The Commission for A New Georgia



Cost-efficient operations. Faster, friendlier, easier services.

Smart stewardship of Georgia’s assets.

Real change happens in everyday practices that make government work best and cost less.

The checked boxes mark CNG initiatives and actions that are now at work in State operations, services and management policies. Some are specific best practices, some are total transformations. Together, they are giving Georgians better value in government by managing well.

As the State confronts severe realities in serving a growing population with shrinking revenues, the efficiencies and economies already implemented are leading – rather than chasing -- the imperative to do more with less.

ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT
Administrative Services
Realign Administrative Services by function to promote clear policy making, stronger accountability and customer focus.
Make State Purchasing more efficient and service-driven through e-procurement with strategic sourcing.
Consolidate Human Resource activities common to all State organizations.
Refocus Georgia Technology Authority to enact its mission to develop and promote IT planning, implementation and management.
Implement a new statewide Asset Management Program integrated with the state’s financial and purchasing system.

Procurement
Establish a single center-leading purchasing agent to most efficiently purchase all goods and services for the State.
Set criteria to determine when purchases are made centrally or left to the individual agencies.

ASSET MANAGEMENT
Fleet Management I & II
Broaden Existing Fleet Management
Track Ownership Costs
Centralize Fleet Management
New Vehicle Assignment & Commuting Policy

Aviation
Consolidate Leadership and Operations.
Align the Fleet, Facilities and Missions.
Establish State-wide Standards.
Establish a Consolidated Fleet and Facility Plan and Planning Process.
Refurbish the Economic Development Gateway (Fulton County Airport facility).
Eliminate all Federal Surplus Aircraft.
Establish a User Billing Process to Recoup all Costs.
Establish Coordinated Aircraft Scheduling with Leadership Team Oversight.
Engage with Industry/Trade Organizations.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
Space Management
Establish a Real Estate entity to manage all State-owned and leased property.
Consolidate leases to reduce costs.
Consolidate Human Resource activities common to all State organizations.
Identify surplus land and buildings, and utilize or sell to reduce costs.
Assess Property Holdings through an inventory of current information on all real estate.
Use portfolio management strategies and tools for effective decision-making.

Capital Construction
Establish a Property Officer with responsibility for all capital construction.
Develop a clear mission, vision and guiding principles for capital construction and property management.
Evaluate real estate assets for reallocation and opportunities to sell.
Establish a Consolidated Fleet and Facility Plan and Planning Process.
Reallocate General Obligation (G.O.) Bonds no longer needed due to canceled or completed projects.
Develop statewide protocols -- policies, procedures and tools -- to manage capital construction services.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Public Finance Options
Take planning measures to protect the State’s AAA credit ratings.
Revise State Constitution to allow state-of-the-art financial tools and techniques and maximum flexibility.
Improve Debt Management practices and strategies to lower borrowing costs, manage risk, and achieve greater financial flexibility and efficiency.
Leverage Conduit Issuers to issue revenue bonds on behalf of the State.
Support Private Equity to increase pension fund returns, mitigate portfolio risk, create jobs, spur innovation and offer citizens new services.

Receivables
Develop a statewide policy on receivables/collections with a monitoring program.
Seek legislation and programmatic changes to aid statewide collection.

Seek legislation to establish Chief Accounting Officer (established 2005 by House Bill 293)
Track delinquent receivables.
Reassign Department of Community Health’s Prospective Payment Program.
Develop and implement cash management policies and consolidate accounts.
Provide departmental collection forecasts to predict cash flow and monitor collections.

State Investment Strategies
Liberalize the asset allocation guidelines currently set by the state to include authorizing new investment options.
Engage an external organization to monitor performance on a periodic basis.
Permit selection of external managers based on investment criteria alone.
Salary ranges and incentive pay for senior staff should continue to be reviewed annually to retain and recruit professional staff as alternative assets are added.
Clarify in a statement the process by which trading order is determined by managers to ensure SEC trading rules are consistently being observed.
   
COST MANAGEMENT
Risk Management
Reorganize the RMS Division with fewer, higher level, professional managers supported by technically qualified staff.
Revise the cost allocation system to create a more responsive, equitable and incentive based method of funding.
Create a comprehensive set of performance measures that are meaningful and accurate as a management tool.
Create the position of loss control manager within the RMS Division.
Expand the understanding and use of actuarial analysis by RMS.
Examine the inter-agency process of managing claims in litigation.

State Health Benefits
Improve the decision-making process.
Upgrade operations and structure.
Improve design efficiency.
Restructure retiree medical program.
Provide a simple, low cost, limited choice option.
Move to greater levels of health care consumerism.

ECONOMIC GROWTH
Tourism
Consolidate Georgia's tourism efforts into a single, independent authority.
Evaluate the goals and performance of each organization supporting tourism, and determine a long-term strategy for the overall tourism effort.
Expand public and private funding for tourism marketing, advertising and research.
Develop a master development plan for Coastal Georgia.
Review current incentives to promote tourism jobs and investment.
Support legislation enabling the Georgia Department of Economic Development to join the private sector in tourism marketing efforts.

Strategic Industries
Focus economic development efforts on growing the following industries in Georgia: Aerospace, Agribusiness, Energy & Environmental, Healthcare & Eldercare, Life Sciences and, Logistics & Transportation.
Establish a statewide, centralized commercialization center as the point of contact for research and commercialization opportunities.
Coordinate economic development efforts through the Governor to focus consistently on Georgia's strategic plan for economic development.
Establish a University-affiliated Research Park.

Competitiveness
Create Governor's Cabinet for Economic and Workforce Development, comprising relevant agency heads to coordinate the state's prospect process.
Focus financial incentives on industries as strategic to Georgia's growth.
Develop and enact a plan to attract and maintain business investors and ideas and research in Georgia.

Workforce Development
Establish a private, non-profit workforce development corporation and staff accountable for the success of Georgia’s workforce development efforts.
Aggregate or create a set of processes and technology solutions that enables the success of the WFD system objectives.
Support and enable the Georgia Education Community’s (P-16) efforts to consistently generate or retrain workers with skills employers need.
Improve the existing WFD system to make it more dynamic, resilient, and able to drive and sustain future economic growth.
Implement an effective communications plan to ensure that all employers and citizens understand, can use and embrace the WFD system.

Commercialization/Intellectual Property (In Progress)
The University System should invest, provide and maintain standardized enterprise-wide innovation management software system to its research universities.
Develop an enterprise-wide structure which recognizes the importance of research accomplishments within the University System.
Create system-wide vehicle to promote and integrate “best practice” education and process improvement within the research universities.
Establish a mechanism or an advisory group at the enterprise level to encourage and facilitate the development of an “open innovation” system.
Establish at the enterprise level an ongoing marketing program which creates and leverages the enterprise data into “a Georgia marketplace.”

Freight and Logistics (In Progress)
Identify and market Georgia’s differentiating logistics advantages.
Establish a Statewide “Freight Mobility Information Exchange."
Identify, establish and promote statewide freight corridors and hubs.
Promote and support workforce, training, and educational programs.
Conduct an inventory of all public and private rail assets in the State.
Develop a demand driven strategic statewide freight and logistics plan.
Make future infrastructure plans more durable.
Create a supportive business model.
Establish a focused freight and logistics division within the GDOT.

Transportation/Return on Investment (In Progress)
Pre-purchase key material commodities to “lock-in” select prices.
Monitor material prices and space projects to avoid peak demand.
Decrease timeframe to secure ROW with incentives to expedite acquisition.
Bundle or split projects to attract out-of-state or attract smaller, local contractors.
Coordinate efforts.
Increase transparency and accountability.
Reduce “silos.”
Consider completing Value Engineering studies for projects under $25M.
Increase flexibility of specs in GDOT’s current life-cycle cost/benefit analysis design.
Consider alternate materials or construction that reduce cost and maintain quality.
Develop a “Partnering Approach” with the consulting and contracting community.
Shorten the timeframe for fulfilling federal project requirements, to improve delivery.
Drive performance metrics to better monitor and report on key cost and schedule parameters and increase transparency and accountability in the project life-cycle.
Maximize the use of Design-Build where appropriate.
Request GDOT to work with a small group of contractors and consultants to encourage a partnering relationship that will improve operations.

CULTURE OF SERVICE
Leadership Development
Establish a State government executive leadership development program to train and prepare current and future State government leaders.

Customer Service
Start creating the culture and setting expectations for how we should serve our customers.
Imbed process improvement and cultural development methodologies to drive continuous improvements.
Create a general Information Call Center.
Improve the performance of existing call handling services.
Implement a Virtual Call Center (remote worker) program.

Recruitment, Retention & Retirement (In Progress)
Develop an overarching plan to accelerate and coordinate the transformation of the State Human Resources function to act more as a single, multi-unit enterprise.
Develop Statewide Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and align HR programs.
Expand initiatives to brand and market the experience of working at the State.
Divide the workforce during this transition, delivering Total Rewards value differently to each group.
Make significant investments in decision-support and employee education.

SERVICE DELIVERY
Service Delivery
Replace Regional Development Centers with Regional Commissions, establishing new governance, funding and accountability structures.
Incorporate proposed changes in 2008 legislation.
Changes in board structure become effective July 1, 2008, in the coastal region.
All other changes become effective July 1, 2009, including new Regional Commission boundaries.

Community Care for Behavioral Health and
Developmental Disabilities
Establish a fee-for-service provider system.
Require the use of evidence based/best outcome practices.
Develop an open, competitive CSB/provider environment.
Establish greater accountability for outcomes and performance.
Provide appropriate utilization of the state hospital system and reinvest saved dollars into community care.
Establish a Single System of Care for children and adolescents.
Develop an effective intervention program for the MH/AD needs of the adult offender population.

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The Commission for A New Georgia | 113 State Capitol Atlanta, GA 30334 | Phone: 404.463.7485 | Fax: 404.463.5268