AGA TOPICS Newsletter - PDC 2006
PDC 2006
Under Way in San Diego
AGA kicked off its 55th
Annual Professional Development Conference & Exposition in San Diego
Monday morning with an elaborate opening ceremony and a discussion
of government transformation by two leaders in the accountability
profession.
Nearly 1,800 attendees filled a ballroom at
the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina to see a presentation of the
colors of the Naval Base Coronado Color Guard, entertainment from
Mariachi Real De San Diego, and a stirring remembrance of founding
member Raymond Einhorn, CGFM, who died in April, by Past National
President William J. Anderson Jr., CGFM, and Past National Treasurer
Eva Williams, CGFM. (View
the tribute to Raymond Einhorn.)
Attendees then heard Peter A.
Harkness, editor and publisher of Governing magazine,
discuss what he calls a quiet crisis in government: an impending
wave of Baby Boomer retirements that threaten to leave federal,
state and local governments with a gaping loss of institutional
knowledge.
In more than half the states, one
in five employees will retire over the next five years. On the
federal side, 40 percent of the work force is expected to retire
over the next 10 years.
In fact, he said the federal level
is already showing signs of becoming a “hollowed out” government,
with an increasing reliance on contractors and state agencies to
fulfill typically federal roles. In San Diego County—which
is the fourth largest county in the country and is far larger than
many states—the
entire IT department is outsourced, he said. Pressure to seek help
from private firms will only increase. In fact, some states are
already leasing or selling infrastructure to private companies,
shifting traditionally public sector jobs, such as maintaining
water, wastewater or highway systems, to private firms.
“Is it totally gloom and doom?”
Harkness asked. “I don’t think so.”
Governments face the challenge of
creating more flexible hiring practices, moving young people through
the leadership pipeline more quickly, and focusing more heavily on
training and professional development. On the positive side, he said
that some retirees may continue to contribute to government in some
way, perhaps as consultants; recruitment and retention efforts are
improving in some states; and some private-sector leaders are moving
into high-level government positions.
The overarching problem all
governments face, Harkness said, is fragmentation: the failure of
various governments to work and communicate with each other
effectively.
He does not see those problems in
the financial community, however, he said. He noted that the
financial managers at the PDC, representing all sectors of
government, are sharing ideas and information. “I applaud that,” he
said. “I don’t know why it isn’t done in every field.”
Next, James A. Zingale, the
executive director of the Florida Department of Revenue, discussed
two very different stories of government transformation within his
department of more than 5,000 employees, who handle not only tax and
revenue collection but child support enforcement as well.
Zingale described a department that
15 years ago was being investigated for ethics violations, used
separate systems for each tax or revenue that was collected, and had
only two PCs. The department embraced Business Process Management,
formed a strong partnership with the state legislature, and now has
an integrated computer system that administers all tax and revenue
collection in the state.
The SUNTAX system helped boost
employee productivity tremendously while increasing state and local
tax compliance. The return on investment was 8-to-1, Zingale said.
The department was also able to persuade the legislature to give tax
collectors an additional 10 percent pay raise for their exceptional
performance.
“After an eight-year
transformation, you got to see lower costs, increased productivity
and improved services,” he said.
On the child support enforcement
side, Zingale said that nearly 1 million Florida children, or one in
every four, is a child support case. Florida had one of the worst
child support systems in the country, but has “managed its way” up
to No. 27 in the nation, and aims to have one of the top five
systems in the nation within a few years.
Zingale said Florida departments
looked to high-performing states for best practices and worked with
the legislature to change the laws so that establishing paternity is
now a much smoother process. Add a new computer system to the mix,
and the department now sends out 300,000 child support notices a
month. That’s up from 40,000 a month, and the system is not even
fully operating yet, he said.
By: Christina M. Camara