National Association of Legislative
Information Technology
2004 Legislative Staff Achievement Award
Rick Johnson started thinking about getting legislative documents in
a non-proprietary format back in 1994. His foresight led to the development
of tools that give bill drafters and policy analysts the flexibility and
ease of a word processor while ensuring that the resulting files can be
used for efficient processing later on. In 1998, he headed a team
to design, construct and implement a non-proprietary based system for the
production cycle of the Washington Administrative Code (WAC). This
system resulted in more frequent updates of the WAC, reduced the time to
publish the WAC from two months to three weeks, and provided for electronic
proofing of the SGML Revised Code of Washington against WordPerfect versions
to ensure that no changes were introduced during conversion.
Relying on lessons learned from the WAC project, Rick turned his attention
to legislation and statutes. In 2001 his team put into effect a system
for creating, processing and publishing bill reports (committee analyses).
In 2003 the team delivered an XML-based system for bill drafting, bill
creation, amendment, engrossing, enrolling, session law, codification and
publishing tools, including all the typographical details the code reviser’s
office required.
Rick has brought his experiences and evaluation of tools and commercial
products to NALIT staff development meetings. He has participated
as a speaker at several NALIT meetings, and serves on the NALIT Executive
Committee and two NALIT committees.
National Association of Legislative
Information Technology
2004 Legislative Staff Achievement Award
When Dave Larson began working at the Kansas Legislature 14 years ago,
there were only two dedicated word processors and a slew of typewriters.
Dave played a key role in helping policymakers understand the advantages
of updated technology. Under Dave’s guidance, every division
of the legislature now has state-of-the-art PCs, software, network services
and training that allows use of this technology to its fullest potential.
Employees of the Legislature have benefited from increased productivity
and the standardization of systems. Despite increasing workloads,
staff levels have remained constant, revealing the efficiency of technology.
During the past legislative session, Dave headed a cutting-edge project
to create a paperless, live web broadcast committee. He designed
the project, wrote the successful grant proposal and implementation plan,
hired staff and carried out the project successfully.
Dave serves NCSL as a member of NALIT and ASLCS, and as staff vice chair
of the NCSL Committee on Communications, Technology and Interstate Commerce.
He has made presentations on a wide variety of topics at NCSL meetings,
including topics such as strategic planning, networking, software selection,
selecting consultants, security, technology policy, managing technology
and emerging technologies. He has written numerous articles and white
papers published by NCSL through NALIT and ASLCS, and has helped develop
work products for the NCSL committees on which he serves.
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