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County Employees Offer Cost-Saving Suggestions

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By JULIA FERRANTE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 13, 2008

Each day, supply officer John Luecke takes stock of the Pasco County Fire Rescue reserves and distributes life-saving medications to ambulances and firetrucks.

The drugs are used to treat patients with heart conditions or painful injuries during the precious minutes en route to the hospital.

At the county's busier fire and rescue stations such as Embassy Hills and Veterans' Village, the medications are used quickly and restocked regularly. At slower stations such as Crystal Springs, however, the drugs often were not used before their expirations dates and had to be thrown out - until a few months ago.

Luecke suggested to his supervisors that the medications be changed out more frequently, with drugs closer to expiration being doled out to the busier stations. The rotation could save the department $27,000 per year, Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Mike Ciccarello said.

"And that's being conservative. It will probably save more than that," he said.

Luecke's idea is one of dozens of cost-saving suggestions submitted by employees during the past several months as part of an incentive program reinstated in February. County commissioners have allocated $5,000 for awards to workers whose ideas result in tangible savings.

County Commissioner Michael Cox suggested the program be revived as county leaders look to cut an estimated $22 million from their $1.2 billion spending plan, mostly from accounts supported by property taxes and the fire and rescue taxing district.

A cost-savings award committee, including Personnel Director Barbara De Simone and five other members, is considering the suggestions and deciding who gets awards. No awards have been given out yet.

The payouts are to be based on the net savings to the county. For ideas that save between $100 and $4,999, a worker will get $50. Employees whose suggestions save more than $25,000, such as Luecke's, will get the maximum award, $1,000.

Division heads are not eligible. Ideas must be submitted on forms provided by the county and signed and dated by the person making the suggestion. The change must save time or materials and make the county more efficient or safer.

Suggestions that are part of an employee's regular duties or that already have been made will not qualify.

The program has generated dozens of suggestions, ranging from less frequent lawn mowing to unpaid smoking breaks.

Officials already have cut back the mowing schedule, said Michael Nurrenbrock, director of the Office of Management and Budget. The smoking break idea was rejected because it would cost more to implement than it would save.

"If we did that, that would require buying a bunch of time clocks," he said.

Other suggestions, such as turning off lights at night and printing copies as needed rather than filling out more expensive carbon-copy forms, have been implemented, although it's unclear how much savings those changes represent, Nurrenbrock said.

County-owned cars assigned to building department employees, whose jobs were eliminated, have been redistributed.

Also as a result of an employee suggestion, ambulance and backup firetruck drivers are turning off the ignition rather than idling outside hospitals or when on a call.

"We don't know how much that will save, but it will save something," Ciccarello said.

County officials also have initiated a program, "Lean, Efficient, Accountable Pasco" or LEAP, to save money. Some ideas come from employees. Others come from other counties, Nurrenbrock said.

Some changes save time, such as booking conference rooms through the Outlook e-mail program rather than making phone calls to schedule a room, Nurrenbrock said.

For information on the budget, residents may tune in to "Profiles on Pasco" for a feature on property taxes and the budget, which will air several times throughout the summer.

In the program, Nurrenbrock gives a primer on the budget process, allocation of property taxes and plans for fiscal 2008-09.

The proposed budget will be submitted to the Board of County Commissioners at a special meeting, 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the West Pasco Government Center, 7530 Little Road, New Port Richey. The meeting will be broadcast live on Bright House Networks Channel 622 and Verizon Channel 42.

Public hearings are slated for Sept. 8 in Dade City and Sept. 23 in New Port Richey. The new budget goes into effect Oct. 1.

A detailed Pasco Television program schedule is available on the county Web site at www.pascocountyfl.net.

Reporter Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or jferrante@tampatrib.com.

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