Supervisor Mark Lesko Announces Success of Efficiency and Revenue Team and Start of Quality Initiative
Financial Impact of E & R Team to Town totals over $2.5 million dollars
Quality Initiative will build on E & R Team efforts to improve service delivery
Farmingville, NY – On March 14, 2011, Supervisor Mark Lesko announced that the Efficiency and Revenue Team (E & R Team), chaired by Town of Brookhaven Receiver of Taxes Louis Marcoccia, has officially completed its year-long effort to save taxpayer dollars. The E & R Team identified budget savings of over $2.5 million.
Over the course of 2010, the E & R Team aggressively implemented initiatives to reduce the cost of government. Some of their successes include:
- Closing out the bonds from old capital projects, saving over $900,000 in 2010 and over $700,000 in 2011. To help the Town comply with Supervisor Lesko’s debt management cap, Receiver of Taxes and Chair Louis Marcoccia and the E & R Team identified over $6 million in capital projects that were deferred or eliminated through a Town Board resolution.
- “Going green” with the Town’s recreation guide and the green gazette by putting them online, saving almost $120,000 a year.
- Releasing unclaimed checks, saving over $100,000 in 2010.
- Surveying all telephone lines in the Town and getting rid of those lines not in use, saving almost $40,000 in 2011.
- Implementing the “Curby Can” sticker to re-use garbage cans, increasing revenue by $110,000 a year.
- Beginning an effort to excess surplus property. The E & R Team started to examine the Town’s inventory and successfully sold a parcel next to Old Town Hall in Medford, which was no longer needed and was not designated as parkland or open space. The Town realized $155,000 from this sale.
Supervisor Lesko also announced the kick-off of a Quality Initiative Program, which will build upon the E & R Team’s success and provide a strong focus on delivering Town services to its residents in the most cost effective, efficient manner. The Town’s Quality program will be a modified version of the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) construct that was developed by Stony Brook University Medical Center (SBUMC).
“In order to continue to run the Town like a business, foster accountability, and save taxpayer dollars, we need to increase our focus on improving the quality of services we deliver to our residents,” said Supervisor Lesko. “I commend Lou Marcoccia for his valuable contributions as Chair of the Efficiency and Revenue Team and look forward to the next step in improving service delivery. I strongly believe the Quality Initiative program will move the Town’s operations closer to an efficient business model and allow us to deliver the highest quality of services possible.”
“Government should always be mindful of how taxpayer’s dollars are spent,” said Brookhaven Town Receiver of Taxes Louis Marcoccia, “This is even more critical during tough economic times. I am glad to have been part of the team working in a bi-partisan manner to find new, innovative and creative ways to save taxpayers money while implementing reality based solutions to increase the efficient delivery of Town services.” Mr. Marcoccia continued, “I believe working with Supervisor Lesko and the Town Board we have laid the groundwork towards a new way of doing business that will continue to be beneficial to our taxpayers and residents in the future.”
"Stony Brook University Medical Center’s Performance Improvement Program and, specifically, the CQI approach of FOCUS-PDCA has resulted in substantial improvements in many aspects of hospital operations ranging from improving how quickly patients with heart attacks can be brought to the Cardiac Catheterization Lab to preventing infections from medical devices to making certain that patients with pneumonia (and others) get vaccinations for prevention of pneumonia and influenza, ” said Dr. William Greene, Chief Quality Officer at Stony Brook University Hospital. “Stony Brook was very pleased to offer successful CQI models with broad ranges of applicability to the Town of Brookhaven and stands ready to provide guidance or assistance as Supervisor Lesko moves toward the implementation of a quality improvement initiative."
SBUMC’s CQI program works to identify ways in which the hospital can be more efficient and attentive to patient needs. One of the methodologies SBUMC utilizes as part of CQI is FOCUS-PDCA, which employs problem-solving techniques to improve processes. FOCUS-PDCA is an acronym for: Find a process to improve, organize a team that knows the process, understand causes of process variation, select the process improvement, and plan, do, check, act. These are the steps that SBUMC takes to improve processes, thereby improving quality of services with a goal of exceeding the expectations of their customers. Recent efforts in quality and patient safety have earned SBUMC local and national recognition.
Brookhaven is developing its Quality Initiative program with the support of Stony Brook University Medical Center. The Town’s Quality Initiative program will be directed by Fred Pollert, who has extensive experience in governmental budget and management, including serving as Vice President of Administration for the Long Island Power Authority and preparing and administering a $2.4 billion dollar budget as Deputy County Executive for Finance and Management in Suffolk County.
The Quality Initiative program, which was included in the Supervisor’s 2011 Budget, will utilize the FOCUS-PDCA model and will start by addressing the following projects:
- Examining the Jitney Bus program to see how it can serve senior citizens more efficiently.
- Looking at the Town’s number of workplace injuries to improve worker safety and devise a strategy to reduce worker’s compensation claims.
- Exploring opportunities for coordination of functions among departments.
- Using data from ServiceStat (a management tool that analyzes data to improve performance) to more effectively monitor how the Town is spending money.
- Assessing the necessity of certain Town contracts.
The Quality Initiative program will, like the E & R Team, continue to work with all Town Departments to identify opportunities for improving service delivery.
Division of Public Information * Office of the Supervisor
One Independence Hill • Farmingville • NY 11738 • Phone (631) 451-6595 • Fax (631) 451-6258
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Posted on Monday, March 14, 2011 (Archive on Thursday, March 08, 2012)
Posted by msabatello Contributed by msabatello
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