GovReport

On the Future of Climate, Digital, Energy, Technology and Infrastructure

Will Keys

California outlines future of artificial intelligence

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The State of California has taken initial steps to consider how artificial intelligence will play an inevitable role in delivering services to the people of the Golden State.

Legislation passed in 2019 called for California to work with stakeholders and develop guidelines by January 2021.

At a recent vendor forum by the California Department of Technology, Chief of Statewide Technology Policy CDT Pam Haase gave an update on the department’s initiative, which began earlier in the year but was slowed down considerably by constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Image by Michael Dziedzic, Unsplash

Haase laid out three broad objectives regarding the implementation of AI to state departments, each of which has a varying level of understanding and experience with AI technology.

Those objectives include:

Demonstrating how AI can improve delivery and digital services. CDT has partnered with the CITRIS Policy Lab to study industry use of AI and produce a report that outlines basic recommendations for AI adoption within state government.

Providing guidelines for the ethical and responsible use of AI. CDT wants to establish trust from the public in their ability to implement AI in an ethical manner.
Providing a practical approach to implementing AI. This includes creating an AI vendor pool, training for both the business and technical side of procuring and implementing the new technology.

Haase also noted that she expects a concrete policy framework regarding the use of AI to become available by the spring of 2021 following input from the public via a listening session.

In an effort to cater to varying needs statewide, Haase stressed that AI will provide value to any and all departments regardless of their awareness and experience level with the technology.

“The deliverables are going to provide something of value to everyone no matter where you’re at, whether you’re brand new to AI, or whether your department is already currently using it,” Haase said.

Further, according to CDT’s Chief Technology Innovation Officer Manveer Bola, who also spoke at the forum, one of the major priorities regarding the implementation of AI technology is to tailor digital services to meet “specific user needs.”

Part of that includes using AI to promote web diversity by quickly and accurately translating websites as well as providing customer service mimicking a one-on-one chat with an employee.

Another goal Bola mentioned was to use AI to gather COVID response surveys, even reading into them further than one would expect from AI.

“We’re looking at AI to try to help us boil down those responses into much more meaningful output that we can consume easier, maybe even measuring sentiment,” Bola said.

CWS-CARES Project Director Leaving State Service

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Rebecca Stilling, the project director for California’s Child Welfare Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System (CWS-CARES) will be leaving state service this week, according to an email distributed to project staff.

She will be on the job until Oct. 15, she said.  Office of System Integrations Deputy Director Cynthia Tocher will step into the role as acting project director.

“Together we have dedicated the two and a half years of my tenure as Project Director to prepare for the development of CWS-CARES.   Our accomplishments are too many to list here but I’d like each of you to know that we can be proud of our research, planning, and preparations because our work together was done with excellence, commitment, integrity and teamwork,” said the email.

Earlier this year the CWS-CARES project was downgraded to a “red” rating by an Independent Project Oversight Reporting (IPOR) assessment by the California Department of Technology (CDT), according to project reports posted online.

The project, which was initially approved in July 2013 with a budget of $420 million, was downgraded from yellow to red following an option that approved several adjustments in scope at a contentious project Board of Directors meeting on July 9.

A new Special Project Report 4 was due on July 20, 2020, has not been posted online.

California Universities to Test COVID-19 Exposure Notification App

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The California Department of Public Health (CPDH) and the California Department of Technology (CDT) are partnering with UC San Diego and UC San Francisco to pilot an app that could inform individuals when they may have been exposed to COVID-19.

Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

The mobile app, called Exposure Notification Express, has been designed by Apple and Google to use bluetooth technology to confidentially alert individuals when they are in close proximity to someone who has tested positive for the virus, provided that the individual has shared their test results with the app.

Faculty, staff, and the student body at both UC San Diego and UC San Francisco will test the app in a month-long trial period beginning at the end of September.

While the app does not collect data or share user information, individuals would need to opt-in to use the app if and when it becomes available to the public, according to CDT Director Amy Tong.

The Exposure Notification Express app will serve as a necessary supplement to California’s COVID-19 testing system, which failed to register roughly 750,000 positive tests back in August.

California to Roll Out New COVID-19 Reporting System in October

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California will roll out a new COVID-19 reporting system in October after it awarded a renewable six-month, $15.3-million contract to healthcare technology OptumInsight, Inc., the state announced this week.  The announcement follows a recent failure of the state’s infectious disease registry CalREDIE to accurately report testing data, which reportedly resulted in the Department of Public Health director’s resignation last month.

“This system will reduce labor-intensive collection processes and minimize delays in reporting data so that public health experts across the state have swift access to the tools and data they need to prevent COVID-19 transmission and respond to new cases and outbreaks,” said State Chief Information Officer Amy Tong in a statement.

California will soon have plenty of test results to report, store, and analyze. Last week, Gov. Newsom announced a $1.4-billion contract with Massachusetts-based diagnostics company PerkinElmer to increase California’s COVID-19 testing from 100,000 to 250,000 per day.

CalREDIE suffered a significant glitch in July that caused COVID-19 cases to be underreported, which in turn led Gov. Gavin Newsom to prematurely announce “early good signs” in an Aug. 3 press conference.

DGS Measures Benefits of Teleworking

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When the COVID-19 outbreak in March forced most state workers to telework indefinitely, the Department of General Services (DGS) took the opportunity to begin a case study tracking the impacts of working from home.  Executives in the department’s IT and human resources divisions collaborated to develop a telework dashboard to visualize activities across the department.

Using a telework dashboard designed in May to track data and habits from its roughly 1,400 workers teleworking either full or part-time, DGS sought to discover the impacts of working from home that may inform the decision to telework even beyond the state-mandated shutdown.

According to DGS, its workers have saved a cumulative 16.4 years of commute time, 200,000 gallons of gasoline (worth approximately $620,000 at the pump), and 1,761 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

In addition to the positive environmental impact, 80 percent of DGS workers polled in a recent survey indicated that they would like to continue teleworking on a permanent basis.

See DGS’ dashboard here: https://telework.govops.ca.gov/tracking-telework/dgs-case-study/

State Chief Data Officer Outlines Vision and Goals for California’s Data Strategy

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Image: LinkedIn

Speaking to a Zoom audience of more than 80 people at the CalData Open Meeting on Aug. 12, California Chief Data Officer Joy Bonaguro outlined the future of statewide data strategy and the goals to ensure its effectiveness moving forward.

While data is a tool commonly used in many communities both private and public, it’s still somewhat of a foreign language to many state workers that could otherwise benefit from its use.

Among the biggest challenges listed by Bonaguro in a survey of state employees, ability to find and access data was the primary obstacle, while inconsistency of data terminology and the actual quality of data also proved to be major roadblocks.

Bonaguro mentioned three major strategic goals that, if achieved, could expand the use and efficiency of data in California. Those goals include: streamlining data access, improving data management and governance, and spurring data use and ability.

While those goals appear fairly straightforward, whether or not they can be achieved will come down to the state’s ability to maintain long-lasting and complete data sets, facilitating the open exchange of data between various agencies, teaching data skills, and hiring dedicated data professionals.

Of course, the implementation of data skills and jobs are likely a luxury given the current budget, Bonaguro admitted with a laugh.

“I’m pushing that off, unless something radically changes about my resources right now.”

Bonaguro made one important distinction when discussing exactly who should be driving data work within a department. While technology staff can provide the tools necessary to make use of data, the impetus for driving data must come from business staff.

“In areas where business leadership and executive leadership was engaged, [those surveyed] felt further along,” she said. “This isn’t something you can simply delegate and check off your list.”

If the objective is to create an emphasis on data from the top down, spurring on leadership may include adding the position of data executive to all departments.

“CHSS has a chief data officer, DMV hired a chief data officer . . . Is the chief data officer something we should promote across the state? I don’t know yet, but it’s something we can think about.”

Budget permitting, the push to incorporate data in all aspects of state government has begun.

Newsom creates ‘strike team’ to address problems with unemployment system

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Amid historic COVID-19 related unemployment highs and a day before a contentious Assembly hearing on California’s unemployment system, Gov. Newsom on Wednesday announced the creation of a new strike team to address the backlog of claims and ongoing information-technology related problems.

The California Department of Technology and Office of Digital Innovation will support the effort led by GovOps Secretary Yolanda Richardson and Jennifer Pahlka, former Code for America executive director who now heads U.S. Digital Response, a nonprofit organization helping government agencies respond to the COVID-19 crises.

“The strike team will identify steps to transform the unemployment insurance customer experience for the digital age. Within 45 days, the strike team will deliver a roadmap that outlines short-, mid- and long-term recommendations and solutions to transform the customer experience of applying for and receiving UI benefits,” said the announcement.

Wednesday’s announcement emphasized a new focus on the individuals impacted by the economic downtown. The state’s unemployment level is around 15 percent, with 7.6 million Californians filing claims, adding to $55 billion, according to media reports.

“While we have faced unprecedented challenges this year, unemployment insurance should be a human-centered system that supports people during hard times. From the first contact to final resolution and all communication in between, we are committed making the UI experience better for Californians,” said Julie A. Su, Secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency in a press statement.

An Assembly Budget Subcommittee held a hearing on Thursday where lawmakers were critical of the department’s efforts, including recently signing a no-bid contract with Deloitte consulting.

Video of the 3.5-hour hearing is here: https://www.assembly.ca.gov/media/assembly-budget-subcommittee-4-state-administration-committee-20200730/video

 

 

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Office of Traffic Safety Hires Jessica Chan as CIO

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The Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) has hired Jessica Chan to head up the agency’s IT and administrative divisions.

“We are excited to have Jessica as our new CIO and Chief of Administrative Services at the Office of Traffic Safety,” a California State Transportation Agency spokesperson said in an email to the GovReport.  “Jessica has built a strong relationship within the IT community.  She is a strong technologist and business leader who will focus on enhancing services for the public through technology solutions.”

Image: OTS.ca.gov

Chan, a 2005 graduate of CSU Sacramento, has been with OTS since Nov. 2018, serving as an information technology specialist for just under two years before becoming CIO in June. 

Prior to joining OTS, Chan spent close to nine years as an information systems analyst for the California DMV. 

In addition to a bachelor’s degree in finance and an associate’s degree in economics from CSU Sacramento, Chan received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Phoenix in 2009.

The CIO position at OTS had been vacant since March, when former CIO Quentin Wright left the role after nearly two years to become the new CIO/CTO for the California Department of Technology.

OTS spends $80 million in National Traffic Highway Safety Administration grants annually to fund traffic safety education and enforcement programs in California, according to its website.

 

Senate Confirms GovOps Secretary Yolanda Richardson

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On June 22, the California state senate confirmed Yolanda Richardson as Governor Newsom’s appointee as secretary for the Government Operations (GovOps) Agency. 

Richardson was appointed in January to lead the super agency that oversees the Departments of General Services, Human Resources, and Technology, among others that fall under GovOps’ oversight. Richardson becomes the second-ever GovOps secretary, succeeding Marybel Batjer, who had previously served in the role since GovOps’ creation in 2013 under Governor Jerry Brown. 

During her Senate Rules Committee confirmation hearing on June 11, Senator Scott Wilk asked Richardson how she expects technology to serve Californians in the future, particularly in the era of  COVID-19.  “I’ve read the Governor’s book, Citizenville, which was during his time as mayor where he took a lot of information and data and programs online to empower citizens,” he said.  “Do you believe that the Department of Technology should prepare for a potential onset of new IT projects, and what are we going to do to guarantee that they’re successful?”

“They should prepare for that,” Richardson said. “The California Department of Technology has realized some successes with using [the Project Approval Lifecycle (PAL)] with IT projects . . . the last 20 IT projects that the California Department of Technology has had oversight for that has utilized [PAL] came in at budget with no creeps in scope.”

Richardson also underscored the importance of the new Office of Digital Innovation, citing California’s new COVID-19 website as a recent example of successful digital innovation.

Veteran Agency CIO Andrew Armani to Retire

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After 30 years of service to the state, Information Technology Deputy Secretary for Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency (BCSH) Andrew Armani will retire at the end of this month, he told the GovReport.

Image: Twitter

In his role with BCSH, Armani was responsible for setting policies as well as overseeing technology activities for the Agency, a consolidation of agencies that assist in licensing and regulation for businesses and professionals. 

Prior to his current role, Armani served as the director of the office of eServices, where he led initiatives that expanded service delivery via the California State Portal. Armani says one of his greatest accomplishments with eServices was creating a sense of consistency throughout the state’s online services.

“I was able to bring a uniform look and feel and branding to all executive branches’ websites,” Armani said. “This was accomplished by bringing a handful of state staff volunteers to design and develop templates and provide all the tools necessary to agencies.”

Armani graduated from California State University, Chico with a degree in Electronics and Computer Technology, which led him to a career in the private sector managing software engineers in the development of enterprise applications and network architecture. 

Across multiple roles and decades in information technology, Armani noted that “change is the only constant in IT.” 

The most significant change from the beginning of his career, he said, was “moving on from [on-premises software] to cloud,” a mass migration that has taken place largely in the last three years. 

One of the most significant and challenging tasks in that migration was the switch to cloud email services for California state workers.

“As the Co-chair for implementing statewide email consolidation, we were able to bring CAmail which was the first-ever private cloud email service to the state of California,” Armani said. “It took several years and many meetings with the various departments to accomplish the task.”

When asked what advice he would hand down to a potential successor, Armani provided a number of useful maxims gleaned from a long career with the state.

A good reminder to anyone working in technology, Armani urged that “vendors are not the enemy, establish a good relationship with them.” 

As for maintaining good standing as an executive, he said, “don’t let the power go to your head . . . [and] employees will go to any length to do what you ask them, if they respect and trust you and know you have their backs.”

Armani cites one adage above all that guided him throughout his professional career: nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

Armani’s retirement will become effective June 30.