The Douglas County treasurer probably is right: It’s easier to change state law than to change human nature.

After an 18-month management assessment of her office, Treasurer Paula Gilchrist has come up with some common sense ideas for improving services. A particular focus of her report Monday to county commissioners was how to eliminate long lines in the treasurer’s office at the end of the month, just before the monthly deadlines for license tag renewals.

The office got high marks for service, but patrons still didn’t like the hassle of standing in line. One way to avoid the line, of course, is to renew your license tag earlier in the month, well ahead of the deadline. Or, if it’s worth a few extra dollars to you, renew online with a credit card number and skip the trip to the courthouse entirely.

Because we’re in a business that’s all about deadlines, we probably should be more sympathetic to the quirk of human nature that makes us all wait until the last minute to complete certain tasks.

Gilchrist had a couple of good suggestions for the state to try to mitigate the end-of-month crowd. For instance, the state could split the tag-renewal groups and set two deadlines each month. She also suggested that the state consider replacing the annual renewal stickers with a scannable bar code to save money.

But, since both of those changes would have to be made at the state level, Gilchrist has decided to take some action on her own by providing treasurer’s services in Baldwin City one week a month. It would make sense, given the above-mentioned human nature, to make that the last week of the month or people still will be driving to Lawrence to beat the deadline.

A satellite treasurer’s office had previously operated in Baldwin City but was closed in 2003 as a cost-cutting measure. Gilchrist plans to start providing services at a branch location of Baldwin State Bank by the end of the year.

Gilchrist is getting high marks not only from the management consultant and the public but from county commissioners and County Administrator Craig Weinaug, who praised her leadership and management style.

Now, if she could only figure out how to get people to stop procrastinating :