Nebraska Information Technology Commission: Meeting Minutes

NEBRASKA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION

Tuesday, June 18, 2002, 1:30 p.m.
Executive Building-Videoconference Room 103, 521 South 14th Street
(Due to technical difficulties with videoconferencing the meeting had to be moved from Room 1507 State Capitol Building)
Lincoln, Nebraska
APPROVED MINUTES

MEMBERS PRESENT:
Lieutenant Governor Dave Heineman, Chair
Greg Adams, Mayor, City of York
L. Merill Bryan, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, Union Pacific
Dr. Doug Christensen, Commissioner, Department of Education
Dr. Eric Brown, Manager, KRVN Radio
Trev Peterson, Attorney, Knudsen, Berkheimer, Richardson, and Endacott, LLP
Dr. L. Dennis Smith, President, University of Nebraska

MEMBERS ABSENT:
Hod Kosman, CEO, Platte Valley Financial Services

CALL TO ORDER, NOTICE OF MEETING AND ROLL CALL

The Chair, Lieutenant Governor Heineman, called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. There were seven commissioners present at the time of roll call. A quorum existed to conduct official business. Lieutenant Governor Heineman stated that the meeting notice was posted to the NITC and Public Meeting Calendar Websites on June 11, 2002 and that the meeting agenda was posted to the NITC Website on June 12, 2002.

APPROVAL OF APRIL 30, 2002 MINUTES

Commissioner Christensen moved to approve the April 30, 2002 minutes as presented. Commissioner Adams seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Adams-Yes, Brown-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Christensen-Yes, Heineman-Yes, Peterson-Yes, and Smith-Yes. Results: 7-Yes and 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

PUBLIC COMMENT

There was no public comment.

NETCOM PILOT PROJECT UPDATE
Brenda Decker, Director, Division of CommunicationS

The Division of Communications has been working with Sprint on pricing issues. The State and the provider are struggling with the description of services and what needs to be done to get those services. The one-year contract may also be affecting the pricing issue. Final price costs have not been submitted. It has been a learning process for both the State of Nebraska and the provider.

Issues that NITC must be aware of:

Services under contract now have termination clauses, which will affect the cost of the pilot project.
Current economic conditions of the state. We must affirm bandwidth requirements in the face of potential budget cuts.

Discussion and questions followed regarding: volume pricing in the negotiations; the possibility of a two-year contract versus a one-year contract; other avenues besides telephone companies as the vendor; last mile issues; and assistance from the Public Service Commission.

Lieutenant Governor Heineman will arrange a meeting with Sprint if necessary. Commissioners will be updated on the meeting results.

REPORTS – COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Anne Byers, Community Information Technology Manager

The council has not met since the last NITC meeting. Ms. Byers provided a brief summary of the Community Technology Fund report (PDF 75k). A total of five projects were awarded in 2000 and eleven in 2001.

REPORTS – EDUCATION COUNCIL (PDF 97k)
Renee Bose, Education Council Member

Education Council has had one meeting since the April 30 NITC Meeting. Agenda items included the following:

Recognition of members and alternates that were departing the council after two or more years of service: Doctors Joseph Preusser, Woody Ziegler, Rob Ziegler, and William Berndt.
Revision and grammatical wording of their six priorities and officially recommended seven action items for inclusion in the Statewide Technology Plan (retaining or revising four action items from 2001-02 and adding three new ones).
Formation of a committee to take the lead in inventorying Nebraska K-12 and Higher Ed institutions’ use of course/knowledge management tools such as Blackboard and WebCT. This report will be ready for the Education Council on July 19.

Telecommunications Training Grants Update. Tracie Klosterman, NET staff member, provided a brief summary of the grant update and was available to answer any questions.

Education Council Membership. Ms. Bose presented the names of seven members who will be renewing their 2-year terms. There is also one Council member who is retiring and another council member who is choosing not to continue. These additional appointments will be an action item for the next NITC meeting.

Commissioner Christensen moved to approve the Education Council’s recommendation for membership renewals. Commissioner Smith seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Smith-Yes, Peterson-Yes, Heineman-Yes, Christensen-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Brown-Yes, and Adams-Yes. Results: 7-Yes and 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

REPORTS – STATE GOVERNMENT COUNCIL
Steve Schafer, Chief Information Officer

The council met in May for a working session to review and revise the action items that are now reflected in Statewide the Technology Plan. The council met on June 13th to approve the action items and discuss current projects. The council wants to develop standards for state government that will be brought before the Technical Panel. The Security Work Group is focusing on preparing guidelines for agency I.T. contingency plans and conducting a security assessment for the state. A Security Awareness Day for state government is scheduled for July 15th. The July council meeting will focus on retention of electronic records. Because of recent problems with having enough members for a quorum, the council may propose membership changes to the NITC for approval at a future meeting. The GTCF Grants Update (PDF 71k) was sent to commissioners prior to the meeting.

Mr. Schafer entertained questions and comments from the Commissioners.

REPORTS – TECHNICAL PANEL
Walter Weir, University of Nebraska, Chief Information Officer

The Technical Panel has held two meetings since the last NITC meetings. Agenda items included:

Regular updates on the Wireless Project, Network Architecture Work, Group (NETCOM), Security Architecture Work Group, Accessibility Architecture Work Group, and the Nebraska Network Work Group, and
Technical reviews for Grant Projects funded by the Records Board

New Member (CIO Alternate). At the May meeting, the Technical Panel voted to recommend Rick Becker, Government Information Technology Manager, to serve as the alternate for Steve Schafer, Chief Information Officer.

Commissioner Smith moved to approve Rick Becker, as alternate for the Chief Information Officer. Commissioner Brown seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Christensen-Yes, Heineman-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Peterson-Yes, Brown-Yes, Smith-Yes, and Adams-Yes. Results: 7-Yes and 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

Standards and Guidelines: Incident Reporting. At the May meeting, the Incident Reporting Policies and Procedures were approved by the Technical Panel for recommendation to the NITC for final approval.

Commissioner Adams moved to approve the Incident Reporting Policies and Procedures for State Government (PDF 235k). Commissioner Peterson seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Heineman-Yes, Christensen-Yes, Peterson-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Smith-Yes, Adams-Yes, and Brown-Yes. Results: 7-Yes and 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

Mr. Weir entertained questions regarding hacking of systems, as well as, homeland security.

Standards and Guidelines: Workstation Guidelines for State Government and the Workstation Guidelines for K-12 (PDF 111k). At the May meeting, the Workstation Guidelines for State Government and for K-12 were approved by the Technical Panel for recommendation to the NITC for final approval.

Commissioner Peterson moved to approve the Workstation Guidelines for State Government and for K-12. Commissioner Bryan seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Bryan-Yes, Peterson-Yes, Brown-Yes, Smith-Yes, Adams-Yes, Heineman-Yes, and Christensen-Yes. Results: 7-Yes and 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

REPORT – STAFF
Steve Schafer, Chief Information Officer

I.T.I.F. (Information Technology Infrastructure Fund)NIS (Nebraska Information System). There have been changes in the project’s timeline and these have been posted to their web site. A change order is being negotiated. There are growing concerns about the number of interfaces and modifications. Recent developments include the following: added resources to the project, management wants to empower the project team for best practices; and special emphasis has been placed on finishing the specification for the interfaces. Currently, the University is writing interfaces in cooperation with NIS but there are still concerns regarding warrant writing.

I.T.I.F. CJIS Federal Access Project. The project is working towards access to federal databases through the CJIS Internet portal. The State Patrol has been involved but they are now focused on other projects at the moment. The Crime Commission is seeking other avenues to get this done.

I.T.I.F. Wireless. No progress to report since the last NITC meeting.

I.T.I.T. DOC Statewide Network Coordination Project Proposal. As identified in LB 543 (2001 Budget Bill), this project proposal is for continuation of the coordinator associated with the successor project(s) of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Needs Assessment. Representation for the education community and other participants in the planning, development, and implementation of a state wideband network service will be required during the forthcoming FY2002-03. At the June 11th Technical Panel meeting, the project proposal was approved for recommendation to the NITC for final approval.

Commissioner Adams moved to approve the DOC Statewide Network Coordination Project Proposal (PDF 148k). Commissioner Brown seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Brown-Yes, Smith-Yes, Adams-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Christensen-Yes, Heineman-Yes, and Peterson-Yes. Results: 7-Yes and 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

Review Schedule for Preparing Reports to the Governor and Legislature. State statutes require the N.I.T.C. to conduct three activities this year. Section 86-1506 requires a prioritized list of project by November 15th. Each of the councils will assist in prioritizing the budget requests. Section 86-1508 requires a biennial progress report by November 15th. Section 81-11,102 requires an annual report of the Information Technology Infrastructure Fund. The NITC will be meeting in early November to approve the recommendations.

Update on Agency I.T. Comprehensive Plans. This agenda item was tabled until next meeting.

STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN UPDATE

State statute requires an annual review of the plan by the NITC. The Commissioners had no recommendations for changes.

Commissioner Smith moved to approve the Statewide Technology Plan Update. Commissioner Brown seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Smith-Yes, Brown-Yes, Christensen-Yes, Heineman-Yes, Bryan-Yes, Peterson-Yes, and Adams-Yes. Results: 7-Yes and 0-No. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

NEBRASKA NETWORK WORKGROUP UPDATE
Steve Schafer, Chief Information Officer

At the April 30th NITC meeting, the Commissioners received an interim report. The interim report identified weaknesses and strengths of existing networks and summarized networks in nine states. Work on the draft final report with specific recommendations continues. Some of the most important recommendations include the need to move forward with aggregation for purchasing power and a telecommunication backbone, as well as, the need to share in the development of an IP centric network. There are communities of interests ready to move forward on the IP centric network but for long-term purposes there is a need to look at how these systems can work together. The timeline is still to have the draft ready by end of July for a 30-day public comment period.

NEW BUSINESS

Lieutenant Governor Heineman announced that the public health alert system implementation for the State will occur the first week in July. The University of Nebraska Medical Center has played a vital role in this endeavor.

NEXT MEETING AND ADJOURNMENT

The next meeting of the Nebraska Information Technology Commission will be held in September. The date and location will be announced at a later date.

Commissioner Brown moved to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Christensen seconded the motion. All were in favor. The motion was carried by voice vote. The meeting was adjourned at 3:19 p.m.

Meeting minutes were taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales and reviewed by staff of the Office of the NITC/CIO.

Meeting Minutes