Commissioner Groenwegen Testimony before Joint Legislative Fiscal Committees on 2008-09 Executive Budget
February 12, 2008
Good afternoon Chairman Johnson, Chairman Farrell, distinguished members of the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees, staff and guests. I am pleased to have this opportunity to appear before you to comment on this year's Executive Budget recommendations for the Department of Civil Service, the workforce challenges facing New York State as an employer, and the Department's initiatives to address these challenges. I am pleased to be joined today by my colleague from the Governor's Office of Employee Relations, Director Gary Johnson.
A year ago I came before you after just three days on the job as head of the Department of Civil Service. The past year has deepened some understandings, corrected some illusions and renewed my respect for the caliber of the State's workforce. But my core view of the basic challenges confronting those of us charged with building and shaping an effective State workforce has not changed substantively.
I will talk briefly today about what we have done and plan to do to build a quality workforce and to ensure that the workforce fairly represents the diversity of our state. I will also talk about the health insurance program my Department manages and our efforts to keep it affordable for employers and for members like you and me.
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New York's civil service system is 125 years old this year. In many ways, it reminds me of the building across the street that my department occupies, the Alfred E. Smith Building. Like the Smith Building, New York's civil service system might not be the model you'd choose if you were building from scratch today. Some elements of the system are anachronistic and in need of rethinking. Others, however, are artfully crafted and built for the ages. Refurbishing and modernizing was the most practical alternative for the 80-year-old Smith Building, and I believe it is for our 125-year-old civil service system as well.
No enterprise delivers quality services without a quality workforce. All of us are familiar with the Baby Boomer retirement wave that is afflicting not just New York State, but public and private employers everywhere. Just over 33,000 employees—20 percent of the State workforce—have retired in the past six years. Retirements over the next five years are projected to claim more than 30 percent of the workforce.
A Talented State Workforce
Whatever the actual retirement numbers turn out to be, we know that we will have to rely heavily on a new generation of workers to become the technical experts and team leaders every organization relies on. So it's disturbing to be reminded that the average state worker is 47 and only 13 percent of the State workforce is under the age of 35.
Assembling a workforce capable of delivering the services that New Yorkers deserve and that a vibrant economy demands is difficult under the best of circumstances. It is more difficult in today's environment: resources are scarce, competition for top talent is intense, workforce turnover has accelerated and past State efforts have been fragmented.
Those obstacles are real, but our job at the Department of Civil Service is to make the civil service system work despite them. And we will.
In 2007, the Department prepared, administered and scored just over 600 examinations for state titles that were taken by almost 100,000 candidates. More than 20,000 appointments were made from the resulting lists. We did the same for over 5,200 local government exams taken by 62,000 candidates.
This involves an enormous volume of work. Advances in technology are helping. Nearly all who want to take a civil service examination now can apply online. During the past year, the Department finally concluded a multi-year procurement process for an electronic Integrated Testing System (ITS) that will replace outdated systems, improve customer access to examination-related information, and provide secure web delivery of test content. Another new system, the Eligible List Maintenance System (ELMS), will permit State agencies to request and receive eligible list certifications online and to report back the results of their canvasses, including appointments, as they occur.
Additionally, the Executive Budget provides three new staff to the Department to begin defining the scope and requirements for a statewide human resources system that links with the statewide financial system.
As valuable as technology can be, sometimes the solution is simply making sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. I have personally met with more than two dozen heads of State agencies to learn first-hand about their workforce needs. We have pulled together workgroups of agencies with similar needs to address common workforce management issues and minimize duplication of effort. For instance, the Office of General Services and the Departments of Environmental Conservation, Transportation, Health and Public Service hire scores of engineers. Working collaboratively with them, we have developed a traineeship for individuals who do not yet have their professional license and a proposal to allow hiring of more experienced engineers at higher-than-entry-level salaries. Another working group comprises agencies whose work is mainly in institutions. We are working with them to address issues related to recruitment and retention of nurses and other medical professionals.
We have worked closely with other agencies to ensure that new legislative programs can be implemented as quickly as possible. In response to new sex offender legislation, for example, the Department expedited examinations for four different titles to assist the Office of Mental Health and the Department of Correctional Services.
As I am sure you are aware, the Executive Budget proposes the closure of four facilities operated by the Department of Correctional Services and seven under-utilized Youth Facilities operated by the Office of Children and Family Services, as well as the downsizing of a non-secure OCFS facility. The Department of Civil Service currently is working closely with Correctional Services and Children and Family Services to ensure that every worker affected by plans to close facilities will have an opportunity for continued employment in State service.
A Diverse State Workforce
In meeting our workforce challenges, Governor Spitzer has made clear his intention to build not just a talented, results-oriented State workforce but a workforce that reflects the diversity of New York State. Working to ensure that all have equal access to the valued opportunities public employment offers has always been the right thing to do. Because of demographic shifts, it now is also the necessary thing to do.
When I appeared before you last year, I committed to analyzing the work and recruitment efforts of the Department's outreach offices in New York City. Concerns had been raised about the accessibility of the Department's Brooklyn Outreach Office, which was located in Kingsbrook Hospital. After determining the concerns indeed had merit, we closed the office at Kingsbrook Hospital and reassigned the staff on a temporary basis to the Department's Harlem Outreach Office. Staff of both outreach offices were given additional training in human resource management, and with the assistance of the Governor's Office, a new outreach office was opened at Medgar Evers College in the heart of Brooklyn. The Medgar Evers location is a strategic one in terms of efforts to build a talented, diverse State workforce. The College offers programs in areas such as information technology, nursing and accounting and auditing where the State provides many employment opportunities but has difficulty filling them. Additionally, the College serves as a resource for the community where we are trying to increase awareness of opportunities in State government.
The Department of Civil Service is also working closely with representatives of other State agencies to make a comprehensive assessment of their affirmative action programs. We have revised the Utilization Report that we send to each agency so that it provides a clearer and more up-to-date picture of the ethnic breakdown of agency workforces. Cooperation in fulfilling agency affirmative action goals will be easier to enlist when staff at all levels can readily understand where the agency falls short.
Keeping Health Insurance Affordable
My department also administers the New York State Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP), the third largest employer-sponsored health insurance program in the United States. It covers over 1.2 million individuals, including State and local government employees, retirees and covered dependents.
New York has long been committed to providing its workforce with comprehensive health insurance. That commitment remains as strong as ever. Indeed, in furtherance of this commitment, last April we announced that NYSHIP would extend spousal benefits to any eligible couple whose same-sex marriage is legal in the jurisdiction where it was performed.
The extent of health care coverage and the cost to employees is the subject of contract negotiations carried out by Director Johnson and his colleagues at the Governor's Office of Employee Relations. My Department's goal is to ensure that the collectively negotiated coverage is provided at the lowest cost possible to the State and other employers, and that the program is well administered and serves the needs of our customers.
To that end, we work in a number of different areas. The NYSHIP health plans all encourage employees to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle. We look constantly for the kind of "Win-Win" changes that actually improve benefits while saving money.
In 2007, we rebid the prescription drug contract which will result in a likely savings of over $100 million over the four-year life of the new contract. These savings will result from deeper discounts on prescription drugs, higher rebates and reduced administrative costs. We expect additional savings from this year's rebid of the contract under which mental health and substance abuse services are provided. The Executive Budget also provides one new position to coordinate the rebid of the Empire Plan's Medical contract, which has not been subject to rebidding since 1985.
The Executive Budget also provides for an additional staff position to coordinate the first independent review of NYSHIP since 1991. We expect additional efficiencies will be identified through this review process.
I'm proud that my department's auditors through their ongoing reviews of tens of thousands of transactions have uncovered some $24 million in plan savings just in the past two years. That record, I believe, is the reason five additional auditor positions have been recommended in the Executive Budget.
In addition, we have worked closely with auditors from the Office of the State Comptroller to identify benefits that have been paid out improperly or as a result of fraud. In some cases, the Department has filed lawsuits to recover State funds.
There has been a problem nationwide with ineligible persons claiming and receiving benefits under health insurance plans. The Executive Budget includes an additional position for my Department to obtain and coordinate an eligibility audit of NYSHIP membership. Such an audit should produce significant long-term savings.
All of these initiatives are designed to improve NYSHIP management and reduce its cost to employers and employees, and to the taxpayers of New York.
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I am sure you agree we have a fine workforce here in New York. To maintain its quality, however, will require constant, focused effort. We need to build a perception of New York State as an employer of choice. We need to speed the hiring process to keep pace with private-sector competition. We need to make even greater use of technology to help dispel government's image as slow and outmoded.
I look forward to your help in meeting these challenges. Thank you. I'd be happy to answer any questions.