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Minnesota-Based Consulting Firm Adds Another 'Oscar' to its Shelf for Reinventing Government
Thursday July 28, 2005 12:03 pm ET

Bureaucracy-Busting State Agencies and a Revolutionary Budget Process Earn Prestigious Recognition for Clients of the Public Strategies Group
ST. PAUL, Minn., July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Clients of a public sector consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn., the Public Strategies Group (PSG), have garnered prestigious national recognition for innovations developed in partnership with PSG. ADVERTISEMENT At a ceremony in Washington, D.C. yesterday, one of PSG's clients, the State of Iowa, was named one of six recipients (http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/awards.html?id=7494 )of the prestigious Innovations in American Government Award - often referred to as the "Oscars" of government - from the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government ( http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/ ). Another client, the State of Washington, was one of 18 finalists for the award from a field of more than 1,000 applicants. Both states were recognized for projects designed and implemented in partnership with PSG. "It is enormously exciting to help our clients achieve award-winning innovation," said PSG CEO Babak Armajani. "Our goal is to be the world's number one resource for reinventing government and this recognition shows we are doing that." The 2005 win is the third time a PSG-client collaboration has taken home the "Oscar" and the fifth time PSG projects have emerged as finalists or semi-finalists in the annual competition. BUREAUCRACY-BUSTING AGENCIES The State of Iowa launched a bureaucracy-busting innovation it calls Charter Agencies (http://charter.iowa.gov/ca.html ). State agencies in Iowa volunteered to sign "charter" agreements with Gov. Tom Vilsack, giving them greater administrative flexibility as an incentive to better deliver public services. In exchange for increased flexibility and authority, Charter Agencies accepted the charge to find better ways to meet citizens' needs, to be held accountable for those results and to reduce costs and/or generate more revenue. In just the first year of operation, Charter Agencies exceeded their financial performance targets by 50 percent and generated $22 million in savings for the State. "The monetary savings are certainly important," said the PSG Co-Project Manager Dr. Mary Lofy, "but the fundamental transformation that has taken place in these agencies and the ideas they are generating to better serve the public are truly groundbreaking."

Charter Agencies are reducing the turnaround time for permits; reducing probation failures; improving the speed of issuing tax refunds; providing women inmates with job skill opportunities; and collaborating to improve service to customers. A WHOLE NEW WAY TO BUDGET The State of Washington was recognized as a finalist for spearheading a first-of-its-kind budgeting approach that it calls Priorities of Government. The traditional budget process quickly becomes an exercise in cutting services, raising taxes or both. The Priorities of Government approach as pioneered in Washington begins by asking "How can we get the most results that citizens value for the money they pay in taxes, fees or charges?" The process establishes priority results that citizens value and challenges agencies or departments to propose how they could best achieve those results. From the hundreds of proposals submitted, elected officials buy those they believe will make the greatest contribution to the citizens' priority results. Washington State has used the "budgeting for outcomes" process since it was launched by Gov. Gary Locke in 2002. It has been widely credited with fixing the state's $2.6 billion budget deficit and helping restore the public's faith in the public sector. The Seattle Times declared it "a big step forward for Washington." The Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a Washington think tank, predicted that it would "revolutionize state spending and take necessary steps toward assuring accountability to taxpayers." Washington State's experience was profiled in the recent PSG book, The Price of Government, and PSG has been hired to help implement similar budgeting processes around the country, including the states of Iowa and Mich.; the cities of Azusa, Calif., Los Angeles, Calif., Fort Collins, Colo., Wichita, Kan. and Spokane, Wash.; and the counties of Snohomish, Wash. and Multnomah, Ore. A TRACK RECORD OF AWARD-WINNING INNOVATION This isn't the first year PSG principals have been involved in the Harvard government "Oscar." In addition to this year's win and finalist finish, the following innovations have also received the prestigious recognition:
-- 1986 - Award Winner for Minn.'s Strive Toward Excellence in Performance (STEP) program. ( http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/awards.html?id=3494 ) -- 2000 - Award Winner for Performance-Based Contracting in Ill.'s child welfare system. ( http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/awards.html?id=3879 ) -- 1990 - Award Semi-Finalist for Enterprise Management in Minn. state government.

Iowa's Charter Agencies and Washington State's Priorities of Government were also recipients of the Council of State Governments' 2004 Innovations Award. St. Paul-based PSG has six offices located around the country (Boston, Omaha, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore. and Washington, D.C.) and has successfully led or assisted in the transformation of public organizations at all levels (state, federal and local) and on six continents. PSG works exclusively with public organizations, helping them transform themselves into more effective, customer-focused enterprises. PSG generates about $8 million a year in revenue. The firm has 17 partners and draws on a network of more than 50 consultants around the country. For more information, visit http://www.psg.us/ .