Secretary of State CIO Gass: Call Us — After the Election

The California Secretary of State's CIO really wants to hear from vendors — just not yet.

With elections less than two months off, the department is busily trying to ensure that its people, processes and technology are all working on the priority at hand.

"Give us a little breathing room," CIO Rita Gass urged the 80-plus attendees Thursday at Techwire's Industry Briefing. "We want to hear from you, but after the elections."

In addition to making sure the state's election-related IT is working smoothly through the vote and beyond, her team still has day-to-day responsibilities.

Cybersecurity is among the department's top priorities, as is "delivering online election-related applications and providing voters the tools to assist in decision-making." 

Among the department's other achievements is standing up the department's updated election night results website with "zero reported critical issues."
Revolutionizing the state's system of manual business filings into an automated online function is another notch in the SoS' belt, she noted, processing more than 10 million business-application transactions, a function that it streamlined through automation.

Gass is a 20-year veteran of state service — "proudly so" — who was CIO of the California Conservation Corps before taking over as SoS CIO two years ago.

She was recognized as one of Government Technology magazine's Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers, and her rapid implementation of an online recruiting system using cloud technology received an IT Recognition Award from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.

Gass was joined in Thursday's briefing by two members of her executive team, John Yu, manager of the department's Software Engineering Section; and John Caampued, manager of the Systems Engineering Section.

Yu managed the department's Cloud Implementation, which encompassed deployment of the business portal and online business filing website; as well as its mobile app, which helps voters find their polling place, complete with maps.

Through use of machine learning, Yu also implemented "Eureka," the department's chatbot technology, which won an award from the Center for Digital Government for "Best Application Serving the Public."

Caampued joined the department after a career in the private sector, where he was an IT executive.

Gass noted that the state has approved her request to add two more key positions — chief technology officer and chief risk officer.

In response to an audience question about the use of containers, Yu noted that the department has been "exploring" that technology and hinted of more to come.

Gass' takeaway for vendors was that she, Yu and Caampued want to hear from vendors, but she urged them to hold their pitches until after the election.