State of Ohio Managing to a Bottom Line Under Strickland

September 1, 2008 by Pelikan
Filed under: Energy Policy, Gov Strickland, State Governments, State of Ohio Govt 

Lost in the forest of Democratic National Convention coverage here in Ohio was a report last week from the Columbus Dispatch which shows Governor Ted Strickland’s efforts to better handle the business of state government are working.

The story, which ran on August 28, was headlined State Employees Save $2 million in Mileage Costs. Check out the first three grafs:

For once, there’s good news about fuel costs.

State employees who use their personal vehicles for business drove about 5.2 million fewer miles in the past fiscal year than in the previous one, resulting in a $2 million reduction in mileage reimbursements, according to the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, the business arm of state government.

This year, employees who drive state-owned vehicles are shifting more to alternative fuels - ethanol and bio-diesel - and away from regular unleaded gasoline. The state bought 80,000 fewer gallons of unleaded gas in the most recent quarter, a state report showed.

The story behind the story is that state government didn’t do well at these ‘enterprise’ management initiatives under 16 years of Republican rule. To give credit where it is due, Governor Bob Taft’s administration did begin the cutbacks in the size of the state fleet and did pass legislation mandating state agencies to meet goals for the use of biodiesel and other alternative fuels. Republicans went so far as to replace most of the existing passenger sedan fleet – those state cars you see tooling around Ohio – with models which are flex fuel capable. The problem is, there was no leadership at the top dictating to those with easy access to E85 to put it in the cars. Republicans’ already weak alternative fuel goals were not met because state agencies ignored Bob Taft.

State agencies in this government do not ignore Ted Strickland.

Strickland’s second Executive Order ordered agencies to take certain actions and begin collecting data on energy use and conservation. Three things make Strickland’s executive leadership different from that of his Republican predecessors: Efficiency, Accountability, and Transparency. They all played a part in cutting costs on mileage and getting state employees to use the flex fuel capabilities of their state autos.

The efficiency argument is self-evident. If we are paying for flex fuel capable cars – put the E85 in the tank. Through the Department of Administrative Services’ Office of Fleet Management, state government began changing the driving culture last year. You couldn’t get into a state pool vehicle from Cincinnati to Youngstown without seeing reminders of using flex fuel – including state maps with E85 station locations plotted on them. State fleet managers were also told to educate their drivers to approach filling the tank differently. Rather than wait until you’re running on “E,” top off the tank while in populated areas with access to E85. Don’t drive out of your way for E85, but think twice before passing up an opportunity to use an E85 pump. In another move toward efficiency, Ohio is also beginning this year to move toward a compact car, rather than a mid-sized sedan, as the default state vehicle.

Governor Strickland has placed an accountability component into each one of his executive orders regarding government operations. It’s one thing to order agencies to do something, hold the press event, and go on to the next media event. That is the politics of the past. Strickland’s orders come with instructions to agencies to collect certain data – measure progress and report. If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it. In most cases, there is a centralized repository for the reporting of this data – or progress. What this means, is that someone is watching.

The transparency comes in with what is done with the data. In the case of fleet management issues, DAS posts a scorecard to the World Wide Web. One can imagine the first couple of months of that scorecard in late 2007 when there were agencies “in the red.” There was bit of media attention from a Columbus TV station. Transparency works – Ohio’s state employees are now blowing up the goals.

Strickland is now one of several Democratic governors across the country who are managing the business of state government to higher standards. We used to be told that the Republican Party was the “Party of Business.” When I was younger, growing up in a Republican part of the state, I thought that meant that Republicans were good managers, good stewards of resources. That’s obviously not the case. The best government operations management is coming from our Democratic ranks. When you think about it, you shouldn’t be surprised.

The Republican Party rhetoric of today is far and away different from the party of Eisenhower and even Nixon. Government for them has become the means to a social end or an enabler for the anti-American business practices of their corporate donor base. Democrats on the other hand believe in the potential good that government may provide all. We’ve had our mistakes, but there is growing evidence with governors like Ted Strickland, Tom Vilsack and Janet Napolitano there will be much more efficiency, accountability, and transparency in government than ever before.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , ,

Comments

3 Comments on State of Ohio Managing to a Bottom Line Under Strickland

  1. Cats r Flyfishn on Mon, 1st Sep 2008 9:17 pm

    2. Questions about 2 things that I read about Ohio. Is it true that Ohio purged 400,000 voters from the records? Also, is it true that at some voting places, voters can register on election day and then vote? I’m from PA. It will be interesting to see which state the Republicans are going to try to steal the votes from this election. Ohio, Democratic Gov., Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. and Florida, well, it could be suspicious to attempt this twice in the same state.

  2. Ohio Clipper on Mon, 1st Sep 2008 9:55 pm

    3. Cats - I can’t answer question 1 — don’t know what you’re referring to. But on 2, there will be a period of time under current election law (i think less than 4 weeks) where voters will be able to register and place an absentee ballot on the same day. There’s been a lot of hubub … for recent news coverage, click on the “jennifer brunner” tag in the tag cloud which is on the left sidebar of every page on the site. Pelikan

  3. Cats r Flyfishn on Mon, 1st Sep 2008 10:52 pm

    4. Ohio - Thanks for getting back to me. I read a story on another blog about purging voter records in Ohio. If I come across the post, I’ll add a link here. Keep up the fight, Ohio.

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!