The Florida Senate

282.005  Legislative findings and intent.--The Legislature finds that:

(1)  Information is a strategic asset of the state, and, as such, it should be managed as a valuable state resource.

(2)  The state makes significant investments in information technology in order to manage information and to provide services to its citizens.

(3)  An office must be created to provide support and guidance to enhance the state's use and management of information technology and to design, procure, and deploy, on behalf of the state, information technology.

(4)  The cost-effective deployment of information technology by state agencies can best be managed by a Chief Information Officer.

(5)  The State Technology Office has primary responsibility and accountability for the planning, budgeting, acquisition, development, implementation, use, and management of information technology within the state. The State Technology Office shall use the state's information technology in the best interest of the state as a whole and shall contribute to and make use of shared data and related resources whenever appropriate. Each agency head has primary responsibility and accountability for setting agency priorities, identifying business needs, and determining agency services and programs to be developed as provided by law. The State Technology Office, through service level agreements with each agency, shall provide the information technology needed for the agency to accomplish its mission.

(6)  The expanding need for, use of, and dependence on information technology requires focused management attention and managerial accountability by state agencies and the state as a whole.

(7)  The state, through the State Technology Office, shall provide, by whatever means is most cost-effective and efficient, the information technology, enterprise resource planning and management, and enterprise resource management infrastructure needed to collect, store, and process the state's data and information, provide connectivity, and facilitate the exchange of data and information among both public and private parties.

(8)  A necessary part of the state's information technology infrastructure is a statewide communications system for all types of signals, including, but not limited to, voice, data, video, radio, telephone, wireless, and image.

(9)  To ensure the best management of the state's information technology and notwithstanding other provisions of law to the contrary, the functions of information technology are assigned to the university boards of trustees for the development and implementation of planning, management, rulemaking, standards, and guidelines for the state universities; to the community college boards of trustees for establishing and developing rules for the community colleges; to the Supreme Court, for the judicial branch; to each state attorney and public defender; and to the State Technology Office for the executive branch of state government.

(10)  The State Technology Office shall take no action affecting the supervision, control, management, or coordination of information technology and information technology personnel that any cabinet officer listed in s. 4, Art. IV of the State Constitution deems necessary for the exercise of his or her statutory or constitutional duties.

History.--s. 8, ch. 97-286; s. 46, ch. 99-13; s. 3, ch. 2000-164; s. 9, ch. 2001-261; s. 934, ch. 2002-387.