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Board leans toward agency-specific standard for "new idea" eligibility
Summary
Board members signaled consensus that a suggestion should be eligible if it is new to a particular agency rather than strictly new across state government, and directed staff to draft clearer language and operational checks to reduce duplicate awards and allow sampling for multi-agency suggestions.
The board considered whether a suggestion should be eligible only if it is new statewide or if ideas that are new to an individual state agency should also qualify.
Staff explained the August decision language that deems suggestions ineligible if they had been implemented in whole or in substantial part by any state agency. Board members raised practical concerns about agency ‘‘silos’’ and pointed to situations where an idea that did not work at one agency might succeed at another. Several members favored an agency-specific approach to avoid disenfranchising agencies that could realize savings by adopting a previously tested concept.
Members discussed pragmatic steps staff could take: a public-facing repository or searchable database of past submissions, limiting multi-agency evaluation to a representative sample of small, medium and large agencies, and application form changes (checklists and agency selection) to reduce duplicate or erroneously broad submissions. Staff will draft clarified eligibility language for the next meeting and explore technical options to make past suggestions discoverable.
