Bureau/Division Director’s Meeting

April 6, 2005

Commissioner’s Conference Room

                                                                        

 

The following are points of interest that were discussed at the Bend the Curve portion of the Bureau/Division Director’s meeting on Wednesday, April 6, 2005.

 

• Arthur discussed the Maple Street Warehouse stating access will only be on a monthly basis in the future.  Rob Berube will keep track of requests for access and will schedule either one or two days during the month to have records clerks come to the warehouse to retrieve records.
• DOL would like to transition out of keeping archives and have records go to the State Archive office.
• Both BES and BUC have concerns about closing the Warehouse.
• State Consolidation:  Dick Thompson will attend the April ELT meeting to answer questions Directors and ELT members may have.  Directors were asked to gather questions from their staff for Dick to address.
• The Commissioner, Arthur Davis and Jane Gilbert met with Ed Karass of DAFS to discuss the consolidation of OAS and OHR.  The consensus was that DOL consolidate its internal functions first and then think about joining the state consolidation effort.  The newly formed DOL Bureau of Finance and Administration is working closely with the Controllers Office to that end. It is not expected to happen for at least two years.
• The fact that DOL will be the last to consolidate causes concern with Management as employees may lose opportunities for advancement.  If they choose to avail themselves of opportunities and succeed, it would leave DOL in a serious position.
• The State Intranet has a page on the consolidation.
• Service Centers A and B are expected to be operational by July 1, 2005.
• In response to a question about budgets, Arthur advised Directors to prepare their budgets just like any other year, for now.
• The mailroom discussions continue. It has not been decided if they will move to DAFS or not.  DOL favors them staying with DOL.
• However, the Governor has expressed a desire to have state services cost less and to eliminate duplicative services and DOL is committed to making the consolidation work.
• VSM Presentation:  A VSM Team comprised of Joan Cook, Cheryl Bradford, Crystal Cooley, Valerie Kaler, Ermalyn Kent and Lisa Sirois tackled the subject of UC Tax and Benefits. 
• The group showed how the future state would reduce unnecessary and redundant processes to increase efficiency and showed potential savings of $1.1M.  In addition, their recommendations would greatly enhance the image of DOL.