Ideas from City Employees Create Solutions for City to be More Efficient and Effective

05/31/11— Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced the winning ideas from the ImproveSF campaign, which was designed to encourage cost-saving ideas from City employees to make government more efficient and improve the way it does business. The winning ideas will be considered for implementation in the 2011-12 Fiscal Year.

“This is a great way to tap into the expertise and creativity of our City family, so that we can come up with innovative ways to save San Francisco taxpayers’ money,” said Mayor Lee. “It has been a difficult budget year, but I am proud to report that that hasn’t dampened the creative spirit of our employees.”

ImproveSF was launched last year by former Mayor Gavin Newsom. Through the ImproveSF website, employees suggest cost savings ideas, comment on other suggestions and vote for their favorites. In a matter of weeks the campaign received more than 540 ideas, 3,021 votes and 224 comments. The winning ideas are being considered for the Mayor’s 2011-2012 budget proposal, and include:

· Phasing out the purchase of single use fax machines and shift City departments toward multi-use machines or electronic fax software;
· Changing the default font settings on all computers to Century Gothic font, which uses less ink to print than other standard fonts;
· Requiring all City vendors (including community based organizations) to use Electronic Funds Transfer Payments (ACH) for City payments;
· Instituting City holiday furlough days; and
· Generating and accepting philanthropic donations for City (through the SF Philanthropic Center).

A committee of department heads co-chaired by Supervisor Carmen Chu, Chair of the Board of Supervisors’ Budget & Finance Committee and Greg Wagner, the Mayor’s Budget Director, reviewed the submissions who evaluated their citywide impact and ease of implementation. Many other ideas related to specific departments are being considered and have been forwarded to City departments for consideration.

“I really appreciate the City employees taking the time to contribute their ideas on how to reduce costs and improve efficiencies,” said Supervisor Chu. “Every little bit helps.”