Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Walters: Can Newsom Break String of Tech Failures?
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 5 years ago on
July 1, 2019

Share

For years – many years – journalists and government watchdogs have cataloged an almost unbroken, extremely expensive string of failed attempts to bring information technology into state government operations.


Dan Walters
CALmatters

Dozens of IT projects have either failed completely or functioned undependably, costing taxpayers countless millions of dollars.
The current poster child for faulty IT is “The Financial Information System for California” or FI$CAL, with a slogan of “One State. One System” – proving again that state officials are more adept at conjuring up catchy names for projects than making them work.
Just last month, the Legislature’s budget analyst said that after undergoing numerous revisions, costs for FI$CAL had ballooned to nearly a billion dollars – more than six times its original estimate when it was launched in 2005 – and that both more revisions and more costs are anticipated.
Newsom has vowed to fix not only FI$CAL but all of the other instances of poor IT implementation.

Newsom Created the Office of Digital Innovation

As CALmatters writer Elizabeth Castillo wrote in a recent article about the situation, “Newsom was outspoken about technology problems in California’s bureaucracy even before he was elected. He called for pushing democracy into the digital age with a book he co-authored in 2013: ‘Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government.’ In an interview with Google, Newsom said, ‘California is on the leading and cutting edge of 1973’.”

“The goal of this new office is to tap into and grow the creativity, innovation, and transparency that already exists elsewhere in our state to improve the way the executive branch approaches the delivery of technology and services to the public.” – Newsom spokesman Brian Ferguson
Newsom’s first budget includes more than $40 million to create a new agency called the Office of Digital Innovation, exempt from many of the usual governmental procedures.
Newsom spokesman Brian Ferguson told Castillo in a written statement: “The goal of this new office is to tap into and grow the creativity, innovation, and transparency that already exists elsewhere in our state to improve the way the executive branch approaches the delivery of technology and services to the public.”
Interestingly, the new agency would not supplant the Office of Technology Services, created during the Arnold Schwarzenegger administration with the same goal.
While it’s easy to list the state’s technology debacles, what’s missing is some sense of why they occur.
I posed the “why” question to one of the principal figures in efforts to end the litany of failures during the Schwarzenegger administration, promising anonymity.

New Oversight Agency Might Be Another Failure

“The No. 1 reason IT projects fail is because there is usually no executive sponsorship of the project,” I was told. “So that leadership role is filled by lower-level program managers and the IT folks.”
The informant went on to describe frustrations in “getting seven, major multi-hundred million dollar projects back on track, or terminating them.”
In one case, the source described an experience with a top executive regarding a $300 million system for managing child support. “I laid it out that this project is failing and must get her full attention or it is unrecoverable. Her response: I have a dozen issues on my desk more important than this. I responded, if it ain’t important to you, it’s not to me. I’m terminating it.”
My source’s conclusion is that civil servants who are in charge of failing IT projects don’t fear that their own careers will be damaged. “As I told Gov. Newsom when we bumped into each other on a flight from DC to (Sacramento), when are you going to fire somebody for all these failures, and put an executive in charge responsible for performance?”
Creating a new oversight agency may be just another failure unless Newsom is willing to take that advice.
CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

DON'T MISS

Fresno Murder Suspect Stopped in Las Vegas, Others Wanted

DON'T MISS

Trump’s Crowds Are Dwindling as His Campaign Winds Down

DON'T MISS

Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on Mexico to Curb Immigration

DON'T MISS

Music Legend Quincy Jones, Architect of Pop’s Greatest Hits, Dies at 91

DON'T MISS

Big Pharma Backs Harris 6-to-1 Over Trump in Presidential Campaign Contributions

DON'T MISS

Sanger Men Arrested in Connection with Slingshot Vandalism Spree at Businesses

DON'T MISS

What Is Sierra Unified’s Plan to Boost Lagging Student Achievement?

DON'T MISS

Musk PAC Tells Philadelphia Judge the $1 Million Sweepstakes Winners Are Not Chosen by Chance

DON'T MISS

Bass’ Record 61-Yard Field Goal Lifts Bills Over Dolphins in Thriller

UP NEXT

Let’s Keep Innovative Partnerships Crucial to Combating Climate Change: Fresno Dairy Manager

UP NEXT

No Matter the Outcome, We Are the True Losers of This Election

UP NEXT

California’s Transition Off Carbon Fuels Could Be a Monumental Disaster

UP NEXT

Don’t Let Liberal Purity Elect Trump

UP NEXT

Newsom Provides Welfare to the Wealthy, Skimps on Anti-Homelessness Programs

UP NEXT

Independent Gen Zers Will Decide Elections From Now On

UP NEXT

America’s Political Divide Shifts from Economics to Education: Fareed Zakaria

UP NEXT

Fresno Unified Reform Is a Must. Force It With a ‘No’ on Measure H.

UP NEXT

Trump’s Biggest Con: Pretending to Support American Workers

UP NEXT

Why Newsom Wants Taxpayers to Waste Millions on Big Hollywood Subsidies

Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on Mexico to Curb Immigration

1 hour ago

Music Legend Quincy Jones, Architect of Pop’s Greatest Hits, Dies at 91

1 hour ago

Big Pharma Backs Harris 6-to-1 Over Trump in Presidential Campaign Contributions

2 hours ago

Sanger Men Arrested in Connection with Slingshot Vandalism Spree at Businesses

2 hours ago

What Is Sierra Unified’s Plan to Boost Lagging Student Achievement?

2 hours ago

Musk PAC Tells Philadelphia Judge the $1 Million Sweepstakes Winners Are Not Chosen by Chance

3 hours ago

Bass’ Record 61-Yard Field Goal Lifts Bills Over Dolphins in Thriller

3 hours ago

Big Spenders: These Companies Are Giving the Most to California Legislative Candidates

4 hours ago

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Drifts Ahead of Election Day, While Oil Rises and Yields Sink

4 hours ago

Saints Fire Head Coach Dennis Allen After Seven-Game Losing Streak

4 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

A man has been arrested in connection with the shooting death of a Fresno resident at an apartment complex early Friday, the Fresno Police D...

18 mins ago

Gerrick Franklin (pictured), 34, was taken into custody Sunday in Madera County on suspicion of killing Tyler Hamon, 33. (Fresno PD)
18 mins ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

31 mins ago

Fresno Murder Suspect Stopped in Las Vegas, Others Wanted

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, on stage during a campaign rally in Lititz, Pa., on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. Trump told supporters on Sunday that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House at the end of his term during an end-of-campaign rally where he vented angrily about a spate of new public polls showing him losing ground to Vice President Kamala Harris and joked about reporters being shot at. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
58 mins ago

Trump’s Crowds Are Dwindling as His Campaign Winds Down

1 hour ago

Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on Mexico to Curb Immigration

1 hour ago

Music Legend Quincy Jones, Architect of Pop’s Greatest Hits, Dies at 91

2 hours ago

Big Pharma Backs Harris 6-to-1 Over Trump in Presidential Campaign Contributions

2 hours ago

Sanger Men Arrested in Connection with Slingshot Vandalism Spree at Businesses

2 hours ago

What Is Sierra Unified’s Plan to Boost Lagging Student Achievement?

Search

Send this to a friend