Only two days into the new administration, Governor Dannel P. Malloy and his budget chief, Ben Barnes, are looking for new ideas from state employees for cost savings.
Barnes sent an e-mail, obtained by Capitol Watch, that seeks ideas from both unionized and non-unionized employees.
The e-mail is as follows:
January 7, 2011
Dear State Employee:
As a follow-up to Governor Malloy's January 5th message to you, I would like to inform
you that we have established a process whereby you can share your cost-effective and
cost saving solutions with him. The Governor would like to include as many of these
ideas as possible in the development of his first budget. As the budget must be
presented to the legislature on February 16th, the time is very short for this process. For
this reason, we have established a second phase which will take place over a longer
period of time so that ideas that may take more time to develop and refine can be
explored and evaluated. With respect to represented employees, this process has been
established as a result of meetings with Union leaders.
Phase One. Deadline for ideas: January 20th. All employees are encouraged to submit
their cost savings ideas to the Governor. Ideas of non-represented employees should be
emailed to Alison.newman@ct.gov. Unionized employees may present their ideas to
their bargaining unit representative(s). The unions may have meetings where their
members can share their ideas. You will be notified by your union ifthey are planning
to utilize this approach.
Phase Two. This will be a process over the next six (6) months and perhaps continuing
well beyond. In addition to the continuation of the sharing of ideas as outlined under
Phase One, there will be a process established within agencies where employees can
share their ideas with other employees, their agency heads and management through
agency committees. This longer term process will allow for the exchange of more
complex ideas and the development of better solutions in a collaborative manner. For
represented employees, the process will involve appropriate labor/management
structures and committees and will be worked out through their elected union
representatives. There will also be an element of centralized assistance, coordination,
and support. More details will be provided over the next few weeks.