InforME Board Meeting
October 23, 2002

Members in Attendance:
Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky
Jaynie Higgins
Anne Schink
Marilyn Lutz
Rudy Naples
Dick Davies
Rick Record
Dick Hinkley
Deb Carson
John Eldridge
Cindy Butts
Gary Nichols
Tamara Dukes
Carrie Gott

Others Present:
Becky Wyke, Deputy Chief Secretary of State
Harry Lanphear, CIO
Wayne Gallant, DPS
Peter Moser, DOA
Peter Bouchard, DOA
Kelly Hokkanen, InforME
Todd Tolhurst, InforME
Tiffany Glidden, InforME

Meeting Opens:
In respect of our guests’ time and time constraints of some Board members today, the Board agrees to discuss agenda items III and IV first (the two SLAs).

III. Department of Agriculture SLA – Online Dog Licensing

Peter Moser and Peter Bouchard were present to represent the Department of Agriculture.

This application will allow citizens to get a new dog license or renew a dog license online.

• Initially, this will be a voluntary program, similar to Rapid Renewal, and the DOA hopes to get 50 towns to participate in the first year.
• The fee for an altered dog is $4 and the fee for an unaltered dog is $7.50. InforME will collect $1 per transaction. The towns will continue to get an agent fee so there will be no effect on their revenue, at least for the first year. The InforME fee will be paid by theagency.
• DOA is hoping to get legislative changes to make this program mandatory state-widenext year.
• There is a large demand for this service from citizens, towns, and other groups – eventually the DOA hopes that vets and animal shelters will be able to process dog licenses online for citizens using the application.
• The DOA estimates that 50% of dogs are currently unlicensed and that there could be a huge increase in the number of licensed dogs with the convenience of the online application.
• Currently, there are about 130,000 dogs licensed each year

The online application will require users to enter demographic information from the pet owner, basic health information about the pet including whether the dog has been “altered,” a rabies certificate number, and the name and phone number of the issuing veterinarian.

At this time the DOA does not have a way of verifying the rabies certificate numbers against a database or other sources automatically. In the current manual process, individuals must show a paper rabies certificate at the town office. In the online system, editchecks will be used to verify the format of the rabies certificate number.

The Board expressed some concerns about not having any real-time automatic verification of the certificate numbers. DOA hopes to be able to add this in the future. The Board asks that DOA keep it informed about the status of any legislative actions related to this application as well as their efforts to allow for verification of rabies certificates.

Action:
This SLA was unanimously approved by the Board.

IV. Department of Public Safety SLA – Public Criminal Records

Wayne Gallant was present to represent the Department of Public Safety.

The DPS processes two kinds of requests for criminal history information. Requests from law enforcement (“criminal” requests) are provided at no cost and include all information in the DPS records about the individual searched. Responses to requests from the public (“non-criminal” requests) will indicate whether there is a match in the system and will provide a rap sheet containing information about adjudicated events (only includes events for which the person pled guilty or was found guilty).

• DPS receives 50,000 requests for public criminal records each year, and charges $8 per record.
• The current system is cumbersome, a completely manual process that can take 4-8 weeks to process a request.
• Public criminal history requests are used by employers, the education system, churches, agencies managing foster parents and child-care workers, and the general public.
• The online application will only provide public (“non-criminal”) records, and will be available to anyone to use.
• The fee for each record will be $8, with InforME receiving $1.50 per record.
• The hit/no-hit information will be delivered instantly, but the rap sheet will still require a semi-manual process and will be turned around to the requestor within 3-5 business days. DPS is working with a vendor to put records in electronic format on the back-end, and over time more and more of the “rap sheets” will be available electronically for instant turnaround in the application.

The Board has some reservations about this application, including the issue of multiple individuals with the same name (and how that will be handled), and the issue of whether DPS has the legal authority to provide these records to any requesting individual.

Action:

• The Board agrees to table the vote until the next meeting. The Board requests the following information/changes:
  
• Clarify the statutory or other authority that allows DPS to charge fees for these records, including to the general public.
• Clarify the authority that allows these records to be provided to the general public as public records – that they are not protected by confidentiality.
• Clarify the name of the application in the project definition in the SLA and on Schedule A to make it clearer what information is being provided. (Confusion about the term “non-criminal” used in the SLA – recommend including both the DPS technical/internal terminology and a general term/definition).
• Provide a demo of the application to the Board, showing disclaimers upfront in the application about what information is and is not provided, and about the issue of multiple individuals with the same name.
• Change Schedule A to show only the statutory reference (i.e., “Statutory Reference for Fees:” with MRSA #) and remove the text of the statute.

Other Business

Discussion of Format for Schedule A in SLAs:
The Board would like InforME to include in Schedule A on all future SLAs the statutory reference that allows the agency to charge a fee, but not the text of the statute. InforME will provide the text of the statute(s) separately to the Board for informational purposes.

Suggestion:
The Board suggests that SLAs be brought before the Board as early as possible, before InforME has invested a lot of resources into a project. The resources already invested could influence the Board’s vote on a project that it may have concerns about otherwise.

Discussion:
In continued discussion, some Board members expressed further concerns about the previous agenda item – the dog licensing application and SLA. These Board members were concerned about the lack of verification for rabies certificates in the online system, and whether this could pose any risk to animal control officers or public safety.

Action:
The Board agreed that the DOA (who were no longer represented in the meeting) should have an opportunity to respond to the Board’s concerns. The Board will prepare a letter to the DOA expressing those concerns. The letter will be drafted before the next meeting and provided to the Board to review and approve.

I. Annual Board Photo Taken

II. InforME Staff Update

• Joan Gammon has been hospitalized and is currently very ill. We do not know how long she may be ill and/or unable to work. This has been a difficult time at InforME both emotionally and in terms of the impact on workload, and we ask the Board to be patient and to send your support to Joan. Currently Carrie and Tamara, with additional resources coming from NIC, are covering NEI’s obligations in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine.
• Kelly Hokkanen will be starting maternity leave at the end of this month and will be away until late January. Her role will be covered by part-time assistance from Dave MacLeay, a design subcontractor who has worked with InforME over the past year, and with help from NIC’s design guru, Diana Persell.

V. Portal Security and Link Policy Statements
The Board agrees to table the discussion of these items until the next meeting. It would be helpful to provide feedback or comments on the draft policies to InforME prior to the next meeting.

VI. Portal Statistics
A quarterly report of portal statistics was distributed to the Board for informational purposes. No discussion necessary at this time.

VII. Follow-Up on September Action Items
Information has been added to the AutoForms instructions about how to use the tool properly when passing sensitive data. Users of AutoForms will have the ability to ensure that data is passed over a secure server if appropriate.

Upcoming Meetings:
Next meeting: November 13
No meeting scheduled for December.
January 15 meeting scheduled.

Meeting adjourned: 3:35 p.m.