Regents react to Culver's efficiency report

IOWA CITY - State Board of Regents officials agree with many suggestions in a statewide efficiency report, but called others extreme or not feasible.

Regents officials also question if savings from some of the suggestions would be as great as paid consultants suggest they would be.

For example, one of the 19 regents-related suggestions in the report by Public Works LLC is that $2.5 million could be saved annually by renegotiating existing leases. But a written response by regents officials says “the Public Works recommendation does not provide supporting information on the basis of concluding $2.5 million could be saved per year.”

Regents President David Miles, of West Des Moines, on Wednesday declined to comment, saying he has not had sufficient time to review the full efficiency report.

But the regents on Wednesday released a 100-page response to the 19 suggestions in the report by Public Works LLC, consultants enlisted by Gov. Chet Culver in August. The report, released Tuesday,  proposes 90 ways to save nearly $1.7 billion over five years by streamlining state government.

The consultants suggest the regents, who govern the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, the Braille and Sight Saving School and the Iowa School for the Deaf, could save $150 million over five years from their nearly $4 billion budget by selling at least 2 percent of their properties and assets, streamlining purchases, energy efficiency, and eliminating health benefits for employees working less than 20 hours per week.

Regents officials say many of these things already are being done or are studied and reviewed annually.

They also note that some suggestions about consolidating functions, like purchasing and master contracts, with state government, could result in savings for other state agencies but cost increases for the regent universities, which often receive higher education discounts on things such as computer equipment or maintenance contracts.

But if the case can be made that the state and the regents institutions could benefit from such consolidations, regents leaders are open to discussing those suggestions, they say.

Regents officials do not believe there is a basis for selling 2 percent of the real estate portfolio. Review of assets happens annually, they said, and in the past, there hasn't been legislative support for the idea of selling assets such as the Lakeside Laboratory in Okoboji.

“The challenge is to find additional ways to economize without jeopardizing the future,” regents leaders say in the response. “We are eager to discuss any ideas that would result in measurable efficiencies and cost savings.”

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