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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE FACILITIES ADMINISTRATORS (NASFA) RECOGNIZES INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS
Lexington, KY - March, 2002 - The Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation's Integrated Facilities Management Enterprise Solution has been named a winner in the real estate category in the 2002 NASFA Innovations Awards, sponsored by VFA. The program will be formally recognized during NASFA's Annual Conference and Tradeshow in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 15-19, 2002.
Faced with a sprawling real estate portfolio, the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (TDMHMR) needed to implement a strategy to manage and improve its aging infrastructure that would enable it to continue to provide the highest quality of services and care. The agency faced decreased resources combined with very little accurate information on the building conditions across its more than 10 million square feet of space. Creating a plan to maintain the infrastructure on an equitable basis was an ongoing battle. Without detailed and up-to-date facility condition data, TDMHMR officials were unable to plan and prioritize renovation projects or budget expenditures. Furthermore, funding requests to the state legislature were groundless without the support of impartial data.
In 1996, based on the Texas Performance Review by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, a computer-aided facility management system was recommended which would permit informational tracking of maintenance costs tied to buildings and floor plans, equipment and materials, capital-planning, project schedules, budgets, operations and facility data. The resulting enterprise-level system is now one of the first in the country to successfully integrate technology and facilities management practices.
TDMHMR has been recognized as the standard from which all state agencies should measure themselves against, and was lauded by the 77th Legislature on their proactive approach to facilities management and cost control, and for setting the benchmark from which all other State agencies should hope to perpetuate.
A total of 13 programs were submitted for the 2002 NASFA Innovations Awards, sponsored by VFA. The California Department of Transportation's Energy Conservation Program and New Mexico's Natural Gas Marketing were named co-winners in the design/operations category. California, New Mexico, and Texas are now eligible to be named the Overall Innovations Winner at the NASFA awards banquet in June. All submissions can be viewed on NASFA's Web site at www.nasfa.net.
The NASFA Innovations Award is an annual award program developed in 1993. It recognizes outstanding achievement by a state facility organization in establishing an innovative new program or improving an existing program that enhances efficiency and effectiveness in state government.
NASFA is an organization of state officials involved in the planning, development, operation and maintenance of state facilities. The association was formed in 1987 to provide a forum for sharing information on effective facility administration and to give states an opportunity to discuss the problems and solutions that demand the attention of the professional administrator.
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