At its first hearing of the year, members of the state Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection voted to send Assembly Bill 1323 to the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review. A hearing there has not yet been scheduled. Generally, the bill, from San Francisco Democrat David Chiu, would require the California Department of Technology to “identify, assess and prioritize legacy information technology system modernization efforts across state government” and require state agencies and entities to submit IT contracts to CDT before May 1, 2022. CDT would be required to use this information to determine types of uses that could be “candidates for statewide contracts for commonly used or shared services,” and to work with legislative staff and the Legislative Analyst’s Office to evaluate options to modernize government IT project approval and oversight processes. It’s supported by Washington, D.C.-based trade group the Internet Association. Among the takeaways:
- Backlogs at the state Employment Development Department (EDD) “highlighted the urgency” of state IT problems, Chiu told Techwire, but he said the state has wrestled with IT challenges for decades. A fact sheet on the bill his office provided highlights EDD benefits access issues as well as cost overruns at the Financial Information System for California and a “partially completed” Department of Motor Vehicles’ project to modernize driver’s license and registration systems that ended in 2013. It also quotes references in “Vision 2023,” California’s statewide technology strategic plan released in January, to “over 300 websites managed by more than 150 departments” and “79 case management systems across 22 departments” — figures Chiu said were jaw-dropping. In recent years, especially in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration, he said CDT has had “an increasingly positive impact” in modernizing and innovating state IT. But there’s “so much more work to do.”
“Our state’s IT systems have been decentralized, disjointed and dysfunctional. The experience for everyday Californians has been incredibly confusing and stressful, and these systems have been incredibly difficult to manage, reform and upgrade. And CDT has — they’ve identified the problem and put it squarely in front of us,” he said. - AB 1323 isn’t IT reform, Chiu said, but it lays the groundwork for “broader statewide IT reform.” This includes giving CDT “the explicit authority to identify and prioritize modernization of legacy IT systems” statewide, he said. It includes identifying opportunities to centralize IT systems and “service offerings” — and requiring CDT to develop and implement “that centralization plan.”
- Does that mean centralization and statewide contracts for all? Not exactly. Surveying what other states have done leads him to believe “having some standardization and centralization will help,” Chiu said. “I’m not suggesting that everything needs to be centralized and put under one roof.” He’s also not suggesting the state should have one case management system instead of 79. But the state should be more “preventative in addressing potential challenges” in IT, and bring CDT in to partner with state agencies “at the beginning, at the outset” of new initiatives, “to ensure that we’re doing things the right way.”
- Collaboration is also key; his bill would require “all the major players in this space to work together with the Legislature to evaluate options for modernizing IT project approval,” Chiu said. His vision here is that by “streamlining and centralizing redundant systems and programs, we can simplify the experience for Californians and save money.”
“We want to ensure our IT systems are modernized, centralized, fiscally responsible and meeting the needs of our citizens,” he said. - This could be good news for IT vendors who do business with the state. Chiu said he’s “incredibly frustrated” by the failure of major state IT projects, partly because “we know that there are lots of potential solutions out there ... that have not been considered because for whatever reason, individual departments keep going to the same vendors that continue to fail Californians.”
“We need to have a process to really open up what innovation could look like,” Chiu said.
