CIO Council chief stepping down

Jim Flyzik, vice chair of the federal Chief Information Officers Council, announced Wednesday that he is stepping down from his post. As CIO Council vice chair, Flyzik served as head of the interagency group of federal agencies' top information technology executives. Flyzik will remain in his position as the Treasury Department's CIO. Flyzik made his announcement at the FOSE federal information technology conference in Washington, where he presided over a mock 'tribal council,' based on the popular "Survivor" television game show. In the FOSE version, participating CIOs had to list their accomplishments to keep from getting voted off the council. "In the beginning, there was darkness," said Alan Balutis, former co-chair of the CIO Council's e-government committee, referring to life before the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996, which mandated that every federal agency designate a CIO. Yet the council grew, splintered into committees and the "results began to proliferate," Flyzik said. Flyzik cited its efforts to help convince the Bush administration to create a $100 million fund for intergovernmental IT projects over three years as one of the CIO Council's biggest accomplishments. The Office of Management and Budget will manage the fund. Jasmeet Seehra, the fund's point of contact at OMB, said the fund will be managed similarly to the cross-agency Y2K fund. Projects must be innovative, new and use good capital planning procedures to qualify for use of the fund. "We are making the electronic government happen," Flyzik said. "We are on the way to a citizen- centric government." Ira Hobbs, acting CIO at the Agriculture Department and co-chair of the Federal IT Workforce committee, listed recent pay increases for certain federal IT workers as one of the main accomplishments of his committee. Gloria Parker, CIO at the Housing and Urban Development Department, recounted the council's success in creating education programs, such as the CIO University, which aim to develop new leaders. Parker said the CIO Council is currently working on a career development roadmap for federal IT professionals.