Governor fills technology job

Sacramento Bee ^ | Thursday, September 29, 2005 | Andy Furillo

[Amerigomag]

The Sacramento-based vice president of a worldwide information technology company with a lengthy tenure in state service was named Wednesday as director of California's newly created Department of Technology Services.

In announcing the appointment, Schwarzenegger said in a statement that under Agarwal, the department established in July "will successfully consolidate and modernize California's information technology system for the future of our state."

Agarwal's position, which pays $123,255 annually, will require state Senate confirmation. He declines to state a party preference on his voter registration.

[Amerigomag]

Well there it is. The governor just blew up another box.

This box apparently only took three breaths to inflate since the annual salary was only $125K, paltry by state standards and a great savings to tax payers compared to some UC administrators' salaries.

[jdm]

"This box apparently only took three breaths to inflate since the annual salary was only $125K, paltry by state standards and a great savings to tax payers compared to some UC administrators' salaries."

As for whether or not California is getting a "deal" with this guy is dependent on his knowledge of technology. If he's still wondering when the next version of Lotus Notes will be released, then $125K is too generous a salary.

[calcowgirl]

P.K. Agarwal, 58, has been a vice president of ACS Inc. since 2003.... Agarwal served as chief information officer for the Franchise Tax Board from 1996 to 2000 and had previously headed the Office of Information Services for 12 years. He also has four more years of state experience with two other agencies.

[William Tell]

jdm said: As for whether or not California is getting a "deal" with this guy is dependent on his knowledge of technology.

Well, not really.

The state of Kalifornia is in trouble because of its lack of effectiveness, not because of its lack of efficiency. The "boxes" that Arnold was supposed to be blowing up number in the many hundreds.

For example, the state of Kalifornia regulates alcoholic beverages. This is unnecessary and the board which regulates it should be eliminated. Making this board's performance more efficient will not eliminate the expense of maintaining it.

Creating a new department to make the existing departments more efficient may make some people "feel" better about the government, but I predict that the state budget will not be decreased by one single cent.

[macbee]

Creating a new department to make the existing departments more efficient...

Actually, this "new" department sounds a lot like the California Department of Information Technology, which was shut down back in June, 2002 when then-CIO Eli Cortez and some cronies got the boot for signing a ridiculously overpriced licensing deal with Oracle. Gray Davis appointed one J. Clark Kelso as interim director of DIT; Kelso (who had minimal tech cred on his resume) was subsequently appointed as "chief information officer and special adviser on information technology" once DIT was shut down.

Sounds like a "box" is being rebuilt, not blown up.