Low Hanging Fruit

Throughout my business career I avoided the lingo and the buzz words like the plague.  Call a spade a spade.  Don't call your employees some quirky name to make them feel different.  They are employees. I think I was still calling personnel just that - long after others adopted human resources and people teams.
 Don't christen every damn sales campaign with some cutesy slogan.  A sales campaign is just that - not a Quest for Success or any other thing.  And yes, we were in the business of lending and borrowing money from customers for their profit and ours,not making anyone's dreams happen.  Just keep the money safe, send me an accurate accounting, smile when I visit and occasionally remember my name. I'll make my own dreams happen.  I think you get the point.  So back to the title of this post.

I loved budget season when it was really a bunch of decision makers sitting around a table doing a reasonable job of give and take and "who can cut what and on what do we need to spend more to make our numbers?"  To start our budget sessions we would rattle off a list of "low hanging fruit" - the easy to do, obvious, no harm to the customers type of spending cuts or revenue enhancers. 

So I now break my own rule of not using the lingo, by offering a few "low hanging fruit" suggestions to some of the many governments and institutions drowning in budget deficits:

• Medicare -  Quit sending this book out every year.  Send it out the first year of enrollment and thereafter only send page 4 which tells of all the changes from the prior year.  Don't send spouses each their own copy - we can share.  Give medicare recipients a $10.00 break on their premium for reading this only on line.  The day after they come in the mail our dumpster is filled to the top with them - mostly untouched. I also don't need a 5 page monthly summary of my drug expenses - there are only two drugs and I know what they cost and how often I get them.  Once a year is enough.
• USPS - You still haven't figured out that we have 6 mailboxes within easy walking distance of our building and other neighborhoods have none.  Share the wealth and cut down the drivers' time in any given area.  You should also QUADRUPLE the postage rate for junk mail and political propaganda. Stop Saturday mail or charge for it.
• City of Chicago and other governments - practice temperature control.  Every time I go to City Hall, the County Building or the Harold Washington Library I go equipped with sweaters in the summer and a fan in the winter.  Turn the thermostats up or down 10 degrees and see how much you save.
• CTA -let me count the ways.  Start by getting rid of live staff at the stations.  They are seldom helpful and almost never look busy.  Spend some of that money on infrastructure, install cameras for safety and machines in working order for buying fares. With those improvements you will increase ridership.  You also need to adjust the heat/cooling on the buses and trains. Call New York or D.C. and ask for their advice.
• CPS - look at the expenses of the Chicago Board of Education members.  I've heard and seen some pretty boondoggle sounding stuff.  I know the board has been re-vamped so maybe that is in the past.  But it is worth a look.  Get the board members out visiting the schools instead.

I think Rahm Emanuel and Tony Preckwinkle are on top of expenses and Governor Quinn is trying. Our elected officials in Congress and the Senate seem clueless and probably need to be replaced since they'll never allow themselves to be subjected to term limits.As soon as they are elected it is just the start of one lifelong re-election campaign.

We need to start making suggestions whenever we see waste - especially when we experience it first hand.  No need to march or occupy just let those in charge hear your voice. Sort of a national suggestion box.