THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 22, 1995 TAG: 9502220019
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
We nominate Dick Pokorny to be Outstanding Government Employee in the Entire Universe for the month of February - on one condition.
Pokorny is a Chesapeake systems analyst who invented a sticker to cut down on sticker thefts. Each sticker now includes the make, model and vehicle identification number of the car, so police can easily tell when a sticker has been switched to the wrong car.
But beyond that, as staff writer Patricia Huang reported, the car owners' information now is filled out automatically through a computer, so the last-day lines to buy the stickers have been eliminated. With city employees helping people approaching the counter be sure they have everything they need, the actual sticker purchase now takes about 20 seconds, compared with several minutes under the previous method.
Last-day sticker buyers expect to wait hours, kicking themselves every minute for not ordering the stickers through the mail. But in Chesapeake they waltzed in and out. The mental anguish that Pokorny eliminated defies measurement.
On Wednesday, the deadline for buying city stickers, people began lining up in Hampton at 2 a.m. Other area cities had long lines. But in Chesapeake, roughly 3,000 stickers a day were sold on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - yet at times the City Municipal Building lobby was empty. Chesapeake City Treasurer Barbara O. Carraway said her workers videotaped the empty lobby ``because we couldn't believe it ourselves.''
The condition that has to be met before the award can be presented is significant: A way has to be found to keep the ink from coming off when the insides of the windshields are washed. The stickers are made of acetate film. Supposedly all that's needed to protect the ink is another special coating, which the stickers will have, beginning in April, Carraway said. Till then, it's best to put clear tape or contact paper over the stickers, though even Windex or 409 will not remove the ink, Carraway said, if they are wiped off right away.
Once the ink is protected, Carraway deserves an award of her own, possibly Co-Outstanding Government Employee in the Universe for the Month of February.
She (1) recognized the beauty of Pokorny's suggestion for changing the stickers (2) saw several ways to use his new computer system to simplify the sticker-purchase process and (3) set up the system to help people approaching the counter.
She estimates that the improved methods saved the city the equivalent of one clerk working half a year. That's every year. More importantly, she and Pokorny turned a day of dread and regret into a quick stop. by CNB