Joe Tucker: Bringing Efficiency to Ohio

Joe Tucker likes telling the story of his first press check, back when he was handling print procurement for the state of Ohio. A state motorcycle map was on press, and he and some others were inspecting a press sheet when he spotted a little problem.

"The word 'motorcycle' was misspelled," says Tucker, now state printing administrator. "Finally I got up enough nerve—because I'm the new guy—and I said, 'that's not the way you spell motorcycle.' " He laughs at the memory. "The first press check I went on I stopped the presses."

In the years since, Tucker has gone on to make some far more notable contributions to state printing, chief among them the closing of many agency-operated copy centers and the transfer of that printing into his centralized facilities. Now, as he approaches retirement later this year, Tucker is moving one last agency's printing into his State Printing and Mail Services operation. The savings to the state because of centralization is huge, he says.

"We conservatively estimate a $5.3 million savings in just this biennium," he says. "As employees of the government, our primary focus should be to save the taxpayers money. "

For one who has done so much to bring efficiency to state printing, Tucker has a fairly modest graphic arts background. His job as Ohio's State Printer is, in fact, his second career; he served 21 years with the U.S. Air Force, retiring as director of military personnel at the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1993.

Born in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, Tucker joined the Air Force right out of high school, passing up a partial football scholarship to Kent State. Toward the end of his 12 years as an enlisted man, he went to school at night, earning a degree in Human Resources from St. Leo College. He was accepted into officers' training school and then served a further nine years as a personnel officer.

After retiring, Tucker returned to his home state and took a job with state procurement. He worked closely with the former state printing administrator, Bob Schleppi, who eventually hired Tucker to oversee the transition of print procurement from state purchasing into state printing. When Schleppi retired in 1998, Tucker was asked to take his job in an acting role, then later permanently.

Focused on Effectiveness

Among his first moves was to do away with the wasteful minimum maintenance contracts on the state's printing equipment and bring in flexible contracts that accounted for peaks and valleys in production. He also replaced some older offset presses with digital printers.

His bidding experience had convinced him of the need to update the state's bid process.

"It was very antiquated when I came in" he notes.

So he oversaw the development of an electronic bid submission process. Now, bids are submitted online, opened, certified electronically by the Auditor's Office, then awarded by Tucker's print procurement manager.

"It really streamlined our process," he observes.

Another of his accomplishments was the introduction of a cost-per-copy program for the state's copiers. He got the idea after hearing a discussion at a National Government Publishing Association (NGPA) conference, an organization for which he served as president from 2004-2005. Now in place for nearly four years, the copier program includes about 500 machines.

"We know that program has saved the state millions of dollars," Tucker reports.

In recent years he's overseen the transition of the state's mainframe printing operation from the IT department into his jurisdiction and incorporated a large fulfillment operation that was previously run by another department. Two years ago, Tucker moved his print production operation into the center of Columbus to be closer to customers. This has improved customer relations, reduced delivery time and brought more work in-house.

By far, though, Tucker feels his most important contribution has been the centralization of state printing. He credits the governor for his strong support. Once this current agency centralization project is well on its way, Tucker plans to retire.

"I've worked for the government my whole life, and I want to do some other things," he says.

With his daughter still in college, he and his wife, Connie, plan to stay in Ohio for the time being, but after that he hopes to move south.

"My dream job is to have a dive boat in the Caribbean," he reveals. IPG