Mendocino County Grand Jury Released Report Saying Mendocino County Information Technology Is Outdated

Grand jury iconPress release from the Mendocino County Grand Jury:

The 2020-21 Mendocino County Grand Jury has released a report on Mendocino County Information technology.
Mendocino County’s Information Technology (IT) is outdated with 99 Initiatives identified for improvement. The composition and priorities of the Board of Supervisors (BOS) evolved over time and more recently the Supervisors are keenly aware of the need for improvement. Setting priorities, providing leadership, or committing funds to modernize the County’s information systems has been a persistent management challenge”.
 

FINDINGS

  1. F1.  The CEO and BOS have not clearly defined the scope, authority or recruitment strategy for the proposed CIO position.
  2. F2.  The completion of the 99 Initiatives of the IT Master Plan has been delayed by 21 months due to factors such as a low priority for improving IT, uncoordinated project management, budgetary commitments and demonstrated deficient leadership.
  3. F3.  The BOS approves funding for the ITMP but does not participate on the ITMP Steering Committee to communicate priorities, provide leadership and approve resources.F4.  Since some costs are recorded in departmental budgets but not consolidated into the ITMP, the total cost of the Initiatives is possibly underrepresented by millions of dollars.F5.  The SO IS Department has been allowed to operate separately from the County’s IS department which is a detriment to efficient delivery of services and cost effectiveness.F6.  If the IT staff with access to DOJ systems have received clearance to maintain equipment of the SO, there is no legal obstacle that would prevent reporting to a central IT Department headed by a CIO.F7.  Project status reporting is not clearly or regularly represented to the public and the BOS, thus leaving them uninformed of IT’s priorities and project initiatives.F8.  Project Manager position(s) are unfilled, or the need not recognized, which leads to project plans not consistently being prepared for the management of IT Initiatives.F9.  Project managers and process application analysts are critical and unfilled positions in Mendocino County’s IT organization, which is already understaffed given the number of Initiatives in the ITMP as well as on-going operational needs.

    F10. The County’s efforts to secure its systems has not been evaluated by an independent audit in more than fifteen years which presents a considerable risk of systems compromise or ransomware attack.

    F11. The Auditor/Controller has not established the accounting procedure for the mandated funding reserve established by County Policy 35 which is obsolete and inadequately capped at $850,000.

    F12. Unlike many modernized California Counties, there are few mechanisms for the public to request most on-line County services or electronically submit forms thus inadequately serving the needs of the public and efficiently processing through County staff.

    F13. The County plans to issue an unnecessary and expensive RFP to select an alternative email service to replace GroupWise, when Microsoft email could simply be implemented. The County already licenses all other Office software from Microsoft except for email which is tightly integrated with all other Microsoft products.

 

The recommendations and the entire report are attached below:
Mendocino_County's_Trailing_Information_Technology_07162021 Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

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12 Comments
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izzy
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izzy
2 years ago

We have had numerous Grand Jury reports over the years pointing to serious problems in various areas.
They are routinely given a little lip-service, then ignored.

Humphrey Bogart
Guest
Humphrey Bogart
2 years ago

Just like Humboldt BOS, a bunch of ignorant, corrupt hicks.

sparky
Guest
sparky
2 years ago

Mendocino County CEO’s grade is F-minus

Bring Back Trump
Guest
Bring Back Trump
2 years ago

Politicians are idiots. Throw them in jail.

thetallone
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thetallone
2 years ago

In keeping with Mendo tradition, I think a 5 million dollar study is in order.

burblestein
Guest
burblestein
2 years ago

This calls for the usual Board of Stupes ad hoc committee to evade responsibility, and/or award of money for an outside study that can be duly ignored.

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago

Ok. Not popular to defend politicians. Who are sometimes indefensible anyway. But there are usually so many regulations regarding contracting for a product, negotiating with unions, coordinating with different users, writting contracts, budgeting for the money and public input needs, that any technology that makes it through the process is out of date before it is installed. Then, when the product fails, there are so many regulations that the contractor can use to frustrate holding them accountable. And that ignores old boy networks and the PR anti government campaigns that demonize politicians no matter what they do. Many of this regulations are needed but that doesn’t make them easy. Sometimes it’s a wonder that it’s not worse than it is.

Hangin
Guest
2 years ago

The grand jury is spot on and the leadership that needs replacement is at the deputy CEO and it director level as well… they can’t hire because there is no local housing in place for truly experienced IT workers to come into this county. They play internal hr games. They enjoy the slow country approach and take advantage of the grey areas of the findings. Share the blame where it belongs.

Steve P
Guest
Steve P
2 years ago
Reply to  Hangin

You hit it on the head. The deputy CEOs are rather ineffective.

twilight zone
Guest
twilight zone
2 years ago

They need to go back to working from the office too. Every single last one of them. None of them seem to have connectivity to even their own data. The public office phone #s do not seem to ring at their homes. Takes way too long to get an answer on anything and even a solid week (!) just to get info on what person to contact. Then another week for that person to send a link to information. Then the damn link *does not work*. I don’t know what all they are doing in their living rooms day in day out, or what they *wish* they *could* be working on, but it isn’t of much help to the general public.

Chimpster
Guest
Chimpster
2 years ago

In Ted Williams defense he’s been asking for IT improvements since he took office. The reality is that the CEO needs to retire NOW. She’s been a real disaster.

No Regrets
Guest
2 years ago

You get what you pay for. Never mind the elevated IT costs required just to keep these older systems operational or inability to offer convenient online services, such as online bill paying or building permit applications. The report does not go into much detail, but many government agencies are still running old Windows based systems that are no longer supported by MS. The biggest problem with old Operating Systems is their vulnerabilities are well known by hackers. Chinese hackers unleashed ransomware attacks almost 1 year ago targeting small governments and universities. The attacks took these systems down for months and cost 100s of thousands of dollars to recover. It all boils down to a dangerous game of Russian roulette. Spend the damn money.