The Big Payback

After decades of private-sector success, tech guru Gordon Bruce goes public to give back to the community. Meet Honolulu’s CIO

Gordon Bruce never carried a campaign sign for Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann. In late 2004, when Bruce, who is perhaps most known for helping design Kapolei's tech infrastructure, decided to apply to be Honolulu's chief information officer, he did so just to make key government contacts for his consulting business.

"I never thought I'd get the job. I am not political. I didn't really know [Hannemann], and he really didn't know me, other than through the industry," Bruce says. "But about a week after the initial interview, I got a call from the mayor's office. I thought it was someone kidding me: They wanted me to meet with the mayor. They were looking for people with expertise in the fields they were going to manage."

Then the mayor offered him the job. Perhaps what's crazier, Bruce took it. "It is beyond anyone's possible belief that you would reduce your salary by two-thirds, which is what I did," Bruce says. "But I thought, ‘What an incredible chance to make a difference.'"

Bruce, 56, was born and raised in Toronto. He knew a hardscrabble childhood. One of three sons of alcoholic parents, he was jostled from one housing project to the next. Bruce made it out and, in 1979, he came to Hawaii, first working for Bank of Hawaii, then The Queen's Medical Center and Campbell Estate. In Hawaii, he finally found his greener pastures. "I have done very well in this town. I have had a very lucrative career. So it's time to give back, to close the circle."

HB: You obviously had great intentions for the job. But what was the state of affairs you walked into in 2005?
GB: The mayor had put together blue-ribbon panels to look at various government entities, and they concluded IT had been underfunded by at least $100 million in the previous five years. Our financial systems, our core business applications were over 25 years old. These are applications systems; if you were running your business on them today, you would not be in business. We run the driver's licensing and motor-vehicle system for the state. Our claim to fame is that it is the oldest in the country: 35 years old.

HB: Was that the worst of your initiation?
GB: My first month on the job, I had a fire in the data center. But, thank goodness, the fire-suppression system failed. I had two power outages that brought the entire system down. Then, we are responsible for all the police radio communications infrastructure. There are 24 telecommunications tower sites. I toured them all. They hadn't been maintained in years. The grass had not been cut in years and, in some cases, you couldn't even open the doors to get into the building.

We are going to have to replace about 14 of the facilities and repair the rest of them; $25 million to do that. And this is public safety. I tell you right now if a hurricane came through the island, our radio communication would be gone. It would be zero, nothing.

HB: How does that compare to other municipalities? There is some lag compared to the private sector, but this sounds more dramatic.
GB: It is not unusual for certain portions to be behind, but not in the mass that we are behind. We are talking about everything. But what an opportunity. And I have the support from the mayor [to make changes]. And the council as a whole has been phenomenally supportive in moving this department forward, knowing that technology can provide benefits to the constituents.

>> FAST FACT:

By leasing government property to wireless service providers, Honolulu has the potential to create $38 million to $48 million in new revenue over a 20-year term.

HB: How did you get buy-in?
GB: When I made my first council presentation, I just stated this is what it is. There was no political dancing around. They had lots of questions, but they trusted me. And they approved the ERP [Enterprise Resources Planning] project. That's the total financial systems replacement, that is total payroll and total personnel replacement project, a $13 million project. Then, upwards of $25 million has been approved for the [police] tower communication project.

When I came on board, police could only talk to police on their radio. They couldn't talk to fire. They couldn't talk to ambulance. Now, police and fire and FBI and Coast Guard all have interoperability. They can all now talk to each other on an 800 megahertz radio system.

Then we delivered 18 new applications last year. Now you can book your driver's test online, instead of getting there at 2 o'clock in the morning. You can renew your driver's license now online. Building and planning permit applications, you can put online. You've got the pothole hotline; you can do a *77 on your Sprint phone and call in a pothole problem and that voice message automatically gets turned into an email that gets sent to the crew.

My staff is demonstrating what they can do it to the council and that is helping them to get the buy-in.

HB: I understand you are also pursuing some revenue generators, through leasing land to wireless providers.
GB: We now are responsible for all telecommunication leasing of facilities for the city. Just Monday, we put on a new online system where you can submit your application online. We already have standard lease contracts, easement contracts, use and occupancy permits and contracts, and licensing contracts, all standardized and available to the applicant today. We have the potential, according to an independent study, we could bring in, within five to seven years, anywhere from $38 million to $48 million per 20-year term.

HB: What project will have the most impact?
GB: The ERP, that is going to change the entire foundation on which all applications and systems run for the city, it is a major architectural shift. Hundreds of applications are going to be changed as a result. We are picking the vendor now. Then we will start bringing in all the necessary hardware. And it is a real aggressive schedule. In July of '07, we bring up financial. January of '08, we bring up payroll and personnel. For government, these are incredible schedules.

HB: So you are on a four-year contract, can you get it all done?
GB: It would be tough to get all this done even in the private sector, but the goal is to get us so entrenched into it, that whatever happens after those four years, it will keep going. It will be self-sustaining.

The train has left the station and it is roaring down the tracks.

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