SYRACUSE — Leadership Greater Syracuse (LGS), a yearlong civic-leadership training program, announced that 54 people from its 2017 class graduated on Nov. 15 in a ceremony held at the All Star Alley & Tavern at Destiny USA in Syracuse. 

LGS now boasts more than 1,300 alumni who have completed the annual community leadership-training curriculum since 1991. More than 970 of the 1,300 graduates of LGS remain in Central New York, according to LGS. A recent survey showed that they have held more than 750 volunteer positions.

These latest graduates “have been immersed in the issues and achievements of our community and now have the tools and the connections they need to give back to CNY,” LGS Executive Director Pam Brunet said in a news release.

The participants represent a cross-section of local businesses and nonprofit organizations. The program teaches participants about community leadership, empowerment, group dynamics, community opportunities, and trends. 

“The future is bright for the organizations and businesses that will benefit from their knowledge and involvement as the LGS Class of 2017 is made up of very enthusiastic and capable leaders,” Brunet said. 

The Leadership Greater Syracuse Class of 2017 graduates are: Thomas Anelli, Tom Anelli & Associates; Ryan Aylward, Madison County; Nathan Bradley, OneGroup; James Branche, United Radio; Randy Brown, Anchor QEA; Trymeter Carter, SUNY Upstate Medical University; Megan Cavallaro, AXA; Nicole Chidsey, Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists; Brandon Claps, Loretto Health Care; Kevin Connolly, DoubleTree by Hilton Syracuse; Sarah Costello, Empower Federal Credit Union; Michael Cummings, KeyBank; Christopher Daniel, Dermody, Burke & Brown, CPAs, LLC; Kevin Devaney, SRC, Inc.; Amy Dobrovech, National Grid; Brian Donner, C&S Companies; Maureen Fang, Lockheed Martin; Donald Farrington, Visual Technologies; Timothy Ferlito, United Way of Central New York; Michael Ferony, United Parcel Services; Kathleen Ford, Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office; Kathleen Paice Froio, SUNY Upstate Medical University; John Grabau, Northland Communications; Eleanor Hanna, CenterState CEO; Aaron Jackson, Turner Construction; Elizabeth Kapfer, Annese & Associates, Inc.; Ocesa Keaton, Greater Syracuse Hope; Adrienne Kelley, Francis House; Wendy Knight, HealtheConnections; Katherine Kramer, Advance Media New York; Marc W. Kutik, Lockheed Martin; Michael Lane, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.; Jaime Lawlor, Cumulus Media; Frank Mancuso, Loretto; Davanna Marks, Bristol-Myers Squibb; Elizabeth Meyer, M&T Insurance Agency; Cory Murray, Riccelli-Northern, LLC; Robert Neimeier, O’Brien & Gere; Judy Papenfus, Lockheed Martin; Debra Person, Exodus 3 Ministries; Christianne Radziewicz, VIP Structures; Charla Roth, Dannible & McKee, LLP; Robert Sauda, Welch Allyn; Sarah Stephens, SS Funding & Procurement Resources, LLC; Michael Thompson, Carrier Corporation; Mari Ukleya, OCM BOCES; and Erin Vaccaro, Onondaga Community College. 

Leadership Greater Syracuse (www.leadsyr.org) was founded by CenterState CEO, Onondaga County, the City of Syracuse, and Onondaga Community College. It says it is financially supported by many organizations including United Radio, Lockheed Martin, and VIP Structures. Media sponsors include Charter Communications, Advanced Media Group, and the Business Journal News Network.

Hotels in Broome County saw more overnight guests in October compared to a year ago, according to a recent report.

The hotel occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county rose 4.5 percent to 60.4 percent in October from 57.8 percent in the year-ago month, according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. It was the sixth straight month in which Broome County’s occupancy rate increased. Year to date, the county’s occupancy rate edged up 2.5 percent to 57.7 percent from 56.3 percent in the year-earlier period.

Revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key industry indicator that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, increased 6.7 percent to $54.43 this October from $51.01 in October 2016. Year to date, Broome County’s RevPAR was up 3.1 percent to $52.06 from $50.49 in the same period in 2016.

Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, rose 2.1 percent to $90.08 from $88.20 a year earlier, per STR. Year to date, Broome County’s ADR was up 0.6 percent to $90.16 from $89.65 a year prior.                         

“True health-care reform cannot happen in Washington. It has to happen in our kitchens, in our homes, in our communities. All health care is personal.” — Dr. Mehmet Oz

This is a health-care reform column through a completely different lens.

I had the distinct pleasure of serving as a moderator at the recent event entitled “Cracking the Code on Healthcare: Quality and the Patient Experience,” attended by more than 400 people. Dr. Donald Berwick, who is currently the president emeritus for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), provided the audience with the most stimulating and thought-provoking presentation related to health-care reform that I have ever experienced. Dr. Berwick’s presentation was entitled “Current Healthcare Challenges: Changing the Balance of Power.” The Cracking the Code seminar was organized by the Northstar Network, an organization that is doing some amazing things in the health-care reform sector. To learn more, visit: www.northstarnetwork.org/. 

Dr. Berwick, who is the former administrator of the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as a physician, focused his presentation on reforming health-care from the patient’s point of view. It was indeed a fascinating presentation that will certainly affect the opinions and attitudes of attendees.

IHI has formed a “Leadership Alliance” that has developed its collective assessment of “New Rules for Radical Redesign in Health Care.” In summary, the new rules are designed to achieve “care better than we have ever seen, health better than we have ever known, at a cost we can all afford … for every person every time.” The logical objectives resulting from “radical redesign” can certainly be embraced conceptually by virtually every citizen. What was most intriguing in Dr. Berwick’s presentation was the 10 areas of Radical Redesign Principles, which were presented as follows:

1) Change the balance of power: Co-produce health and well-being in partnership with patients, families, and communities.

2) Standardize what makes sense: Standardize what is possible to reduce unnecessary variation, and increase the time available for individualized care.

3) Customize to the individual: Contextualize care to an individual’s needs, values, and preferences, guided by an understanding of “what matters” to the person in addition to “what’s the matter.”

4) Promote well-being: Focus on outcomes that matter the most to people, appreciating that their health and happiness may not require health care.

5) Create joy in work: Cultivate and mobilize the pride and joy of the health-care workforce.

6) Make it easy: Continually reduce waste and all non-value-added requirements and activities for patients, families, and clinicians. 

7) Love knowledge, not people: Exploit all helpful capacities of modern digital care and continually substitute better alternatives for visits and institutional stays. Meet people where they are, literally. 

8) Collaborate/cooperate: Recognize that the health-care system is embedded in a network that extends beyond traditional walls. Eliminate siloes and tear down self-protective institutional or professional boundaries that impede flow and responsiveness.

9) Assume abundance: Use all the assets that can help to optimize the social, economic, and physical environment, especially those brought by patients, families, and communities.

10) Return the money: Return the money from health-care savings to other public and private purposes. 

Dr. Berwick further explained each of the radical principles through the presentation of real-life anecdotes. Each of the anecdotes achieved demonstrable success in achieving the goals of radical redesign by engaging and accepting the individual’s view of a logical, rational, common-sense approach to addressing a health-care challenge. 

The most impressive of his anecdotes described an initiative implemented at St. Ninian’s Primary School in Sterling, Scotland. The school had 420 students in grades 1-10, and at the start of this particular initiative, 45 percent of the student population was overweight. The initiative was referred to as “The Daily Mile,” and the objective motto for the initiative was known as “fit to play, fit to learn.” 

Essentially, in a logical, rational, and common-sense approach, the school principal, with support from parents and pupils, made a commitment to have every pupil run or walk a daily mile during school hours. The results were astonishing in that after three years, not one of the pupils was obese. For more information, go to http://www.thedailymile.org/. What was particularly impressive were the quotes provided by the students who participated in the initiative. The most interesting quote from my perspective was the student who said, “I like Run a Mile because I have to push myself a bit more every day.” 

The most significant challenge to achieving the radical redesign principles of IHI was focused on “How to Shift the Balance of Power.” In our complex and fragmented health-care delivery system, power exists in many different components of the delivery system. Dr. Berwick’s proposed solution places the power with the individual patient. He stated that adopting the following principles was the key to shifting the balance of power in health-care delivery to the individual patient:

• Use what the patient and family bring. Accept their gifts.

• Talk less. Ask more. “What matters to you?”

• Make transparency limitless.

• Protect privacy, but “repeal and replace” HIPAA.

• Equip homes and communities to replace institutions.

• Share decision-making.

• Do not design core systems around hard cases.

• One patient = one episode of care.

I would encourage each of you to visit the IHI website at http://www.ihi.org/.

Dr. Berwick’s presentation was followed by Dr. Jeffrey Brady, assistant surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service. His presentation focused on “Moving Toward a Safer Health Care System.” Dr. Brady’s presentation was more centered on statistics. I would also encourage you to visit the website for the Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality at https://www.ahrq.gov/.

I firmly believe that every presentation elicits a “golden nugget” idea that can and should be considered for implementation by all organizations, not just health-care and tax-exempt service providers. In the case of Dr. Berwick’s presentation, his golden nugget was to periodically survey the employees of your organization for the sole purpose of identifying “Stupid Rules.” He presented remarkable results in the form of cost and service efficiencies derived by asking the simple question of each employee, “Please identify the ‘Stupid Rules’ that you follow in your daily work activities.” Try this approach in your organization, and I am certain that you too will identify a number of cost and service efficiencies.                           

Gerald J. Archibald, CPA, is a partner in charge of the management advisory services at The Bonadio Group. Contact him at (585) 381-1000, or via email at garchibald@bonadio.com

ELMIRA — The board of directors of Elmira Savings Bank (NASDAQ: ESBK) has declared a cash dividend of 23 cents per share of its common stock. The banking company will pay the dividend on Dec. 15 to shareholders of record on Dec. 8.

At its current stock price, the dividend yields about 4.5 percent on an annual basis. 

Elmira Savings Bank, with $559 million in total assets, is a state-chartered bank with six branches in Chemung County, three offices in Tompkins County, two branches in Steuben County, one office in Cayuga County, one branch in Schuyler County, and a loan center in Broome County.

Elmira Savings Bank generated more than $1.2 million in net income in the third quarter of this year, up slightly from the year-ago period.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has announced the availability of up to $3.5 million for “innovative” research and development (R&D) proposals to “accelerate” the use of electric vehicles, reduce the cost of installing and operating charging stations, and provide recommendations on how they can be used for grid resiliency. 

Funding for this initiative is available through the state’s Clean Energy Fund. The effort is part of the governor’s plan to reduce the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. 

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) will administer the solicitation, which is seeking proposals for research projects that show the potential impact of electric vehicles on job growth, technical advances, and the overall economy, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

An area of “particular interest,” the release explained, includes proposals for innovative business models and technologies to better manage the relationship between electric vehicles and the electric grid. For example, proposals could focus on: 

• How to reduce the impact of charging vehicles on the grid; 

• How vehicles can be integrated into buildings to provide backup power; or 

• How to remotely manage electric-car charging at peak times. 

Currently, electric vehicles use power from the grid to charge. However, fully charged vehicles can also return power to the grid, which can help provide “resiliency” during power outages or during peak times, such as hot summer days, the governor’s office said.

The transportation sector is responsible for 40 percent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in New York state. Compared to gasoline-powered cars, electric cars are more energy efficient and cost about 50 percent to 70 percent less to operate per mile, the state contends. As a result, New York is taking a “broad approach” to accelerating electric-vehicle market growth, per the governor’s office.

As of Nov. 1, there were about 23,000 electric vehicles registered in New York.              

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo recently announced grant awards totaling $2.3 million for urban forestry projects in communities across New York state. 

The awards are funded through the state Environmental Protection Fund and are part of New York’s ongoing initiatives to address “invasive species, climate change, and environmental justice,” Cuomo’s office said in a news release. 

Grants were made available to municipalities, public benefit corporations, public authorities, school districts, soil and water conservation districts, community colleges, not-for-profit organizations, and Indian Nations. Awards — ranging from $11,000 to $75,000, depending on the municipal population. Tree inventories and community forestry management plans have no matching requirement. Tree planting and maintenance projects have a 25 percent match requirement. 

The awarded projects target local environmental needs that can benefit the community and the environment, including watershed protection. Projects include reforestation in areas to restore forest canopy lost to invasive species such as the Emerald Ash Borer. Altogether, the state announced 51 project winners for the 2017 grants selected from 147 applications scored competitively. 

“These investments will help improve the quality of life in New York neighborhoods by supporting the replacement of trees impacted by invasive pests,” Cuomo said. 

Grant recipients by region include the following.

CENTRAL NEW YORK 

Cortland County 
• City of Cortland, $23,490: Cortland tree planting 

Onondaga County 
• City of Syracuse, $25,065: City of Syracuse inventory and cyclical management of the urban forest project 
• Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection, $75,000: maintaining green infrastructure for storm water management 
• Town of DeWitt, $24,350: Keeping DeWitt Green project 

MOHAWK VALLEY 

Oneida County 
• Town of Floyd, $29,470: Floyd Town Park tree planting 
• Mohawk Valley Community College, $49,000: City of Utica tree inventory project 

Otsego County 
• City of Oneonta, $50,000: City of Oneonta Emerald Ash Borer preventive maintenance program 
• City of Oneonta, $42,240: City of Oneonta planting of street trees on Market Street Project 
• City of Oneonta, $50,000: City of Oneonta general tree maintenance program 
• Village of Cooperstown, $13,830: Cooperstown tree inventory and urban forest management plan 

NORTH COUNTRY 

Jefferson County 
• City of Watertown, $18,000: City of Watertown Phase II tree inventory and citywide community forest management plan 

St. Lawrence County 
• Village of Massena, $50,000: Village of Massena tree inventory and forest management plan 

SOUTHERN TIER 

Broome County 
• City of Binghamton, $50,000: City of Binghamton comprehensive tree inventory — Phase II 

Steuben County
• Village of Bath, $19,800: Village of Bath tree maintenance program

Tompkins County 
• Village of Dryden, $11,209: Tree planting on Main Street and elementary school neighborhood 

The urban forestry grants complement the New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) existing initiatives to address invasive species, climate change, environmental degradation, environmental justice, and urban sprawl, the release stated. Over the last six years, the state has funded more than $6.9 million in grants to support projects with a total value of more than $12 million. 

“Urban forestry programs promote clean air, clean water, energy savings, and habitat creation,” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos contended.