RALEIGH: The State Board of Community Colleges strongly expressed their concerns about a new responsibility that the North Carolina Community College System assumes in July. They are also concerned about a roadblock in the implementation of the System’s massive College Information System (CIS) which began four years ago and was scheduled to be completed in the next three.

July 1^st is the day that the Business License Information Office (BLIO) will officially move from the Office of the Secretary of State to the Small Business Centers (SBC), which are located at all of the community colleges. Legislation enacted last year mandates the change and the State Board of Community College is concerned that the mandate comes with no funding to finance the operation and no staff to do the work.

System President H. Martin Lancaster told the Board that the NCCCS is making "an attempt to prepare ourselves as best we can." But Lancaster informed the members that at least $4 million is needed to sufficiently staff and train the offices and develop the information technology applications that will be required to adequately serve the small business community. This responsibility is on top of the overwhelming job the SBCs do to assist small businesses in starting new businesses.

"Our Small Business Center directors are already overworked and underfunded," said State Board Chair James J. Woody.

After a lengthy explanation by Vice Chair Hilda Pinnix-Ragland, who noted her extreme frustration with the situation, the State Board reluctantly approved the transfer of $26,516 from State Board Reserves to cover expenses of "knowledge transfer" training from the present BLIO to the SBC personnel. This training is an attempt to prepare the SBC employees to handle the work presently done by the existing BLIO.

The Board also approved the expenditure of up to $120,000 for the "migration of data" that the SBCs will have to use. The concern is that this information is not in a searchable form and anyone without basic knowledge of the process will have extreme difficulty in finding information. This will most likely lead to incomplete information being provided to the new business owners. The Board approved the expenditures "with extreme reservation." It is hoped that the Secretary of State Office will reimburse these expenses, since no funds are in the System Office budget to cover them.

The Board also expressed their frustration that the Information Technology Statewide Procurement Office recommended against the three-year contract extension with Affiliated Computer Services that the Board approved last month. This action by IT Statewide Procurement essentially halts progress on the massive implementation of a new College Information System for the NCCCS.

If the contract is not extended as agreed upon for these years, the state will lose a $3.9 million credit negotiated in the extension and the completion of implementation of the Information System will be delayed for up to five years, resulting in millions in cost overruns.

The State Board unanimously passed a motion stating that the recommendation by ITS Procurement is unacceptable and insisting that the Contract Extension be approved.

The Board directed President Lancaster to work with Governor Easley to resolve this crisis.

-NCCCS-

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