Manatee County employee saves taxpayers' cash

"It's always my pleasure to save money," Regina Worley,  mail services coordinator for the county's property management department, told county commissioners Tuesday.

She must have gotten a real rush recently when her suggestion to the county led to nearly $25,000 in savings for taxpayers.

When she transferred into the job of mail services coordinator, Worley met with mail courier professionals to find out what the best practices were for handling mail. During that meeting she discovered several things the county could easily change that would save money.

The biggest single savings comes from switching to e-certified mail. The county sends out 13,000 pieces of certified mail and by getting confirmation of service electronically instead of by those little green postcards, the county could save $1.20 each piece, for a total savings of about $15,600 a year. She also learned that certified mail could be sent out at a pre-sort rate, saving the county another .026 cents per piece.

Other savings come by checking standard delivery for Federal Express, which is an overnight delivery of 3 p.m. rather than a 10:30 a.m. delivery. That saves the county $2.25 on each Fed Ex delivery.

Using regular envelopes, which can be mailed at the pre-sort rate, rather than large manila envelopes saves the county as much as 44 cents per piece. Using typed address labels or typing addresses on envelopes, rather than having hand-written addresses, allows mail services to use the pre-sort rate, saving .026 cents for each piece.

Worley realized it all adds up pretty quickly and made her suggestions to the county, earning her a PRIDE award for innovative and dedicated employees.