Council 13 members receive Governor’s Awards for Excellence
Congratulations to the 49 recipients of this year’s Governor’s Awards for Excellence, including AFSCME Council 13 members Brian Garrity (Local 2245, State Supervisory – District 8), Jason Reuter (Local 2367, State Supervisory – District 1), Michael Somishka (Local 2455, State Professionals – District 5 & 6), Timothy Van Cleve (Local 2450, State Professionals – District 1) and Darla Ptaszek (Local 2456, State Professional – District 8).
Brian, Jason, Michael and Timothy were recognized for working to protect Pennsylvania’s unemployment compensation system from a rising tide of fraud using stolen identities and bogus companies. Since 2013, they and their coworkers at the Department of Labor & Industry stopped the loss of more than $10 million in unemployment compensation funds from fraudulent claims.
Darla was part of a team at the Department of Revenue that embraced Governor Tom Wolf’s “Lean” initiative to improve operations at the Corporate Clearance Division. Thanks to Darla and her coworkers’ hard work, their caseload was reduced by 78 percent and wait times to receive clearances were reduced by 64 percent. Additionally, employees are spending less time on manual review of applications, resulting in productivity gains of nearly $268,000 each year.
“The state employees being recognized today exemplify the innovation, drive and can-do spirit that are transforming our government to deliver better results and service,” Governor Wolf said.
“Our commonwealth is a better place because of the extraordinary accomplishments of these state employees.”