Governor Tim Walz today named Tarek Tomes as new commissioner of the state’s I-T Department, which remains under scrutiny due to long-standing problems with MN-LARS, the state’s vehicle registration and drivers license system. Tomes, a high-ranking I-T official for the City of Saint Paul, says software development can’t fall victim to fear of failure. “Fear of failure doesn’t mean that you’re going to fail,” he says. “The fear of failure means that you may not bring forth the appropriate solutions to change people’s lives for a tremendously conservative approach.”
Governor Walz indicates he doesn’t have preconceived notions about whether state programmers or commercially-available software will ultimately fix MN-LARS. “I’m being very clear about this: I am agnostic on where the solutions come from,” Walz says.
Recommendations from a special task force are due in early May.