PROJECT GATEWAY Department of Administrative Services Agency Review Submitted to Governor-elect Spencer J. Cox, Lt. Governor-elect Deidre M. Henderson, and the Project Gateway leadership team Prepared & Submitted by: ● Ally Isom (Chair) ● Palmer DePaulis ● Paul McKinnon Transmittal Note This transmission memo includes recommendations from a Project Gateway team for the Cox-Henderson gubernatorial transition. The ideas, recommendations, and insights are presented for discussion purposes only and do not represent the policies of the new administration. The information does, however, provide valuable insights from a talented and committed group of volunteers. Each idea, recommendation, and insight can inform leadership decisions about state government in the coming years. Submitted December 7, 2020 COX/HENDERSON TRANSITION TEAM DEPT. of ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES Project Gateway / [email protected] ​ 12.8.20 COMMITTEE MEMBERS Ally Isom, chair Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer for EVŌQ nano, former deputy chief of staff to UT Governor Gary R. Herbert, former UT Dept. of Community & Culture deputy director, former UT Dept. of Workforce Services government affairs director Palmer DePaulis Retired, former executive director of UT Dept. of Human Services and UT Dept. of Community & Culture, former chief of staff to UT Attorney General Jan Graham, former commissioner at Utah State Tax Commission, 31st mayor of Salt Lake City Paul McKinnon Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, former Citigroup Head of Human Resources and Talent Management, former Dell Sr. VP of the Human Resources Group, leadership development practice at three management consulting firms ASSIGNMENT / SCOPE OF COMMITTEE REVIEW This committee was assembled by the Cox/Henderson Transition Team as part of the Gateway Project. We were tasked with reviewing the UT Dept. of Administrative Services, with a focus on operational efficiencies, personnel, and broader policy issues. We reviewed provided agency documentation, met with DAS executive director Tani Downing, and spoke with a number of key stakeholders and staff. As instructed, we summarize findings in short-form below. Note: This committee also reviewed the UT Dept. of Human Resource Management. ​ MATERIALS REVIEWED ● DAS response to agency review questionnaire, 48 pages ● DAS high level personnel and organizational charts ● DAS.Utah.gov STAKEHOLDER CONVERSATIONS ● Rich Amon, former DAS Deputy, Board of Regents ● Kristen Cox, former executive director GOMB and DWS ● Steve Cuthbert, DAS, former GOMB and DWS ● John Dougall, State Auditor ● Tani Downing, DAS executive director ● Mike Haddon, Corrections executive director ● Marcie Handy, former assistant state comptroller, DAS ● Gary Harter, executive director, Veterans and Military Affairs ● Val Oveson, former Lt. Governor, former DAS executive director ● John Nixon, former executive director GOPB ● Brian Wikle, Legislative Fiscal Analyst ASSESSMENT OF FINDINGS 2 Overview With 485 employees, seven divisions, and a $778m budget, DAS is a mission-driven, forward-thinking, solution-oriented, and employee-empowered agency. DAS operations are funded primarily through dedicated credits collected by internal service fund (ISF) or Special Revenue Fund agencies, as well as General Fund monies appropriated by the Legislature. The DAS response to the Transition Team’s questionnaire (hereafter referred to as the agency’s report) was well-constructed and thorough. It detailed numerous accomplishments and a proactive approach to tackling problems, offering few areas for constructive improvement. DAS leadership actively seeks feedback from agencies, stakeholders, partners, and frontline staff to better understand what is happening in programs and to improve overall service delivery. Agency mission DAS is clear about its mission and ensures staff understand it by incorporating key strategic elements into individual performance plans. Those strategic elements include: o Vision: Create Powerfully o Mission: Create innovative solutions to transform government services o Values: Responsive. Proactive. Predictive. o Four Foundational Pillars: ● A "Create Powerfully" Culture ● Responsible Stewardship ● People Development ● Clean Air and Energy Efficiency The DAS mission is expressed in various ways throughout its report. “DAS quietly empowers the mission of each state agency by providing necessary supportive services. We value our role as a trusted partner to each agency and to the Governor’s Office, and we are committed to continue creating new solutions, removing constraints, and offering more flexibility to allow agencies to respond to the changing needs of their customers” (p.7) DAS’ memorable vision statement, originating in 2017, is “Create Powerfully.” Leaders want all ​ ​ DAS staff to realize they have power to solve problems and create opportunity. More detail about the four foundational pillars may be found in the report, but principles that stand out include honoring the private sector’s ability to provide some services faster and for less, developing staff leadership capacity, and modeling earth-friendly decisions. Key operational findings 3 Department-wide ● Operational areas done well: efficiency, communication, problem-solving, purchasing, risk management, agency advocacy. ● With no recent third-party opinion survey, the agency solicits input from employees and receives high marks. ● A strong cultural identity for innovation and success, with a focus on “creating solutions powerfully and proactively” to benefit the people of Utah. ● General agreement the department is managing the enormous and, at-times politically challenging, prison construction project well. ● DAS partnered with the Governor’s Office to pilot a small telework model to create jobs in rural Utah. ● DAS acknowledges that funding constraints have made routine programmatic audits unfeasible. This could be an early warning sign. ● When DAS moved to a telework model in March 2020, it established initial employee and program performance metrics and continues to refine them over time. ● Another impactful recent change is the agency’s ability to run all major systems and secure processes remotely. Again, from the DAS report: “Necessity is the mother of invention and with the help and patience of DTS, we figured out ways to overcome the security issues, digitize paper processes, and provide critical services in ways we hadn’t considered before. These successes have energized us to look at all of our services through a new paradigm. The world may never be quite the same again” p.18). ● DAS considers some areas to be underfunded, including Finance, Archives and Records Service, Risk Management, and Fleet. ● DAS is committed to collecting and optimizing “actionable data.” “For every piece of published data, we ask ‘Is this data actionable? Is it needed to change a behavior? Does it inform important decision-making? Does it provide insight necessary to act?’" (p. 34). Archives and Records Service ● The Division of Archives and Records Service continues state efforts to digitize public records and meet growing public demand. Some stakeholders expressed concern that digitization efforts remain underfunded and will not meet growing public demand. Facilities Construction & Management 4 ● The Division of Facilities and Construction Management (DFCM) advances a paradigm of assessing the total cost of owning and maintaining a building over its lifetime, to ensure maximum value. ● DFCM’s efforts toward a State Master Plan will be critical in a post-pandemic world, where better teleworking data will enable more thorough analysis about true facility needs. It is critical that other major stakeholders, like the Utah State Legislature, counties and municipalities, are included in this planning. ● DFCM has implemented a different approach to new building/renovation projects. Rather than a construction project manager leading the team, a team consisting of a project manager, a maintenance specialist and an energy professional work together to make the very best and cost-effective decisions for the entire life cycle of the building. This is important, as it should lead to lower costs and better efficiency and should be actively monitored. Finance ● DAS receives very little federal money (about $40k) and works to help other agencies optimize their federal and state allocations. ● Stakeholders consistently express serious concern about the need to increase agility, accuracy, and inter-agency synergy, instead of mere security and compliance. There is an urgent need to upgrade technology to do so. Fleet Operations ● The pandemic has significantly increased teleworking and consequently fleet utilization has dropped. Fleet is looking for opportunities to decentralize and downsize its operations and provide better service. Purchasing & General Services ● The Division of Purchasing pioneered a procurement process with Amazon, accelerating delivery times and reducing costs. The positive relationship with Amazon resulted in Utah being white-listed with the retail giant, enabling the state to purchase directly from overseas suppliers, avoiding price-gouging during the pandemic and ensuring Utah could access timely and steady personal protective equipment supplies. ● DAS has formed agency and public-private partnerships to advance clean-air solutions and “green purchasing” practices. ● The Division of Purchasing is revamping processes to limit agency inclinations to prescribe solutions in an RFP and working to invite innovative private