State & Local Weekly News Wrap-Up

By Timothy Brett posted Mar 09,2012 07:54 AM

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MULTI-JURISDICTION

Some of the most public contracting problems in recent years have involved major contractors working on state and local programs - a trend that some analysts say is no coincidence. Most recently, SAIC has been grappling with CityTime, a time-keeping program it ran for New York City but which has been labeled “a massive and elaborate scheme to defraud the city” by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. There are other examples beyond SAIC. Northrop Grumman received plenty of its own bad press in 2010 when Virginia’s IT infrastructure - managed through a $2.3 billion, 13-year partnership with Northrop - went down for almost a week, hitting state services from driver’s licenses to tax refunds. And Computer Sciences Corp. and the county of San Diego tangled over a major outsourcing contract originally signed in 1999. In 2002, CSC announced that the two had settled their dispute and made an amendment to the original contract increasing CSC’s accountability. The company said that it successfully completed the contract and “continues to have good relations” with San Diego. State and local deals can cause headaches for federal contractors

IOWA

Lawmakers are examining changes to the education system in Iowa. Recently, the state joined a group of states seeking waivers from the federal government to opt out of some of the requirements imposed by the No Child Left Behind Act. Teacher evaluations have also been scrapped from the Governor’s education plan and replaced with evaluations that include peer reviews. Since the waiver program was announced by the Obama administration more than half of states have applied to opt-out of several provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. Iowa applied for the waiver noting that the federal accountability system imposed by No Child Left Behind was more focused on failing urban centers, and left out rural schools which accounts for many of the schools in Iowa. The Act also requires 100% of students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014, a goal which many educators have said is unrealistic given the current system and resource constraints. The state also plans to change the way it conducts teacher evaluations. Current state and federal laws require a formal evaluation be completed every three years. The state will preserve that requirement but also implement peer reviews in the years between formal evaluations.Iowa examines slate of education reforms, seeks No Child waiver

OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma is consolidating the technology departments in 129 state agencies, and in the process officials have uncovered numerous inefficiencies that were wasting taxpayer money. Oklahoma state agencies currently pay $4.3 million a year to access the Internet through private fiber-optic cables, owned by companies such as Cox and AT&T, said Alex Pettit, the state's CIO, who is overseeing the consolidation. Meanwhile, Pettit said the state owns 940 miles of its own, underused, fiber-optic cables that those state agencies could be using for free. “We're paying everyone else for their own networks. That's just nuts,” Pettit said. “Just optimizing what's in the ground right now could save the state $23 million over five years. That's the thing I find so frustrating.” Pettit is on the front lines of efficiency for the state. Two years into a plan approved by lawmakers to remove in-house technology departments from almost every state agency and put them under a statewide office, the state already has realized $40 million in savings and cut about 128 information technology positions through attrition. Consolidating technology saves Oklahoma $40 million in two years

The Oklahoma state legislature is looking at a measure that would apply the Open Records Act to the statehouse. Oklahoma is one of only five states left that do not subject their state legislature to open records laws. Under the terms of the proposed bill, members of the public would be allowed to request records of most statehouse meetings. A few types of records would be exempted including personnel records or caucus meetings. If a request is denied, a citizen can request an appeal to the legislative oversight committee which would then vote publicly on the issue. The proposed bill is separate from the Open Records Act should any future legislatures decide to make changes to the bill they can do so without effecting the existing Open Records statute. So far the measure has passed a committee vote and is expected to go to a floor vote this week. However, despite passing a committee vote, the measure is expected to face opposition from lawmakers in both parties that feel that this level of transparency may limit the legislative process. Oklahoma examines extending open records act to the legislature

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