77th Legislative Session _ 2002

Committee: Senate Appropriations Sub 2
Friday, January 11, 2002

                                            P - Present
                                            E - Excused
                                            A - Absent

Roll Call
P    Burg
P    Clark
P    Dennert
E    Derby, Vice-Chair
P    Greenfield
E    Kleven
P    Madden
P    Pummel
P    Drake, Chair

OTHERS PRESENT: See Original Minutes

The meeting was called to order by Chair Drake

Mark Zickrick, Legislative Research Council, distributed budget information (Document #1).

Secretary of State
Ms. Joyce Hazeltine, Secretary of State began her presentation with a discussion of the Dakota Fast File (Document #2). The system was running by July 11, 2000. By December 2001, approximately 70 - 75% of all UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) filings were being done over the Internet, more than meeting the Office's original goal. The program's development cost was $132,000. The Office saved $33,500 by implementing the program, and with a one year subscription revenue of $99,600, is pleased with the program.

Tom Leckey, Secretary of State's Office, proceeded with the Office's budget presentation (Document #3). He advised that the Office revenues for FY2001 were $3,049,780 and more than $2,000,000 for FY 2000. He indicated that, considering the work load of the Secretary of State's Office, the Office is tight in staff. They will not request additional staff this year, but will probably do so in the future. Mr. Leckey said that the Secretary of State's major budget requests are for increases in wages and postage. He briefly addressed contractual services and travel. The UCC filings will no longer

be microfilmed and must be scanned, hence the need for the 36 drives. A Reader Printer scanner which is more than ten years old needs to be replaced.

Senator Greenfield questioned the postage increase. Mr. Leckey advised that as of July 1, 2000, changes in Article 9 resulted in much more programming. Representative Pummel asked if there are filing problems due to changes. Mr. Leckey advised that the main problem deals with the organization identification number and they've had more than 1,000 callers that didn't understand. The Office is developing a new system to fix the problem.

There was some discussion concerning pistol permits.

Mr. Tom Leckey advised this would be his last budget presentation. He said the voter registration system is ready to go. Ms. Joyce Hazeltine advised that the Legislator's campaign finance reform sheets are on the net in the form they were sent to the Secretary of State.

Senator Drake recessed the meeting at 8:52 a.m. and reconvened at 9:06 a.m.

Bureau of Information and Technology

Mr. Otto Doll, Commissioner of the Bureau of Information and Technology, presented the budget information (Document #4). He proceeded to go page by page through the handout. He said he had no additional funding requests, but was requesting six additional FTE's. He said the Bureau's turnover rate was at 6.3%, which he said was half the state average.

The Bureau is seeking two FTE's to work within the Internet Crimes Against Children Support Program. In response to a question from Representative Burg and Representative Clark, he advised that these positions will analyze PC's and other computing devices, finding evidence that has been concealed. These staff will investigate, educate, and provide technical support. They will work entirely with internet crimes.

Mr. Otto Doll said they are seeking one Integration FTE to coordinate all the technology for the responsibilities as stated on the chart on page 2 of his handout. Continuing on page three, he noted that the trend in LAN Services Requests is climbing.

Mr. Doll said the Bureau is seeking 2 Network Engineer FTE's to work with governments and agencies on the Digital Dakota Network, as outlined on the chart on page three of the handout.

In reference to the Network Technologies Scope chart on page four, he indicated that the 35,000 clients using the network require some 102,000 addresses that the Bureau must manage for the state. He said ultimately they could have another 300,000 - 400,000 clients. In reference to the next chart on page 4, he indicated that the state is completely digital and that the job is extremely complex,

using a comparison of starting with the first railroad to the now complex interstate highway and road system we have today.

Continuing to page five, he said the network digital circuits are growing to close to 900 in 2001 and that network sites are also growing, with six sites being outside Pierre. Continuing to page 5 he said the network bandwidths are growing, with there being 391,536 million bits/second moving on the state network in 2001.

Answering a question from Representative Pummel, Mr. Doll indicated that in the future these bandwidths won't be overwhelmed and have to be replaced, and that they can be added to. There was a plateau of use for many years, then the schools were added, and presently we're in another plateau of use. In response to a question from Senator Drake, he indicated that the college's fast Internet 2 processes 155M - 600M bps whereas the state system processes 1.5M - 155M bps and our home computers do 56 bps.

Going on to Page 7 in the handout he said the Bureau is seeking 1 Network Security Analyst position. He said that computer hacking is now unprecedented and gave the example of the Nimba Virus Worm, which showed we must close security loopholes or be open to attacks. Nimba didn't affect the state as much because Bureau staff had and do, work to close loopholes by the thousands, and virus filters are kept up to date. A new plateau of attacks has been reached in state government and it will grow with there being now 50,000 attacks/month with some coming from overseas. He advised that it is a hostile environment.

He continued with the Security Assessment chart saying that the infrastructure is good, the people are excellent, but are stretched very thin and that as a result, policies were not being addressed.

In reference to a question from Representative Pummel he said the motivation for hackers was mainly due to a hacker mentality, folks with a cause, or cyberterrorism. It is easily done from a person's living room.

Answering a question from Representative Burg, Mr. Doll indicated that the Security FTE would need more knowledge than the state school's computer science programs are presently teaching and that the person in this position would have to have extensive knowledge. He briefly talked about a summer program for college students to work in state government and gain experience.

In response to questions from Senator Greenfield, Senator Madden, and Senator Dennert, he indicated that the Bureaus efforts are directed toward making detection of attacks possible. They are basically in the prevention mode to repel attacks. The network has intrusion detection systems, routers controlled by access lists, and lots of firewalls. The Bureau does a lot of client consulting for the state, universities, schools, cities, and counties, with the Bureau being the last stop for a lot of folks. Most of this work can be done over the phone, but the six other sites can help. He said the Bureau doesn't charge by the hour, but has rates for consulting. With assistance from Dennis

Nincehelser he gave details on the Bureau's charges.

Mr. Doll advised that of the 1,041 forms in state government, all but one are on line. He indicated that about 21% of the forms are executable on line and talked about transactions that can be done over the Internet (see pages eight and nine).

Senator Drake questioned whether the list of contractors and equipment of State Radio that the Interim Appropriations Committee had requested at their December meeting was available. Mr. Doll indicated that the Governor wanted to talk with the Committee concerning this.

After a question from Senator Drake, Mr. Doll discussed the digitalizing of Public Broadcasting. The Bureau is pursuing federal funds. They've received a $96,000 federal grant and are pursuing a $1.2 million grant - both requiring a 60% federal/40% state match with funds from a previous $3 million general funds appropriation being used as the match. Once implemented, these grants would, at first, support digital television out of Vermillion, serving 66% of the state's population.

In response to questions from Representative Clark, Mr. Doll said that last year's request for a software/hardware consultant was a one time request. He indicated that the Bureau can't answer how many people are using the form on-line, but that individual state agencies could.

Responding to Senator Greenfield, Mr. Doll indicated there were no reversions to last years funds, that the four requested FTE's will be paid for by the Bureau's billing for services provided. He also said the Bureau will provide the committee with information on average staff salaries and can make a copy of the Forsythe recommendations for Senator Greenfield.    

MOTION:     ADJOURN

Moved by:    Madden
Second by:    Greenfield
Action:    Prevailed by voice vote.

Rena Ortbahn

____________________________

Committee Secretary
Bob Drake, Chair


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