Augusta Chronicle - Augusta, Georgia
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/081506/met_92580.shtml

Government management touted

By Adam Folk | Staff Writer


Wednesday, August 16, 2006 Correction, July 30, 2006: James R. "Jim" Lientz, appointed as Georgia's chief operations officer by Sonny Perdue, spoke Monday to the Rotary Club of Augusta. An article in Tuesday's edition incorrectly identified the organization. (Highlight changes)


Georgia's first chief operations officer, James R. "Jim" Lientz, told members of Augusta's Scottish Rite of Freemasonry on Monday that through his new department, Gov. Sonny Perdue is working to make the state government "friendlier, faster and easier."

"He wanted to change the culture when he came into office," Mr. Lientz said.

Speaking at the club's Washington Road center, Mr. Lientz touted his department's cooperation with the Commission for a New Georgia, a nonprofit corporation whose members include CEOs and other Georgia business leaders, in meeting the governor's mission to make Georgia the best-managed state by 2007.

Mr. Lientz said that the mission has created a "new energy" in the state's workers and is facilitating a business-focused state government.

"This is not the old Georgia; it's not the Georgia that many of us grew up in and worked in for many years," Mr. Lientz said. "It requires a new focus in how we look at things and how we do things. This is where exactly the business focus and the business expertise of the Commission for a New Georgia have come together with our emphasis very well."

Among the accomplishments, he mentioned the establishment of a fleet management system to catalog and track all state vehicles, the implementation of online auctions for the state's surplus property and the appointment of the state's first property officer to keep track of Georgia's building and land across the state.

"I think that's been very good for us," he said.

Reach Adam Folk at (706) 823-3339 or adam.folk@augustachronicle.com.