There’s Still Dissent Inside VITA

Doug Koelemay’s VITA column Monday stimulated another reader to write. This comes from a VITA employee who provided me his name, but asked me not to publish it for fear of retribution. Says the state employee:

Make no mistake about it, VITA is solely interested in empire and Warner-legacy building, not in customer service or saving the taxpayers of this state money. The vast majority of the agencies are now being driven by VITA, not by their constituents’ needs. We are constantly being forced to submit to their audits and surveys. We are paying huge fees for services that prior to their existence cost us nothing more than the salaries we were already paying. VITA is a train wreck waiting to happen and Governor Warner will be lucky to be out of office before the train derails. The only hope the taxpayers of Virginia have is that JLARC steps in and prevents this disaster. However, seeing as how the Republican leadership in the General Assembly sold out to Mark Warner, I don’t hold out much hope.

I can go on and on with examples of how VITA has been improperly managed and launched, but I am a mere grunt worker in their eyes. I’ve been repeatedly told that I don’t understand the top-down perspective. I guess I’ll just keep walking back and forth to VITA headquarters every other day to reboot my servers that no longer operate with the efficiency they did prior to our server move. Rest assured that Warner’s only legacy in my mind will be the frustration I experience every couple of months when I have to replace my shoes.

I have no idea whether or not this correspondent has a reasonable beef or not. But it’s clear that a number of people in VITA have yet to see the logic.


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Comments

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I work at VITA. I feel like the whole thing has been a smashing success…this blog’s obsession with proving VITA a failure smacks of partisan politics, to me.

  2. Terry M. Avatar
    Terry M.

    Obviously you do not work in a VITA-transitioned agency. Nor have you spoken to at least our VITA-transitioned staff.

    Not all are happy.

    We do not view VITA as a smashing success.

  3. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Anonymous, This blog is not “obsessed” with “proving VITA a failure.” But I do consider the success or failure of VITA, touted as one of the Warner administration’s landmark achievements, to be a legitimate issue — especially now that, contrary to expectations, VITA has raised the rates it is charging its “customers.”

    When I receive negative correspondence from someone who seems credible, I post it on the blog to see what kind of reaction it elicits. Does the person’s complaint ring true? Or is he one of those people who focus on how something impacts them personally while missing the big picture?

    Please notice how I couched my remarks regarding the correspondence posted above: “I have no idea whether or not this correspondent has a reasonable beef or not.”

    Here’s what I said in the previous post: “Is VITA delivering value, as Koelemay says, or is it falling short of its stated aims, as our anonymous correspondent, a local planning official, suggests?”

    Clearly, there are people who are less than enamored with VITA. But, then, there are disgruntled individuals inside most organizations. I view VITA’s success as an open question. Perhaps you could explain why you classify it as a “smashing success.” I’m sure you have some very good reasons, and I would like to know them.

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Get your facts correct. Fees didn’t go up. The Governor ended up using the surplus to cover the increase.

  5. Disgruntled Avatar
    Disgruntled

    Show us a line item in the budget that replaces the 6% charge to agencies for all technology purchases that VITA receive4s.

    For every purchase I make, I have to pay that surcharge. I am already paying the salarys of the VITA staff assigned to my agency…what added value am I getting for that 6%?

  6. I dunno. There’s always whining within bureaucracies when you take power away from one agency and give it to another. I’m not really concerned.

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