[T]echnology and personnel are central issues to Vermont’s government, two state officials told a citizens’ panel charged with making recommendations on governmental restructuring.
It was the second meeting of the three-member panel, created in the fiscal year 2016 budget bill in order to review and offer recommendations on how state government could become more efficient.
Over the course of the next year, the commission will study the structure of state government, culminating in a report to lawmakers in November 2016.
Secretary of State Jim Condos focused his testimony Tuesday on suggestions of where the commission could look to maximize the resources already available within state government.
He encouraged the commission to consider the operations for licensing handled by different branches of state government.
The secretary of state oversees the Office of Professional Regulation, which licenses some four-dozen professions. Condos said that the office has become much more efficient in processing licenses in recent years.
That could mean that other agencies that work with licenses, such as the Agency of Natural Resources or the Department of Liquor Control, could go to the secretary of state for those needs instead of soliciting services from outside state government.
“There are many opportunities within state government to get the synergies, to get the efficiencies that allow … state government to continue to grow but be able to handle additional product,” Condos said.
Condos said that technology has a role to play in maximizing the efficiency of state government. However, he emphasized that new technologies do not necessarily mean a reduced workforce.
Condos encouraged the panel to examine the current structure of the Department of Public Safety, which is not housed within an agency, and the Department of Corrections, which is under the umbrella of the Agency of Human Services.
Functionally, those departments may make sense to group together in an agency focused on public safety, Condos said.
Secretary of Administration Justin Johnson told the commission that the biggest cost drivers in state government are employees, services and IT projects.
Technology could be a key to improving the way that the state delivers services, but, Johnson said, it is expensive.
“It gets us a lot, but it doesn’t get it to us for free,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that one of the challenges for restructuring the state is better communicating the long-term picture. That could mean holding cabinet meetings when secretaries and department heads project out five years, instead of exclusively focusing on the day-to-day operations.
“One of the things I don’t know if we’re that good at is explaining the vision for where we’re going,” Johnson said.
John Sayles, who chairs the panel, said Condos is not the first person to approach him with practical ideas for restructuring state government.
“It just shows that there are a lot of people who have been thinking about these things for a long time all over the state,” Sayles said.
The commission will deliver its preliminary recommendations to lawmakers in February, but will continue to hear testimony through the summer. The group expects to hold about a half-dozen public meetings around the state to hear from Vermonters, and members hope to recruit input from state employees.
Sayles sees a need for a larger cultural shift within state government, so that employees and management are better able to anticipate and adapt to shifts in practice.
“Really, if we’re going to see change happen, and if it’s going to be change that’s going to lead the state in a more operationally and fiscally sustainable place, it’s going to mean culture change,” Sayles said.
