Information Resources Cabinet
(NITC Government Council)
Minutes of April 6, 1998 Meeting
IRC Members in Attendance:
Allan Abbott, Dept. Of Roads
Al Abramson, Dept. Of Motor Vehicles
Berri Balka, Dept. Of Revenue
Tom Conroy, DAS-Information Management Services Div.
Allen Curtis, Crime Commission
Dorest Harvey, GDE Systems
Yvonne Norton Leung, Governor's Policy Research Office
William Miller, DAS-Communications Div.
Gerry Oligmueller, DAS-Budget Div.
Steve Schafer, DAS-Intergovernmental Data Services Div.
Dayle Williamson, Natural Resources Commn.
Dennis Zimmerman, Commercial Federal Bank
Others in Attendance:
Bob Beecham, Dept. Of Education
Lorelee Byrd, State Treasurer's Office
Keith Dey, Dept. Of Motor Vehicles
Jack Falkoner, Dept. Of Correctional Services
The Honorable David Heineman, State Treasurer
Steve Henderson, DAS-Information Management Services Div.
Jan Lane, DAS-Transportation Services Bureau
Kris Leininger, Lieutenant Governor's Office
Greg Lemon, Deputy Secretary Of State
Alan Medaris, IBM Account Manager
Emmanuel "Oly" Olaes, HHS-Finance & Support
Dave Phipps, State Treasurer's Office
Cliff Privatt, Dept. Of Corrections
Patty Richards, Dept. Of Administrative Services
J.L. Schmitt, Dept. Of Administrative Services
The Information Resources Cabinet meeting was called to order at 1:30 p.m. on April 6, 1998, by Yvonne Norton Leung, Chair. Meeting was held in the lower level conference room, of the Executive Building. A quorum was present.
BRIEFINGS AND PUBLIC COMMENT
State Treasurer's Office.
State Treasurer David Heineman reported on how he has used technology to improve the State Treasurer's Office services relating to unclaimed property, warrants, electronic payments, and investments. The State Treasurer's Office and First National Bank are hosting an online credit card payments seminar for state agencies on April 7, 1998, at 9:00 a.m. in Room 1520 of the State Capitol. Treasurer Heineman encourages state agencies to look at how they can use e-commerce in providing government services to Nebraskans.
IBM (International Business Machines Corporation)
Alan Medaris, IBM Account Manager for State Governments, reported on the Executive Role in the Information Age seminar held for Nebraska state government officials on February 17-18, 1998 in Lincoln. Medaris stated that Bob Samson, IBM General Manager for North America Government, has offered to provide further education to Nebraska state officials. Samson requested that the IRC consider inviting Kim DeVought of IBM to Nebraska, to further explain the online government project in Ontario, a/k/a Service Ontario Solution.
Nebraska Information Technology Commission (NITC)
Yvonne reported that each Council made reports to the NITC at its March 20 meeting. She encourages everyone to check the NITC and Councils' home pages regularly.
REGULAR REPORTS, DISCUSSIONS & ACTIONS
Century Date Change Projects
Steve Henderson reported on the status of various Century Date Change projects. He presented a chart reflecting the arithmetic error in the allocation of $99,195.00 of Information Technology Infrastructure Funds (ITIF) for the Secretary of State's Office. He presented another chart summarizing the allocation of an additional $23,512.00 of ITIF for Health & Human Services Systems. Currently, the Department of Corrections, DAS-Accounting Division, and Property Tax Division are using cigarette tax dollars for their CDC projects. The Nebraska Accounting System (NAS) is scheduled for implementation in May and the Nebraska Employee Information System (NEIS) in early July. Nebraska is at "front of pack" of states concerning progress on Century Date Change work.
Action item: Approve additional funding for Health & Human Services Systems' Request for ITIF. A motion was made by Tom Conroy and seconded by Dorest Harvey. Motion carried. (Abbott-yes, Abramson-yes, Balka-yes, Conroy-yes, Curtis-hadn't arrived yet, Harvey-yes, Kilgarin-not present, Lecuona-not present, Miller-abstained, Moore-not present, Norton-Leung-yes, Oligmueller-yes, Schafer-yes, Thomas-not present, Williamson-yes, Zimmerman-yes.)
Recommended Web Page Guidelines
Greg Lemon, Deputy Secretary of State, reported that the State Records Board worked with Nebraska Online on developing web page guidelines.
Action item: Approve recommended web page guidelines. A motion was made by Dayle Williamson and seconded by Berri Balka. Motion carried. (Abbott-yes, Abramson-yes, Balka-yes, Conroy-yes, Curtis-hadn't arrived yet, Harvey-yes, Kilgarin-not present, Lecuona-not present, Miller-yes, Moore-not present, Norton-Leung-yes, Oligmueller-yes, Schafer-yes, Thomas-not present, Williamson-yes, Zimmerman-yes.)
Government Online
No report.
Address Change Work Group
This work group was organized at the March 2 meeting and assigned the task of determining the feasibility of a "one-stop address change" service (i.e., a constituent could change his/her address once on a specific Internet home page and all state government records would be updated for that person). Al Abramson, Berri Balka, Keith Dey, Rod Armstrong, Tom Conroy and Jeff Elliott compose this work group. Keith Dey reported that there are several obstacles to instituting such a service -- multiple platforms of computers and applications, user security, remote locations, necessity of physical documents to conduct business. The "one-stop address change" service would be very expensive to implement, and would require policy and statutory changes. The work group recommends that the initiative continue to be explored by the Individual Identifier Work Group.
Individual Identifier Work Group
Greg Lemon, Deputy Secretary of State, reported that the work group is exploring the possibility of constituents using a single personal identification number, or "pin", for conducting business electronically with all state government agencies. Social security numbers will not work as pins, because of reassignment of numbers and fraud. Al Abramson stated that Texas and Florida are using pins.
Individual Agency Reports
Revenue, Dept. Of--Berri Balka reported that there have been 85,000 individual income tax filings telephonically or via Internet to date.
Budget Division, Dept. Of Administrative Services--Gerry Oligmueller reported the Budget Division is using its home page to post information and is looking at automating forms for agency budget requests.
Natural Resources Commission--Dayle Williamson stated that their home page will be helpful in calculating tax assessments and property valuations.
Technology Planning & Budgeting
Gerry Oligmueller will report on this issue at next IRC meeting.
Standards
No report.
State Records Board
Greg Lemon reported that the State Records Board did approve Nebraska Online to work with the Dept. Of Administrative Services, Treasurer's Office and First National Bank on e-commerce.
Interstate Right of Way
Bill Miller reported that the NITC voted to allow the IRC to develop a Request for Proposal (RFP) to look at all fiber optic and cable available in the state and to submit the RFP to NITC for approval prior to proceeding.
E-Mail Project
Tom Conroy indicated that the e-mail contract was signed last month. The pre-implementation conference call was taking place at the same time as this IRC meeting. The installation and training dates are early to mid-April. He expects to have the major existing PC mail systems connected by the end of April. The internet (POP3) mail and the single "entry point" for internet mail will be ready later this Spring. At the next IRC meeting, we'll talk about what has already happened, not what will be happening.
Legislation
Tim Erickson reported that LB 924 passed on March 30 and was signed into law on April 6 by Acting Governor/Lieutenant Governor Kim Robak. Councils will continue with their work according to executive order. The Legislature exempted itself from working through this process. Digital Signature Act, state surveys and standard for LB 483 was added to final form of LB 924.
Financial Management/Human Resources System
Don Herz reported that a RFP may be released this fall to the public. Dorest Harvey suggests that Jim Van Horn at the University of Nebraska be consulted.
Electronic Publishing
No report.
I.T. Personnel Issues/I.T. Recruitment & Retention Paper
Mollie Anderson asked for questions and reactions regarding the five proposed solutions, and particularly with regard to the cost analysis on page 28. Al Abbott expressed concern about the emphasis on improving salaries for public IT professionals, when there are other public professionals/workers, such as engineers, whose salaries are also not competitive with the private/business industry. Anderson made assurances that Personnel is also studying engineering, medical, corrections, bank and insurance professions. This study offers five solutions for IT professionals:
1. Bring IT salaries more in line with the market by November, 1998.
2. Properly manage the number of contracted IT workers and permanent state IT workers.
3. IT retraining program.
4. Create a technical career growth ladder.
5. Hire a Technical Recruiter.
Electronic Benefits Transfer
Tom Ryan reported that federal law requires all food stamp programs to move to magnetic form by year 2002. Nebraska is at the tailend of other states. HHSS will provide a preliminary advanced planning document to the U.S. Department of Agriculture by the end of 1998. The HHS Policy Cabinet has not made a decision yet whether the food stamp program will use smart cards or magnetic cards. Veterans' services are generally short-term in nature, thus inclusion of same in smart/magnetic card program is unlikely.
Miscellaneous
Yvonne requested written notification from IRC members of their designees, before designee will be allowed to vote on action items.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:40 p.m.
(Minutes taken by Kris Leininger)