This week I hope each and every one of you will take time to recognize and appreciate one another for the exceptional work we do at DPA!

Although this is only my second month as Director, I have had the wonderful opportunity to work in many jobs in DPA from clerk-typist to ET, a home visitor and lead worker to special projects and Chief of Policy and Program Development. My experience over the last 25 years gives me a great appreciation for what each of you do every day to provide services to people. I also know that it takes all of us pulling together to make things work well.

Alaskans in need depend upon the state to provide them assistance in the form of cash, food, medical, heat, and employment services to transition those who are able to achieve self-sufficiency. The state, in turn, depends upon its employees in the Divisions of Public Assistance, Health Care Services, and Senior and Disabilities Services, as well as their partnering agencies to get the job done. While many of these individuals – case managers, eligibility workers, supervisors, administrative support personnel, employment specialists, and others – do not identify themselves as public assistance workers, they are, nevertheless, an important part of the team.

Good Morning Everyone and Congratulations!

You have all, once again, done an awesome job to improve our payment accuracy. In a letter to Governor Murkowski last Friday, the Food and Nutrition Service announced Alaska's official Food Stamp Program error rate for FFY 2005. Alaska's combined error rate, which includes food stamp underpayments and overpayments, is 6.51%, or, as we like to view it, 93.9% accurate! This is half a percentage point better than last year, and nearer to our Better than Average payment accuracy improvement campaign goal. The national average payment error rate was 5.84%. You have brought us close enough to the national average that we will not face any penalties - always a good thing. Thank you for your hard work to improve the FS accuracy rate. I appreciate that it is not an easy task, especially in an era of growing caseloads and program complexity. I have our improved accuracy news with Commissioner Jackson and Deputy Commissioner Bill Hogan. They are very pleased with our progress and asked me to commend and congratulate each of you on a job exceptionally well done.

The Program Integrity & Analysis section (PI&A) has designed a website titled, DPA Reports, to more efficiently provide performance reports and other useful information. This site helps our individual offices to find performance related information more quickly because we consolidated it into one easily navigated website. To get to the site, click on “DPA Reports” in the Quick Links box in DPAweb. All reports are in Adobe PDF format. Please take a moment to surf this informative site.

On March 23, 2006 representatives statewide from Local Quality Councils, Management Quality Council and the Support Quality Council met by teleconference. A representative from each council participates in a quarterly teleconference to provide updates; share best practices, and learn what projects other councils from around the state are doing.

Check out all the exciting ideas councils have to share: http://dpaweb.hss.state.ak.us/wiki/index.php?page=AAR+March+2006