STATE PREPARES TO REINVENT THE WAY IT GOVERNS (FIRST OF TWO PARTS)

JEFFERSON CITY -- What weighs more than six pounds, is more than three inches thick, has more than 560 pages and is designed to change the way Missouri functions well into the 21st century?

Chances are most Missourians have never heard of the Commission on Management and Productivity, but within a few days Gov. Mel Carnahan will urge the General Assembly to enact its recommendations on how Missouri can reinvent state government to make it more efficient and less costly.

Formed by executive order, the commission was made up of six task forces, each headed by a private-sector expert in fields as far ranging as personnel and automation. Balancing the task force leadership was a vice chairman from state government, and each group's membership was composed of representatives from both inside and outside state government.

Just reading the 16-page executive summary of the task forces' recommendations is a formidable job, one not recommended for a quick read or a couple of hours of reading pleasure. But if the summary proves difficult for the average layman, then the individual task force recommendations can be compared to reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace" while on vacation.

If most of the recommendations of the six reports are implemented by executive order or recommended alterations by this year's General Assembly, state government will undergo its greatest transformation since Missouri adopted recommendations from the so-called "Little Hoover Reorganization Commission" in the late 1940s.

The basic organization for the study called for an overall steering committee and six task forces. Early last year the state contracted with Price Waterhouse to provide project management services, and an on-site project manager was designated to plan, organize, direct and control the efforts of the commission groups. In addition, Price Waterhouse provided a standard methodology to ensure consistency of work produced by each of the task forces. To support the project, the state's 16 departments each designated one professional staff member and one support staff to work full time during the six-month review and recommendation process.

Eighteen members were named to serve on the steering committee, headed by Michael Camp, an executive with General Motors Corp. The two vice chairmen were Lt. Gov. Roger Wilson and Richard Hanson, the state's commissioner of administration. Members included three legislators, Sen. Steve Danner and Reps. Steve Gaw and Sheila Lumpe, while six members headed or represented state agencies. In addition to Camp, there were six other private-sector members, including executives with Xerox, Sprint, Blue Cross and Blue Shield and General American Life Insurance Co., as well as St. Louis University and the Scientific Education Partnership Foundation.

As the group began its work last year, it divided itself into six major groupings, listing for each a series of goals to be met. The proper title of each group, along with its goals:

-- Management Improvement and Customer Focus Task Force: Develop innovative management processes to provide services that exceed the needs and expectations of the public.

-- Organizational Planning Task Force: Develop an integrated strategic planning process for the state.

-- Work Force Task Force: Develop strategies to recruit, motivate, train, utilize and retain state personnel to promote a high-performance work force, with emphasis on compensation, benefits and recognition strategies.

-- Automation Task Force: Develop strategies to improve existing information technology and create a plan to establish an infrastructure that supports innovative management solutions.

-- Fiscal Policy Task Force: Develop programs, policies and procedures to promote prudent management of the state's financial and physical assets and to optimize resource opportunities.

-- Efficient Operations Task Force: Develop operational policies and procedures that improve economy, efficiency, effectiveness and equity.

(Next: Translating the reorganization jargon)