PRESS RELEASE

October 18, 2001

2001 DAVIS PRODUCTIVITY AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED

TALLAHASSEE, FL - - As Florida lawmakers grapple with the $1.3 billion budget shortfall, it is more important than ever for our state to find ways to do more with less. That's just what the winners of the 2001 Davis Productivity Awards (DPAs) announced today have accomplished. Established in 1989, the DPAs have recognized and rewarded more than 5,000 state employees, work units and agencies for their enterprise and innovative productivity. This year's winners produced an additional $495 million in value for Florida taxpayers. Over the previous twelve years, the program recognized state workers whose achievements added up to $3.4 billion in savings and improved productivity.

Funded by the Davis Family of Winn-Dixie Stores and other generous contributions, sponsored by Florida TaxWatch and The Florida Council of 100, and chaired by Lt. Governor Frank Brogan, up to $100,000 in cash awards, commemorative plaques, certificates of commendation and other public recognition will be provided at this year's celebrations of excellence.

The 2001 Davis Productivity Awards Panel of Judges, chaired by Mike Jennings, Florida TaxWatch Executive Committee member and Vice President, Prudential Financial, announces this year's top award winners who will receive $2,000 checks and commemorative plaques:

Kimberly Bliss-Cohen, Operations Team Leader, Office of Contracted Client Services, Department of Children and Families, Tallahassee, who linked financial data with contract information in a novel way to help improve management of nearly $1.5 billion spent annually to purchase client services, and generate more than $1 million worth of time and cost savings.

Captain Steve Williams, Florida Highway Patrol, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Orlando, who used self-taught skills and contributed 260 hours of his own time to save at least $300,000 in consultant fees while creating a homicide investigation tracking system which is now being used statewide.

Nearly 100 additional individual and work unit winners will receive checks of $300 to $1,500 at eight awards presentations throughout the state. Many others among this year's 835 nominees will be recognized with commemorative plaques and certificates of commendation.

Other top winners in the categories of Sustained Exemplary Performance and Agency Coordinator of the Year, plus examples of Adaptable Achievements and Citizen and Private Sector Benefits are listed and detailed below.

Sustained Exemplary Performance

A "Sustained Exemplary Performance" award salutes the following that have won multiple Davis Productivity Awards for continuing excellence since 1991 and will receive special recognition underwritten by PRIDE Enterprises:

Glenn Palmiere, Data Processing Manager, G. Pierce Wood Memorial Hospital, Department of Children and Families, Arcadia, for winning and nominating twelve individual and team awards.

The Division of Legal Services, Department of Insurance. This 75-person unit has won 28 individual and team awards.

District IV, Department of Transportation, Ft. Lauderdale. The District's 1,124 employees have received 47 individual and work unit awards since 1991 which created first-year cost savings/cost avoidances of $180 million and assured receipt of $85 million in at-risk federal revenue.

Agency Coordinator of the Year

State agency awards coordinators help make the Davis Productivity Awards possible by their year round efforts and counsel. This year's standout is Jerome Todd, Agency For Health Care Administration. A five-year veteran with the Davis Awards, this retired career Marine Corps Officer and Senior Management Analyst has been a driving force in increasing his 1,700 member agency's nominations from 29 in 1999 to 83 in 2000 and 168 this year, an all-time high among state agencies.

Adaptable Achievements

The Davis Productivity Awards program promotes achievements that can be adapted and implemented by other individuals and work units throughout state government to reap additional savings and operational improvements. Some 175 adaptable achievements from this year's competition are being added to 330 achievements from the past two years on the Davis Productivity Awards website (www.floridataxwatch.org/dpa).

These achievements can generate as much as $1/2 billion added value if fully implemented over the next three years. Examples include:

Satellite learning centers promoted by Department of Education staff at employer and community agency sites that combine academic and practical learning which help to improve student achievement and graduation rates. These centers have produced a cost avoidance of more than $1 million - with the potential for millions more. They can be adapted by school districts and community colleges, at businesses, military bases, hospitals, community agencies, and at local government and ecosystem preserve facilities.

Florida's Early Intervention Program serves children up to age three who are developmentally delayed. Improved fiscal procedures and program management guidelines developed by Children's Medical Services staff in South Miami-Dade County saved $550,000 in fy 2000-01 and could be used by many Early Intervention Programs in Florida.

Department of Corrections staff reduced the cost of inmate drug testing from $4.83 per test to $3.56 per test for net savings of nearly $900,000. This innovation could be utilized by county jails, drug treatment centers and businesses.

Citizen and Private Sector Benefits

The Davis Productivity Awards program also recognizes achievements that benefit groups of citizens and the private sector, and those that further six key priorities of the Bush/Brogan Administration. Examples:

Agency for Health Care Administration staff implemented a legislatively mandated drug benefits program for 30,000 seniors, and a pharmacy discount program for nearly three million Medicaid beneficiaries that reduces annual spending by more than $250 million without restricting patients' access to services.

Department of Business and Professional Regulation staff developed a food safety program that reduces food borne illness through identification and correction of risks and hazards encountered in retail food processes and preparation.

Working with county governments and the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services created an initiative to collect and safely dispose of unusable pesticides that saved farmers, growers, pest control companies and operators of plant nurseries and golf courses more than $900,000 in management and disposal fees.

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