February/March 2000 GBA NEWS Volume 10, No. 1 Volume 13, No. 1 Helen Scholes, Executive Director GBA'S NEWEST CAFETERIA "LE GRIL ON THE HILL" OPENS By Gena Abraham In late August of 1999, during the renovation of the 244 Washington Building, the construction project team discovered the kitchen, located on the sixth floor, was structurally unsafe. Although the extent of damage could not be readily determined due to its unusual location, the project team began working on a method to remove the kitchen and restore a safe environment. After the area was evacuated, the structure was shored and braced to the foundation level two stories below the ground then ultimately demolished off the side of the building. Unfortunately, the evacuation and shoring resulted in many tenant inconveniences including closing the law library, stopping courtyard parking and relocating portions of the Audit Department. The kitchen was dismantled piece by piece until the final large structural beams (which supported the kitchen) were removed by a 500 ton crane assembled on Trinity Avenue - an unusual site in the middle of Capitol Hill! With only six weeks from the completion of demolition to the opening of the legislative session, the project team worked weekends, holidays and nights to complete the renovation. See Le Gril, page 2 Black Caucus Invites Scholes To Speak By Carletta Henderson In a presentation before the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus on February 1, Executive Director Helen Scholes [appointed to Georgia Building Authority (GBA) in August 1999 by the Authority members], outlined and illuminated the progress of GBA during her 210 days of functioning on the job. Since her appointment, Scholes said she has already implemented many of the recommended changes included in the recent independent performance audit conducted by KPMG. The audit, requested by Governor Roy Barnes in March 1999, suggested various changes that would enable GBA to function more in a businesslike manner. Scholes said she has used the audit as a "blueprint" in her efforts to improve the management, operation and efficiency of GBA. "I'm fully committed to use the audit report as a guide; and, with the guidance of the members of the Authority, to improve the operations of GBA and to provide leadership to handle the business of the Authority in a professional businesslike manner." Scholes further indicated she has been assessing GBA for innovative ways to streamline the operation. One major initiative currently underway is the development of clearly defined and documented policies and procedures. "Standard operating procedures are a must for efficient operations," she said. "Training, follow-up and See Scholes, page 2 LE GRIL (Continued from page 1) Almost every component received a facelift - new mechanical systems, new electrical components, air conditioning, lights, floors, tile, carpet, new tables and chairs- even a new color scheme! As a result, Le Gril on the Hill opened for service on Tuesday, February 1, at 7 a.m. Breakfast is served weekdays from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. The menu choices include fried, baked and roasted meats, readymade chef and fruit salads, salad bar, fresh vegetables, bread and other delicacy favorites. According to A. Robert Cooper, Le Gril Manager, Le Gril currently serves approximately 700 to 800 customers, comparative to the number of patrons served during its full service conveniences. GBA is excited about the new facility and invites employees and the neighboring public to enjoy a new, fresh, exciting eatery on Capitol Hill. Other GBA operated cafeterias include the Floyd Building (Twin Towers) Cafeteria located at 2 Martin Luther King Jr., Dr.; #2 Peachtree Tower Cafeteria on the 41st floor at 2 Peachtree St.; and the Garden Room Cafe, Georgia Plaza Park at 180 Central Ave. Mr. Alexander Bullock, External Administrator, oversees all GBA operated cafeterias in addition to its banquet facilities and laundry services. Scholes (Continued from page 1) compliance of written policies provide clear direction and accountability measures for GBA employees." Also during the presentation, Scholes outlined the various responsibilities of GBA, including staff changes and demographics, operational issues, budget items, projects underway and completed (including the lease of property for the Super Bowl) and the successful recovery, repair and maintenance from Georgia's recent January ice storms. "My goal is for GBA to become a better, more efficient operation. Performance objectives and measurements, accountability and consistency coupled with adherence to fair standard business practices are a must to reach this goal," Scholes said. Ice Storm Clean Up for Capitol & Mansion By Donald Evans The month of January will be remembered for its many technical and natural challenges. Although Y2K brought the new year in with limited difficulty, GBA, through advance planning and organization, was ready and available to handle the anticipated crisis. Fortunately, GBA had only minimal problems to overcome. The January ice storms, on the other hand, required the Maintenance REACT Team, together with grounds personnel, to work the weekends of January 22-23 & 29-30 in order to remove nine fallen trees and extensive debris around Capitol Hill and the Governor's Mansion. Although residents throughout Georgia were affected by the storms, the immediate response of GBA minimized damage and prevented potential safety hazards. COMPLAINING... Two survivors of a shipwreck managed to swim to a small island. Nothing grew on the island except a huge tree. Standing in the middle of the island, the beautiful tree gave them food and sheltered them from the sun and rain. At night they lay on leaves that cushioned their backs from the cold earth. When their clothes wore out, they fashioned some simple covering from barks and leaves. But as the days passed, they got used to the tree. And soon they started finding fault with it. All we have is this stupid tree! they grumbled. Or one of them would murmur, I wish we had something better! Unknown to them, every complaint they uttered caused the tree to wither a little. After a few months, the tree died, leaving the two with neither food nor shade. The lesson: Complaints drive away contentment. February/March Page 2 Food For GEMA Provided By GBA By Vicki Kelly The GBA Twin Towers Cafeteria together with the Stately Events banquet division prepared and provided food to GEMA during Y2K, the January ice storms and the tornado that recently brought destruction to many parts of Georgia. GBA was responsible for 2300 meals for Y2K; 1155 meals for the January ice storms; and an additional 450 meals for the tornado emergency management teams. Risk Management Work Accidents Are Avoidable By Larry Dyer Many accidents can be avoided by following simple safety rules and by using common sense. When an accident takes place, it is because someone failed to judge that it could happen. If you think ahead to the hazards that might confront you, you can avoid them. Nothing but good can come from a sensible safety attitude. Learn the safe way to perform your job. Report needed repairs and keep your working area clean and clear. Cleanliness, awareness, and prevention goes a long way in keeping your work environment safe. Work Control Center for Tenants Centralized By Cecilia Satterfield A new centralized work center for both Maintenance Teams North and South to improve management and tracking of GBA services for tenants will be located at the #1 Martin Luther King Building. See Work Center, page 6 DIVERSITY CONTRACTOR CONFERENCE A SUCCESS Increasing Competitiveness Means Listening to Vendor Concerns ence was to open communications Mitchell. "The conference is a good By Jim Walker between GBA and vendors, particu- start. We've opened the door, and larly minority and small business the fresh air feels good," Maxwell In mid December, a diversity contractor conference was jointly sponsored by the contractors. GBA presenters were on said. hand to describe new contracting GBA Contracts Manager Mike procedures that would improve Plumb and GBA Project Estimator Georgia Building Authority's Office of contracting efficiency within the Chris Farmer presented explanations Contracts and Purchasing and the Authority. of GBA contract bidding and awards Governor's Director of Business Realizing that there would be at the conference. One process Development, Irving Mitchell. a potential described "We're interested in increasing impact on "Increased competition will result involves the competition among vendors of goods minority and and services to GBA. Comments and newly in lower cost to Georgia citizen." use of com- puter software suggestions from the vending commu- formed companies, GBA asked for in preparing bids. nity are welcome here," said Jim Mitchell's assistance in obtaining input The process holds the potential Walker (GBA Contracts and Pur- from Georgia's vending community. of greatly expediting the award of chasing Director) in his opening Mitchell set up the conference, and contracts, allowing the contract remarks to minority and small busi- GBA solicited comments and sugges- evaluation team to properly compare ness vendors that convened at the tions from the attendees. competing bids. There was a concern State Capitol in the Governor's "Government can't operate in that the new process may leave some Conference Room. More than 20 isolation and input is urgently needed otherwise qualified bidders without vendor representatives attended, from all quarters," said Ruth Maxwell, means to submit bids. filling the conference room to Minority Business Enterprise Coordi- "This particular concern was capacity. nator for GBA. Maxwell was instru- without foundation, but the comments The purpose of the confer- mental in coordinating the affair with we received suggest there may need February/March Page 3 See Conference, page 4 GBA Capitol Police By Wanda Ross & David Simmons January Crime Stats 1999 2000 Assault 1 0 Larceny 18 24 Auto Theft 2 0 Employee Advisory Council An Employee Advisory Council was recently created by W.W. Holley, Chief of GBA Capitol Police, to meet bi-monthly to discuss security issues. The mission of the Capitol Police Division is to provide a professional cost-effective law enforcement and security service for the protection of State employees, tenants and the general public. Chief Holley believes the Employee Advisory Council will aid the Division in its efforts to enhance customer service. Workplace Theft Prevention The crime of larceny continues to be the most frequently occurring crime committed on GBA State property. The following Workplace Theft Prevention tips should be considered to minimize larceny as well as burglary and vandalism: 1) Challenge wandering or "lost" visitors. Watch out for "head poppers" who open the wrong doors and pretend to be looking for a specific office or person. Immediately notify police of all suspicious persons. (404) 656-3281. 2) Be discreet - don't advertise vacations or plans of absences when strangers are present in the office. 3) When at work before or after business hours, keep your doors locked. Notify police of your location and the hours you plan to work. 4) If you are the last to leave at night, secure all computer systems, critical files and copiers. Turn off and unplug electrical appliances. 5) When leaving the office, even for a short time, lock all offices. Lock all conference or storage rooms that are regularly unoccupied. Remember to close and lock all doors and windows at the end of the day. Conference (Continued from page 3) to be ways of breaking some of our larger contracts into smaller ones. Also, we need to reexamine our insurance and bonding needs," Plumb remarked after the conference. The input from the conference has been presented to Executive Director Helen Scholes. She has called for a thorough review of management's utilization of outside contractors and proposes to find new ways to balance the use of contractors against GBA's own in-house capabilities. "The decision process is not a simple one," said Scholes, "but make no mistake about our objective. We want to increase competition for our contracts by assuring that all vendors have a chance to bid on the supply of goods and services to GBA. Increased competition will result in lower costs to the citizens of Georgia," she added. Landscape Services By Trent Ozburn & Steve Johnson Spring is on the way and the pansies are awaiting the arrival of the daffodils and tulips that were planted in late October. This year's daffodil varieties are Unsurpassable, Fortissimo, Ice Follies, Barrett Browning and Tahiti. The tulip varieties are Parade-red, Golden Parade-yellow, and Apeldoorn Elite-red/yellow. These beautiful flower beds can be seen at the State Capitol, Governor's Mansion and additional State properties, buildings and grounds maintained by GBA. February/March Page 4 limurneiWttdaseehdareitslnyhpeeoaapocrvlanahoamnbioLltopbafiulanebangdlanntetdy.sbotolysfooTuwcrhntwaihuesratepeenrmldnieepesuaaln.aakstTnleessts,i.ftpnhepIulratatttcrialeiialezsrneo1etr/s2 Technology Corner By Richard Ashby GBA Computer Operations is in the process of upgrading most of the network's hardware and software. The most significant impact for employees is the transition from Lotus 123, WordPerfect and Q&A to the Microsoft Office Suite which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access. Why the change to Microsoft Office? Microsoft Seat Based Licensing enables GBA to install software as needed, yet still be properly licensed. Lotus and WordPerfect require licensing to be purchased and received before installation. Secondly, most versions of WordPerfect and Lotus currently used by GBA are old and are not intended for network use. As a result, continual problems ranging from installation and program malfunctions to data loss are often experienced. The upgrades will produce a more computer friendly, productive and efficient work environment for the end user. Announcements concerning training classes for Microsoft Office are forthcoming and GBA staff are encouraged to attend. Users who are already upgraded should begin using Office instead of WordPerfect as soon as possible. All programs, both network and local, of Lotus, WordPerfect and Q&A will be removed by the end of June. Don't forget to convert needed files to the new applications. For assistance with conversions, contact Computer Operations at 404-6566622. Questions for conversion of a Q&A database should be directed to Mike Haley through GroupWise. Although the transition to Microsoft Office may be quite challenging for many WordPerfect users, Office Suite will provide more flexibility and better dependability for everyone at GBA. New REACT Team To Handle GBA Emergencies By Bob Satterfield Recently, GBA formed a new REACT Team consisting of a combination of employees from Team North and Team South. The team will operate under Facilities Support Services to provide emergency services and necessary repairs to GBA State properties and building tenants. "This will relieve maintenance teams in order that they may continue to perform the preventive maintenance tasks and not have to react to emergencies," said Bob Satterfield, Facility Project Director in Facilities Support Services. REACT employees include: Larry Atha, Gary Barrett, Dan Dueltgen, Jim Hicks, Jason Hill, Brian Hobbs, Walt Pfirman, Ron Pittman, James Romanelli and Doug Smith. Carl Watkins will function as the REACT Maintenance Manager and the team's immediate supervisor. Hotdogs Anyone? Georgia Building Authority employees recently joined Executive Director Helen Scholes for lunch to enjoy grilled hotdogs. The hotdogs were prepared by Donald Evans and the Motor Pool Staff at the # 1 MLK Building. February/March Page 5 Human Resources By Melanie Johnson-Devlin T he GBA personnel office is on the move after welcoming a new Human Resources (HR) to "fine tune" HR components involved in the Solomon program including leave accrual and personnel updates. Director, Donna Major, who brings with her over 30 years of "The final result will be a more efficient, productive HR experience in State government. Since her arrival in January, officeservingGBAemployees,"Majorsummarizes. she has begun to restructure HR, placing more emphasis on In spite of all the hard work and rearrangement of file computer systems. One such system, the Phoenix HRMS, is cabinets, personnel files and employee offices to ensure things used for employee benefits and payroll transactions. run smoothly, Major and her staff are handling the challenges In addition, supported by Richard Ashby of GBA with enthusiasm and a resolve to make Human Resources Computer Operations and HR employees, Major is seeking better than ever. Work Center (Continued from page 3) Cecilia Satterfield, manager of the work center, will work with Kim Bradford, Melissa Jones and Victoria Whitfield. The work center will process and document requests made by tenants for maintenance, repair and AANpSpoprteeecciioaafltsiivoencdhiraaebntcopogtliueweostanrtsaihotunIeetfrdeptiGosopfBsroayoiArotgiumv.reees- We are off to a great start! custodial services of the State properties which are managed and maintained After more than 210 days as by Team North and Team South. 2 Peachtree tenants will continue to have Executive Director and during my work requests processed by a stand alone work desk located within the initial transition, I've welcomed new building. Tenants should use the following numbers to request building ser- staff and implemented new policies vices. and procedures for the improvement Team North (404) 656-3273 Team South (404) 651-8670 Team Peachtree (404) 657-4422 and efficiency of GBA. I want you to know that your contributions and hard work have not gone unnoticed. #1 MLK, #7 MLK, Motor Pool, Agriculture Bldg., Floyd Bldg., Pullman Yard, Capitol Education Center, Georgia Plaza Park, Daycare Center, Tradeport, 330 Ponce (Clark Harrison Bldg.), Butler St. Parking, Pete Hackney Parking, GA Plaza Park Parking, Police/Command Judicial Bldg., TrinityWashington , Health Bldg., Archives, Legislative Office Bldg., 244 & 254 Washington St., Mitchell-Pryor, 130,146 & 276 Memorial, 1050 & 1150 Murphy Ave., D.O.T. and 209 Pryor 2 Peachtree Tower & Annex Bldg., 15 Peachtree, Zero Mile Post, Olympia Bldg., 90 Central Avenue Parking, Lower Wall Street Parking and Pedestrian Plaza Your dedication is a positive reflection of GBA. If we are to improve and implement positive changes, we must continue to work together as a team to ensure the effectiveness and success of our agency. I want to again express my appreciation for your committment and commend you all for a job well Post, Steve Polk Plaza done. Parking, #1 Parking, State Capitol and the Freight Sincerely, Depot Helen Scholes GBA Board Members Publication Information Governor Roy Barnes Chairman Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor Vice-Chairman Commissioner Tommy Irvin State Auditor Russell Hinton Attorney Kent Alexander GBA NEWS is a publication of the Georgia Building Authority Helen Scholes, Executive Director Articles due by the 10th of the preceding month Address: 1 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30334 Phone: 404-656-3253 Fax: 404-657-0337 Editor: Carletta K. Henderson (404) 463-0732 Carletta.Henderson@gw.gba.state.ga.us Contributing Editors: Gena Abraham, Richard Ashby, Jane Conn, Melanie Johnson-Devlin, Larry Dyer, Donald Evans, Steve Johnson, Vicki Kelly, Trent Ozburn, Bob Satterfield, Cecilia Satterfield, David Simmons, Wanda Ross, Jim Walker February/March Page 6