COUNTY PROGRAMMER ANALYST GETS FIRST JIM MOORE AWARD

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 16, 1993                   TAG: 9301160155
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
COUNTY PROGRAMMER ANALYST GETS FIRST JIM MOORE AWARD
Pat Hensley, a programmer analyst in Montgomery County's data processing department, is the recipient of the first Jim Moore Award for Creativity and Excellence.
One of six county employees nominated, Hensley, 30, was picked for the award for his Hensley work in developing and installing an automated remittance system in county Treasurer Ellis Meredith's office.
Supervisor Jim Moore presented Hensley with a framed certificate and a $100 check from Moore's personal account during Monday night's meeting of the county Board of Supervisors.
"I thought it was great," Hensley said of the award.
Hensley, who has worked for the county for five years, helped save the $22,500 cost of a commercial system with his in-house work and also was able to provide county taxpayers with a new service.
The county looked at several commercial computerized tax systems but none of them suited the county well, Hensley recalled. When delinquent taxpayers wanted to know how much they owed in taxes, it would take a clerk roughly 40 minutes to look it up under the old system used in the treasurer's office. Using the program written by Hensley, it takes roughly three minutes. Moore said that means that each time a taxpayer asks about his taxes the county is saving $4.53 in clerk's time.
In presenting his award to Hensley, Moore noted that Hensley not only had cut costs, but had "significantly improved service to citizens."
After repeatedly mentioning his concerns to fellow supervisors that the county offered no incentive to employees to improve their productivity, Moore said he finally decided to "put my money where my mouth was."
That led Moore to conceive his award, for which full-time county employees with the exception of elected officials were eligible. The two criteria he set for the award were actions that saved the county money and actions that provided new services within the limits of the county budget. Hensley's work fulfilled both of those guidelines.
Hensley said he wished that Moore had gotten support from the rest of the supervisors in developing the award. Nominations were solicited from employees and elected officials. Seven nominations mentioning six employees were received. Hensley was the person nominated twice. Other nominees:

County Engineer Randall Bowling for his work improving erosion control following heavy rains at the county landfill.

Finance Officer Jeff Lunsford for inspiration and guidance in the county's purchasing system.

Cindy Martin for her work in preparing the the pamphlet and talks along with visual aids for the successful revenue sharing referendum last August.

Landfill Director Tim McCoy for his efforts at halting erosion at the landfill.

And Data Processing Chief Irv Routt for his work on the delinquent tax system.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB