REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND AUTOMATION

 

July 17, 2008

 

The Honorable,

The Board of Commissioners of Cook County

 

ATTENDANCE

 

Present:

Chairman Beavers and Commissioners Butler, Daley, Moreno and Peraica (5)

 

Absent:

Vice Chairman Gorman, Commissioners Goslin, Scheider and Steele (4)

 

Also Present:

Antonio Hylton – Chief Information Officer, Bureau of Technology; Joy Wykowski – Deputy Clerk of the Cook County Board; Brittany Carminati – Senior  Consultant/Software Engineer, Catalyst Consulting Group, Inc.; Anthony Del Santo – Acting Chief Technical Officer, Cook County’s Sheriff’s Office; John Mason – Exective Assistant to the Director of Planning and Development

 

Ladies and Gentlemen:

 

        Your Committee on Information Technology and Automation of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County met pursuant to notice on Monday, July 17, 2008 at the hour of 11:30 A.M. in the Board Room, Room 569, County Building, 118 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois.

 

Chairman Beavers announced that the following Item, Communication Number 294608, would be considered for the purpose of discussion only today.

 

294608

AUTOMATED BOARD AGENDA PROJECT.  Transmitting a Communication from Todd H. Stroger, President and David Orr, Cook County Clerk:

 

Dear Members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners:

 

President Todd H. Stroger is committed to applying technology to improve performance and create efficiency in government. The Bureau of Technology’s Vision 2010 Strategic Plan sets forth the guidelines for improvements.

 

In keeping with this Vision, the Office of the President and the County Clerk are developing a countywide web-based Automated Board Agenda (ABA) application to be implemented in partnership with the Bureau of Technology.

 

The ABA tool in development will allow authorized users to create and submit automatic transmittals for inclusion on the County Board Agenda eliminating duplication of efforts and additional traffic on our email and network systems resulting in a seamless and integrated agenda creation process, with shared technology, from initiation to final product. 

 

 

 

For this to be successful, all elected officials, bureaus and departments of Cook County government that have business before the County Board must adopt the ABA system for processing agenda items.  Execution of the ABA is scheduled for the beginning of FY2009 with the December 3, 2008 County Board Meeting. 

 

We are requesting to present a project overview and discuss technology requirements, training and implementation at a meeting of the Committee on Information Technology & Automation.

 

*Referred to the Committee on Information Technology and Automation on June 17, 2008.

 

Antonio Hylton, Chief Information Officer, Bureau of Technology, delivered opening remarks on behalf of the Bureau of Technology and President Todd H. Stroger’s Agenda on Technology.  He noted that the program has significant potential for efficiencies, and that it provides the President with the ability to manage the agenda process with more efficiency and timeliness.

 

Joy Wykowski, Deputy Clerk of the Cook County Board, delivered the following remarks:

 

A demonstration of this program was conducted at the Draft Agenda Meeting on July 8, 2008.  Today’s demonstration is for Commissioners and department heads.  Training for the program will be held in August.

 

This is a web-based application.  This program will preclude the need for paper documents.  It will no longer be necessary to hand deliver to the Clerk’s Office those items with department head’s signatures. Items will be created in the application and the whole process will go through an automated e-mail life cycle.  It will be possible to follow an item from its initial typing to its final approval by the Board.

 

The contract with Catalyst Corporation, the developer of this program, was approved on March 7, 2008 by the Information Technology & Automation Committee, and was approved by the full Board on March 18, 2008.

 

For the last Board meeting of Fiscal Year 2008, on November 19, 2008, the Agenda will be created on the web application as well as through the current paper process.  The web system will go live and replace the paper system on the first meeting of the next fiscal year.

 

Brittany Carmanetti, Senior Consultant/Software Engineer, Catalyst Corporation, conducted an extended demonstration of the system.  Chairman Beavers asked her to show how to enter an item for submission onto the agenda, and Ms. Carmanetti demonstrated this, walking through the process.

 

Commissioner Daley inquired as to the cost of this project.

 

Ms. Wykowski replied that the web design cost $175,000.00 and that the project management cost $45,000.00, for a total cost of $220,000.00.  She further stated that a cost/benefit analysis of the project yields a total annual reduction of $91,000.00 which includes one staff person; in 2.4 years the cost of the project will be recouped.

 

Chairman Beavers asked whether anyone in the audience had questions.

Anthony Del Santo, Acting Chief Technical Officer, Cook County’s Sheriff’s Office, inquired whether the system will email the person submitting the item as to whether the item was approved.

 

Ms. Wykowski replied in the negative, and explained that that person could check the system for the disposition of the item.

 

John Mason, Executive Assistant to the Director of Planning and Development, inquired:  Regarding the submission of items, will there be a summary screen showing all items that have been submitted?

 

Ms. Wykowski replied in the affirmative.  She explained that on the change history item, once the submit button is pressed, it will show that you submitted an item to the clerk.

 

Mr. Mason further inquired whether the system can retrieve text from Microsoft Word documents, Excell spreadsheets and the like.

 

Ms. Wykowski replied that a person can copy and paste documents from these programs.

 



294914

COOK COUNTY CLERK, David Orr by Jan Kralovec, Director of Elections, transmitting a Communication:

 

requesting authorization for the Purchasing Agent to enter into a contract with ELECTION SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE, Omaha, Nebraska, for software and database maintenance and support for the Election Division’s Voter Registration Management System (VRMS).

 

Reason:    The VRMS software, used by the Clerk’s Election Division over the last nine (9) years, requires various modifications to comply with changes in election laws and procedures, as well as other enhancements.  Election Systems and Software developed and implemented this customized software and is the only vendor capable of making these modifications and software enhancements.

 

Estimated Fiscal Impact:  $275,000.00 (FY 2008:  $110,000.00; FY 2009:  $110,000.00; and FY 2010:  $55,000.00).  Contract period:  August 1, 2008 through November 30, 2010.  (524-260 Account).  Requisition No. 85240045.

 

Sufficient funds are available in the County Clerk’s Election Division Fund.

 

The Chief Information Officer has reviewed this item and concurs with this recommendation.

 

*Referred to the Committee on Information Technology and Automation on July 1, 2008.

 

Commissioner Daley, seconded by Commissioner Moreno, moved the approval of Communication Number 294914.  The motion passed.


Commissioner Daley moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Butler.  The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned.

 

YOUR COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS

WITH REGARD TO THE MATTERS NAMED HEREIN:

 

Communication Number 294608           No Action Taken

Communication Number 294914           Approved

 

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Information Technology & Automation

 

 

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

William M. Beavers, Chairman

 

 

Attest:

 

 

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Matthew B. DeLeon, Secretary

 

An audio tape of this meeting is available in the Office of the Secretary to the Board, 118 North Clark Street, Room 567, Chicago, IL 60602.