STATE GOVERNMENT COUNCIL
Thursday, February 10, 2005, 1:30 p.m.
State Office Building – Conference Room 6Z
301 Centennial Mall-South, Lincoln, Nebraska

APPROVED MINUTES

MEMBERS PRESENT:

John Cariotto, Supreme Court
Brenda Decker, Chief Information Officer
Jon Ogden, Department of Roads
Tom Conroy, Information Management Services
George Wells, Department of Correctional Services
Patrick Flanagan, Private Sector
Dick Gettemy, Dept. of Revenue
Rex Gittins, Department of Natural Resources
Jayne Scofield, Division of Communications
Randy Cecrle, Workers’ Comp. Court
Dick Nelson, Health and Human Services
Mike Overton, Crime Commission
Robert Shanahan, Department of Labor
Rod Wagner, Library Commission.

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Bob Beecham, NDE Support Services; Dennis Burling, Dept. of Environment Quality; Mike Calvert, Legislative Fiscal Office; John Gale, Secretary of State's Office; Dorest Harvey, Private Sector; Lauren Hill, Governor’s Policy Research Office; Lori McClurg, Department of Administrative Services; Scott McFall, Nebraska State Patrol; Bev Neth, Department of Motor Vehicles; and Gerry Oligmueller, Budget Office

CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL AND NOTICE OF POSTING

Ms. Decker called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m.Roll call was taken. A quorum was present.The meeting notice was posted to the NITC and the Nebraska Public Meeting Calendar Websites on January 19, 2005 and the meeting agenda posted to the NITC Website on February 4, 2005.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Ms. Decker announced that as of last Friday, Governor Heineman appointed her as the new Chief Information Officer for the State of Nebraska. Steve Schafer will be part of the CIO’s management team in charge of I.T. Financial Services.

APPROVAL OF JANUARY MINUTES

Mr. Cecrle corrected the spelling of his last name.

Mr. Ogden moved to approve the January 13, 2005 minutes as corrected. Mr. Flanagan seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Ogden-Yes, Decker-Yes, Scofield-Yes, Gettemy-Yes, Wells-Yes, Flanagan-Yes, Gittins-Yes, Conroy-Yes, Shanahan-Yes, Cecrle-Yes, Ohmberger-Yes, and Wagner-Yes. Results 12-Yes, 0-No. Motion was carried.

STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES – LOTUS NOTES

This agenda item was tabled until a future meeting.

Mr. Overton arrived at 1:40 p.m.

STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES –WEB BRANDING & POLICY CONSISTENCY (PDF 93k)

Greg Votava and Cat Souliere, Webmasters Group

The revised document incorporated the recommendations from last meeting. For section 3 it was suggested to add definition of what constitutes a “web page”. It may be easier to document what is not considered a webpage, for example pdf and word document files. The link to the branding graphics option was not working for some members.

Mr. Becker researched examples of security statements posted on other states' web sites. Council members were provided examples of general web security statements (PDF 64k) for the states of Indiana, New Jersey, and South Dakota. After discussion of the statements, it was recommended to establish a generic policy that could be further developed per agency needs. Mr. Becker will develop a generic policy and will have it reviewed by legal counsel before it is brought back to the State Government Council for review and approval.

Action on this agenda item will be tabled until the state establishes a Web Security Policy.

DISCUSSION: SHARED SERVICES

Governor Heineman would like to see the policy and operational aspects of IT better integrated. The reporting structure for this new endeavor will soon be coming from the Governor.

Mr. Carrioto arrived at 1:49 p.m.

Governor Heineman wants to make sure we provide services in an effective manner, including utilizing shared services where appropriate. Ms. Decker posed the question to the Council as to how do we begin these discussions to move down the road together towards the same goals and vision. Some comments and suggestions made were as follows:

• Need to explore where the opportunities are for shared services.
• Create Centers of Excellence for some services that could provide that service for all state agencies.
• Look at “equipment acquisition” as a collective effort.
• Agencies could partner with IMServices for temporary technical support rather than hiring and training temporary staff.
• Will there be funding sources for these types of efforts?
• Need for better centralized planning in state government for purchasing hardware and software.

It was suggested to have a special work session to discuss this in-depth. Suggested beginning points for discussion included: agencies to define in their own words “what is it we do” from an IT standpoint; bring list of future projects; and discuss hardware purchases and service agreements. Ms. Decker stated that the Governor is very supportive of this effort.

REGULAR UPDATES (as needed)

Directory of Services, Kevin Keller. Mr. Keller distributed a document entitled "Directory Services Work Group - Phase II Recommendations - February 10, 2005". Council members were asked to review the document for discussion and possible action at a future meeting. Mr. Keller would like agency IT staff to review pages 5 and 10 and send comments to him.

Juvenile Data Sharing, Mike Overton. The consultant is exploring the development of a framework to share information regarding children receiving aid from the state. Currently, information is being collected from the steering committee. Other issues being discussed are governance and reaching an agreement and consensus as to how to move forward with data sharing. It is anticipated that the strategic plan will be done in March.

Lotus Notes, Kevin Keller. The work group is in the process of rewriting the charter and is discussing if focus should be broader than Lotus Notes for example electronic messaging.

Enterprise Licensing, Tom Conroy. The enterprise purchasing agreements with E.S.R.I. and Oracle are still being negotiated.

Webmasters Group, Greg Votava. Discussions have focused on the state’s website rankings in regards to accessibility and broken links. Jana Johnson, who is with the state’s Assistive Technology Partnership program, will be developing a set of tools that will available for webmasters to assess their web site for broken links. Federal information indicates that accessibility is more an issue of enforcement rather than awareness. The Cookies Policy for the State of Nebraska will be discussed with possible revisions to make it less restrictive.

Online Business Registration, Dan Brown, Nebrask@Online. NOL is in the process of reviewing the list for business classifications. Meetings with agencies will be held at the end of the month.

 

AGENCY REPORTS

Department of Corrections. Mr. Wells reported that the agency is working with IMSerivces regarding their transition from VM.

Workers Compensation Court. Mr. Cecrle reported that the agency is researching Oracle software as a means to create multiple machines from one box to accommodate document and workflow management.

OTHER BUSINESS

The eighteenth annual GIS-T Symposium - GIS “A Continuous Migration” will be held April 3-6, 2005. The symposium provides a forum for professionals interested in the design and use of GeoSpatial Information Systems for transportation. It brings together individuals from education, the private sector, and all levels of government.

The annual CJIS conference is being held next week in Kearney. Members were asked to inform other staff in their agencies that may be interested.

Agencies were invited to sign up for e-fax services. The first year, the service processed 10,000 pages. Last week the page numbers totaled about 30,000.

NEXT MEETING DATE, TIME AND MEETING ADJOURNMENT

The next meeting of the NITC State Government Council will be held on Thursday, March 10th, at 1:30 p.m. The meeting location will be announced at a later time.

Mr. Ogden moved to adjourn. Mr. Wells seconded. All were in favor. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.

Meeting minutes were taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales and reviewed by Rick Becker of the Nebraska Information Technology Commission.

meeting minutes