Worker ideas save money for taxpayers> State rewards employee frugality

AUGUSTA — Darrell Lombard, a Maine State Police dispatcher, pondered ways the state could save money in its purchase and use of two-way radios during the 13 years he worked at state police headquarters in Augusta.

But it wasn’t until Monday that Lombard, a 40-year-old Windsor resident, was rewarded for his suggestions that already have trimmed $33,000 from the Department of Public Safety’s budget.

With the state facing an estimated $210 million budget shortfall over the two-year budget cycle, every dollar saved becomes more important.

Lombard was one of 24 state employees who received Employee Suggestion Awards Monday from Gov. John R. McKernan and Administration Commissioner Charles Morrison for making suggestions that will save the state at least $110,000.

Lombard was the only employee to win the maximum award — $2,000.

“There’s a satisfaction in knowing you’ve saved the taxpayers some money,” said Lombard after the State House ceremony. “I’m a taxpayer myself.

“My frustration is that there are many radios out there in the vehicles that don’t need to be there. They could very easily use pagers. Finally, you get the idea they are listening to you.”

Obviously pleased by the $2,000 bonus, Lombard said, “I’ve spent it three times over.”

Lombard made a multipart recommendation on radios.

One was that the 37 new radios to be bought by the Department of Public Safety be ordered without voice-privacy boards, a $900 optional item without which Lombard said state police had done very well over the years.

The department agreed with Lombard’s idea and the result was an immediate budget savings of $33,000.

Lombard also has identified many places he thinks that inexpensive pagers could be used in place of expensive two-way radios.

“Darrell’s idea deals with the entire law enforcement community,” said Lombard’s supervisor, Roland Leach, director of administrative services at the Department of Public Safety. “It could help wardens, the Department of Transportation, anyone that uses radios. It’s a big suggestion that could apply to many other departments.”

McKernan, who rejuvenated the Employee Suggestion Award program last year, praised state workers for “a wonderful team effort we have in state government to make government run more efficiently.”

“State employees are the true experts in state government,” said McKernan. “Even commissioners can’t always tell if money is being spent in the most efficient way possible.

“The cost-cutting suggestions we have received range from changing the size of an envelope to adopting a new accounting practice that could potentially save the state up to $1 million,” the governor said.

Morrison said the $1 million suggestion had yet to be implemented and the employee who suggested it would be honored later.

McKernan also said that more than 1,000 state workers had applied for various voluntary cost-cutting programs including early retirements, educational leaves and leaves without pay.

McKernan said cost-cutting would succeed “if you work with employees and design programs they’re going to like.

“We have tried to minimize the impact on the state work force by finding creative solutions to the problem,” he said.

McKernan said some of the suggestions, coming in at about 10 a week, were whimsical such as a proposal to create 10 maximum-security prison beds at the Blaine House.

Not all employees got cash awards because Morrison said all of the savings suggested could not be measured immediately. But he said some awards could grow larger as savings materialized.

Among workers who got certificates, but no immediate cash, were Jane Edwards of the Legislative Law Library, who suggested installing automatic shutoffs on hot-water faucets; Robert Murch of the Department of Labor, who suggested that state police use intermittent radar detectors; and Amy Panek of the Department of Educational and Cultural Services, who suggested using post cards instead of letters in envelopes when responding to mail inquiries.