A Newsletter of The Department of Administrative Services

Jeanne andRay2

BuddingAuthor

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ERP Winners

Kudos

Victory!

Got Stuff

Up Close

NewLegislation

DiversityHappenings

CoreCTUpdate

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Also Inside...

ISSUE 118 JUNE 2003

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Congratulations ERP winners !!!

(above left)Heather Tweeddale, PatsyMcLaughlin, Carla Kushin,Carla Martin, Lois Johnson,missing is Diane Fitzpatrick

Mary Gugliemino, Dave Krayeski, ShariGryzb, Lina Simonu, Sue Turko andCheryl Catania, missing is Dave Lynn.

Remarkable Innovation

(above right)Julie Ahlstrin,Susan Bolduc, MichelleOlesen, DeniseDellaVentura, SusanCastagna, Paul Przygocki,Lorna Barclay, Lori Riley,Glenda Rollins, DonnaWadhams, Peter Pappas,Franky Rivera, missing areKevin Nodwell andWilliam Hickey.

Team Excellence

Customer Service

Tina Costanzo

Going the Extra Mile

The DAS Times is publishedmonthlyby the

Department ofAdministrative ServicesCommunications Office

165 Capitol AvenueHartford, CT 06106

John G. RowlandGovernor

Barbara A. WatersCommissioner

Donna J. MicklusEditor

Visit our website atwww.das.state.ct.us

As you all know, Jeanne Graydonated a kidney to Ray Bailey

who had been suffering from chronickidney disease for many years.

Since the surgery on May 20 at JohnsHopkins Hospital in Baltimore, both arewell on the road to recovery. Jeanneand Ray were not only close friends,they were a perfect donor match,and after a shorter thana n t i c i - pated surgery,t h e kidney started

working immediately.Ray is doing extremely

well. He is now out of thehospital and living temporarily at a

condominium close to Johns Hopkins.“I feel better than I have felt in a long

time. I am walking up to two miles perday now,” he said happily.

Now back home in Connecticut,Jeanne’s recovery took longer than shehad anticipated, but she is doing OK.Her husband stayed right by her sidesince the day they left home.

“I am so happy to see how healthyRay was after the operation. I have noregrets; it was everything I had hoped itwould be,” Jeanne reported to friendand DAS co-worker Dale Greenwood.

RRRRRay and Jeanneay and Jeanneay and Jeanneay and Jeanneay and JeanneBy Nina Ritson

Ray spoke softlyas he describedhow thankful andtaken he was bythe donations oftime and moneyfrom his fellowDAS employees.Collectively, theDAS family do-nated nearly 13weeks of time.

In case youwanted to send acard to Ray, he willbe in Marylanduntil the end ofJuly at:

Raymond BaileyCambridge Court50 Attenborough Court #304White Marsh, Maryland

21237Cards to Jeanne may be for-

warded through Dale Greenwood inRoom 411.

Both Jeanne and Ray are optimis-tic they will return to work by latesummer.

Stuff. It does a budget good.

Ray and Jeanne in May prior to the surgery.UPDATE

June 24 Email from Ray:Hello everyone, it’s Raymond

finally able to write and tell you allwhat a miracle the last two months

have been. Thank you all for thecards, letters and well wishes whichhave helped to uplift us through thistime. I miss you all very much andcan’t wait to see you guys. Jeanneand I are eternally grateful for allyour support.

GOD BLESS YOUAND THANKSRAY THIS JUST IN!!

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Randolph Scott of Douglas CutlerArchitects had words of praise forMark Carroza. “I called to inquireabout the status of our SBE applica-tion. Mr. Carroza was very polite,professional and helpful in assistingus track down the application. Weneeded this information quickly. Mr.Carroza quickly responded to ourrequest and faxed us the certificatewe required. You should be proud of

the effort and professionalism putforth by staff members such as Mr.Carroza. He is an asset to yourorganization.”

Carol Wilson complimented LindaLoSchiavo for extending two con-tracts for Court Reporting/Transcrip-tion Services. Both contractors havelowered their pricing for one item oneach of their contracts with a com-bined savings of $4,846 a year,representing a 10% savings from lastyear.

Billy Skyrme recently received thefollowing message from laid-off stateemployee Catherine Rafferty: “Theinformation on your web site regard-ing Re-employment Sebac Informa-tion has been very helpful and infor-mative. I recently e-mailed myrequest to be considered for SEBACrights for Office Assistant and thismorning when I checked my personalinformation I found that my requesthad been granted and I just wantedto say thank you for your quickresponse.”

Diane Fitzpatrick singled out KeithAnderson for his work on job fairs. “Ijust thought you should all know that

Keith has done a great job managingall these job fairs. The unions, stateagencies and laid-off employeeshave been very impressed with howorganized and how helpful DAS hasbeen through these processes.”

Michele Joyce from the CommunityColleges voiced her appreciation toHeather Tweeddale. “This is tothank you for your prompt attention tothe clerical refill package that Isubmitted last week. The Presidentand Deans were most impressed withyour expeditious response! Asusual, it is a pleasure doing businesswith you. We in the communitycolleges are fortunate to have you asour liaison. Thanks again.”

Nan Peckham from the Office ofPollution Prevention at DEP wrote ofthe “excellent service we recentlyreceived from the print shop staff,Mike Guimond, Alex Caceres andRoy Wynne. DEP... and the Depart-ment of Public Health are involved ina joint project that involves mailing9,000 health care practitionersinformation about mercury. It in-volved printing of six separate items.Since we don’t do large jobs like thisvery often, Mike guided us throughthe process. He worked with thebrochure designer to make sure thenegatives were produced correctlyand assisted us in choosing inkcolors that would complement thedesign. We also wanted the materi-als printed on recycled stock, so Mikepicked out papers and envelopes thathad the recycled content we required.The brochures, booklets and lettersthat were produced from the printshop were high quality and lookedgreat. It was a pleasure working withall of them. I hope that in some waythe staff can be recognized for theirgood work. Thank you.”

From Carol Wilson: “I want to takea moment to let you know what a

superb job Scott Benson has doneon preparing the procurement data-base for the PeopleSoft contractinterface. Scott has spent countlesshours learning our business process,learning the PS needs, articulatingthe intended changes and making thechanges transparent to our dailybusiness. Today we came to clo-sure, and trained all of the contract-ing staff on the new fields in thedatabase, and all to his credit, thiswent flawlessly. We would not beready for the contract piece ofPeopleSoft if it weren’t for Scott andhis dedication to the task. A hugethank you is in order for all his efforts.Scott, Thanks again!”

By Donna Micklus

From Pam Nelson at DMR to CarolWilson:

I wanted to take a moment to thankyou and your staff for the excellentpurchasing overview they presentedto DMR staff. One of the regionalbusiness managers requested assis-tance as we had lost so many pur-chasing staff to layoffs and earlyretirements. Carol Wilson andseveral of her colleagues put to-gether a great session for about 30 ofus on June 11th. It was really won-derful and so helpful and gave us alot more confidence as we approachnew tasks and lean times. Theyexemplified “customer friendly” andwe benefited!!! Please let staff knowhow much we appreciated theirwillingness to help us. Thanks again.”

Mark Aronowitz complimentedJoann Bellamo on all the Core-CTrelated help she provided to thePayable area of the Office of theComptroller.

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Though you won’t hear himshouting “Come on down!”the way a certain discount

furniture personality does on TVcommercials, Don Casella hasreason to shout these days.

With a recently posted multi-milliondollar furniture contract, Casella andDAS Procurement Services haveonce again set a great example forthe entire agency by achievingsavings and providing customers withmore flexibility at the same time.

In fact, over the course of the newfive-year contract, it is estimated thatDAS will save over $5.7 million.

By researching the discounts themajor manufacturers provide to otherstates and asking those manufactur-ers if they could “do better” in provid-ing comparable discounts off the list

prices for Connecticut, Casella wasable to generate an average savingsof over $1 million a year.

The new contract resulted in a54% average discount across theboard, compared to a 47% averagediscount on the old contract.

By focusing more on dealingdirectly with manufacturers and usingMicrosoft Excel spreadsheets to trackprices, Casella was able to saveadditional dollars and simplify theprocurement process.

The contract is available to all stateagencies, municipalities, and non-profit agencies.

It is anticipated that due to therecent budgetary issues, more andmore customers will be choosing thisoption as a means of procuringfurniture in the future.

Casella’s Furniture Contract Leads By ExampleBy Adam Liegeot

“Don did an awesome job on thiscontract,” Tina Costanzo said. “Thisnew contract saves us significantdollars, and it also makes so muchmore sense. We’ve re-engineeredthe way in which the state contracts

Martin Anderson’sPostponed...now we cancollect more stuff !

for furniture, and Don is playing amajor role in that effort.”

Saving the state big money is nosmall feat, but there is no word yetwhether Casella will hit the airwavesto tout the new furniture contract.

As that TV furniture guy would say,“I doubt it!”

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She does it all,” said coworkerMayme Casady. “She’s justone of those women who

does it all.”She’s talking about her friend and

coworker, FSC’s Lee Ann Rosborg.“It’s a pretty busy life,” admits

Rosborg.When she’s not a Reimbursement

Analyst working 40 hours a weekhere at DAS, she’s a busy mother ofthree. “And to add to the fun, I’m aGirl Scout leader for one of mydaughter’s unit,” she said.

Rosborg’s been a Girl Scout leaderfor two years with 17 girls (ages 6

good. I’ve begun to forget how tocook because I’m so out of prac-tice,” she joked.

How either of them has time tohandle it all is a crash course intime management.

On top of everything going on intheir daily lives, the Rosborgshave done some major remodel-ing to their home.

“We’ve added back and frontdormers to our house and justfinished adding on a front porch.

“Charlie is really handy andwe’ve done most of the workourselves. That was my Mother’sDay present. We hammered andnailed ourselves together abeautiful front porch. Hey, when

you’ve got the time, use it!” she said.And even with all these projects

and activities, the Rosborgs still havetime to entertain their kids.

“With three kids they always havea playmate, but we try to do as muchas we can with them.”

They camp at Jelly Stone NationalPark in Massachusetts, and keepthem busy with crafts.

“One of our favorite things to do israce go carts around our property,”said Rosborg.

“We have two motor-powered gocarts that the kids race around in.

ScoutingReport

and 7) and recently came back froma sleepover at Camp Laurel in Leba-non.

“I don’t know if using the word‘sleep’ would be appropriate,” shejoked. “The girls didn’t stop talkinguntil 1:00 a.m.” She explained thetwo days consisted of a nature hike,making friendship bracelets and otheractivities so the girls could earn theirpatches. “It’s a lot of work, but it’sworth it.”

How does she manage all of thisand maintain some semblance oforder at her home?

After the birth of son Braden, itmade sense for her husband Charlieto stay home with the kids.

“It’s really been great,” saidRosborg, “The kids have reallybonded with him in a way I neverimagined,” she said. “He does anamazing job with them. Maybe too

And with this being such a rainyspring, they have come back muddyfrom head to toe. The looks on theirfaces are priceless. I wouldn’t have itany other way,” she said smiling.

By John McKay

Above: FSC’sLeeAnn Rosborg

Below: TheRosborg kids(from left toright) Kelsey,Braden, andHaley pose intheir go cart.

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By Donna MicklusBy Donna MicklusBy Donna MicklusBy Donna MicklusBy Donna Micklus

ERP Committee announces “DAS idols”

Amidst the sounds of a jackhammer and lawn mower telling us that summer is

here after all, Cheryl Sawina openedthe Employee Recognition Cer-emony.

“We received 23 nominations,spread out across the agency, for thisround which is a record,” Sawinasaid.

“Some teams were nominated formore than one category,” she added.“This shows that we are really pullingtogether behind the ERP programand that folks understand that it isreally important.”

Sawina also asked that Jeff Lecce,who passed away last week, beremembered.

“Jeff was one of the originators andfirst chairman of the ERP program,and we will always think of him withgreat fondness. Our thoughts arewith his family,” she said.

Before introducing the winners,Sawina thanked committee memberswho received an enthusiastic roundof applause: Nancy Jones, AnnaTara, Don Casella, Linda Shakett-Blue, and Laura McNelly.

After a cookout of hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken and salads on theporch of the historic Solomon WellesHouse in Olde Wethersfield, it wastime for the honorees’ day in the sun.

Team Excellence - The ProbateTeam: Donna Wadhams, WilliamHickey, Susan Bolduc, PeterPappas, Paul Przygocki, Lori Riley,Denise Della Ventura, KevinNodwell, Michelle Olesen, LornaBarclay, Susan Castagna, Fran-cisco Rivera, Julie Ahlstrin, GlendaRollins. According to the nominator,they have one of the hardest jobs atDAS, making statutory claims ondecedent estates. They have toknow statutes and how to defend

them to recover themaximum liability. Theyhave to work with thecourts, attorneys, and theAG’s office to make surethe final accounting isaccurate and protect thestate’s claim.

Customer Service:Dave Lynn, CherylCatania, MaryGugliemino, LinaSimonu, Susan Turko,Shari Grzyb. With theannouncement of theERIP, they worked to givedemonstrations to almost100 people on retirementbenefits, individuallycounseled employees on their spe-cific benefits and again met withemployees after the entire retirementpackage was complete. The level ofservice that had to be demonstratedin a short period of time was trulysignificant. They worked very hard toinsure people confronted with thisserious decision were given all thetime and information they needed tomake that decision.

Remarkable Innovation: HeatherTweeddale, Diane Fitzpatrick, CarlaKushin, Patsy McLaughlin, LoisJohnson, and Carla Martin. Thisteam created the Virtual CareerCounseling program for nursing onthe DAS website, designing the entireproject from start to finish. This is thefirst time this concept has been used,and it will be rolled out for other in-demand careers as well. The teamworked hard to develop a programthat was both informational andeffective, while also addressing thecritical issue of the nursing shortage.

Going the Extra Mile: TinaCostanzo. According to the nomina-tor, although she is a Contract TeamLeader, you can often see her wear-

ERP Committee members: Laura McNelly, LindaShackett-Blue, Nancy Jones, Don Casella, CherylSawina and Anna Tara.

ing different hats: mentor, leader,consultant. One of her greatestattributes is her unselfishness whenshe shares her knowledge, skills andabilities with anyone that seeks them.The most beautiful thing about hergoing the extra mile is that she doesit quietly, trying to call the leastattention to herself. Reality is thatmost of us know her as the guru ofProcurement.

Commissioner Waters thankedfamilies and friends for coming toshare this special time.

“This is one of my favorite dayswhen people who do good work getrecognized for the good work theydo,” she said.

Waters also invoked Jeff Lecce’smemory, “Our hearts are with hisfamily. Somehow I can’t help but thinkJeff had something to do with givingus this beautiful day. God bless, youJeff.”

Following Governor Rowland’s leadat the Governor’s Service Awardceremonies, Waters concluded theceremony by giving the winners therest of the afternoon off…and re-ceived thunderous applause.

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By ABy ABy ABy ABy Adam Liegeotdam Liegeotdam Liegeotdam Liegeotdam Liegeot

Focus on the Project plans are due by the end of June

An Act Concerning StateConstruction Projects” wasrecently signed into law by

Governor John G. Rowland. Whilethe law will not go into effect for ayear or more, it will affect DAS onmany levels.

Among the law’s many provisionsare the following:

· contractors will be required toprequalify to bid on public buildingconstruction contracts estimated tocost more than $500,000

· advertisements will be requiredfor bids on these contracts, and theymust include the financial capacity,prior experience, and workforcerequired to do the job

· state agencies will be required toevaluate contractors after construc-tion is completed and the DAS com-missioner must place the evaluation

in the contractor’s prequalification file· state officials and employees will

be prohibited from accepting giftsfrom prequalified building contractors

· employees with decision-makingauthority will be prohibited fromcommunicating with bidders onbuilding construction contracts undercertain circumstances

· the DOT commissioner will berequired to award large buildingconstruction contracts to the lowestresponsible qualified bidder who isprequalified by DAS

The law requires that each bid onthe affected large contracts include acopy of a prequalification statementfrom the DAS commissioner showingthat the bidder has theprequalification classification andaggregate work capacity ratingsrequired under the contract. The bidmust also have an update statementin the form the commissioner pre-scribes. Any bid submitted withoutthese documents is invalid.

At the end of the bidding process,the law requires the bidder to certifythat (1) the bid information is true; (2)there were no substantial changes inhis financial position or corporate

structure since his most recentprequalification certificate was issuedor renewed, and (3) he made the bidwithout fraud or collusion with any-one.

Contractors, but not subcontrac-tors, can seek prequalification towork on any state or municipalconstruction project by submitting anapplication to DAS along with anonrefundable fee. The applicantmust include in the application astatement of financial condition.

The bill requires the commissionerto revoke a contractor’sprequalification if she finds that he (1)included materially false statementsin his application or update state-ment, (2) has been convicted of acrime related to the procurement orperformance of any public or privateconstruction contract, or (3) hasotherwise engaged in fraud in obtain-ing or maintaining prequalificationwithin the past five years.

The provisions permitting contrac-tors to prequalify with DAS areeffective July 1, 2004 while mostother provisions in the bill take effectbeginning October 1, 2004.

Key role forDAS in newlegislation

Matt Shea has created a data base on DAS Central - great job, Matt! The first report out date is July 10

“The Governor is very much engaged inthis initiative and is looking for ways that allagencies can save money through spendingreductions and revenue generation,” Com-missioner Waters said. “So keep in mindthat when you are rolling out your projects,we want to link hard dollar savings at theend of the year,” she emphasized.

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HappeningsHappeningsHappeningsHappeningsHappenings

Because of the success of the DiversityCouncil screening of “Understandingthe Divide”, a CPTV documentary that

chronicled the lives of ten local people withtheir personal stories about diversity in Con-necticut, the Diversity Council plans to hostadditional diversity related presentations in thefuture.

The council is currently reviewing materialsand videos to prepare our next quality diversityevent for you! Stay tuned for up-to-date infor-mation on the next “Diversity Happening”!

The Diversity Council is here for you, so it iscritical that you communicate to us what youwould like the council to provide to promotediversity in the workplace.

Do you have any ideas or suggestions forus? Please, take some time to think about itand send your comments to IsabelleMcKinney at isabelle.mckinney@po.state.ct.us

Henry’s daughter, Alyce Jovanelly, was recog-nized as the statewide winner of the Scenario

Writing competition for the sixth grade.The competition required that each participant

provide a short story about a scenario that was 25years in the future. Alyce’s story base was sportsmedicine, and titled “Batter Up”.

Alyce was invited to participate in the internationalcompetition at UConn in early June. She teamedwith two other students she had never met before.The story they created, about world wide communi-cations, was awarded third prize internationally.

Keep an eye on the New York Times Best SellerList for her next creation !!

By Maureen Friedman

Another JKRowlings?Henry Jovanelly

Alyce Jovanelly and Governor John G. Rowland on May 30,2003 in the Governor’s Office.

wouldn’t mind a bit!

Your Diversity Council thanks you!

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For business offices in stateagencies, July 8 will bring arevolution. That’s when Core-

CT will go live for the first time. Thenew system, more than two years indevelopment and testing, will replacenot only hardware and software, butalso old ways of doing business.

“It will change not just the way wetalk about business office operations,but also the very way we think aboutthem in state government,” saidCathy Daly who sits on the ProjectManagement Team.

Enhanced productivity, streamlinedbusiness processes and eliminationof redundant systems are among thegoals of Core-CT (see “How WillCore-CT Improve How the StateWorks?” at http://www.core-ct.state.ct.us/coreuser/improve.htm).

“A major goal of the state’s fiscalefforts — to report accurately acrossstate agency lines in terms that meanthe same things in all agencies – willbe much closer to reality than everbefore,” Daly said.

But as the late Gilda Radner said,“There’s always something.”

Enter Oracle.The state has invested about $80

million of its projected $110 million inCore-CT, which has been two yearsin the making and still a work inprogress. No wonder officials areworried about protecting that invest-ment as Oracle threatens a takeoverof PeopleSoft, Inc., the companywhose software the state purchasedto upgrade and integrate its humanresources and financial computersystems.

Financials Going Live DespiteOracle Takeover Bid

On June 18, Connecticut filed afederal lawsuit to block Oracle’shostile takeover bid, citing a violationof state and federal antitrust laws.There are reports that Oracle plans todiscontinue the PeopleSoft productline, meaning the state and othercustomers would have to buy newsoftware or migrate to Oracle applica-tions.

“We could be forced to spendmillions of dollars to retool our sys-tem, and that would be at the ex-pense of the taxpayers,” said Gover-nor John G. Rowland.

PeopleSoft’s Board of Directorshas already rebuffed the offer, forcingOracle to go directly to the sharehold-ers. A vote of PeopleSoft sharehold-ers is scheduled for July 7.

In the interim, CoreCT is continuingon course.

What are some of the majorchanges that state government’sbusiness office staffs will seestarting July 8?

- Terms will be different. Aninvoice will become a voucher, andagencies will no longer use a CO-17 to routinely pay an invoice. AuditReleasing will be a combination ofbudget checking and voucherapproval. Posting (in SAAAS) willbecome budget check in Core-CT.

-Approvals will be online and noton paper.

“At first, not all agencies will becompletely up to speed on thisworkflow method of processing. Butthe days of large stacks of paperwaiting for signatures are ending,”Daly added.

Daly said the benefits to this areobvious. The state will need to buyfewer paper forms. Manually com-

pleted forms can have errors and canbe unreadable. Forms will bechanged or eliminated outright.

“Again, it will involve a learningcurve if not a culture change, awayfrom paper and toward electronicworkflow and storage of records,” sheadded.

-Core-CT will be accessible only bya web browser.

“Without Internet or intranet ac-cess, you will not be able to do yourjob. Navigation in the system will bebrowser-based. Those unfamiliar withthe web will find themselves gettingused to a new way of moving aroundtheir screens. In fact, we will not callthem ‘screens’ anymore but ‘pages,’”Daly explained.

-Contracts, and the financial report-ing around contracts, will be stan-dardized.

“When a central agency such asOSC or OPM needs information

about spending in a particular pro-gram, they will be able to look up thatfigure on-line, rather than having tocontact the agency that administersthe program, as they had to do underthe old system. What they find willhave a much greater level of accu-racy,” Daly said.

-Agency budgets will be enteredinto Core-CT at a detailed level.Agencies have myriad budget sys-tems that they have been using inmyriad ways. OPM’s AutomatedBudget System for budget prepara-tion will remain in place. However,once a budget is set, all agencies willhave a uniform way of accountingagainst their budgets.

-Purchasing paperwork will begreatly reduced or eliminated.

-Inter-unit transfers can be entirelyelectronic, replacing the currentpaper-based process.

By Cathy Daly and John McKBy Cathy Daly and John McKBy Cathy Daly and John McKBy Cathy Daly and John McKBy Cathy Daly and John McKayayayayay