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* LIVE COVERAGE * Gov. Rauner press conference

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posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:00 am

Comments

I don’t dispute the state’s IT systems are extremely out of date, but creating a new agency adds more layers of bureaucracy to an already burdened system. The guy who hates government is creating more government. I don’t get it.

Comment by What what Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:19 am
I hope this works. Illinois spends huge amounts on IT consultants and contractors. IT people employed by agencies are the best willing to work for what the state will pay (i.e. the good ones leave for better prospects).

Comment by anon. Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:21 am
I see Hoffman there. Who’s the woman in the pic?

Comment by Honeybear Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:23 am
NO he didn’t!

Comment by present Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:24 am
How do you create a new agency by EO? Don’t you need a statute?

And how are they paying for all this new IT investment without a budget?

Comment by TD Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:25 am
TD beat me to it: how can he create a new state agency by executive order?

Comment by Nick Name Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:26 am
Desperately needed (stronger IT, not necessarily a new agency). Hopefully they don’t botch the implementation.

Comment by thechampaignlife Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:26 am
WOW!! Rich, when did you work for Madigan?

Comment by Flynn's Mom Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:26 am
Miller a pawn for Madigan as a former staffer….ouch? At least that’s how I heard it LOL….never figured you’d be part of a press conference talking point Rich.

Comment by DuPage Bard Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:28 am
Rauner creates Department of Employment for IT Consulting Firms.

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:29 am
Madigan-controlled Miller…

Comment by Nick Name Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:29 am
Honeybear - Gladyse Taylor, asst dir, DOC

Comment by TD Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:30 am
that’s an administration in dire need of neckwear.

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:31 am
They need stronger IT, but rather than upgrading that, the guy with the advanced business degree adds a layer of bureaucracy that is named with cool if meaningless buzzwords (i.e. innovation).

This is my surprised face, btw.

Comment by GraduatedCollegeStudent Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:33 am
Miller and Madigan, wow this goes together just like M&M candy.

When you are Rauner you don’t need actual facts, you just make stuff up as you go along.

Comment by former southerner Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:33 am
A thinly veiled plan to get rid of in-house IT and reward big contracts to outsourcing firms… oh, and attempt to discredit Rich as an afterthought.

Comment by CharlieKratos Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:36 am
TD thanks! I wonder why she was there? Dept of Corrections? Weird. Hoffman, I can understand as acting Director of CMS, but a DOC official?

Comment by Honeybear Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:46 am
Another Blagojevich trick.

Comment by A Jack Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:05 am
DOC was the backdrop, I’m sure, because they just went life with a new Microsoft-based computer application that is taking the place of the legacy mainframe they were on. While the new system is being touted as a complete success by the DOC administration, the users in the field are left with a truly inferior product that is slow, and mistake-filled. That is the Offender 360 application that Gladyse mentioned, that is supposed to be a big part of the innovation and technology.

Comment by Sgt_Schultz Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:06 am
Nothing new under the sun. It was first proposed / started about 1968 (anybody remember names like Dale Brown and Jim Norris from back then?) and the consolidation effort started at the Department of Finance with a new Management Information Division because Finance had the biggest computers at the time. It proceeded with fits and starts, fought tooth and nail by most every agency because they did not want to give up the headcount, control and budget dollars. It was never completely accomplished because some agencies (under the Governor’s control) found political sponsors to protect their independence. Note: MID became BCCS under CMS through subsequent agency mergers. While good came out of the previous consolidation and partial standardization, there were also a number of problems created by it, including the continuation of individual agencies trying retaining their fiefdoms.

So … been there, seen it, got the T-shirt. I’ll believe this one when I see the results.

Comment by RNUG Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:08 am
-what what-

I’m betting you’ll see a proposal to outsource the whole shooting match …

Comment by RNUG Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:09 am
==They need stronger IT, but rather than upgrading that==

What do you mean, “rather than”? Your takeaway is that they have chosen not to upgrade IT? Interesting.

==adds a layer of bureaucracy==

If anything the added layer was hiring a CIO to oversee IT. This is then just moving oversight from one person to another. But please, be the party of 1 arguing that a crucial part of State govt administration should remain in CMS.

lol

Comment by Shoe Searer Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:10 am
-Honeybear-

DOC was one of the state agencies that was only partially consolidated. They tried an end run out around centralization every year (it was easy to see in their outsized proposed IT budget line items). So I can understand Rauner would need to get DOC onboard. The other big independent was Revenue.

Comment by RNUG Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:14 am
The state does indeed struggle with IT. It is like any other piece of infrastructure, it needs ongoing maintenance and upgrading, which costs money. Improvement, if done well, could well improve efficiency, but would be a very expensive proposition.

Rauner promised to run the state like a business and make it more efficient. Agree or not on his approach, he has highlighted a problem and put attention on it. What terrifies me is that he’s doing it because he wants some distraction and PR, not because it’s part of doing a good job of running the state.

Comment by Earnest Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:19 am
From: Bhatt, Hardik
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2016 10:58 AM
To: CMS.BCCS.IT.ALL
Cc: Wons, Mike; Saebeler, Dominic; Reed, Rhonda; it.transformation@illinios.gov
Subject: Executive Order creating the Department of Innovation and Technology

Greetings.

We are excited to announce an important step forward in our efforts to modernize and transform the way the State of Illinois serves its residents and businesses. Earlier today as part of the Accelerating Illinois Modernization (AIM) initiative, Governor Rauner issued an Executive Order to bring together state-wide information technology resources in the newly created Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT). The new Department, targeted for a July 1, 2016 launch, will be responsible for leading a future-oriented approach to information technology, avoiding duplication and improving overall return on IT investment, securing the public’s data through consistent application of security policy, advancing interoperability of systems for better customer service, and leveraging innovation from various pockets of the state government.

We are a strong, 1,700-people, IT workforce. We are one of the biggest assets our state has. We all have come to public service for a purpose, to serve Illinois taxpayers. Being part of DoIT, will not only allow us to utilize our skills to the best of our abilities to serve the 13 Million Illinois taxpayers, but also to learn from one another, and identify better career paths for ourselves. Similar to how the police department trains its officers, and the transportation department trains its field workers, a unified IT department will train its workforce with the 21st century technologies we will invest in.

This is an important move for the state and I look forward to our continued collaboration as we work closely together to help modernize Illinois. More details will become available as the new Department structure is finalized over the next several months.

This move will not result in any layoffs. For those employees in collective bargaining units, the State’s labor relations team will be in contact with the appropriate unions to discuss what, if any, impact this transformation will have on working conditions. This transformation is not expected to interfere with any rights under collective bargaining agreements, and the State is committed to adhering to its obligations under labor laws and labor agreements.

Should you have any specific questions, please direct them to the following email address: IT.Transformation@illinois.gov. In the meanwhile, I encourage you to visit http://cio.illinois.gov to hear about our high level strategy for Accelerating Illinois Modernization (AIM).

Thank you for your support as we, together, accelerate the modernization of innovation and technology in Illinois.

Hardik Bhatt

Chief Information Officer

Office of the Governor, Bruce Rauner

State of Illinois

Sent from my iPhone

Comment by Thinkingoutoud Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:23 am
==So … been there, seen it, got the T-shirt. I’ll believe this one when I see the results.==

A shame that NUG became RNUG. Could have him making policy decisons based on relacitrant agencies who ruled the day like 30 years ago.

Comment by Shoe Searer Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:25 am
While the Governer can create this by EO, the GA can still act to shoot it down.

The GA should shoot this down since it is just a ploy on so many levels.

It is a ploy to grab special funds and transfer that money back to GRF by charge back to agencies for the IT employees that they originally employed.

It’s a ploy to knock these IT employees out of AFSCME, since at the very basic level this new Department is not unionized and would have to go through the process.

This seems more like an attempt by Rauner to create a shell company inside state government. The GA should be very cautious about this new Department.

Comment by A Jack Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:26 am
RNUG- so if I’m understanding DOC and Revenue have/had large IT departments? So now they will all be under the new IT departments? Ah, I bet they will be based in Chicago? That way they can kill a lot of union jobs with geographical transfers. Am I right?

Comment by Honeybear Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:33 am
==What terrifies me is that he’s doing it because he wants some distraction and PR, not because it’s part of doing a good job of running the state.==

The CIO was hired over 10 months ago and has spoken publicly on these concepts since then (e.g. City Club in Sept).

By all means, keep being terrified though.

Comment by Shoe Searer Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:34 am
==Rauner creates Department of Employment for IT Consulting Firms.==

Nailed it VMan. Another of Rauner’s long cons. Handouts to Big IT Consulting.

Comment by Shoe Searer Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:36 am
==that’s an administration in dire need of neckwear==

Focused on the Important Matters.

Comment by Shoe Searer Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:39 am
Interesting acronym for the new department, especially given how Rauner has been “doin’ it” to the State thus far. Can’t wait to see how this brain spasm will turn out…

Comment by Courser Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:53 am
-Honeybear-

Yes, IDOC and IDOR did have / have large IT operations. In theory, some staff now work for CMS but are still located in those agencies.

I assume they will also be part of the new department.

Right now almost all the major state computer centers are somewhere in the Springfield area. In all objectivity, I don’t see a logical reason to change that from both an infrastructure and risk management perspective. You’ve got a stable power supplier even if you aren’t currently paying them. The locations are not flood prone. You’re in about as good a location as possible for earthquake risk. The biggest threats are tornadoes and terrorism. A lot of secure facilities would like to only have to worry about just those risks.

And it is a relatively low living cost area so you can try to hire decent IT talent for less than metro or tech corridor areas around the country. The problem is trying to get top people to move here since we don’t have beaches or mountains. The Tier 1 pension used to be a partial offset. They used to hire hot talent right out of the UoI, some of it on internships. They used to have job security (until about 20 - 25 years ago) the higher paying IT titles got moved into 4 year appointment Vinsion bill positions when the State created the SPSA title. Maybe if they broke those titles back out, they could somewhat offset that problem.

So in theory, there wouldn’t be a reason to move … but I’m using logic.

Comment by RNUG Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 12:06 pm
Does this new department handle IT needs only for those agencies under the Governor’s/CMS jurisdiction, or does this also include IT departments/needs under the state’s constitutional officers (SOS, AG, Treasurer, Comptroller, Lt. Gov.).

Comment by Leatherneck Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 12:10 pm
Will this new Department handle any GA requests for information in a timely manner? I suspect it will come down to if that GA member voted in a way that the Governor wanted.

It is really bad to consolidate so much power in one agency. And isn’t it the purpose of CMS to centralize computing resources? So does the state need a new agency while the state doesn’t even have a budget?

Comment by A Jack Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 12:15 pm
-Leatherneck-

With just an Executive Order, he only has constitutional control over agencies under the Governor’s Office.

Comment by RNUG Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 12:19 pm
Leatherneck-depends on the application, really. BCCS currently does handle IT for LTG, and there are some backbone tasks handled for the others. Basically, any master contracts drawn up by BCCS can be used by other governmental bodies if they wish. Leads to a lot of cherry picking by the others.

Comment by Stuck on the 3rd Floor Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 12:23 pm
Again, how can you leapfrog to the newest technologies and hire IT consultants to implement them when you can’t pay for any of it? This new agency and press conference is a great example of improvements and initiatives that could be done if the administration would compromise on a budget and start governing.

Comment by TD Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 12:23 pm
The problem with so-called ‘parity’ is that the City WANTED its own rules for CPS for the patronage age contracts. Now that the City has drained the coffers, it wants a state bailout. Also CPS gets favorable treatment in several areas , including Special Ed. Is the City willing to give these benefits back?

Comment by Formerpol Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 1:00 pm
The GA should certainly question the new IT department as saving billions. Past schemes like this cost the state billions.

The Governor has the right to do this under EO, but the GA gets to weigh in as they have on other Department creations and consolidations. Previous efforts under Blagojevich have failed to produce any cost savings and the GA should look carefully at this EO as well.

Comment by A Jack Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 1:03 pm
Rauner wants total control. He needs to control IT “the data” in order to keep people like Rich from accessing the numbers.

Comment by Mama Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 1:03 pm
The Twit of the Day:
IL Senate Democrats

Gov Rauner vetoed all our budget proposals save one: says public ed budget is his greatest accomplishment (no GOP lawmakers voted for it).

!!!

Comment by sal-says Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 1:06 pm