Board Meeting Minutes
1998

October 22

VIRGINIA INFORMATION PROVIDERS NETWORK AUTHORITY - Minutes
Board of Directors
Washington Building
1100 Bank Street, Richmond, Virginia

 

MEMBERS PRESENT: Carol Dois Woodward, Chair
Richard T. Cornwell, Vice Chair
Clyde r Christofferson
Richard D. Holcomb
Sadie M. Showalter
N. Jerry Simonoff
G. Bryan Slater
Michael E. Thomas
Michaux H. Wilkinson
Nelson Worley
MEMBERS ABSENT:
OTHERS PRESENT: Dan Houlihan, VIPNet Manager
(See Attached Attendance Log)
 

Ms. Woodward called the meeting to order at 10:15 am. She welcomed visitors and members of the public and asked them to sign in.

Corrections to the minutes of the October 1, 1998, Emergency Board Meeting. Mr. Christofferson made a motion to correct the spelling of his name in the minutes. The middle initial should be small and there should be no period.

Mr. Cornwell made a motion to accept the minutes as amended. Mr. Holcomb seconded the motion and it was passed.

Mr. Holcomb offered the following corrections to the minutes of the October 5, 1998 meeting. The first was to change "Ms." to "Mr." at the beginning of the first paragraph on page 2. The second change was on page 3, second paragraph from the bottom. After privacy issues, add "the disclosure process " before the "and" and delete "maintain their privacy user log" and add "access VIPnet privacy logs". The corrected paragraph would read as follows:

Discussion then followed on privacy issues, the disclosure process and DMV's ability to access VIPnet privacy logs. Ms. Woodward directed that the Network Manager and DMV be prepared to give a status report at the October 22 Board meeting on the issues discussed involving the DMV privacy user log.

Mr. Cornwell made a motion to accept, with corrections, the minutes of the October 5, 1998 Board Meeting. Mr. Christofferson seconded the motion and it was passed.

Strategic Planning Committee
Mr. Wilkinson discussed the process of setting up the planning session and also the position paper on possible staff needs including essential support personnel. All further discussion was held until the strategic planning session.

Discussion of Personnel Committee
Ms. Woodward reported that at the planning meeting for this meeting on Tuesday, October 20, 1998, personnel needs for the Authority were discussed. There is a draft report in the folders. She asked

Mr. Simonoff to give a report.

Mr. Simonoff stated that while they were happy to support the Board, CIM actually only has one staff support person and the workload is reaching a critical level. He suggested that a fair level of clerical staff support was urgently needed.

Mr. Holcomb asked if the Authority a state entity, and if there is an established MEL? He offered to donate the funding of a P-14 position. He also offered the secretarial support of his assistant, Patti Kilcullen, to take the minutes of any meeting held at DMV.

Ms. Woodward appointed a committee to work with DPT on personnel issues. She appointed Nelson Worley as Chair and appointed Sadie Showalter, Jerry Simonoff and Secretary Bryan Slater to work on the committee.

Report on DMV Privacy User Log
Mr. Houlihan reported on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with DMV to ensure the capturing of information on who is accessing DMV records. The DMV staff need to have the capability to audit who is accessing records to ensure privacy protection. There will be an internal warning screen. The MOU outlines the requirements. The software is still being fine-tuned so that all queries are logged.

Mr. Rob Willett then demonstrated the test version of the program.

Mr. Holcomb then voiced his concerns over privacy protection issues which need to be addressed. Citizens need to have a high sense of comfort. There have been horrible experiences in other states that did not make privacy a paramount issue. He asked that at a future meeting this issue be updated. He stressed that security needs to be constantly updated.

Mr. Houlihan discussed the history of security threats. These usually come, not from hackers, but from legitimate users doing unauthorized inquiries or from inappropriate access. He voiced his concern that the level of the solution should not be overkill.

Ms. Woodward thanked Mr. Houlihan and Mr. Willett for their time and work.

Network Manger's Report
Ms. Woodward mentioned that the Proposed Business Plan had been distributed at the last meeting. The Network Manager's Report was mailed to the members of the Board last week. She asked that the Network Manager's Report be kept very brief. She also asked that the Proposed Business Plan not be an action item at this meeting, but rather it would be part of the Strategic Planning Session this afternoon. She asked Mr. Houlihan to give a brief synopsis of the Business Plan when they got to that item on the agenda.

Mr. Houlihan presented the Network Manager's Report which is attached and made part of the minutes.

Mr. Houlihan discussed the Financial Report and stated that there should not be any past due situations anymore.

He stated that they are spending a fair amount of time redesigning the VIPnet Home Page. Moving from one area to another will be much easier now. They are also developing an area to list the most frequently asked questions and answers. Also being improved is the Commonwealth Calendar. The improvements should be ready in the next 2-3 weeks.

Mr. Holcomb suggested that if the Authority proposed a legislative package next year a welcome change would be that posting meetings to the Commonwealth Calendar fill the requirements with the Virginia Register.

Ms. Woodward asked about the work that is being done for Loudoun County. Is there an economic arrangement for the production of their page?

Mr. Houlihan said that there is a potential opportunity when the county starts on-line registrations.

Consideration of Proposed Business Plan
Mr. Houlihan said the Proposed Business Plan focused on vision and strategy and how this organization can provide access to the citizens of the Commonwealth and the business community. He feels very strongly that VIPnet has the capability to have a dramatic impact on the way people interact with the Commonwealth. VIPnet can serve as a facilitator of virtual government. There are three areas where technology is going to take us: electronic commerce, interactive government and electronic information on the web. The push right now is to help agencies who don't have the assets to get a web page up and running. That is our focus right now, but the real strategic focus for us collectively is electronic commerce. That is where the greatest impact is for the Commonwealth and for the business community. We have the capability to save billions in productivity in terms of things they are able to do electronically that they weren't able to do before or things they are able to do quicker, faster, better now as a result of having this capability and not have to drive somewhere. The network manager will be able to be the intermediary between the consumers of information and the suppliers of information.

Public Comment Period (Time Permitting)
Ms. Woodward opened up the meeting for 5-10 minutes for public comment. There was none.

Executive Session
Mr. Holcomb made the following motion to go into Executive Session.

"I move we go into Executive Session pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.1-344.A.7 for the sole purpose of discussing various legal matters to include contracts and potential litigation. As part of that I would further ask that the following individuals be allowed to attend the Executive Session: Don Moseley , and Secretary Don Upson be allowed for the purpose of expert advice and Patti Kilcullen, for the purpose of taking minutes.

The motion was seconded by Mr. Cornwell and was passed. The meeting then moved into Executive Session.

After coming out of Executive Session, Mr. Holcomb made the following motion:

"To the best of our knowledge only public matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements under Virginia Code Section 2.1-344.1D, and (ii) only such business matters as were identified in the motion by which the Executive Session was convened were heard, discussed or considered in the Executive Session."

Carol Dois Woodward Aye N. Jerry Simonoff Aye

Richard T. Cornwell Aye G. Bryan Slater Aye

Clyde r Christofferson Aye Michael E. Thomas Aye

Richard D. Holcomb Aye Michaux H. Wilkinson Aye

Sadie M. Showalter Aye Nelson Worley Aye

Ms. Woodward then announced that the next meeting will be November 19, 1998 which is the third Thursday in November. The December meeting is tentatively scheduled for December 17, 1998, the third Thursday in December. Please check your calendar and let us know when you are available.

Mr. Holcomb passed out the Guidelines for Public Comment that both The Commonwealth Transportation Board and the Motor Vehicle Dealer Board use. He asked that these be put on the agenda of the next meeting.

With that the business meeting was adjourned at 12:47 p.m. and the Board took a lunch break before the afternoon Strategic Planning session.

                                                                                          N. Jerry Simonoff
                                                                                          Secretary to the Board

VISTOR'S LOG:
Name

Affiliation

The Honorable Donald W. Upson
Donald Moseley
Karen Chappell
Cheryl Clark
Dan Galloway
Rodney Willett
Patti Kilcullen
Dr. Robert de Voursney
Secretary of Technology
Office of the Secretary of Administration
Department of Motor Vehicles
Department of Motor Vehicles
Department of Information Technology
VIPnet Staff
Department of Motor Vehicles
University of Virginia
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