Doing more with less

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said his office has been doing more with less in recent years, but that making budget cuts could be tricky going forward.

“Learning how to maintain a very high level of customer service while knowing we’re going to have fewer staff to do that is our focus,” Ritchie said.

Ritchie told the House State Government Finance Committee Feb. 2 that his office is using technology to ensure its quality of service is not diminished by several recent budget reductions. The problem, he said, is that the cuts tend to fall largely on the office’s business services section.

The Office of the Secretary of State is perhaps best known for administering Minnesota’s elections; however, it also registers all the state’s business organizations and provides several other services. Ritchie said the federal Help America Vote Act prohibits the state from reducing its spending on elections.

Ritchie said 60 percent of the office’s budget is devoted to business services, and that demand for those services is on the rise. He said making certain kinds of business filings electronic has eased pressures on the staff, but technology can’t solve every issue.

“We will be able to automate a number of things, but the necessity of someone to be there on the phone to answer a question … will remain,” he said.

Moreover, Ritchie said a number of the office’s approximately 69 employees are nearing retirement age, and Ritchie wants to keep them around long enough to transfer some of their knowledge to younger employees.

“We need to organize our cutting and reduction and all of these with an eye toward the generational shift in our agencies,” Ritchie said.

Committee members took no action.