Early departure of CIO clouds state’s tech effort

The Abercrombie administration claims one of its best accomplishments over the past fours years was the appointment of a chief information officer to modernize the state’s ancient computer system.

Now, despite the vision of former Hawaii Govs. John Burns and George Ari­yo­shi, we’re way behind in building a tech industry to diversify our economy. We’re also still way behind in modernizing the state’s IT system — another big unfunded liability.

The concept of a full-time chief information officer in a separate Office of Information Management and Technology was set forth in Act 200 and passed by the Legislature in 2010, before Gov. Neil Abercrombie was elected. The act didn’t provide a funding source.

Funding started with a $3 million grant from eBay founder Pierre Omid­yar. This required matching state funds. At first an annual $1.2 million came from the state’s Shared Services Technology Special Fund.

In 2011, Sonny Bha­go­wa­lia of General Services Administration was selected as our first full-time CIO out of 100 candidates. He was to have a staff of six and report to the governor. He was to assess and modernize the state’s IT system.

Filling the job made Abercrombie look good, but it was incumbent on him to raise the money to carry on. He was later able to raise an "emergency" $30 million, a small fraction of what this will ultimately cost.

The CIO report for fiscal years 2012-2014 came out in February (oimt.hawaii.gov/annual-report). It had taken more than two years to write. It’s technical and ambitious and talks of a 12-year path to recovery. The changes will be costly; funding will be the challenge.

At the same time, in plain sight of the elections, there was a flurry of "promotions." Bha­go­wa­lia was "promoted" to chief adviser to the governor on technology and cybersecurity, a new job. As CIO, wasn’t he doing that already?

One of Bhagowalia’s two assistants, Randy Bal­de­mor, was moved into a new "strategic projects" job created for him in the Governor’s Office. The other, Keone Kali, was moved into Bha­go­wa­lia’s job. No outside search was made.

Wasn’t it more important that Bha­go­wa­lia stay around to fix the fragmented system he had found, finishing the job he had started and implementing his huge big plan? And, of course, lobbying for the funding to pay for it.

Nevertheless, on March 13, Abercrombie threw a big farewell party for Bha­go­wa­lia at the Plaza Club. Decked with lei, Bha­go­wa­lia exchanged tearful goodbyes and left for the mainland. Wasn’t this leaving us in the lurch?

Was this party a celebration or cover? Was it about creating two more jobs in an election year? It wasn’t lost on anyone that the goodbye was early. How could Bha­go­wa­lia be promoted and then leave town, and wouldn’t it be better if he were here to implement his plan?

As if to drive this disconnect home, Abercrombie then proclaimed May 8 Sonny Bha­go­wa­lia Day.

Tech has been a political issue since statehood, so it was no surprise that Abercrombie would include it in his rhetoric. We should review the New Day Plan of 2010, in which he promised us "waves of change" in the "transformation of government," "starting right now."

Since then we’ve had a thesaurus of tech rhetoric on this issue, but that doesn’t mean we’ve been properly informed or that we’ve had real waves of change.

So let’s get this straight. For the first four years, we found and touted the talent to develop a plan. Now, when we’re supposed to implement the plan, we let the talent go. We have multidirectional "promotions" and a farewell party. What kind of business plan is that?

Why did Bhagowalia’s job come to an end? It falls in the category of strange disappearances, like the staffers who left in 2011 to "spend more time with family."

Although not that much has happened at OIMT in the past few years, it’s important that things happen now. State systems are getting older, and the problems are getting more critical, including those at the Tax Office.

Yes, we need to do this to make Hawaii a better place. But it will take candid and consistent leadership, not rhetoric, to stay the course. It will take someone on the fifth floor to visit the other floors and every official, department head and employee to get them on board.

Bhagowalia said, "We want you to have government online, available any time, secure and reliable, so you can do service online instead of having to wait in line." That’s a nice idea, but how long will we have to wait?

And how about making tech in general into its own Cabinet-level department, as in so many other states? It’s about time we got serious about tech in Hawaii.

Jay Fidell, a longtime business lawyer, founded ThinkTech Hawaii, a digital media company that reports on Hawaii’s tech and energy sectors of the economy. Reach him at fidell@lava.net.