by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
“This year the competition for the Prudential-Davis Productivity Awards attracted 568 nominations statewide. The individuals and programs we’re recognizing this year resulted in a savings of $342 million for the people of Florida and a total of $6.3 billion since the awards started 21 years ago,” said Clarissa Dunlap, executive director of the Prudential-Davis Awards Program, an initiative of Florida Tax Watch.
Dunlap and the 2009 award recipients from North Florida joined the Rotary Club of Jacksonville at its meeting Monday to celebrate success and honor those who went above and beyond the call of duty for the taxpayers of Florida.
A 12-member panel of judges evaluated each nomination for the awards which recognize innovative government processes and productivity improvement that lead to cost savings, cost avoidances and increased revenues. Categories include achievements that benefit senior citizens, improved Homeland Security and disaster preparedness, healthcare, wellness and environmental issues, among others.
One of this year’s recipients was the Jacksonville Case Closure Exception Team that works in the Department of Revenue. They improved child support enforcement in North Florida through a time study to determine ways to operate more efficiently and handle more cases in a shorter period of time.
“We went so far as to count strokes it took on the keyboard to handle a case,” said team member Dona Crelia.
The Public Health Informatics Team from the Duval County Health Department was also recognized this year. The five-member team convened a group of community stakeholders to develop a grant application for a federal program to improve the efficiency and quality of public health care.
“The team’s efforts led to Jacksonville being selected to receive as much as $15 million worth of incentive payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for physicians who use electronic health records,” said Dunlap.
Honored individually for more than 20 years of exemplary performance in the Department of Health’s Jacksonville office was Gale Tucker-Disney.
“During her career, the local department has had more program evaluations in the 90 to 100 percent range than any other county in Florida,” said Dunlap.
Club members and guests also heard from Buddy Folkner, a Downtown Rotary member who also has 25 years experience as an instructor with the Dale Carnegie organization.
Folkner said all the award recipients shared some common traits that led to their outstanding performance.
“These leaders we have recognized today have successfully tapped their potential,” said Folkner. “Only about 10 percent of an iceberg is above the water while 90 percent is submerged. People are like that, too. Only about 10 percent on average of a person’s potential is utilized. Imagine what can happen if only 2 or 3 percent of that 90 percent that’s submerged could be used. It would add an additional 20 or 30 percent to productivity and that can have a powerful affect on any business.”
Another thing that sets Prudential-Davis Productivity Award recipients apart, said Folkner, is how they approach difficulties when they encounter them.
“Innovation begins with the pressure and demand to solve a problem. These people looked for ways to meet challenges. They realized working more hours wouldn’t last very long so they sought out innovative solutions,” he said.
Nominations for the 2010 Prudential-Davis Productivity Awards are now being accepted and citizens are invited to nominate state employees who are creating innovative solutions that reduce expenditures or increase revenue or efficiency. Nomination forms are available at www.floridataxwatch.org/dpa and must be received by Aug. 1. More information is available by calling Dunlap at (850) 222-5052.
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