STATE GOVERNMENT COUNCIL

Nebraska Information Technology Commission
Thursday, March 9, 2000, 1:30 p.m.
Nebraska State Office Building - Lower Level Room C
Lincoln, Nebraska

APPROVED MINUTES

MEMBERS OR ALTERNATES PRESENT:
Tom Conroy, IMS	Jim McGee, HHS	Dick Gettemy, Revenue
Jon Ogden, DOR	Dorest Harvey, Private Sector	Mike Justus, DAS
Mike Overton, Crime Commission	Greg Lemon, SOS	Randy Cecrle, WCC
Bill Gries, DOC	Keith Dey, DMV	Joe Steele, Supreme Court
Steve Schafer, CIO	Mahendra Bansal, NRC
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Bob Beecham, NDE	Mike Calvert, LFO	Lauren Hill, PRO
Butch Lecuona, Labor	Gerry Oligmueller, Budget	Rod Wagner, Library Com
Dennis Zimmerman, Private Sector

Roll Call and Meeting Notice:

Steve Schafer, Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:32 p.m. The meeting notice was posted to the NITC Web site and the State Public Notice Calendar on March 2, 2000. Roll call was taken. There were eleven (11) members present at the time of roll call.

Public Comment:

There was no public comment.

Approval of Minutes:

There were no changes and/or additions to the minutes. Mr. Steele moved to approve the February minutes as presented. Mr. Ogden seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion carried by voice vote.

Mr. Lemon arrived at 1:33 p.m.

Discussion of grant review process:

Mr. Schafer reviewed the grant process with the council. The grant application deadline is May 1st. Staff will conduct an initial review to determine if each grant proposals meets the minimum requirements. The State Government Council will provide the programmatic review. In early May, three to four volunteers will be solicited. The Technical Panel or a subcommittee will conduct the technical review at their May meeting. At the June State Government Council meeting, grants will have combined review scores for the council to review score and prioritize recommendations to the NITC for the June NITC meeting. Staff will develop a conflict of interest policy.

Update on Statewide Technology Plan:

Mr. Schafer distributed the document titled, "UNITED 2000 Nebraska Statewide Technology Plan Implementation Plan Summary". The action items recommended by all the councils were reviewed by the NITC Executive Director and combined into three categories: Action Items Promoting Economic Development, Action Items Promoting Electronic Delivery of Information and Services in Education and Government; and Action Items Promoting IT Efficiency and Management. Already completed action items were presented to the NITC and given recognition but not included in statewide plan. Action items needing further development will be taken to the councils for follow-up.

Mr. Schafer distributed a report summary of council action items (State Government Council Status of Action Items) as of March 7th. Mr. Conroy volunteered to work on collaboration of efforts of agencies dealing with licensing functionality (such as barbers, cosmetologist, and professionals). Mr. Lemon and Mr. Bansal volunteered to assist.

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

Steve Henderson reported that the National Governors Association web site posted a report titled "States on the Internet" that would be of interest to members.

For future reference, the Council will need to begin discussion of pending action items and action items needing further development which were referred to the councils.

Update on working groups:

NOTES collaboration work group: Kevin Keller, Information Management Service, distributed copies of a written report ("Lotus Notes Report"). The work group has a streering committee that meets monthly. Mr. Keller invited council members to two Lotus Notes events. On March 15th, the morning session will focus on capabilities and utilization, and the afternoon session will discuss in-depth business applications. No registration is required. Council members suggested issues be addressed by the work group: training of agency staff by IMS to become developers and web application abilities for non-Notes users. The following web sites contain more updates and information of the work group.

The NITC website has links to the urls, under Work Groups.

Mr. Boardman arrived at 2:05 p.m.

E-mail work group: Mr. Schafer reported that the work group has not met since last December. A meeting has been scheduled for Monday, March 13th, to move forward on recommendations submitted in December. Other interested members are invited to attend.

Mr. Overton arrived at 2:10 p.m.

Security architecture work group: At the February meeting, the Technical Panel adopted and approved the establishment of the Security Architecture Work Group and Charter. Membership will include education and higher education reps. Reseach in ins progress to document existing security policies established by the legislature and security policies of other states. The first meeting will be scheduled within the next couple of months.

Project status reporting work group: The work group has met. Meeting information will be posted to the NITC web site. If anyone else is interested on serving on this work group, contact Mr. Schafer.

Update on other activities:

Imaging, e-mail, and Web standards: Bill Ptacek was not available to report. Mr. Lemon reported that there have been two drafts of the report posted. Within the next few months, the report will be finalized and the project will be ready for public hearings. Mr. Lemon has met with Walter Weir, Chief Information Officer, University of Nebraska regarding an electronic storage archive.

Nebraska Information System: Mike Justus reported that the legislative bill will go to the floor this afternoon (if not tomorrow). The final report for the NIS project is available upon request via email to Mr. Justus. An Executive Summary was distributed to members. Some problems of the report included the following: lacking examples of best practices are lacking; financial section is weak; and work on the UN option was not complete. Since the report was inadequate, a completed NITC application for funding form and the Executive Summary were developed for the legislature. The Technical Panel reviewed the project and adopted a resolution at their February 8th meeting. The RFP will not go out until the Project Manager is hired. Project Manager interviews will begin tomorrow.

Mr. Lemon left at 3 p.m.

Retirement: Mr. Schafer reported that the Appropriations Committee included the project in their budget recommendations.

TINA: Brenda Decker will provide an update at the April State Government Council meeting.

Update on legislation:

Mr. Schafer distributed a listing titled "Legislation Relating to Information Technology" for members' information and awareness.

Mr. Overton left at 3:07 p.m.

Agency Reports:

Natural Resources Commission: Mr. Bansal distributed a copy of the 1999 County Populations Estimates released by the US Bureau of the Census. According to this release, the State of Nebraska gained 5.6 percent in population since the last census, whereas the US population grew 9.6 percent. The western and mountain states are the big gainers, and the northeast or the New England states are the big losers in this decade. In Nebraska, Sarpy, Gosper, Colfax, Dawson and Cass counties are big gainers, whereas Rock, Garden, Dundy and Blaine counties lost the most population. The pilot program to create a National Hydrographic database for the Logan Creek watershed has been entered into between the Nebraska partner agencies and the US Geological Survey. The development of the database will start shortly.

Revenue: Mr. Gettemy reported that the number of e-file tax returns as of March 8, 2000, are as follows:
Tax Processing year 2000: (Total-130,220)
Joint Electronic Filing (JELF)-98,568
Telefile-31,652
Fiscal year 1999-2000: Electronic Fund Transfers (EFT)-$302,230,260.96. These figures are about 30% ahead of last year at this time.

IMS: Mr. Conroy reported that the second class of the IT training program graduated Monday. The third class will be starting soon. If there are curriculum needs, inform Steve Schock. The qualifying test is being discussed. It is not clear if it will be used again. Council member requested an update on the I.T. training program at next month's meeting.

Other Business:

Mr. Ogden invited members to attend the Highway Engineering Exchange Program, April 18th-20th in Lincoln. Contact Mr. Ogden if interested.

Next Meeting:

The next meeting will be held on April 13, 2000, 1:30 p.m.

Adjourn:

Mr. Schafer adjourned the meeting at 3:25 p.m.

Minutes taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales and reviewed by Steve Schafer and Rick Becker, Office of the CIO/NITC.

meeting minutes