Colorado OIT Head Claims $6M Savings After Laying Off 173 Workers

"We've already achieved $6 million in platform savings via direct negotiations with our vendors."

Sarah Tuneberg, the new head of the Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT), dropped that figure on Tuesday. She spoke to the Joint Technology Committee, the legislative body tasked with keeping an eye on state tech projects. The statement landed three months after OIT axed 173 jobs.

The math is stark. The agency laid off 173 people in May to fix a broken system. It has since rehired only 15 of them. That is not great odds for the remaining public servants still searching for work in a tough economy. The state had announced 98 new jobs at the time of the layoffs, but those roles were distinct from the positions eliminated.

Tuneberg replaced David Edinger on June 1. She took over an agency that was in the hot seat. OIT failed to implement many cybersecurity resiliency recommendations from the Office of State Auditor. It also struggled with low customer satisfaction ratings from its clients, which are mostly other state agencies.

The reorganization was public and abrupt. It hit on May 27. The goal was to focus on outcomes. According to a chart shared by OIT, only one in three agency directors were satisfied with the service. If you add up all responses, including managers and contractors, satisfaction sat at 64% this year.

Tuneberg cited specific wins to justify the cuts. She said OIT reduced the time low-income families spend accessing a $120 benefit for healthy food. The process went from two minutes down to 25 seconds. She also noted that the state’s myColorado digital driver's license is now accepted at airport security by the Transportation Security Administration.

The $6 million in savings came from various sources. Some resulted from using artificial intelligence at the Department of Corrections to reduce a system migration, saving hundreds to thousands of manual coding labor hours. Another $1.2 million came from reducing hourly administrative bloat at the Colorado Department of Public Safety (CDPS).

When pressed for details on that last figure, CDPS spokesperson Gianna De Fries sent an email. "The savings were from within their department, but these savings will be used to help OIT better support CDPS through enhanced technologies and increased capacity," she wrote.

Read that again. The savings were internal to the Department of Public Safety. OIT claims them as part of its total reduction in operating costs.

Tuneberg also negotiated a 10% reduction in Google Cloud costs after researching what other jurisdictions paid for similar services. The agency is betting that these efficiencies will stabilize the budget and improve service delivery without relying on the previous workforce structure.

The former OIT workers who shared their stories with The Colorado Sun still feel the sting of the abrupt layoff. They spent years working for the state before being let go with little notice. Many are still looking for work.

The short version: The state is claiming a $6 million win while 158 former employees remain on the outside. The agency is leaner, faster in some metrics, and cheaper to run. Whether that translates to better service for the agencies relying on OIT is a different question.

Tuneberg told the committee that progress has been made. She did not say if more layoffs are coming, nor did she promise to rehire the rest of the 173.