The state created the CIO post in 2001 through a legislative act. In his statement welcoming Bradford to the job, Gov. Huckabee said the CIO would "streamline" government IT activities.
"In the past, technology decisions were made independently across the many agencies of state government," Huckabee said.
In statements to Arkansas Business Online regarding his resignation, Bradford alleged that he had not been empowered to fulfill that direction or able to work with the state's IT Oversight Committee. In addition, he said he had been "coerced" to deal with the Arkansas Administrative Statewide Information System, an application that experienced some problems, including a lawsuit over accessibility issues.
In Miller's letter of resignation, he said he felt unable to adequately protect Arkansas's information systems because of an environment that did not allow interagency collaboration.
He added that the inability of the CIO to exert authority was detrimental to his own efforts to build a security program for the state. Miller expressed his belief that interaction among the key technology organizations in Arkansas have been stymied "by recent efforts to curtail the powers and authority granted to the executive CIO and his staff to the point that the State Security Office cannot be as effective as it should be."
Jim Harris, spokesman for the governor's office, disputed these claims.
"Bradford was fired because of an inability and unwillingness to work with agency directors and his refusal to accept direction or correction from the governor or those designated by the governor," Harris said.
Doug Elkins, head of the Department of Information Services will assume Bradford's duties until the governor decides how to proceed, Harris added.
Bradford joined the state in October with a strong military background in information management. Prior to taking the cabinet-level position, he was a senior manager for Dell.
Darby Patterson, Editor in Chief
