An update from Senator Scott Newman (R-Hutchinson), chair of the Senate Transportation Finance & Policy Committee:
I received an email from Dana Bailey, the executive director of projects and initiatives for MNLARS that was brought on by Gov. Dayton last month. Because MNLARS is an executive branch project overseen by Gov. Dayton, there is little the legislature can do until the legislative session begins on February 20 — but we can continue to provide oversight and demand accountability from the administration and the state agencies involved.
I have posted the email from Ms. Bailey, as well as the email attachment, below. I’d like to hear from the deputy registrars, auto dealers, and other stakeholders as to the content of this email message. It is often easy to discuss a project of this scale in the abstract, but I want to hear the prospective from those on the front lines who deal with this system every day. Please share your feedback by sending a message through MNLARSmess.com or posting a comment on my Facebook page.
The email is copied below and has not been edited or altered in any way.
From: Bailey, Dana (MNIT)
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2018 9:30 PM
To: Bailey, Dana (MNIT)
Cc: Eichten, Jon (MNIT); Weeks, Kathryn (DPS); Forsell, James (DPS); Plummer, Craig (DPS)
Subject: MNLARS Update & Next Steps
Dear Members,
In an effort to keep you up to speed on the latest, I wanted to send out another email since we finished our first round of stakeholder outreach meetings on Friday, January 12. We received incredibly helpful guidance and feedback from the stakeholders (including some of you!), which will be has led us to our first Executive Steering Committee meeting this week. I also want to thank our fantastic DVS Liaisons for all the work they are doing. Their contribution at the meetings was very valuable and I know we were all grateful to have them there with us. I look forward to continued conversations with all of our stakeholders regarding progress on MNLARS and next steps for demos and training with FAST for the driver side of the business.
The Executive Steering Committee process began in earnest on Wednesday with a 3-hour review of the priorities laid out for us. The next step for the ESC is to rank those priorities and build them into the roadmap. Once final, the roadmap will be sent out to all of you along with the work we will need to do on getting these fixes/functionalities into the MNLARS system. This roadmap will be delivered by January 31.
In the meantime, the 1.11 release is still being planned for the first week in February. I’ve attached the itemized list of fixes going into the system and we will continue to update you on a specific date of the release so you know when to watch for these improvements. I’m also very happy to report that the title backlog as of 1/17 has gone down to 269,531 – a decrease of over 100,000 since December 1 thanks to Commissioner Dohman and her team.
There will be more to come next week on planning for demos with FAST across the state. I will send an update to all of you as soon as we have an outreach plan. If you have any questions/comments about the process moving forward, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Thank you for your continued patience with the system and diligence in working with us to make this right for all Minnesotans.
With gratitude,
Dana Bailey
Executive Director of Projects & Initiatives
Minnesota IT Services
See also: Email attachment (PDF document)
Tell us how MNLARS has affected you at MNLARSmess.com