Nebraska’s new CIO admits recent email was ‘a mistake’

During a confirmation hearing last week, Nebraska lawmakers questioned Matthew McCarville, Gov. Jim Pillen’s pick for chief information officer, about an email sent by his office.

The July 30 hearing came after lawmakers caught wind of an email sent that morning on McCarville’s behalf from an office manager, which reportedly encouraged employees in the Office of the Chief Information Officer to participate in a legislative hearing on Pillen’s tax plan. Attached to the email, the Nebraska Examiner reported, was a social media post from Pillen’s campaign that asked constituents to support the tax plan.

According to the Examiner, the email from McCarville’s office read: “Matt, our new CIO, wanted to share this information with OCIO Teammates. He is encouraging teammates to participate in the hearing. Testimonies will begin at 9:45 a.m., but folks need to be there by 9:30 a.m. if not sooner. Please check with our supervisors about approval for time off. Thank you!”

State Sen. Danielle Conrad submitted a complaint to the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission, citing McCarville’s email as part of a larger pattern of the governor’s “potential impermissible misuse” of state resources to push his tax plan, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

In Nebraska, it is illegal for state employees to use public resources for the purpose of campaigning for or against an election candidate or a ballot question. In her letter to the accountability commission, Conrad said McCarville’s email of Pillen’s campaign material to public employees using the state’s email system — and “encouraging” them to support Pillen’s tax plan — potentially violated the law.

Pillen selected McCarville for the CIO role in April to replace Ed Toner, who retired in February after eight years as Nebraska’s top tech official. Since his selection, McCarville has been serving in the position pending last week’s confirmation hearing. McCarville, the former CIO of the University of Colorado, apologized for the email in his opening remarks before the committee, referring to it as an “accident,” a “mistake” and an act he “will own,” the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

During his comments, McCarville added that he’d asked his assistant to send the email and that he didn’t intend to express a particular position regarding the tax plan. Rather, he claimed, he wanted to provide OCIO staff with details of the tax plan hearing because it was being discussed in the office.

During the hearing, state Sen. Jane Raybould called the situation “alarming,” and asked McCarville how he would prevent “partisan favoritism” from impacting his decision-making when awarding contracts to vendors. McCarville said he would remove himself from any procurement process that he felt presented a potential conflict of interest.

Following the hearing, the government committee voted 5-0 to send McCarville’s nomination to the full legislature for approval. Conrad and two other lawmakers on the committee abstained from the vote.

Conrad told StateScoop she appreciated McCarville’s apology.

“That takes courage and shows leadership. We all make mistakes, myself included, and it helped us understand the situation more completely,” Conrad wrote in an email. “However, I think his testimony and additional complaints I have received after this story broke continue to raise questions [about Pillen’s reelection campaign].”