Moderator: Our guest today is Linda Villegas Bremer, the new director of the state's General Administration, appointed by Gov. Gregoire in March. She is here with her Communications Director, Steve Valandra. Bremer worked at GA, which manages the majority the state's facilities, supplies, motor pool and much of the state government's logistics, as the assistant director of the Transportation, Risk and Mail Division from Sept. 1997–Feb. 2002. Her last position was Director of the Division of Information Technology Services at the Washington State Liquor Control Board.

Moderator: What is your overall sense of the job GA is doing? Are there some areas you see in need of a major shakeup?

Bremer: Well, I've been there two weeks and my assessment of the organization is that it has been doing a lot very well. I look back on the renovation of the Capitol building, and in that particular partnership, we had a few GA project personnel, one project manager, but we brought in local businesses to help with the effort. So those partnerships and opportunities to come together and create something tremendous is a cornerstone of the fine work we do. If we go to the source of the building's problems, the earthquake was an example of how GA showed how it can respond to a critical emrgency. GA as a whole has dedicated and hard-working people and a good foundation on which to build.

Areas where we might see improvements really revolve around business results. The problems facing state government and GA have built up over time, like the budget. We've been saving billions out of the budget as a state every year, achieving a $4 billion savings, but the growth in certain budget areas is so great we can't keep up with the budget shortfall. So what areas of GA can we improve? I think we need to do a couple of things. One, the governor is very interested in helping state agencies save money, so I see GA doing that by working with state agencies to consolidate services, and we can take those savings and invest them back into programs. An example is the "smart buy" program.

As a whole, across the state, including higher education, we spend several billion in goods and services, equipment, office supplies, any kind of professional services, and only 10 percent of those are run through the state's master contracts. If we were to have more consolidated activity we could generate larger savings. Why aren't we doing that already? Each individual agency is operating at best practices, but this will aggregate the purchasing power of all agencies together for cost savings.

Jesse, Olympia: Ms. Bremer I have a two part question. First,how do you plan to consolidate services with other state agencies? What type of services and which agencies? Secondly - knowing that the state has a deficit, why is there always so much building of new offices? I have heard in the past that the money has already be allowed by the legislature, but can't this money be reassigned for a much greater need?

Bremer: On consolidation, we're starting with the purchasing side of the functions, administrative functions of state government, and we want to have proven results. We have $50 million in savings in the next biennium in the buedget. We expect to work across agencies, bring experts to the table to help us understand how we all can benefit from this. There may be opportunities where individual agencies are already getting a good deal and we want to expand that across state government. Mail services and fleet management (motor pool) will be looked at and assessed. We will investigate how we as a consortium of agencies affect decisions around fleet management.

As far as the budget gap and state bnuildings, part of the efficiencies -- I don't have all reports in front of me -- of organizations is allowing them to work in close proximity to where major work is accomplished to save travel and communication time, allowing more productivity. My understanding is that these office buildings allow us to create efficiencies within agencies that need to work closely together for greater productivity.

Moderator: Can you tell us a little about your background and how you think it makes you well-suited to bring about these efficiencies in state government?

Bremer: I love that question because I want to make sure I share with you how proud I am to be here as director of GA in Gregoire's administration and part of her agenda in bold change in government. I grew up in Texas as a little Mexican-American girl who didn't speak English, and this is truly an honor for me because it shows the roots of my values for hard labor and the gift my parents gave me of using education as a lever to reach greater heights than they could.

In my 36 years of working experience, over half have been in private sector. I also have an MBA in financial management. I believe strongly that we can apply common sense business principles to the business of running state government. That's why I'm excited about being here, and I'm convinced we're going to show we're doing that in a lot of places, and we can also make improvements.

Jean Paul, Olympia: What will you do to save the taxpayers' money?

Moderator: Or to adjust the questions, what other ways will you do that?

Bremer: In the last two weeks I have received a couple presentations from different programs and this is part of where GA needs to tell its story. We are saving money every day for different agencies on different projects and we will continue to do so. One example: the state Attorney General was looking for space to lease in Seattle and our folks are working with them to find a space that meets their needs and will cost less. As soon as the deal is finalized we'll know how much will be saved. Again, $1,000 a month, $5,000 a month, those numbers add up.

In the energy program, we work with state agencies as well as schools, community colleges. In the energy program, we enter partnerships with utilities to effect savings not just in how a building utilizes energy, but it has direct implications for utility companies. The savings we can generate on electricity use has a short-term benefit because that utility company can better manage purchases on a daily basis. As we save on a daily basis, this allows the energy company to save on infrastructure for the long term. We're saving money every day and we search for more of those opportunities on an ongoing basis.

Moderator: Do you expect to make major personnel changes? Do you have any ideas in mind for restructuring the agency, which has so many different functions?

Bremer: I have made two replacements; they have worked at GA for along time and have contributed to our solid foundation for GA and state government. I am bringing in Peter Antolin as deputy director. He brings with him a background on budget management and is looking at agencies from a results basis regarding performance. The governor has made it very clear that government management accountability and performance are essential to showing the citizens the value of their tax dollar investiment.

The second person I"m bringing on board, Tristan Wise, is going to be leading our division of administrative services, she's assistant director. She brings solid financial management experience with an emphasis on performance measures. So I want to look forward to what these particular appointments mean and as you can see this brings a strong emphasis on performance management. Accoutablity is where I want to make the biggest difference in how we operate.

Former director Rob Fukai, and Grant Fredricks, former deputy director, commissioned a review of all of the groups that provide facility services. I am in the process of closing out that study and developing a plan for how me move forward. So I believe there will be some change, but I didn't start out with that in mind, just info I've received last two weeks about this study indicates we can be more effective about coordinating our own resources to save. An example is that we have a group that is the asset manager, owner of a building, and then we have another group that provides services to those buildings and sometimes their efforts could be better coordinated for efficiencies. Sometimes there's an unclear expectation when you bring groups together, and clarification of roles and responsiblities is needed. In the end all of our projects work well, so the customer may not always see the problem.

Where the state agency does see the problem is, for example, ecology, which looks to us to provide several services from these groups and too often they don't know who to call because there isn't a clear specification of the roles. So they may call me when the responsibility is someone else's, so we need to clarify that so that our customers know where the services are coming from. It's a complicated problem and in the past we've wanted to differentiate between day-to-day facilities work and facilities planning. There is an overlap.

Moderator: What do you think of the idea from Reps. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia, and Gary Alexander, R-Thurston County, to give management of Heritage Park to the State Parks and Recreation Commission?

Bremer: There have begun discussions. I have not had the opportunity to talk to them directly. When I do my work at GA, it's improtant for me to ask the question "what's in it for the state citizen?" What is that value and best way to achieve it? If we're talking about amenities in the park, then how we partner to accomplish about them, we'll look at several parties. When looking at how the funding comes together, those in charge have to meet the needs of the citizen. I look forward to hearing what their ideas are because the only reason we are here is to serve our citizens.

Moderator: We want to know what new approaches GA might take under your leadership in three areas: 1. for completion of Heritage Park in Olympia. 2. For the potential reversion of part of Capitol Lake into an estuary; and 3. for the construction of state owned or leased government office buildings in Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater?

Bremer: I think Heritage Park is fairly close to completion, so I believe the next phase includes the installation of the irrigation and drainage systems, more topsoil and hydroseeding. We will be, next week, starting to plan 39 London Plain trees, so, I don't see there's going to be anything very different with that project.

Around Capitol Lake issues, I bring two things to the discussion. I am a scientist by education and a businessperson, so I look forward to working with all of the parties that have been looking at this issue and to gaining a greater understanding. What would be different? I want to work for some resolution on the problem of which part is an estuary, and what stays the same. Whatever the decision is I want to work with parties involved to get to a conclusion. My understanding is that one hurdle is obtaining an in-depth analysis of all the implications.

There are many concerns -- health concerns, economic concerns, habitat concerns -- the only difference is that I want to have some milestones and decisions made about next steps. If the next step is to study, then figure out how to get it done. I believe there is a finding request for that study.

Valandra: About $900,000.

Bremer: I think it was almost ten years ago that the Legislature commissioned a study on state owned-versus-leased office buildings. I think it's time to look at that study again. We are making short-term decisions on leasing. Regardless on how much we think we're spending on office buildings, the state itself isn't spending much on building offices. We need to look at that study and, based on costs, look at where we want to go with that lease-versus-own debate. We need the data to make these decision.

Helena, Tumwater: Do you think the Legislature should continue to allow guns in the Capitol?

Bremer: Wow. ... After 9/11 we have become a nation that recognizes that we are vulnerable to terrorist attacks, and security is high on everybody's list. From my own perspective we didn't need 9/11, we can look at what's happeing in the high schools. I lived in San Diego when McDonalds massacre occurred. I think these tensions will always be here. I have a great respect for citizens' right to privacy and the bill of rights. I think it's a more complex question. Security has to be meaningful to those we are securing, and if the Legislature believes the current measures are working, then that's what we should continue to do. And if they think it should be changed, we will change them.

Moderator: Current law allows those with a license to carry concealed weapons into the Capitol even though there is airport-style screening at every door. There is a debate in the Legislature over whether to continue to pay for that airport-style security and the officers at each door. Do you have an opinion on that?

Bremer: I want to go back to the fact that it is the Legislature that is working with us and the state patrol and other groups to ensure security measures are in place, and I look forward to working with them on this issue. I have friends who don't lock their cars because they feel it doesn't matter. Security needs to be a partnership with the Legislature. So no, I don't have any straight answers on that right now.

Moderator: Tell us what kind of managed competition, or contracting out, is in store for GA’s work units. What sort of jobs or services are most likely to be contracted out — or considered?

Bremer: First of all we already do quite a bit of contracting out. If you look at the Capitol renovation and public works projects, there's a significant amount of contracted work. I think you're talking about competitive contracting, which have origins of employees being challenged to create effeciencies in the workplace. That's where I'm starting from, I'm going to work with employees to create efficiencies, so coming in, I want to work with the staff to show that we are providing the services within state government at competitive rates.

When I hear quesiotns about competitive contracting it sounds like it's just a policy topic. We are talking about citizens in our community who have jobs in the state -- they too are taxpayers, and in my discussions with employees these last two weeks, they are highly committed to what they can do to save money. So at this juncture I am not targeting any function, I am focused on cost savings and efficiencies.

Moderator: Does that mean there will be no competitive contracting at GA?

Bremer: What I want to make sure we know is that GA employees deserve to create those efficiencies and cost savings. We must prove to ourselves, the taxpayers and governor that we are doing our jobs competitively. That's my goal.

Ian, Olympia: GA runs the office of state procurement. There is a move afoot in the Legislature to regulate procurment policies in an effort to stop the state from buying goods and services from overseas (House Bill 2257). It seems to me that changing procurment policies from "lowest responsible bidder" to some anti-offshore policy would increase state agency costs in a time of major budget woes. What do you think about this?

Bremer: I have not had an opportunity to evaluate all of the implications of this kind of law. I trust the leadership in the Legislature and the governor's policy office that we will end up with something that can work overall for state government. I believe that very often the price of an item does not always represent the total cost. An example would be buying a cheap product -- I may think I'm saving by buying a lower grade, but once I bring it home and I experience problems with it, it ends up costing me more in the long run to get the job done.

Moderator: What is your top priority for the agency in the next month?

Bremer: what' fascinating about the last two weeks is I'm becoming aware of how GA affects the community -- the campus, the lake, procurement, the mail, community college projects, school district projects -- so that's one of the things I learned about the capitol projects that we work on, especially for the 2005-2007 biennium, which have an appropriation of $1 billion. When we think about the economic implication of that billion being pumped back into the comunity for public works, it has huge implicatiosn for our citizens, so in the two weeks my frame of reference has expanded to a statewide perspective of how we work with communities around the state.

My top priorities are to build on the foundation that has been given to me and to work together with our partners to solve these problems, and I am encouraging our folks to create a high-performing organization that can be viewed as the best of its type of any state in the country, to forge strong partnerships with elected officials, stakeholders and citizens and to add value to the buisness of running our government through consolidation of services. And very important to meeting that high accountability standard is showing the taxpayer what they are getting for their money.

The governor mentioned she wants us to create tomorrow's best for the children of today. That means to me we have to be wise about the decisions we make today, keeping in mind not just budgets but stewardship, the fact we'll be generating greater efficiencies from a systemic viewpoint so the effieciency is sustained. These are all very exciting propositions for me.

Moderator: Thank you for your time and good luck. Join us next week on Capitol Chat when we'll have Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton, who is taking a leading role in elections reform.