iowa charter agencies

Iowa Charter Agencies

Charter Agencies pioneer a new, bureaucracy-busting “deal.” They volunteer to be accountable for measurable customer benefits and contribute savings/revenue. In return the State exempts them from many bureaucratic requirements.

For Charter Agencies, results for Iowans are more important than the rules.

Why Charter Agencies? What’s the problem with the way we do things now?

When agencies truly focus on results, they often run up against rigid procedure-based rules and regulations that focus more on how government does things than on the outcomes government produces. The purpose of this initiative is to test the following hypothesis: given greater authority and operating flexibility, Charter Agencies will be able to produce better outcomes for their customers at less cost than under the standard bureaucratic system.

Charter Agencies waste less time and money on paperwork and low-value-added rule compliance. They redirect that energy into innovation to achieve the results Iowans most value. Instead of relying on the Governor’s Office and the Department of Management to drive change and improvement, the Charter Agency deal kindles automatic, ongoing improvement from within each agency.

The Charter Agency Solution

Here is the Charter Agency “deal,” which can be applied at any level of government. Charter Agencies voluntarily commit to:

1. Produce measurable benefits – and improvements in those benefits – for the people they serve.
2. Help close the current year’s budget gap, through contributed savings or additional entrepreneurial revenues. Charter Agencies must collectively come up with at least $15 million each year.

In return, Charter Agencies receive:

1. Flexibilities, including:
   • Authority to “stand in the shoes” of the directors of personnel, general services, and IT. Whatever those directors can do, a Charter Agency director can do – without going through personnel, general services, or IT.
   • Authority to waive administrative rules in the same three areas: personnel, general services, and IT.
   • Authority to retain: proceeds from asset sales, 80% of new revenues generated, and half of their year-end general fund balance.
   • Exemption from full-time-equivalent employee caps.
   • Exemption from statutory across-the-board budget cuts.
   • Authority to purchase travel tickets directly instead of using the state’s travel contractor.
   • Exemption from seeking Executive Council approval for out-of-state travel, conference attendance, and professional memberships.
   • Access to technical assistance at no charge from experts on innovation and public entrepreneurship.
   • Access to a $3 million Charter Agency grant fund to foster innovation.
   • A special process for waiving other administrative rules.
   • And more . . .
2. Support from Governor Tom Vilsack, Lt. Governor Sally Pederson, and the Department of Management.

All commitments to the “deal” are documented in the Charter Agency legislation, Iowa Code Chapter 7J, including statutory enactment of many of the flexibilities listed above, and in annual Charter Agency Agreements for each agency, negotiated and signed by the agency Director, Governor, and Lt. Governor. Each Agreement leads with a list of the agency’s specific and quantified performance goals and special projects.

The six Charter Agencies that stepped forward in FY04 to take advantage of the new deal were the Departments of Corrections, Human Services, Natural Resources, and Revenue, the Alcoholic Beverages Division of the Department of Commerce, and the Iowa Veterans Home. The Iowa Lottery has its own, similar new deal.
 

Collectively, Charter Agencies represent almost 30% of appropriated state funds and almost 50% of executive branch employees (excluding Regents).

Charter Agency status does not change collective bargaining agreements. We have worked successfully with our unions as Charter Agencies exercised flexibilities that touched union interests.