In his presentation, Oliver presented the findings of a research committee that a new suite of hardware and software, at a total cost of $1.5 million should be purchased for police, fire, parking and dispatcher departments in the city. That includes $745 thousand for a software suite, and $745 thousand for infrastructure.
Last week the Council attempted to hold the entire workshop in executive session, but postponed the workshop after the Middletown Eye complained that it was a violation of freedom of information laws.
Monday, a resolution to hold the workshop partially in public, and partially in executive session, passed and Oliver presented some of the findings of his committee in public, including the methodology used to select two vendors, and the standards set for the software.
Oliver did not name the vendors in the public session, nor did he reveal the specifics of their proposals. While the Council has the right to meet in private to protect security concerns, Oliver saved competitive information for the private session in apparent violation of freedom of information laws. The Middletown Eye plans to file a complaint with the Freedom of Information commission.
The Four-Year Old CAD System: "It's not a complete failure."
When Council member David Bauer wondered why the city needed to purchase a new CAD (computer assisted dispatch) system when a "new" system was installed, under Oliver's recommendations, four years ago, he asked Oliver if the old-new system was a failure.
"It's not a complete failure," Oliver said, explaining that the proposed system, an off-the-shelf software and hardware pairing, was much more comprehensive than the former system.
Other Council members queried Oliver as to guarantees about the new system, and were assured that with the correct contractual language, the new system would not have the problems of the former system.
Bauer balked at the cost of the system, considering that bonding for the former system was still in payback mode.
"We went through this four years ago," Bauer complained, "And we've got seven years left to pay for something we won't get any payback on."
Oliver insisted that the system had been used for four years, but admitted that it had never operated at the expected level.
The Council will hold a public hearing on the expenditure and bonding at it's next-scheduled public meeting, Tuesday March 9 at Macdonough School. A vote on the bonding will take place on March 11.
Kleen Expenditures Less Than Expected
Finance director Carl Erlacher reported that the city's expenditures for response to the Kleen Energy explosion was far less than the $700,000 projected before expenditure reports were available from departments involved in the emergency.
According to Erlacher, the costs, excluding costs for the South Fire Department currently estimated at $100,000, total approximately $250,000 including $6925 for the Emergency Response Department, $2290 for Public Works, $186,000 for police, $13,300 for the Health Department (including $12,000 for food), and $65,000 for the Middletown Fire Department which backed up the South Fire Department.
Erlacher confirmed that the city would file a claim to recover costs of the emergency response.
The Power Struggle Continues
In a set of three resolutions directed at the mayor to freeze positions, set aside a 10% reserve on all line items, and to "correct" the creation of three positions in the police department, Democratic members of the Common Council voted, after debate, to challenge the authority the mayor has asserted.
Despite a reading of the law, and case law, by corporation counsel Bill Howard, which claimed that all three resolutions "intrude upon the executive and administrative authority of the mayor," the Council members debated the issue. Early on, Council member James Streeto attempted to short-circuit the debate by calling the question, but without a second, his attempt was cut short. He wandered the council chambers during the contentious debate.
No Money for Police Overtime
The Council also refused to authorize the allocation of $150,000 in replacement overtime costs to the Police Department for use, according to Acting Chief Patrick McMahon, for overtime as a result of unexpected turnover and retirement.
12 comments:
Middletown's IT person, Bill Oliver, made an excellent and well-prepared presentation at last night's Council meeting. It was refreshing to hear such a well-thought out presentation!
i think you meant 745 thousand....
and apparently bill oliver is admitting he is incompetent, and should be canned.
i mean really, i doubt he would spend his own money in this sort of fashion....
It’s time to assemble a citizens IT oversight board.
Council, the IT Director Bill Oliver’s track record is more than cause to at least consider this suggestion, we have many expert IT professionals in this town that would be willing to donate their time to ensure we don’t waist more of the tax payers money on failed projects.
The tax payers of Middletown are fed up, a committee consisting of the Mayor, Council and members of the public should be created to investigate Bill Oliver’s ability to lead the IT Department going forward.
The presentation was as bold a subversion of the $750K threshold for a referendum vote as I have heard in years. None of the $745K chunks of borrowing stands on it's own. By the presenter's own admission, this is an integrated solution that needs to be addressed as a single project. It is a violation of the City Charter to subvert the Referendum threshold.
Several other concerns should also be considered:
First, there is no end to how much this "project" is going to cost over the next 2, 3, 5, 10 years. The $1.6 Million that was requested last night is just the first commitment to insure that we can never turn back. Does this salvo remind you of our "$80MM" new High School?
Second, the version of the software we would purchase would be obsolete, and the hardware long scrapped before we would be finished paying off the debt for this project. The City uses 10-year bonds for it's debt obligations - they actually take 11 years to retire because we only pay interest in year 1, and pay principle & interest for the following 10 years. The Taxpayers still have over $300K in interest & principle for the discarded 2007 CAD/RMS system. We should not borrow for a longer term than the useful life of what is being purchased. Based on the presentation last night, a strong case could be made that if we really need this, we should purchase this project from our operational budget. (/sarcasm on) Perhaps we could sell another City Park to pay for it (/sarcasm off).
Regarding the concerns of Municipal Employee’s competence and accountability for their actions – I do not know of any way that they can be held accountable for their actions or decisions. That is expressly why I inquired if the City could purchase Project Failure Insurance.
Last, I think that Ed's comments about the Executive Session stand on their own merits. I publicly apologize for not asking the Software Vendor's name in the public hearing as Ed had asked me to do.
We need to look at the whole picture, all the city’s departments. Has anyone looked at different platforms such as an AS/400 which may save the tax payers lots of money in personal costs, infrastructure costs and up time and if so the tax payers would like to see the documentation and thought process that went into Bill’s decision. In the real world these IT project failures would not be tolerated and the IT director would be held accountable but not in the City of Middletown. Tax payers need to hold Seb Giuliano’s feet to the fire and he needs to hold Bill Oliver responsible for his failed projects. I like the idea of a public IT oversight committee.
Dose not the Mayor have some sort of Technology Task Force team setup and was this taskforce involved in the decision making for the implementation of this project? I and many other tax payers agree let’s start from scratch and review all department needs and implement one solution for the whole city not individual solutions for each department. Mayor Seb Giuliano do your job and don’t let Bill Oliver implement another failed project without due diligence. IT 101!!!!!!!
Maybe instead of Project Failure Insurance we need IT Director Failure Insurance. Kudos for at least one member of the council, (David Bauer) for not buying into Bill Oliver’s presentation. This needs to go to referendum.
Why isn't this project not going before the taxpayers, instead of being broken up into two parts.
So they don't have to have a referendum on it.
Another way to shut out the taxpayers of Middletown.
Open and honest government at it's finest.
This is our Mayor Seb Giuliano at his best, why he refuses to hold this director accountable for his ongoing failures (hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars)I can only guess. I hope the citizens of Middletown have learned their lesson this time; we need a mayor to stand up for the tax payers.
I would not be so critical of the Mayor on this issue. We have both read the City Charter, and it plainly states that the Council has two jobs - write the City's laws and control the City's funds. The Council is both Middletown's Board of Selectmen, and the Board of Finance.
If the Council lets this borrowing Hydra go forward, they will have failed in both of their duties. The Mayor can certainly help the Council take a proper, legal course of action, but if the Council wants to do the wrong thing, the Mayor cannot stop them if they have eight votes.
The Charter, just like our State Statutes, does not make stupidity illegal. You, the voter, are the only check against your government "Gone Wild".
Dave, I was not speaking about the issue of City's laws and control of the City's funds, I was speaking about holding the IT Director who reports to the Mayor responsible for his failed projects.
The failure of the IT Director reflects the failure of the Mayor to hold him responsible for his actions.
I can tell you that if I hired someone to run a project and he failed I would not be using the same person to run another project.
The difference here is the Mayor is using Tax Payer money to finance Bill Oliver's $100,000.00 plus salary.
I wonder if Seb Giuliano hired a contractor to do work on his house and that contractor did not deliver what he promised time after time, would he hire the contractor back to do another project, I think not.
At what time does the council meeting to discuss the IT proposal
start?
Cybermom
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