Legislation could replace 500 IT consultants with state employees

By SHERRY HALBROOK
The state Assembly passed a bill November 18 aimed at reining in runaway contracting by state agencies for information technology services. The move came just two days after PEF testified before a hearing on IT work force issues held by three Assembly committees.

“We have been working in recent weeks with the governor’s staff and state legislators to develop legislation that will help the state save money in obtaining the IT services it needs and also provide new opportunities for our members to advance their IT skills and careers,” said PEF President Ken Brynien.

“We are hopeful the state Senate, too, will soon pass this legislation that will save state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over the next five years.”

If enacted, the legislation (A.40011/S.66011) would allow the state to hire up to 500 IT employees over the next two years to replace 500 consultants.

The state could replace IT consultants by either hiring from current civil service lists of eligible candidates, or by creating new IT positions that would expire in five years.

Meanwhile, during those five years, the state’s current IT employees in the PS&T unit would be trained in those critical missing IT skills under a new memorandum of understanding PEF has negotiated with the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations. So, by the time the five-years are up for the temporary employees, the current state employees also will be ready to compete with them on exams for permanent advanced IT positions.

The two-year MOU would supplement training funds set aside in the PS&T contract with an additional $1 million for IT training that would be made available in increments of $200,000 as the state achieves savings from in-sourcing the IT work.

“In the end, this would create a process to replace IT consultants with permanent state employees,” Brynien said. “The legislation and the MOU are designed to bridge a technology gap, save tax dollars and improve our members’ skills and career opportunities.”

A state agency would be required to publicly certify and identify the skills that do not exist in the agency and for which the five-year job in a temporary “project” title was created. Then the job must be conspicuously posted and any current employees who have the skills could apply for the position.

The legislation would allow these temporary employees to take one promotional exam after two years of service. That exam also would be available to permanent employees.

In the event of layoffs, if permanent employees in positions in their agency had comparable skills and responsibilities at that time, the temporary employees would be laid-off first.

The state Department of Civil Service (DCS) would identify within the pool of candidates, who pass some of the promotional IT exams for salary grades 25 and 27, skill profiles of those candidates and use those profiles for selection to positions. DCS would be allowed to do this for a maximum of two years, or until a new list is established.

This is similar to what DCS already does for entry-level IT positions and for engineering specialties needed by the state Transportation Department.

If PS&T employees decided to voluntarily leave state service within two years after receiving the special IT training funded by the MOU, those employees would be required to repay the state part or all of the training cost. The repayment would be pro-rated based on how long the employee worked for the state after taking the training. The repayment could be waived if the employee leaves because of hardship or exceptional circumstances.