Steven Potter:
Currently the state is getting ready to sell three large state buildings downtown. We were over at them earlier this morning. Should that sale of those buildings be paused?

State Rep. Amanda Nedweski:
I'm not saying it should be paused. I think the DOA has done a great job on the space management project they've been working on — Vision 2030. I'm very much in support of reducing our footprint. But we need to do it in a way that also evaluates the performance of the employees who were in those buildings. The hybrid model also allows for solutions like hoteling. So, if we have a reduced amount of space — maybe you have multiple departments in a building that we have kept, and say some days of the week, these employees are going to be in there, and some days of the week, these. I mean, this is happening in the private sector for many years prior to the pandemic. It can be done. It's just not being done.

Steven Potter:
OK. Is cybersecurity risk also a concern for employees working at home?

State Rep. Amanda Nedweski:
Absolutely, so again, part of the audit and then again we asked again this spring, was well over half of the agencies did not take cybersecurity into account when issuing telework agreements or agreeing to let employees work remotely. And it's a serious risk for confidential information, you know, whether it's personally identifying information, health information, we can't have. The agencies admitted that they don't know where their employees are working remotely from or what days of the week or what times of the day. They're not tracking that very closely. If we don't even know where our employees are working from and when, how do we know what our cybersecurity risk is? You know, there are requirements in the telework agreement policy that say you have to outline where your office space is going to be and make sure there's not risk. But nobody's following up on that — or very few are. How would you feel if you knew your personal information was on someone's laptop and they were sitting at the Starbucks across the street on the public Wi-Fi? We have to get more serious about cybersecurity, and it's a major risk for us. And it's another reason to say bring everybody back. Let's take a look and see — what is your remote work setup going to look like? Do we have the right security measures in place? Is everyone educated on what the policies are supposed to be? You know, it just seems like it's a good time for a review.