Mr. Ronald Bounds is a Planner with the Delaware State Police and serves as the sole member of the Delaware Information and Analysis Critical Infrastructure Unit.

Much of Delaware's critical infrastructure is located along the state's waterways. In order to better monitor what is occurring on or near these locations, Mr. Bounds created the Delaware Maritime Security System, composed of various radar units and cameras, which evaluates potentially-available resources, and crafts innovative ways to make incremental improvements.

In order to significantly increase coverage, Mr. Bounds partnered with the Pilots' Association for the Bay and River Delaware, the University of Delaware, Little Creek Fire Department, Delaware Natural Resources Police, and a private-sector business.

Looking beyond the borders of Delaware, Mr. Bounds reached out to authorities in the neighboring states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania who also have an interest in vessel traffic moving along their shores.

This public/private partnership caught the attention of the National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office (NMIO), whose officials advised that no other similar partnerships existed in the US. They presented Mr. Bounds with the first ever National Maritime Domain Awareness Executive Steering Committee Award. NMIO Director, US Navy Rear Admiral Robert Sharp, stated that Mr. Bound's work "is a great example of how federal, state, local and private organizations can collaborate to create a safer and more secure maritime domain in our coastal waters."

Randy Greer works as an engineer for DNREC with their Sediment and Stormwater Program. Mr. Greer's ability to offer compliance options within the confines of the water quality and water quantity management requirements are remarkable. One highlight from this year was his adoption of emergency regulations in response to the Delaware Superior Court invalidating Sediment and Stormwater Regulations. His response allowed the regulated community to have no delay in plan review and approval, which permitted development activity to continue for economic growth in the state.

Mr. Greer also created a standard plan to assist an expanding poultry sector. Mr. Greer led a team of co-workers and created an innovative procedure that established and expressed the regulatory requirements in an easy-to-implement manner. The effort saved potential poultry growers time and money while still maintaining environmental protection from negative Stormwater impacts.

In June 2016, DNREC was mandated to develop standard plans for residential, agricultural structures and utility projects. Mr. Greer worked with Regulatory Advisory Committee representatives of the homebuilding industry and local agencies to develop separate residential plans that addressed everyone's concerns so that the impact to the housing market was not affected.

There were several other examples of Mr. Greer partnering with organizations and thinking creatively in response to changes and challenges, thus saving the State money and maintaining its relationship with critical state industries.

In December 2014, Senior Probation and Parole Officer (SPO) Daina Gunther was assigned James Clay as a Mental Health Court offender. In February 2015, her office received information from the FBI that an informant reported that Mr. Clay made comments to him while incarcerated in Sussex Correctional Institute about a murder he and his brother committed in Arkansas back in the 1960's.

During standard home visits, SPO Gunther slowly convinced Mr. Clay to trust her and to reveal that he had killed a man, and to then provide additional details. The information Mr. Clay revealed to her matched the Medical Examiner's Police Report.

SPO Gunther shared this information with the Georgetown Police Department who were able to get Mr. Clay to admit to the murder, and he was extradited to Arkansas where he accepted a plea which was accepted by the victims' family.

Mr. Clay was sentenced to 20 years in the Arkansas Dept. of Corrections. If not for SPO Gunther engaging Mr. Clay in conversations that seemed to make him feel as if he were boasting, and slowly coaxing from him the story of the murder he committed, this case could have remained unsolved. Due to her skill as a Mental Health Court officer, a 47-year-old cold case was finally closed.

Operation Duck Hunt was a significant criminal investigation of a money laundering operation which involved a Dover Downs Casino patron who was later linked to a large-scale heroin dealer in Sussex County who was also under investigation.

The Division of Gaming Enforcement initiated the money laundering investigation in April 2014. From that time through May of 2016, Investigator Deborah Walker used her skills to organize thousands of pages of supporting documentation. She reviewed these pages of documents and helped to analyze patterns consistent with criminal activities. These reports were critical for multiple indictments.

Detective Angela Garnsey with the State Police began her role when the investigation was merged with the heroin case in early to mid-2015, and in 2016, Detective Garnsey was tasked with documenting the investigation, coordinating with Delaware Information and Analyst Center analysts, subpoenaing financial records, coordinating efforts to create extensive banking statement spreadsheets, drafting numerous search and seizure warrants, and assisting with evidence collection and review.

Operation Duck Hunt netted the largest heroin seizure in Delaware, combined with a multi-layered money laundering investigation that stemmed from casino entities within the state. This investigation culminated in numerous arrests for charges related to money laundering, racketeering, conspiracy, and drug trafficking. Asset seizures totaled nearly one million dollars.

Detective Garnsey's and Ms. Walker's support and efforts, while still performing their daily responsibilities, proved to be extremely helpful to the department in Operation Duck Hunt.

James Ristovski, ERP Systems Supervisor with PHRST (Payroll Human Resource Statewide Technology), was named the lead functional resource for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting project.

Mr. Ristovski determined that the delivered PeopleSoft reporting solution was not equipped to synthesize the anomalies of State of Delaware data, and would in fact report skewed and erroneous data. So Mr. Ristovski developed a customized solution to meet the ACA reporting requirements.

He manually aggregated employee and dependent data involving data elements with hundreds of variables that impact or alter employee benefit eligibility. Mr. Ristovski personally analyzed 1,460,571 employee records, analyzing and creating 10 versions of highly complex data encompassing the entire State of Delaware employee population for a total of over 3.5 million functions executed.

In addition to his own work, Mr. Ristovski was responsible for verifying and validating the project work done by DTI resources that supported PHRST for this initiative. He also was responsible for communicating and working with the Statewide Benefits Office and OMB management to ensure all aspects of federal compliance were met.

The State of Delaware faced penalties and fines of $60 million dollars for failure to meet the prescribed reporting deadlines. His efforts drove the State of Delaware to successfully meet all federal ACA reporting requirements, something many employers and other states have not been able to do.