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Historical Legislation

In August 2010, the California State Legislature unanimously passed Assembly Bill 2408 to reestablish the Office of the State Chief Information Officer (OCIO) as the California Technology Agency and to rename the State Chief Information Officer as the Secretary of California Technology.  While Senate Bill 90 (Chapter 183, Statutes of 2007) had already made the OCIO a cabinet-level agency with statutory authority over strategic vision and planning, enterprise architecture, IT policy, and project approval and oversight for the state in 2007, AB 2408, signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger on September 28, 2010, codified into law significant functions, duties, and responsibilities of the office that had been to assigned to the OCIO subsequent to the 2007 legislation under executive authority:  the Governor’s Reorganization Plan of 2009 (GRP 1; consolidating all statewide IT functions under the OCIO) and Executive Order S-03-10 passed in February of 2010 (E.O. S-03-10; setting specific target dates for IT consolidation and energy reduction efforts, and also requiring the addition of Information Security Officers within state government offices ). 

Among the California Technology Agency’s responsibilities are to conduct independent assessment of projects, secure appropriate expertise, and provide project reporting and remediation plans—all of which shall be funded by the agency or department administering the project.    Moreover, the Technology Agency now has expanded authority from its predecessor in that state law, as amended by AB 2408, requires both the Department of General Services (DGS) and the California Technology Agency approve Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and Invitations for Bids (IFBs) before they are released to the public (Public Contract Code § 12104(c)).  Additional legislation passed in 2010 further expands the Agency’s statutory review, approval and oversight authority  to include review and recommendation authority over IT components of service contract procurements (Ch.  719, Stats. of 2010—Senate Bill 856). 

Accordingly, the California Technology Agency is now the recognized central IT organization for the state, responsible for approval and oversight of all state information technology projects.  As the head of the Agency and the state’s chief information officer, the Secretary of California Technology provides leadership for the state’s IT programs and works collaboratively with other IT leaders throughout the state.  The Secretary’s role can be appropriately described as the strategic planner and architect for the state’s IT programs and the leader in advancing the vision for those programs.