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Experts at Little Hoover Commission hearing urge overhaul of state IT procurement, recommend modular contracts and data modernization
Summary
At an April 23 Little Hoover Commission hearing, former state officials and industry executives said California's procurement rules reward paperwork over outcomes, calling for modular contracting, pre‑certification, subscription models and a major data modernization effort.
April 23, 2026 — Witnesses testifying before the Little Hoover Commission said California must change how it plans, buys and manages large IT projects, arguing that the stateprocurement process often prioritizes procedural compliance over outcomes and locks agencies into costly, monolithic systems.
The commission convened the first in a series of hearings on IT project delivery, hearing testimony from former legislators, statewide technology officials and procurement leaders who described repeated patterns of cost overruns, delays and systems that fail to meet users' needs. "Government buys technology in 2026 like we bought pens and pencils in 1950," Lloyd Lavine said, adding that the modern market and subscription products require a different approach.
Lavine, introduced as national senior executive for state government strategy at T‑Mobile and a senior policy fellow at UC Riverside, recounted procurement disqualifications for trivial errors — a missing signature, a formatting change or the wrong font — and argued those rules routinely exclude capable vendors. "The process has overtaken the procurement," he told commissioners, urging a shift from box‑checking to measuring whether systems deliver the results agencies need.
Former state Chief Information Officer Amy Tong described three categories of technology procurement — commodity purchases, subscription product/services and complex professional services — and urged leaders to deprioritize custom, professional‑services builds in favor of subscription and pre‑built solutions that can be tailored and tested with pilot projects. "Prioritizing subscription models naturally presents an opportunity to do things through a proof of concept, minimum viable product and an agile modular procurement approach," Tong said.
Several witnesses recommended concrete changes that would make it easier to manage risk and involve more vendors. Michael Wilining, a former health and human services official, praised problem‑focused RFIs that lead to demonstrations (so‑called "RFI squared") and called for funded pilots so small vendors can participate. Dan Kim, a former director of procurement, proposed financing IT modernization more like public infrastructure — a dedicated IT modernization bond overseen by a technical board — and urged use of an "owner's representative" firm to provide continuity and translate technical trade‑offs for executive decision‑makers.
Commissioners pressed witnesses on why the same failures recur. Witnesses pointed to an accumulation of ad hoc fixes to rules, a fear‑driven compliance culture in agencies, weak executive sponsorship of projects and a budget process that pushes agencies to seek large up‑front appropriations rather than smaller, iterative funding.
Public commenters during the meeting reinforced those themes, urging improved project visibility, user‑centered testing and smaller, iterative procurements. Several speakers also urged better use of AI and modern subscription services to reduce the need for custom builds.
What this means: Witnesses recommended a set of near‑term reforms that include (1) clearer outcomes and performance‑based approval gates rather than detailed technical prescriptions; (2) modular contracting and smaller, funded pilots; (3) pre‑certification or evergreen vendor windows to reduce arbitrary disqualifications; (4) a program of data modernization to clean duplicate digital identities and enable modern systems; and (5) stronger executive sponsorship and department‑level governance that includes business owners throughout procurement.
The commission said this is the first hearing in a multi‑part review and will convene a follow‑up session focused on emerging delivery models and implementation options.
Quotes from the hearing are reported verbatim and attributed to the speakers who made them during testimony. The commission and witnesses provided extensive examples and policy proposals; many of the recommendations would require statutory or budgetary action to implement.
