance, there is a great concept. Money for education and leadership developmentOnsite, face to face staff to help those where to startMarket employment for SOM job opportunitiesCreate bench marks for employees to obtain and reward the success.Thank you for your time in advance. I have worked for the.

The Time and Expense System (MiTES) is overly burdensome and often takes too long for repayment. Simplify the process by eliminating the 'requirement' to input a start and end date / time for every expense. The very first step is to enter a beginning date and end date for the expense period which in effect eliminates the need to do it for the specific expenses within that time period. This is where most errors are made by staff causing frustration and longer delays for repayment.

Moreover, why do field staff have to submit a T&E in specific detail when the expense request is just going to be checked by a staff member from the accounts payable office anyways? This is duplication of efforts and is completely inefficient. In addition, why have expenses available to select from and then receive a call informing us that we aren't eligible (e.g. Dry cleaning during a 3-4 day training seminar away from home station)? I got an email today called a 'DHS Web Contact Form'.

A client went online and submitted a question that went to a SEMA for FOA Deputy Director, then the email was forwarded to the secretary to our building director then forwarded to me and my manager. I replied to the client and cc'd all 4 other people now involved in answering a simple client question. I think there should be a requirement that the client contact their worker first before getting others involved. I see client complaints over simple matters go straight to managers and directors all the time. Us as case workers should have the chance to do our jobs before clients go straight to the top to get their way.

There is a growing sentiment amoungst clients here that if you want something done now, complain about your worker and you won't have to wait your turn in line. All Mackinac Bridge Tolls should be direct billed to the respective departments. I understand the need for the MBA to collect tolls from all users to pay for ongoing maintenance.

In today's electronic age, all state vehicle could be equipped with an unique department ID that could track the number of crossings. Then, MBA could electronically bill each department. There should be no billing for MDOT, MBA is a division of MDOT.The MBA also should implement electronic tolling for all commuters. The technology exists.

This would eliminate employee's time to submit for travel expenses for bridge tolls. (time the thousands of tolls collected each year.) Plus the hour wages saved from waiting in line on busy days as the bridge. In keeping with Governor Snyder's “Michigan Health and Wellness 4X4 Plan,” I have an idea to promote the plan’s second key point to “Engage in Regular Exercise.” I would like to a propose a voluntary participation plan that aims to provide an incentive for the State of Michigan’s workforce to get out and exercise. In an effort to encourage SOM workers to exercise more, my idea is to certify local health club facilities and personal trainers, such as the downtown YMCA, to aid in the documentation of exercises performed. SOM workers who participate in the program can have their progress monitored by the facility’s personal trainers who can chart and record their overall weight loss, calories burned, body fat percentage reduction, as well as having two of their four key health measures (Body Mass Index [BMI] and blood pressure) monitored as indicated by Governor Snyder’s 4X4 Plan. A point system can be devised to score a SOM employee’s individual efforts depending upon the exercise methods chosen and results realized. The personal trainer can then sign off on the SOM employee’s daily workout as a witness to their efforts and daily score.If the initial plan moves along successfully, improved methods of recording results could be further implemented.

Perhaps a type of card reader could be added to the cardio machines (treadmills, stationary bikes, ellipticals, etc.) where a SOM employee’s ID card could be swiped, and their calories burned results could be stored on their file to later figure their monthly or annual score.The downtown YMCA already offers SOM employees a discounted rate, and other health facilities that participate in the plan that offer a similar discounted rate to SOM employees who will also benefit by realizing an increase in membership and profits. These health club facilities may also benefit by advertising their services on the SOM website, and likewise, the SOM could promote its healthy initiatives in each of these health club facilities.The plan offers the additional benefit of a healthier and more productive workforce, the fostering of competition and team building, potential for lowered employee health insurance premium costs, discounted health club memberships to SOM employees, increased memberships to healthcare facilities thereby increasing the demand for staff (i.e. Jobs) and therefore increased tax revenues for the state, and a decrease in overall healthcare costs. Employees who engage in the challenge and reach specific goals are not only benefitting from a discounted membership fee and improved health, they could also be rewarded with free or reduced health insurance premiums, free gym memberships, vacations, etc. Obviously the State of Michigan could not reward everyone who reaches their goals; therefore these rewards could be reserved to the top achievers. Their personal success stories may be featured in the MDCH’s News Briefs, or the SOM website, in an effort to inspire others who may have similar goals.If this program is successful, the program could serve as a model to be used by all Michigan residents in an effort to combat obesity and meet the goals of a healthier Michigan. Many of us deal with a client population that owes the State some sort of fee or fine.

A great deal of time and energy is allocated toward attempts to collect. It’s not unusual to go a month or more without a payment toward their debt, but you won’t catch many without a cell phone and time on it. If the State could set up a 900 line where a call to it would automatically hit their cell account for say $10 toward their outstanding balance with the State, it may be cheaper than contracting for debt collection. Processing directives from policy and procedure means things need to be printed to document the completed task. The whole copier rental, community print shop fiasco creates more problems than it solves.

Desktop printers are not that expensive yet many areas in one facility cannot order individual printers and are directed to use the community copier.that is usually broken. This creates frustration and more issues if confidential reports are stuck in queue line that prints at midnight. Secondly, chairs are not that expensive either. A nice office chair that doesn't flip you on the floor or pinch your arm skin with metal should be available for the staff who are at the computer a majority of the work week.

We have not had new chairs in years. The current state of our equipment to do our jobs is a direct reflection of the staff moral. Prisoners have to fill out a five part disbursement to have money taken from their TRUST account and put on the phone or music downloads. Since we do not have a person here to do this job, we mail the disbursements to another facility at the cost of $15.00 to $20.00 per week. The other facility enters the request and MAILS the disbursement copies (4) back to our facility.

There is no cost effectiveness in this action. One copy is returned to the prisoner and the other 3 are thrown away. Time to change this procedure to a debit card the prisoner can use to pay for his phone and other items without spending time staff time for processing. We already have the systems in place for store processing and J-Pay.it should be possible to have prisoner debit cards like we use to have on their ID cards. I am a foster care worker, and this time last year I had 42-44 cases (mostly direct), and here we are a year later and I'm at 16 cases but I'm more overwhelmed with the paperwork required now with 16 cases, than what I was a year ago with 42-44. The increasing amount of paperwork, compounded by redundant requests for information in various documents and for different processes has gotten to the point where this job is unmanageable.

I consider myself to have good organization skills, and usually can stay up to date on my work, but lately every time you turn around there is some new process, form, policy, spreadsheet, memo, etc. There is no reason to enter a date 5 times on the same forms that are stapled and placed together in a case file. There is no reason to request the same information 4-5 different ways in a 4-6 page court report that the court doesn't even want.

I went to school thinking I would be working with people and have essentially become a data entry clerk and a paper worker. Changes in places that would actually make things better for our youth and families are ignored because of politics in place of more and more documents that serve no purpose. I have an IPhone that's useless to me and a laptop I can't take out in the field, which leaves me hand writing what later has to be typed into some form or program.

Please consider addressing redundancy in varies documents/form, unnecessary submission of documents (PER's) when there have been no changes, allow workers to take their laptop's into the field and just get rid of the IPhone because they will in no way make it easier for me to do my job, except to give me access to email. Please reconsider changes to the FTM process; what use to be a beneficial program is now another paperwork responsibility that took away an objective voice for our families and Please, Please, Please no more spreadsheets.

The time it takes me to gather and constantly update various spreadsheets that could be retrieved by our supervisors is time I could be using completing any of the other thousand things required when managing a foster care case. I find myself wondering if all these changes and unnecessary requirements are not intentional, just one more ploy to make direct case workers look bad to support the drive for privatization.

I can appreciate the need to properly post jobs in order to be fair to current and future employees. However, there needs to be a process that allows a manager to hire people in a manner that will best allow the needs, not just in the State's best interest, but also to best respond to United States Department of Agriculture requests. Recently, I needed to hire 20 part time, limited term employees on a very tight timeframe. From the beginning of the plan to hire these people, until the time we could actually hire them it took over two months, well beyond the start of the required project.

Sometimes you just have to do it!! I have been pondering the inter-relationship of several efforts within DTMB. I applaud the governor's efforts to engage the frontline employees for feedback on how to improve both their agencies and the SOM. However I feel one important piece is missing, and that is finding out what the customers of the SOM think. Each agency should identify the people they serve, be it customers or the industries they deal with or regulate. The ideas of the customers should be incorporated into the good government dashboard for each agency.The 'customers' of each agency should have equal input into the problem of fixing a bloated and unresponsive government.

We currently are required to mail very large medical packets to our medical review team which is located in Lansing or Detroit. We are not allowed to send medical records on CDs. Alot of these medical packets are 3 inches or more in thickness.

I imagine that hundreds are mailed each day and then the medical review team has to mail them back to the local office asking for more medical records. That is usually 4 mailings per case at $5 to $10 each way. We definately help keep the post office in business. It's a ridiculous way to do business. The number one complaint in our agency is the lack of response from DTMB Information Technology. My specific concern is the lack of trained, capable programers. The agency has many upper management project advisors/facitiltors but is extremely understaffed when it comes to those who write code.

Additionally, the entire system for designing and writing a new application must be reviewed. We must be able to work with this agency and see meaningfull progress that stays within budget or be able to hire from the outside. With new data management systems in place we will please our customers, reduced work loads and improve quality of work. Additionally programers should be placed in the work-area where they are assigned projects to directly interface with us there customer. State Agencies should also directly employ several liasons witih each agency that can help guide and oversee projects. These individuals should have project mgt.

And programming experience. This individuals could help to ensure projects are realalistic and proceeding on schedule. Veterans returning to the State of Michigan often have received specialized training which directly relates to a licensed or regulated vocation controlled by LARA. Too often a Veterans' specific military training (i.e. Navy SeaBee 'Builder” or “Hospital Corpsman”; Army “Field Medic” or “Light Wheel Equipment Mechanic”) can not be utilized towards the hours of mandated training specific to licensing. Recommend the State uses the likes of the American Counsel on Education’s (ACE) guide to evaluate such military training and apply towards the meeting of these mandated educational milestones en route to State of Michigan licensing. Such changes will encourage Veteran’s entry into various job force entities and (may) further their entrepreneurship spirit within the State of Michigan.

When you use a State vehicle you cannot leave your vehicle in the same location. When you reserve a car you can print the reservation document, show it to the security person at the Allegan parking lot in Lansing, and leave your car in same parking space that the State vehical was in. There must be enough room because you are taking the car that creates your space to park your personal car! If you do not print and show the reservation (it has a date on it) to security, you do not get into the garage. When the most recent cutting of State Employees took place it happened at the very lowest level and we were told to 'do more with less'. This sentiment did not hold for the upper part of our departments.

As our facilities were closed that should have meant that the top administrative positions should have been eliminated also due to less supervision being needed. However the political machine moved forward and when new policy makers took over they rewarded friendships by filling positions with their own people rather than those positions being eliminated to save money. You eliminate the people that do all the work at the lowest levels which make the least amount of money and benefits, but the top pay administrators that pull down the big paychecks and benefit packages are retained. This makes no sense. You do not eliminate the people that do the majority of the work that has to be done to run the system effectively. In terms of the prisons it used to be that the Wardens reported directly to the Director.

Now you have Regional Prison Administrators, Deputy Directors and all the support staff that is needed to run those offices. Check to see what a HUGE cost savings it would be to get back to the basics the way it used to be and stop making it harder on the people that do the majority of the work.

Doing more with less should not be at the expense of running people into the ground. I have a 100 MB e-mail size limit. To stay below 100 MB, I have to move any e-mail >1 MB to my archives and archive every e-mail that's over 1 month old.Last Friday, I hit 80 MB. I got automatic e-mails telling me my in box was approaching the limit on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday (Labor Day) & Tuesday morning before I could get to archiving my old e-mails to reduce the size of my in box. Those repetitive e-mail reminders that came in over the holiday weekend (when I couldn't do anything about it) didn't help my inbox clutter.For $100, I can buy a 1 TB external hard drive that will provide enough storage for my entire section.

The private sector doesn't impose these e-mail limits. Why should the State of MI? This is just another example of DTMB providing poor customer service and charging excessive amounts to boot! I have often wondered why the floors of housing units of our prisons are tiled.

Tiled floors are very dangerous because they are very slippery especially when wet not mention they are extremely costly to maintain. These floors get wet when mopped, during the winter when snow is tracked in and then melts, when rain is tracked in, in humid weather these floors sweat, etc. They are very, very costly to maintain with the cost of expensive chemicals like, wax stripper, floor wax, floor sealer, buffer pads, buffer maintenance and replacing worn out buffers. I think it would be safe to say that maintenance is in the millions per year.

With todays technology there are many different options for these floors that are much safer and the only maintenance needed is sweeping and maybe mopping. All floors under these tiles are concrete so these tiles could easily be removed and there are many options of products that could be used to make these floors much, much safer for everyone. There is a way to search the State of Michigan's DNA database to solve crimes like Murders & Rapes without costing a dime.

Right now thousands of criminal profiles are in our state's searchable DNA database. Hundreds of unsolved crimes have DNA on file but have not yet linked the crime to a suspect. The City Of Denver Colorado has offered to give us, the State of Michigan, their free program that allows us to search our own DNA database in a new 'Familial' way. This Familial Search Tool will look at the database of Michigan's convicted offenders and come up with near matches to crimes with unknown suspects. These matches are usually family members to the unknown suspects. From there, the information obtained, is then given to police for further investigation to see if they can figure out which family member committed the crime. The search results would take about 6 seconds to run and streamline the already overwhelming caseloads our state crime labs are experiencing.

This search tool would save our state hundreds of thousands of dollars and the best part is, it would get murders and rapists off our streets making Michigan a safer place to live. Criminals generally reoffend and I dont want to tell another mother her child was murdered while the bad guy lies in wait for his next victim. All it really takes is the green light from our State Government to get the ball rolling and will cost nothing. A NO BRAINER Right!! It could also put Michigan back on top as world class crime fighters. Check out the below website for more detailed information on the topic.

There is a way to search the State of Michigan's DNA database to solve crimes like Murders & Rapes without costing a dime. Right now thousands of criminal profiles are in our state's searchable DNA database. Hundreds of unsolved crimes have DNA on file but have not yet linked the crime to a suspect. The City Of Denver Colorado has offered to give us, the State of Michigan, their free program that allows us to search our own DNA database in a new 'Familial' way. This Familial Search Tool will look at the database of Michigan's convicted offenders and come up with near matches to crimes with unknown suspects.

These matches are usually family members to the unknown suspects. From there, the information obtained, is then given to police for further investigation to see if they can figure out which family member committed the crime.

The search results would take about 6 seconds to run and streamline the already overwhelming caseloads our state crime labs are experiencing. This search tool would save our state hundreds of thousands of dollars and the best part is, it would get murders and rapists off our streets making Michigan a safer place to live.

Criminals generally reoffend and I dont want to tell another mother her child was murdered while the bad guy lies in wait for his next victim. All it really takes is the green light from our State Government to get the ball rolling and will cost nothing.

A NO BRAINER Right!! It could also put Michigan back on top as world class crime fighters. Check out the below website for more detailed information on the topic.http://www.denverda.org/dna/Familial_DNA_Database_Searches.htm. There is a way to search the State of Michigan's DNA database to solve crimes like Murders & Rapes without costing a dime.

It could also identify Jane & John Doe bodies giving closure to families of missing persons. Right now thousands of criminal profiles are in our state's searchable DNA database.

Hundreds of unsolved crimes have DNA on file but have not yet linked the crime to a suspect. The City Of Denver Colorado has offered to give us, the State of Michigan, their free program that allows us to search our own DNA database in a new 'Familial' way. This Familial Search Tool will look at the database of Michigan's convicted offenders and come up with near matches to crimes with unknown suspects.

These matches are usually family members to the unknown suspects. From there, the information obtained, is then given to police for further investigation to see if they can figure out which family member committed the crime. The search results would take about 6 seconds to run and streamline the already overwhelming caseloads our state crime labs are experiencing. This search tool would save our state hundreds of thousands of dollars and the best part is, it would get murders and rapists off our streets making Michigan a safer place to live. Criminals generally reoffend and I dont want to tell another mother her child was murdered while the bad guy lies in wait for his next victim. All it really takes is the green light from our State Government to get the ball rolling and will cost nothing. A NO BRAINER Right!!

It could also put Michigan back on top as world class crime fighters. Check out the below website for more detailed information on the topic.http://www.denverda.org/dna/Familial_DNA_Database_Searches.htm. For years there has been zero accountability in these positions. The absolute power these folks have been allowed to wield with no oversight is mindblowing.

In the workplace romantic hook ups, witch hunts for those who dare to oppose them, cover ups for their kids and cronies, and the list goes on. It is no mystery why the MDOC employees have a dramatically lower opinion of their superiors than any other State Dept. The employees are waiting for the Director to clean house. You can't preach character and integrity when you have facility heads that are morally bankrupt!!

Our vehicle leasing program needs some changes. It does not make sense to lease every vehicle. We have vehicles, especially heavy equipment, that are necessary, but don't get used that often. Why do we need to pay a very heafty lease rate to the state on a vehicle that we intend to keep for 30 or 40 years. It is far cheaper to buy these vehicles and have the freedom to maintain them on our own. We have a 1980 1 ton truck with a lift gate on it.

It doesn't get a lot of miles on it, but it serves a necessary function. Once that truck is wore out we cannot afford to replace it because we would be forced to lease a new one, WHY???? How can we afford to pay lease rates on a truck for 30 years?

Allow us to make our own choices on specialized vehicles at least. The State entered into a new contract with a recycling vendor two years or so ago. This vendor could also collect a variety of items, plastic, styrofoam, etc., in addition to paper, and the State would receive payment for these items. I spoke to DTMB and they were not interested in collecting the additional items because they it would be messy. We recycle in our building and have taken thousands of pounds of recycled materials to our respective recyling centers.

And it's not messy. The State could be making more money if it would get onboard with recycling rather than throwing it away. In the DOC, so many papers are mailed as duplicates with postage on them! If anything is that important, it can be faxed for no cost. Charts that are 'catch up' or 'second volumes' are sent US Postal Service.

While I support the US Postal Service, it is unecessary to mail $8.10 worth of charts that were simply for one hospital stay; they can be packed with the next ride out that we send that way. I have submitted this idea and it was recognized but never implemented. I can only imagine if it was implemented what the weekly cost would be multiplied by the number of facilities we have in the State.

It could be someone's job. Crazy and so simple to fix! Agency Services should be a rated service just like all the other technology services. This would allow for a pool of developers that could be utilized as needed. Currently there are either not enough resources for a particular agency project, or there are developers sitting around with nothing to do.If there were a pool of application developers, DBAs, etc., then DTMB can be more responsive to the needs of the Agencies since resources can be manage better, code libraries would be more accessible, and applications can be disigned to better fit into the enterprise environment. Why does the state insist on building such expensive buildings for its agencies. A great example is in Hart, MI.

The Human services building that was constructed there a few years ago. This building is easily costed seven figures. The building is one of the largest most impressive structures in the town. Why can't this agency get buy with a nice pole building built at a fraction of the price?

That is just one example. Why does the state on insist on building these expensive shrines to the government? Dont need them, there are cheaper better ways to house your agencies. ITT'S should be given their rights back to be able to assist co-workers in their problems with pc's. If we need software installed for example, we need to contact the helpdesk and sometimes have to wait for a week or so before it is installed.

Also, now it is up to management to be able to update templates when it was that the ITT would do and would be able to complete the task right off of the bat. Now, we have to wait for management to update templates. Also, when a worker has a problem with their pc, ITT's use to be able to do a re-build and now we have to contact DIT and wait and wait for them to come out. It is too time consuming also whenever a worker needs access to a certain folder on the shared drive that a DIT-161 needs to be completed and then once again have to wait and wait for the Helpdesk to make this happen.

All of this is too time consuming and taking too long to satisfy the worker in order for the worker to be able to get their job done in a efficient manner. We need our rights back and do not know why they were taken away. Add additional options for people when renewing their plates to allow them to renew only when they have to renew their license, once very 4 years. Give a significant discount for renewing on a 4 years plan, such as 20% off the yearly cost, but make such a vehicle registration non-transferable.It would be a risk for someone who opts for the 4 year plan, because if their car is totalled or they buy a new one, they have to buy new tags instead of just transferring plates, but the flipside is they save a lot of money going that route if they keep the car and are safe drivers.Keep the option to renew yearly as not everyone would want to take the risk or have the funds needed to both renew license and 4 year tags at the same time.

MDOC field agents spend a lot of time creating and sending referrals only for offenders to skip the appointment with the provider. MDOC should have a probation/parole campus in the Metro Region. Instead of having numerous field offices, have a central campuses for reporting (counties can pay SOM for probation space and share security costs which can be provided by corrections officers, county law enforcement, and/or P.A. 330/411 officers). Additional costs can be off-set by having providers lease space on the campus.

It would be so much easier to have an offender report, send them directly to the on-campus provider, and collaborate quickly through technology (referrals, progress reports, verifications, etc.) This would increase offender participation in programs because it is on-site, and would reduce warrants for non-compliance. Most MDOC Health Care Professions are long term, dedicated, experienced individuals who display professionalism, provide excellent patient care and most importantly have chosen Correctional Health Care as a Career. Privitization, as far as I've researched, has never proven to provide long term cost savings, efficency and the continuity of care is compromised by Providers who are only here until 'someting better' employment-wise, turns up. A profession Health Care Degree does not confer with it an ability and attitude to treat sometimes difficult patients in an extremely challenging environment. It is an insult to those of us who are truly trying to promote a 'team effort' and strive to provide objective patient treatment to face the potential loss of our jobs to less qualified, experience and dedicated individuals. If MDOC truly cares about providing excellent patient care and the consequences of not providing it, they will forsake this 'privatization for the sake of privatization' venture.

For a long time the DHS has been impenetrable as an agency. Phone calls to caseworkers are not answered, and messages left are not responded to. No doubt staffing shortages at DHS make it difficult for caseworkers to reply to requests for information and assistance, but knowing this does not help customers who are desperate for help because of Medicaid and other DHS problems. I work for the MRS, and like many advocate agencies, I need sometimes to communicate with DHS to help a customer who has a DHS problem. The problems I encounter often concern the mysterious loss of Medicaid coverage, or the failure of the State to pay for Part B Medicare premiums for its Medicaid clients. These problems usually require just a quick fix, as they are often caused by improper computer coding. But inaccessibility to DHS as an agency makes these quick fix problems enormous issues.

How about having a liaison set up that agencies like mine (the MRS) can go to for help with DHS problems? The liaison should be a DHS employee skilled at troubleshooting, and should be someone who's easy to reach by phone or e-mail. Above all the liaison should be someone who is quickly responsive and who is effective in cutting through the crud.

The main concern I have with this suggestion is the public I try to serve, who are often frustrated by the impersonal and impossible barriers set up by our 'system.' They are the ones who are hurt by our lack of open lines of communication abd caring. Showcases Detroit as the place for Michigan’s college graduates and young professionals to live and work. Detroit is one of the hottest places in the country.

There are numerous college graduates and young professionals as State employees located in the Victor Office Center in Lansing. If the governor is serious about making LiveWorkDetroit! Truly successful and truly cares about Detroit, then he would relocate all the State employees in the Victor Office Center to the Cadillac Place in Detroit. Imagine what great publicity this would be for the SOM. Hey, Compuware and Quicken Loans did it; why not the SOM?

After all, Detroit is one of the hottest places in the country. They need to let the employees know who or where you can turn things into? When the corruption runs all the way to the top and you've reported things that supervisors have done and gotten away with and are grounds for termination and nothing is done about it the morale just goes down the drain! There is no where for us to turn or go to this is the first thing that is the closest to where we can go with issues! When you have supervisors falsifying time sheets and providing special treatment to the 'Special' ones it's WRONG and when the whole floor knows about it and NOTHING is done?! In the past MDOT statewide maintenance had a section of some 8 licensed civil engineers to do safety inspections of highway structures throughout the state. Now the MDOT uses snowplow truck drivers on summer assignment with only a two week class to do these inspections.

The MDOT has placed full time people at the the Region level to manage this inventory.The total commitment in personnel is twice what it was and the safety inspections are of poor quality lowering the safety of the motoring public.Return to the past for efficiency, economy and safety. Showcases Detroit as the place for Michigan’s college graduates and young professionals to live and work. Detroit is one of the hottest places in the country. There are numerous college graduates and young professionals as State employees located in the Victor Office Center in Lansing.

If the governor is serious about making LiveWorkDetroit! Truly successful and truly cares about Detroit, then he would relocate all the State employees in the Victor Office Center to the Cadillac Place in Detroit. Imagine what great publicity this would be for the SOM. Hey, Compuware and Quicken Loans did it; why not the SOM? After all, Detroit is one of the hottest places in the country. The local counties need a trained 'official' with the ability to weed out hearing requests without having to involve MAHS & an ALJ.

At the moment, there is no negative to clients to request a hearing (& often only the positive of benefits continuing with no reduction) no matter the hearing request. This results in clients requesting a hearing simply because 'what could it hurt?'

Other clients request hearings knowing they will lose the hearing simply to maintain benefits they are no longer eligible for until the time of the hearing. The local office should be able to deny hearing requests without a hearing if the evidence blatantly supports the department will be upheld (excess income/assets, etc). Michigan Department of corrections took over the Maxi boys training school in April 2010. Department of Human Sevices could not take all of the Equipment that was used at Maxi to there new facility (less space) thus leaving numerous amounts of school supplies, musical equipment, recreational equipment, silk screening equipment and numerous other things. This equipment could be used in any school district through out the state as well as state parks.

Boost 2 Apk Free Download. When I ask about donating this equipment to school districts I get the same old answer ' there is to much paper work and hoops to jump through '. So, as schools deal with financial short comings which trickle down to our children we have a means to assist and do to red tape we dont assist. This entire process of eliciting responses from State employees is nothing more than an appeasement gesture aimed at giving an appearance of inclusion. If anybody thinks anything will come of this, I have some prime sand in the desert for sale to you exclusively. This is an organized gripe session that is pitting various employee factions against one another to the amusement of the deputy director and various cronies over there. These guys will be out of office before anything's ever implemented.

And the next regime will have their own agenda and priorities rendering this whole endeavor a big waste of time and effort. Happens every time we change dictators. First the audit to cover, then strategy development, then nothing. It's the nature of our beauracracy. But hey, let's all keep that relentless positive thinking going!

It's a wonderfull morale booster! Employee morale is typically low and there are few things that are available to use as motivators. In my area, managers will periodically provide juice and donuts, not much of a motivator or morale boosters. Employees who provide dedicated and committed service aren't given any recognition or reward for their efforts. Case in point, an employee who rarely calls in sick and accrues a large number of sick hrs.

Are only paid a fraction of what they've accrued at the time of retirement. They should be compensated for the full amount of time accrued.

I recall a co-worker who regularly kept up with his accrued S.L. When he accrued 8 hrs. He would call in sick. We hired in at close to the same time. So assuming departure at the same time he would have been compensated for the full # of hrs.

Accrued over the yrs. As he's used time as he went.

Employees who didn't call in over the course of their career should be warded by receiving compensation for the full # of hrs. This would be a morale booster as the yrs. Move on knowing that there's that reward at the end of one's career.

There are several supervisors in our area that were promoted because they are good technically speaking, but have no people skills. As a supervisor, they create a bad atmosphere. Not being able to deal with people or personnel matters causes a failed supervisor. Supervisors should be promoted based on the ability of handing management reponsibilities, not for being good at what the did in their last position. Supervisors need to be rated on their personal skills on a regular basis and be provided training or removed if training doesn't work. A 360 evaluation would be helpful but only if senior management will take it into account and use it.

Since the state has had a history of consolidating most of its employees into a very small section of downtown Lansing, it should develop a fairer method of providing parking instead of allowing some to get this for free (those working in county locations or at the secondary buildings) while others can spend over $100 a month. Either charge everyone or charge no one.

When a county office is set up, it could be done in a manner that requires paid parking, as there are some downtown Lansing leased building that parking has to be purchased. Many committees can be eliminated and replaced with one accountable (supervised) employee.

While I understand that people whine about wanting input, how can you efficiently do things through a committee? Seems like input could be fostered in other ways than voting. As if the most votes is indicative of proper policy. Seems to foster unaccountability, is inefficient, and does not produce well reasoned and consistent policy. It is probably an indicator of a management and employees with little vision and which are scared to be responsible for anything. Rudderless and inefficient administration. Society is only protected from criminals while they are incarcerated because most will return to criminal activity when released.

Any system which allows offenders to victimize society repeatedly is broken. Money spent doing things the same way is wasted if we cannot keep offenders from returning to criminal activity and lives are lost. I believe there are three suggestions which can make a significant change:1) Break up the prison system into a dual system. Penitentiaries should incarcerate criminals who may be incarcerated because of system blame. Penitentiaries should focus meaningful rehabilitation on offenders who are the most likely to return to society - usually non-violent offenders. Rehabilitation has to include vocational training as well as academic. 'Give a man a fish he eats for a day.

Teach him to fish and he eats forever'. Without meaningful rehabilitation clients are forced to return to what they know. Violent offenders and offenders incarcerated because of personal blame should be sent to prison. Offenders leaving the prison system should be routed through the penitentiary system.2) Non-violent offenders incarcerated in the penitentiary should be given the opportunity to work their way out of the penitentiary by participating in rehabilitation offered - which means legislators need to create adjustable sentences. Offenders earn their way out and could potentially open up a bed well before a traditional sentence would have allowed and they leave with a skill which will reduce the potential of future criminal activity.3) Automatic (conditional) expungement of criminal records for non-violent offenders who successfully complete parole or probation.

Attaching the label of convicted felon to an offender significantly reduces the probability of gainful employment. Removing the label will allow offenders to become law abiding productive citizens because they will be able to compete on a level playing field. Conditional means the criminal justice system may use the prior convictions in future sentencing if the offender commits a new crime. Society as a whole is vicitimized every time an offender becomes a recidivist because we have to pay $30k or more a year to incarcerate the offender. My suggestions are geared toward making the offenders self sufficient when they leave prison so they don't have to return to lives of crime and they re-enter society with marketable skills. It wouldn't hurt for the penitentiary system to sponsor an apprentice program for offenders being released - giving potential employers the opportunity to get some employees and giving the offender the opportunity to get their foot in the door. Laws have to be changed and we have to get away from the attitude of doing things the way they have always been done, because that's the way they've always been done.

We can save money and lives by reducing the recidivism rate and may even make the criminal justice system more humane by treating offenders as humans who may have potential. Prisons have long been referred to as a 'school of crime'. Creating a dual prison system seperates the teachers (career criminals, lifers and those incarcerated because of personal blame) from potential pupils because career criminals go to prison and those entering the system on short sentences go to penitentiaries. Through a process of elimination we can determine personal blame from system blame through a process of elimination. If an offender continueously returns to the system after being given rehabilitation then we must assume it's personal blame. In addition - Along about 1988 I watched a young man sent to prison on a short sentence for B&E get butchered at at the State Prison of Southern Michigan Central Complex - 4 Block (westside).

Inmates serving short sentences are manipulated by lifers into bringing drugs into the prison or murdering other inmates - seperating lifers from short timers only make sense. Nobody should be given a death sentence for B&E.

We should be able to donate annual/sick leave hours to an employee that we choose, not whom Lansing decides it should go to. If a co-worker needs hours to help them and/or their family during an illness/unexpected event, we should be able to 'give' them our hours.

I know several employees who would donate leave hours to help a co-worker, but don't because they can't specify who can receive their donated hours even if they work for a different agency. This also includes allowing spouses to donate as many hours as they choose to each other. It has been very frustrating over this past year seeing the creation of executive type jobs where upper management receives a promotion to better pay and than cut front line employees wages, benefits, and positions. The people who are doing the work are the ones being cut, demoted, having their wages/benefits cut, and forced to do more with less. Upper administration is becoming a blooming mushroom head (top heavy) whereas the front line is a dwindling stalk (over burdened with doing more with less). If cuts and concessions are to be made it should be across the board and affect all.

No one should be exempt in shouldering the burden of the budget. Student AssistantsBusting Bureaucracy will be a long transition that will involve many changes ranging from attitudes towards state government to implementing best practices throughout all government agencies and programs. The State of Michigan has the opportunity to achieve its goal of reinventing Michigan through positive relentless action; however, it appears that vital and potentially powerful resources are not only being short changed but neglected. As a student assistant for DTMB I have been blessed to have been awarded many great opportunities; such as, working on many high profile reports, working with many great managers, and having a large and broad range of professional experiences. However, there are many downfalls to being a student, beginning with Civil Service and ending with many college graduates leaving the state.

Civil Service needs to be re-evaluated, especially when it comes to student assistants. We are told we are able to begin applying for full-time degree positions three months prior to graduation; however, in order to do so, we must lie on NEO-GOV, which ironically, is just cause to be permanently disqualified from the application process, hence forth. Furthermore, we have no benefit over applicants who did not work during college because our “gained” experience does not count for anything. In addition, student assistants are forced to pay union dues but do not benefit from any union representation. I could be let go any day without question. I am a hard worker so I do not fear this but I do not think that it is appropriate. Students should not be in a union if they are non-classified positions.

I understand budget cuts and the change from pension plans; if the money is not there, then there must be changes to accommodate for the current financial standing of the State. Personally, I praise Governor Rick Snyder for making many tough decisions, decisions that I think will help Michigan become a competitive state in the future. We must make sacrifices to get ahead. I plan on making Michigan, as a state and as a government, better and more stable for my children and generations to come. This brings me to my main point: the children of today are the future of tomorrow. Being a student assistant should not be a mindless job without defined benefit, but rather, there should be an organized initiative to groom and train us to be leaders in the future. Student assistants should have a sense of solidarity as a group of motivated young adults who are committed to making Michigan a better place.

There should be professional development training as part of our jobs, there should be best practice research and initiatives, there should be networking seminars to promote communication between students and managers between departments and agencies, and there should be annual reviews to measure our develop for placement considerations upon graduation. Evaluating students and analyzing efficient and productive placements, in state government positions upon graduation, is vital in reinventing Michigan and keeping the youth here, in public service.I am not suggesting that every student be guaranteed a job, but there should be an organized employment track that will promote and encourage student participation and advancement. Please, continue to utilize us as cheaper labor but we should have confidence that our hard work will have a pay-off; the administration can consider it a return on an investment and we can consider it a win-win situation.As a psychology undergraduate interested in pursuing a graduate degree in industrial organizational psychology, I understand and respect DTMB’s use of surveys and third party program evaluations, but I can also identify the need to promote and encourage the generation necessary to achieve the goals outlined by these studies. One of the State’s most powerful resources are sitting in cubicles in your office – please do not continue to disregard us. Visitor Application Central Office - Most people have access to and can use the internet. MDOC visitor applications should be submitted on-line through our website, not on paper.

We spend a ton of time and money returning paper applications that were not done properly. Submitting an application on-line would prevent folks from leaving lines blank and slowing down the turn around time for approval. We could have a central office that screens and approves applications, rather than each facility doing it. Please contact me if you'd like to discuss this idea futher. Database programs can make work a lot easier.

But work in my Bureau includes daily use of half a dozen or more database programs, the function of which could be done with Microsoft Access. Some of these are legacy type programs (the cost of switching from which may be cost-prohibitive), but others are newer and involve development from outside contractors. Worse yet, every time a query needs to be run or a report needs to be pulled, DIT or the outside contractors need to be called to do it.on their schedules and, in the case of contractors, at their high rates.

And then there's the cost of training employees how to use each one and the cost of lost productivity in 'getting used' to the idiosyncracies of each program.Since Access is already available to all employees, and so many employees are trained in how to use it, doesn't it make sense that all new databases (for which Access is appropriate) be created in and at least some already existing programs be switched to Access? At the beginning of the last administration because of diminishing budgets much of the spending authority and budget management was moved from lower levels of management to executive management. This was to control expenditures. The upside was that we slowed down spending. The downside was that many layers were created to authorize spending and we created bottlenecks for getting work completed. I would like us to redefine levels of authority for each management level and push the spending, budget, and manpower decisions back to the appropriate levels. This will empower and speed up approvals.

For example, detail to the first line supervisor/managers and second level managers what their budget is and have measurements (audits) to ensure that they stay within their spend plan. This allows faster resolution of hiring, purchasing, pay increases, reallocations, training, etc. In our department we realize several different levels of management to enable and authorize these functions.

Establishing positions or reallocations have to be approved by our department director which is unnecessary. Since we are not about FTEs anymore but about budget this could be resolved in different ways and allow employees to become creative with solutions to employee issues. Of course there would have to be caveats about what could be approved and what should not.This solution could be implemented in a phased approached with increasing responsibility as necessary to increase efficiency. The legislators complain about the cost of having in house medical staff but do not flinch on the cost of MDOC overtime. Hire line staff not managers. Pay straight time save the cost of overtime.

New hires make much less. If you saved the cost of overtime.(at DWH since June this year over $500,0000 in custody OT. Much less than the cost of benifits for health care workers. Nurses aren't worth as much as custody in the eyes of MDOC but they are willing to pay agencies triple our wages and still pay the lawsuits that disinterested contract employees cost the state. There is absolutely no reason that in 2012, when businesses as small as 4 people can utilize electronic time-keeping, that the State of Michigan requires hand completed paper timesheets. Improve accuracy, improve accountability, and improve job safety and compliance by making your ID card the way one can punch in for the day.

Automated reports to HR on tardiness and absenteeism is much more effective than hoping that every person just magically appears to work on time every day.Allow me to elaborate. As a first line manager, I have to check over 8-12 time sheets every two weeks. Except they are then taken by a unit clerk, re-checked, then given to a mutual manager, rechecked a third time, then entered into a payroll system that we do not have access to. We are without our clerks on Mondays due to payroll, and important projects are delayed due to two different levels of management having to initial and sign payroll. We have to have carbon copies of late slips, overtime slips, annual slips, and sick leave slips just to complete them the first time around. Employees lack the basic math skills to correctly add their own work hours.

We do not all have access to DCDS, which I did not even know existed until; kyncid made mention of it. Now that we've begun the 'paperless' era and EDM, I don't see how this is going to save time or money.

I won't be surprised if it costs more in the end, mainly due to increased labor. It is so much faster to hold paper in your hand and make changes to a client's case than EDM. With EDM you have to go into and review multiple screens, and then select from a drop down menu that you've completed the task; just more time. We will never be totally 'paperless' and I think the whole EDM idea is bad business. Technology does not always improve things in life. Currently, DCH policy units interpret the law & write policy, then DHS policy units interpret the policy & instruct workers on how to implement the policy regarding eligibility. This seems to have an added step (interpreting the interpretation of the law) that is unnecessary & often leads to confusing & conflicting information reaching the front line workers.

It's very frustrating to hear from DHS policy an interpretation that doesn't seem to fit how the policy is written, then check with DCH policy & hear that DHS policy interpreted the policy incorrectly. These two units should be combined, & those who write the policy should be explaining it to front line workers if it is unclear, not a separate group. Each state employee should be allocated an annual amount to be used on continuing education, training, conferences, or certification maintenance, etc.

If an employee knows how much assistance is available to them, they would do a better job at prioritizing limited resources while staying up to date on current trends outside of state government. Maybe this will help government keep pace with the private sector in terms of technology utilization and employee management and best practices from around the country. Every computer application in the State of Michigan needs to have a database-driven web site where it lists projects, maintenance requests, meetings, decisions, tasks, data dictionary, and user documentation. The problem with SUITE is that it is word template driven and not database driven.

It is archaic, confusing, and over-complicated. The principles it is trying to manage are things every analyst normally does, but its implementation is incorrect, mixing user documentation with project documentation. It is not flexible and every project I have been involved with where we tried to use it ended up costing 5 to 10 times what it should have. Current industry standards have adopted an AGILE approach, and SUITE hinders that approach, and works even worse with the 'waterfall' methodology. When someone is submitting a request to have something approved (whether it's for a purchase, travel, publication, etc.) we always have to send everything hard copy. Usually the individual submitting has an electronic copy, the division office keeps a copy (usually hard copy I'm sure), the bureau office sees it and keeps a copy and on up the chain.

If a change needs to be made, the hard copy comes back - and it starts all over again.Why can't things be submitted, via email, for approval with each director approving the request via email before their secretary forwards it up to the next secretary. Not only do we save paper and ink, but it moves faster (less time in ID mail).

Plus, if a change has to be made - it can be made to the electronic copy without having to reprint it. Our files wouldn't be bulging and we would have more space.It's not like it would be difficult to implement, just direction to each of the Department Directors, and would cost nothing to implement either - we stand nothing to loose and a lot of money and time to gain. A grandparent / guardian can receive cash assistance and daycare regardless of their income level. If a mutual agreement between the biological parent and grandparent / guardian takes place the taxpayer has to provide free daycare and cash to these individuals until the child reaches 18 or graduates high school. Example: single parent drops off responsibility of parenting and leaves children with the grandparent/caretaker to go to back to college.

The caretakers are now eligible for cash and daycare without any financial tests. I would like to see someone from DTMB be responsible for taking a look at printers and determining which repairs need to be made or outsourcing to a printer repair company similar to what happens in the private sector.

I should not have to determine what is wrong with the printer and determine which parts I should order. DTMB has to come out to install the parts after they are ordered. I'm just making guesses as to what the problem is and what parts may fix it. Just because I print to a printer, it doesn't make me a mechanic. The state is wasting money on full maintenance kits when the problem could be one small part which could be replaced by someone more qualified to diagnose the problem.

E-Mail responses are too darn slow. If you go about sending an e-mail to someone especially in Lansing, you wait and wait and wait for a response back but to no avail. After a week or so, still not response so you e-mail them again. Still no response and once again you are e-mailing them again. Still no response.

But, if they e-mail you, they want a response ASAP. Why when we send and e-mail we get no response? But, when Lansing or management sends us an e-mail, they expect a response right away. Rather than encouraging new parents receiving public assistance to seek work and leave very young children in day care during a critical bonding and learning period in their lives, we could be training these new parents in child development and early learning strategies, and employing them as aides in licensed child care facilities that look after the children of all these parents. The parents who work in such facilities could receive free or reduced cost child care, stretching their benefits further.Training and employing them in this field will not only provide job skills but parenting skills that will give their children a much-needed head start on learning AND provide more affordable child care for all parents.By the time the 48-month period of public assistance is ending, these parents would have marketable skills and experience in the child care field, enhancing their employability for their future. In the Dept of Corrections we have Policy, Procedure, Memorandums and Work Statements. There is a much needed effort to reduce the confusion that was created with work statements.

Our Governor has a wonderfully quiet way of leading all of Michigan to do the right thing. I recommend the effort to consolidate all of our written instructions be accelerated. The instructions should not be so difficult to find.

We are eager to provide public safety and lower costs but our instructions are confusing and time consumming. Morale and performance would improve therefore saving money. Working for state government means that there are a lot of controls on our creativity. We have procedures, standers, work roles, guidelines, and mandates by the federal government and other state agencies, all telling us how to do our job and what we cannot do. The SOM need to do a better job of encouraging and rewarding creativity through our work day, instead what we get is told to focus on being constituent state wide. “You need to do your job the way everyone else in position dose it.”We celebrate diversity in skin color, age and gender but do not take advantage verity of ideas that come from having a diverse work force.

Doing your job in a way that make you most efficient, would save the state money, boost morale, increase engagement and give the public the felling of working with individuals not a bureaucracy.This web site is a great way to collect those ideas, now let’s make them happen.If we are to truly bust the bureaucracy then we must be a continues, unrelenting force of ideas. Not just the grand lets save 10 million dollar Ideas, but all the little tweaks that make employees, more efficient, engaged, and free. I sent an email to the administrators of this site regarding flagged ideas and they responded to me with the message below. Looks very positive.'

The Bureaucracy Busters team has become aware of this problem and is working to adjust it. We are becoming flooded with flagged posts, so we understand that there are a large amount of posts that are not able to be seen. Please be patient as we work to fine-tune the settings of the technology we are using.

Thank you for your interest and participation in Bureaucracy Busters! Please feel free to contact me with any other questions or concerns.' The wind turbine was installed at a cost of $250,000.00 funded by government grants. It was said to have a 25 yr payback with a 30 yr life span. The Canadian company that built it went bankrupt one month after the time of installation.

The turbine then fell apart in less than a year and a half. Data was reviewed. It had a payback of 102 years at the time it broke. That does NOT include the cost of having it repaired. It cost more than $19,000 to take it down and transport it to Kalamazoo Community College for potential repair. If repaired, there would be additional cost and then there would be another $19,000+ to put it back up. Obviously, the payback would increase too and it was already 102 years before it broke down!!!!

It was meant to be a demonstration project to show the feasibility of such sized turbines. Based on the data at hand at the time it seems the feasibility question was answered well before the unit broke, yet expenditures continued. Today, the tower remains standing and the turbine remains in Kalamazoo.

Do NOT throw even more good money after bad. Stop spending other peoples money, admit it was a poor project, and take the tower down. We work for the citizens of Michigan. If a nail is the problem, the right tool is a hammer.

A calculator to audit tax returns. A car for police to patrol/respond. Bells and whistles are great, but are they needed? Do the police need a Mercedes to patrol the road? Many times the wants of the employees are above what is needed and appropriate.

We forget that we work for the citizens of Michigan. As an employee it would be great to have the State pay for an Iphone, but we only need a phone, or a Mercedes when all that is needed is a Dodge. If there is a need and it is in the best interest of the citizens of Michigan, cost effective, and does the job efficiently and effectively, then those are the measurements we should be using for decision making.As for the bells and whistles, pull the plug. Get back to what matters. What is best for the citizens of this State?

Look at each department and apply these standards. Do we have more than what is needed to process tax returns? Do we have more than needed to patrol the roads. Do we have less? For instance, many years ago, Treasury bought a Cadillac to process tax returns. After millions spent and six years it still does not fully function. If you ask those at the top, they will sell the story that it works great.

Even if it did truly work, why is an expensive Cadillac needed to process tax returns. Sell the car and use the calculator that is already here. Treasury is a number cruncher of massive volumes. What is in the best interest of the citizens of Michigan, cost effective, and does the job efficiently and effectively? If you ask IRS, they would say mainframe platforms are the best (IRS had the idea of moving off their mainframe system.

$3 billion dollars and 11 years later, they realized it was futile, and unnecessary. Botched upgrades cost them $318 million in fraudulent refunds.). But, mainframes are old technology.

Windows technology is over 25 years old too, but are we switching to Linux or Apple’s operating systems? Windows is constantly updated with patches and enhancements. Mainframes are the same.

Updated software, and new hardware has made them as small as a mini-fridge, unlike the massive rooms folks think of when “mainframes” are mentioned. Get the facts- “Unisys helped us discover that the mainframe has evolved way past the old ‘glass-house’ system into a dynamic engine for intergovernmental cooperation and business transformation,” said Carol Steele Sherman, director of Data Center Operations, Department of Information Technology, State of Michigan. “We have a keener understanding of our capacity requirements and can plan for the future more precisely. Plus, by paying only for the computing power we need, we can use the taxpayers’ money more efficiently and invest the savings for additional services to benefit the citizens of Michigan.” Tour MIPC Data Center and decide for yourself. With emulators today, mainframes can have the look and feel of a Windows environment, but retain the processing speed capable of the millions of transactions needed for Treasury to conduct its work timely. We have the wrong tool for the right work!

This is an easy decision to score a win win. There are many “Red Tape” processes that could be streamlined to help save time and money, whilst providing both better equipment and service for it to State of Michigan employees. The one I will discuss here, briefly, is computer purchase and maintenance.If one wants to purchase a computer, they need to contact DTMB. DTMB then ensures that it meets their specifications and sends the request to EDS. EDS then purchases the computer from a company that the State of Michigan has a contract with. The computer then makes its way back through the chain to DTMB, where all of the preinstalled software is deleted through a reimaging process. The computer is then delivered to the end user, but still can’t be used until DTMB has set it up.

Then the service process begins.Now the end user’s department must pay DTMB an annual service fee for their computer and any other fees incurred during its active use. Once the computer no longer meets the end user’s needs, they must turn the computer back into DTMB, because they don’t own the computer, and begin the purchasing process anew.With the availability of computer companies, who are already under contract, that will provide next day business repairs, 24 hour customer support, an equipment replacement program, and do so with delivery of an end product that meets the “end user’s” needs, I find it hard to believe that the current State of Michigan computer related process exists.

If you could change 1 thing at your job that would make the day better what would it be?1.I would love to have an adjustable work schedule. Treat me like the professional that I am. If I fail to get my work completed I should lose the flexibility of my schedule.

2.I would love to teach everyone that we need to make decision case by case. The philosophy that this idea works for all never works.

I remember a teacher of mine that told me that in a multiple choice test never circle an answer that said NEVER or ALWAYS. 3.I would love for some one to answer this question. Why do we allow the unhappy person to control the mood of the environment? If their in a good mood, everything goes smooth.

If not, it’s hell on wheels. The Secretary of State system stores social security numbers of all drivers and state id'd people in Michigan. The Treasury Department collects on debts for the State of Michigan yet the Secretary of State will not supply social security numbers on any person in the state to Treasury to aid in collection of monies due. There are literally 100's of millions of dollars that could be offset thru vendor payments or tax offsets that are missed because no social security number is available on these debts to match up to outgoing payments, but the Secretary of State's office has them available.

MDOS will not even share social security numbers on their own debts that are referred for collect. So, in other words, the State won't share social security numbers with the State to aid in getting debts paid. I find it ridiculous that it is a well known fact in Lansing that lower level employees are not allowed to speak to employees that are to many grades above them they have to funnel a question to their immediate supervisor who then in turn takes it up the ladder and funnels it back the same way. Udderly ridiculous, a hughe waste of time and money.

I don't care if you are a level 18, the govenor, the president or the King of England if i have a question and we are on the same 'team' and work for the same common good then I should be able to get the answer from the horses mouth. Do not treat lower grades levels less because you are graded a higher level, this is pathetic and a complete waste of time and money. Because now you have to wait several days to get a simple answer back that had to go through several people. DHS policy states that a client can ask for a hearing on FIP benefits that have been denied, have those benefits restored during the hearing process, and if they lose the hearing they are not required to pay back the benefits they were not eligible for. If we win the hearing, we should be able to recoup those benefits. This is a huge drain on state resources. I have had many clients knowingly ask for hearing even though they know the department action is correct in hopes of getting several more months of benefits while their case is going through the hearing process.

The state should recoup the money they were ineligble for during the hearing process just as they do with other programs such as Food Assistance. We have been hearing rumors of this cloud based server provisioning technology (MiCloud) being setup by DTMB.

If true, why not disseminate within the Agencies?Last I checked the DTMB service catalogue; I could not find anything that clearly stated MiCloud. I did however; locate many older DTMB documents to that effect, but nothing concrete.If the promise is true, this will be unbelievable opportunity for the State to save beaucoup monies and on the same token, empowering the agency clients an alternative beyond the conventional confines of DTMB's old way of thinking or beholden to SaaS (software as a service) vendors. This is will also provide the opportunity to forge a true business partnership with DTMB.

But only if the promise is anything like Amazon's Elastic Computing. DTMB, please give us back the IT tools we need, in ways much like you have done with the promise of replacing the old concepts of file servers with a truly powerful and easy knowledge sharing portal (SharePoint). Empower us further, with a private sector cloud, in the public sector. This tools and others (e.g., enterpise instant messaging) can help productivity and morale and in the end it will save the bottom line.IMHO _(._.)_. Since we're paid based on time on the job as opposed to merit, how about we don't apply raises to the steps and instead negotiate those every contract? By not applying raises to the steps there would be some difference in pay for a 5yr, 10yr and a 30yr worker instead of them all making the same per hour.

I recognize that there is a difference in longevity lump and annual accrual, but it seems silly for those who have been with in a position for a few years to make the same as one about to retire. For one thing. The Snyder regime is pushing highly probable re-offenders into the public all to cut cost in the budget. He has taken 50% of the totoal budget concessions from Corrections Officers. There have been level 4 inmates sentenced to 3-6 year terms waved through the system and are now at level 1 facilities having only spent no more than 2 years at their true level.

Per Correctional guidelines, inmates are supposed to spend 50% of their sentence at their true level, yet these inmates who are nowhere near rehabilitated are being 'magic wanded' to low level facilities just to save money. Then these same individuals are released back into society and re-offend. Thus the reason the Ryan Correctional facility is being converted into a parole violators facility. Why would the State have to close the Tuscola Residential Re-entry facility and open a much bigger parole violater facility if the system is working? Still, Prisons continue to close, offenders continue to re-offend, and more officers are getting layed-off and taking their place in the unemployment line. Being soft on criminals and making their stay in prison cushy, and even assisting them with legally beating their case are all steps toward saving the state money, while putting the public at risk. And it is happening!

Want an idea on how to boost morale? Here's a novel idea, stop constantly taking concessions from department members (like the Department of Corrections) time and time again. At this point it's 15 years worth of concessions and counting. Want to boost morale? How about not targeting the State employees who are at the bottom and focus on the top. Cut back a few of their 'fringe benefits', their vested health care after short terms, their pensions that they are exempt from paying cntributions into.

Why are there morale problems in departments like the DOC, FOA, and DHS, because we are being raped of our lively hoods for DECADES at a time while it's not an across the board sacrifice by ALL factions of Civil Service. For example, the abolishment of the E-10 classification for ONLY corrections. There are E-10 classification in other departments, but NO, don't go after them, they have true bargaining unions that will actually push back so lets just hit the little guy who is the faceless entity with no means of recourse.

Want to boost morale? LEAD BY EXAMPLE!

DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO IS ALL WE EVER GET! We are tired of being force-fed concessions while these are not Civil Service across the board concessions. How about bringing the death penalty to Michigan? Then we don't have the cost to tax payers of clothing, feeding, medicating inmates.

If we choose firing squad, bulletts are cheap, or hanging, a rope is very cheap! Cheaper than electric chair, lethal injection and the like.

I know there is no definitive evidence that it is a deterrence for crime. But our state has 4 of the highest crime rate per capita cities in the nation. Not to mention the number 1 murder capitol of the country, Flint. What do we have to lose? What we have been doing is not working, time for something drastic I'd say.

Impact based on change is sometimes all it may take to save even a few lives. What is the price on an innocent persons life? So long as the evidence is conclusive, i.e.: DNA evidence, video evidence etc. Why burden our society with supporting a murderer, or rapist for the rest of their lives? What do they contribute to our society? Exist interviews should be conducted by central office or HR personnel, and NOT local office staff.

This way fair and objective interviews can be held. At our office the manager most repsonsble for causing and driving the employee transfers, also conducts these interviews, so employees dont disclose the real reasons why they leave, because they would have to talk about her!

They fear reprisal,Therefore, exit interviews dont reflect the truth behind the horde of transfers we have had in the past 2 years! Currently No one at my office has more than 2 years of job experience, due to the exodus of our experienced staff. The current travel reimbursement system is overly cumbersome for staff and supervisors. The number of steps in the process is neither cost effective nor user friendly and requires submission of receipts and review by supervisors that is very time consuming.

In addition, the system does not easily allow for healthly eating by staff (staff cannot purchase healthy foods in bulk and eat them during the week) instead staff are required to only purchase what can be eaten that day which is not cost effective. In some positions to be promoted you need a certain degree. People who do not have the right degree, but have 20 years plus experience cannot apply. A young kid who has never worked a day in their lives, but through mom and dad's generosity have given them the benefit of going to college and getting the right degree now apply and get the job.

So now the 20 plus year person is supervised by someone who knows nothing about the job, but has the worthless degree. The system needs to be redone so that work experience is always looked at over degrees. All degree requirements should be eliminated. It seems with any new administration programs are re-assigned per political interest rather than commen sence. Every program should be looked at to determine what exactly they do, where their authority comes from, and what rules they apply.

Then those programs should be assigned to the Department that closely meets those requirements. The state also needs to look at programs as a whole, and merge like programs.

When you go out and do site visits and the customer states this other agency was just here and looked at the same thing, that makes the state look bad, and is a total waste of state time. Change the DTMB budget to include personnel and infrasturcture costs from a standard department budget. DTMB currently is allocated budget via IDGs from every state department. This requires DTMB to charge back its customers, other departments, very high infrastructure costs as they must 'bake in' personnel costs to IT infrastructure and desktop charges. By budgeting DTMB personnel and hardware via its own departmental budget, other departments can get better costs and only provide IDG funds for their unique IT project costs. If a client qualifies for State Emergency Relief once within a fiscal year, we should give them a credit for the full fiscal year allotment to their heat/electric account (for the 2012 fiscal year, they would receive the full $450 credited to their account). I have so many clients who need to apply over and over again because we only cover the past due amount, and they're refilling out an application within two months because they got another shut off notice.

This will allow them time to catch up on other bills, etc. While they use up the credit. They will not need to reapply multiple times throughout the year. Once it's gone, it's gone.

A State car was taken to a dealer repair shop for an oil change. It also came back with new brakes. The problem was new brakes had actually been installed less than a month before by the same dealer.

The replaced parts (e.g. The first set of new brakes) had been placed in the trunk. Similar activity happened with the same dealer shop over the years.

This was brought to the attention of the Distirct Business Administrator by numerous people. However, the same dealer continues to do 'repair' work because they 'pick up and deliver.'

Other local repair shops 'pick up and deliver' too but the same dealer repair shop continues to be used despite the noted fraudulent activity. This is a waste of taxpayer money in both fraud and MAP functions. Eliminate the election for a Secretary of State and make it an appointed position.

This would save in a number of ways:1. Eliminate costly elections for an official that no one pays attention to anyway.2. Ensure smoother relations between the Department of State and the Governor's office. It is absurd the amount of political posturing that goes on when the two are from different parties. The Governor should be able to pick their own staff3. Remove the political aspect of the dept. As in #2, the staff at DOS suffers for the political nature of the Secretary.

The decisions made to save pennies results in catastrophes like BAM that cost millions4. It would allow for someone to be brought in to do the job, not use it as a spring board for election elsewhere as it has been used in the past.