Florida
Tax Watch and Prudential-Davis Productivity Awards winners were announced at a
news conference this morning at the Capitol, moments ago. This year's
awards competition will confer 468 individual and team awards to thousands
of state employees statewide for their innovations and productivity
improvements worth $514 million in cost savings, cost avoidance, and increased
revenue for state government.
This
year, the Prudential-Davis Productivity Awards recognizes the Office
of Judges of Compensation Claims again. In the past, the OJCC has been
recognized for development and deployment of our electronic case management
database, electronic filing, the electronic appellate record process, the OJCC
"case search" function for trial orders, the OJCC videoteleconference
system, and the pilot project for electronic service. I am very proud of our
OJCC team for their many achievements. Many have been recognized
by Florida Tax Watch, but all of the achievements, award-winning or not,
have been of great benefit to our customers and the State.
This
year, the OJCC is recognized by Florida Tax Watch with two awards. I
am very proud of both of our teams that are recognized this year. The OJCC is
made up of an incredibly diverse and talented group of people. Their
achievements are the result of a never-ending drive for this agency to be the
best that it can be. I feel that the Florida OJCC is a model for any
adjudicatory organization, and I am so privileged to serve with such a group of
people.
The
first OJCC Florida Tax Watch award for 2013 is for the development of
the Voluntary Mediation Program. The development of this process involved
much brainstorming, organizing, and contributions from many in and outside of
the OJCC, most notably in the form of feedback and ideas. However, the effort
was led by OJCC Mediators Stuart Suskin (GNS) and Paul Harwood (PSL).
These leaders were integral to the development of the process and the
implementation of the Rules and forms that are critical to this program. Their
efforts and this voluntary mediation process will save workers' compensation
system participants money and time as they engage the services of our talented
team of State Mediators throughout Florida. The two will receive a Certificate
of Achievement.
The
second OJCC Florida Tax Watch award for 2013 recognizes some of our "behind
the scenes" team members in Tallahassee. Jeff Russell, our web programmer
and information technology expert teamed with our Information Technology
Director, Susan Brown, to implement the process of having the Department of
Revenue (DOR) share their child support data with the OJCC. In this process,
Andrew Ellis of the DOR also played a critical role. These three are being
recognized by Florida Tax Watch for this effort.
This
project was the foundation upon which the OJCC developed your ability to obtain
child support arrearage information from our Office rather than from DOR. With
the support of the OJCC electronic filing program and e-service program, we
have made it cheaper (free, e-filing) and easier to request this data, cheaper
(free, e-service) for the State to provide this data, and we are delivering
this service with more rapid turnaround times. A double benefit of this new
paradigm is that whichever attorney requests the data, all attorneys of record
receive the response. Our IT team that developed this process for sharing data
and for facilitating our staff access to that data are receiving an Honorable
Mention from the Florida Tax Watch recognizing their innovation.
We
will be presenting our 2013 award winners with certificates memorializing their
efforts and the contribution they have made to the more efficient operation of
the Office of Judges of Compensation Claims. I appreciate and applaud their
efforts, and the efforts of all of our team around the State.