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It started with a survey sent to city employees, using email and websites. The goal was to see who could come up with the best ways to save or generate money. This is union leader Jere Talley at the awards ceremony with one of the winning suggestions.
“Stronger enforcement of out dumpster permitting can result in — and I want you to hear this dollar figure — six to ten million dollars in revenue. Do you like the sound of that?” 
(Applause )
Three of the candidates running for Houston mayor introduced one of the winning ideas. Here’s Annise Parker, Gene Locke and Peter Brown.
“Award number one goes to Latanya Bolden from public works and engineering. Latanya was able to id places where we can greatly reduce the amount of time takes to review contracts and where we can improve oversight. Thank you for your service to our city.” 
“Sharon Rivers, she realized that we as a city are woefully undercharging people for copies. There are reports that lawyers will pay hundreds of dollars for these reports that are critical to their process, we’ve been charging ten cents a copy.”
“I want to congratulate you and say that this on changing city government. You can go home and tell your wife and kids that you have changed city government.”
Bill Stamps KUHF Houston Public Radio News.