ST. PAUL, MN – Today, Lt. Governor Tina Smith honored state employees, who worked on eight different reform projects that have greatly improved the services their agencies provide for Minnesota residents and businesses. As part of the Dayton-Smith Administration’s Better Government and Continuous Improvement initiatives, these reforms have made state government more accountable to Minnesotans, saved taxpayer dollars, improved efficiencies, and provided better customer service.

 

“These reforms make government more accountable, by saving taxpayer money and providing better customer service to Minnesotans,” said Lt. Governor Smith. “Thanks to the work of the state employees we are recognizing today, veterans are receiving better care, more families and children have safe, affordable homes to live in, and small businesses are getting better, faster services from state government.”

 

The Governor’s Better Government and Continuous Improvement Awards annually celebrate individual and organizational achievements that have increased the productivity and efficiency of state government services, while improving customer service. Descriptions of the winning reform projects are below.

 

 

From 2013 to 2015, the Interagency Council on Homelessness developed and implemented a project called Heading Home: Minnesota’s Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Eleven state agencies have worked collaboratively to achieve a 17 percent decline in homelessness for Minnesota families with children between 2014 and 2015. This is the fifth-largest decrease in homelessness among the 50 states. The Council also has preserved 4,000 units of affordable and supportive housing. The Council will continue its work by releasing an update to their plan in 2016.

 

In addition, the Minnesota Homelessness Veteran Registry was created to end Veteran homelessness. The registry works to connect local, federal and non-governmental partners to create solutions.

 

The Department of Military Affairs implemented an action plan focused on improving diversity among its personnel and service members. Over the past four years, the National Guard has almost doubled in overall diversity from 7.8 percent to 14.3 percent. To achieve their success they widened recruiting efforts, opened advancement positions to female service members that were previously restricted to men, and instituted a mentorship program to encourage the advancement of personnel and service members of all backgrounds.

 

The Minnesota Housing Finance Agency worked to address the disparity in homeownership for households of color. The agency committed $500,000 to provide one-on-one counseling on credit repair, debt reduction, money management, mortgage loan applications, and good faith estimate comparisons.

 

In addition, the Housing Finance Agency provided three down payment and closing loan options. In 2015, 1,148 (29.4 percent) first time homebuyer loans went to households of color and Hispanic ethnicity. The Agency will continue to build on their success by strengthening their outreach to minority communities, and continuing counseling on homeownership.

 

Minnesota’s Help Me Grow initiative helps the families of at-risk young children understand developmental milestones, identify concerns, and find help additional assistance – all at no cost. To make it easier to navigate, the Minnesota Department of Education and the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet overhauled the program’s website, making it more user-friendly.

 

Thanks to these changes, health care and social service workers can now make referrals without doing prior research. These updates have achieved significant results – increasing child referrals from 533 to almost 13,000 a year. To build on this success, the Department of Education and Children’s Cabinet are exploring ways to expand the resource base for children up to eight years old.

 

 

In 2012, 69 percent of patients served by the Department of Veterans Affairs were using psychotropic medications. To improve patient health and wellness, the agency set a goal to reduce the use of these medications to 22.6 percent by 2015. To reach this goal, Veteran Affairs staff worked to better coordinate the care provided by their psychiatric, nursing, and recreational programs.

 

Veterans Affairs also hired life enrichment coordinators to collect and analyze data, develop plans to decrease behaviors, and to communicate with their interdisciplinary team. Using this coordinated approach, the agency exceeded their psychotropic medication use goal of 22.6 percent in October 2015 – reducing the use of these medications to 15.3 percent.

 

The Department of Transportation found that using Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAV’s) for bridge inspection can decrease safety risks for bridge inspectors. It also has proven to minimize traffic disruptions, from eight days to only five. UAVs provide inspection detail that replicates the detail learned through traditional measures, but cost significantly less in equipment and traffic control needs.

In 2014, local public health agency representatives asked the Department of Health to release vital records death data sooner. Local public health agencies wanted preliminary death data sooner, so that they could implement faster responses to emerging issues such as drug overdose deaths in near real-time. In response, the Department of Health worked to streamline their record keeping process. Because of these changes, families can now have both the fact of death and cause of death within 10 days. For local public health agencies the changes have been dramatic. Previously, it took up to 22 months to receive the data. Now they receive in just 1 week.

 

The Pollution Control Agency increased efficiency and reduced the time it takes to process citizen requests to increase their satisfaction. The Pollution Control Agency now responds to every request within three days, and provides a full response to the requested information within 21 days. To develop these standards, they surveyed external partners for their expectations for good service. The team switched their focus to see value through the eyes of their customers, and has held this ideal through the entire project. Thanks to this effort, the Pollution Control Agency is now responding to nearly all of their requests within the 21-day window.