Political Capitol

Today was the first meeting of the Commission on Enhancing Agency Outcomes, a bi-partisan group of lawmakers and former state officials charged by the General Assembly with proposing efficiencies in government.

The hope is some of their proposals can be incorporated into whatever two-year budget agreement Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the Democratic-majority General Assembly reach in the coming months.

“There are so many overlapping functions in our state agencies,” Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, a commission co-chairman, said at a press conference earlier today to kick-off the group’s efforts.

Another member – Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk – said there are “no sacred cows” and “everything’s going to be on the table.”

The other co-chairman – Rep. James Spallone, D-Essex – spoke about the urgency to get to work.

“We have a very short time frame,” he told reporters. “We’re going to have to be nimble and efficient ourselves.”

But when the group wrapped up a brief organizational meeting at 3 p.m., Slossberg announced they did not have a date for a future meeting and would have to get back to the members on that.

“Please make sure the clerk has every which way we can get a hold of you,” Slossberg said.

UPDATE: Slossberg just called to explain.

“What I should have said is we’ve identified a couple of areas where we’re developing working groups – human services, economic development, and technology for a start,” Slossberg said.

She said those groups will be submitting proposals, as will individual members and department heads and, she hopes, the public through a new website.

“Once we start percolating ideas the full commission will meet again to hash it out, figure out what makes sense and what doesn’t, and make recommendations,” Slossberg said. “We don’t have another meeting scheduled until we have formal meeting work that needs to be done.”