{"id":342,"date":"2026-05-27T19:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T19:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=342"},"modified":"2026-05-27T19:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T19:34:23","slug":"colorado-overhauls-state-it-office-lays-off-173-employees-after-negative-feedback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=342","title":{"rendered":"Colorado overhauls state IT office, lays off 173 employees after negative feedback"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Governor\u2019s Office of Information Technology announced a major operational \u201crealignment\u201d Wednesday to overhaul how it supports the technology behind government services used by millions of Coloradans. As part of the change, the department is laying off 173 employees, or about 15% of its 1,150-person workforce.<\/p>\n

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The cuts, which are expected to save $4 million in the first full year and $8 million annually in the following years, are not linked to artificial intelligence use or the challenges of a state budget that faced a $1.5 billion shortfall, said David Edinger, OIT\u2019s chief information officer and its executive director since November 2023. Rather, it was the heaps of negative feedback from the , legislative oversight bodies and its agency partners, which are other executive state agencies. OIT\u2019s customer satisfaction scores have been dismal, he admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal was to move (scores) to at least 67%, or two out of every three people saying we\u2019re a good partner. We haven\u2019t been able to move that much since I got here. It went from 31 to 36 in the last survey,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to get there through continuous improvement and tweaking around the edges. \u2026 All this feedback plus the data was saying it\u2019s not working so we said, well, it\u2019s time to scale up this (new) model.\u201d<\/p>\n

OIT may not be familiar to many Coloradans. But it\u2019s the team working behind the scenes to protect the state\u2019s digital networks from cybersecurity attacks, as well as supporting agency digital services that residents need to manage unemployment benefits, access public assistance programs like SNAP and Colorado\u2019s Medicaid program, or figure out where their tax refund is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before OIT the state\u2019s multiple executive departments in 2008, each essentially hired its own IT staff, set up an email program and bought their own computers. There were 16 IT support phone numbers at the time, according to an OIT announcement celebrating its 15-year anniversary. Now there\u2019s one number.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More recently, the department has faced a lot of criticism from the for not fully addressing recommendations to sufficiently meet cybersecurity resiliency. Rep. Brianna Titone has also grilled Edinger during Joint Technology Committee meetings about funding.\u00a0 The Arvada Democrat said OIT\u2019s cash fund has been growing and was at $36 million this year, which \u201cindicates they were overcharging divisions for services,\u201d Titone said in an email. \u201cI still have questions about how it got big so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

OIT officials have not responded to a request for comment about Titone\u2019s critique.<\/p>\n

Something needed to change. A preliminary reorganization has been in the works since February and leadership shared details at earlier legislative committee hearings. Now, it\u2019s official. Edinger\u2019s last day is June 11, and he turns over the reins Monday to Sarah Tuneberg, OIT\u2019s deputy director, who has led several successful projects while serving as director of OIT\u2019s Colorado Digital Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Tuneberg\u2019s success is credited to a system of smaller teams embedded with clients to build products that actually work, instead of using the traditional IT method of completing tasks and moving on. Her team worked with the Public Utilities Commission and got feedback from consumers as they developed the Colorado Energy Savings Navigator, which finds energy rebates for folks who answer a few questions. More than half of Coloradans who used the site went on to apply for a rebate, she said. In business-speak, it\u2019s called product-oriented delivery, or POD, which is used by companies like Amazon and Google.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s important and left out of that traditional IT \u2014 I\u2019ll get you a laptop, I\u2019ll get you internet access, I\u2019ll secure your data \u2014 is that every single program that the state of Colorado delivers, every benefit, every service from a driver\u2019s license to SNAP to getting a birth certificate has a digital service delivery component,\u201d Tuneberg said. \u201cColoradans interact with the state of Colorado online digitally so we have to support agencies in delivering that service in an excellent way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was time to transform the agency to an operation that has already been successful. POD gives more autonomy to those working with clients so decisions are made quickly, which can be more cost effective and streamlined since there are fewer layers of coordination, friction and middle managers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a more efficient model that gets us closer by eliminating a lot of the bureaucracy we\u2019ve built up in OIT over the years by trying to have this shared-service model where everything\u2019s done the same way,\u201d Edinger said. \u201cThis is going to do more with less.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 173 jobs no longer fit into the new system, though 98 new jobs have been created that do. Leaders hope that some of the impacted workers will qualify for new positions. Employees were told Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t take the layoff lightly. It was an incredibly, unbelievably difficult decision that none of us wish we were making. So I would say that while the POD model is very much in the weeds, we\u2019re trying to build a better future here,\u201d Tuneberg said. \u201cWe really are trying to deliver for Coloradans in savings, in better digital services, in how do we meet people where they are in this sort of modern moment, and we recognize that it\u2019s painful and I\u2019m really sad about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The office supports 31,000 state employees at 17 agencies like the Department of Agriculture and Department of Public Health and Environment. It also oversees the Colorado Broadband Office and supports the tech for organizations like History Colorado.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This is a developing story that may be updated.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The agency handles the tech behind the scenes for many state agencies, but dismal customer-satisfaction surveys and complaints have spurred drastic change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nColorado overhauls state IT office, lays off 173 employees after negative feedback - Colorado Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=342\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colorado overhauls state IT office, lays off 173 employees after negative feedback - 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