8% annual spending increases and maintenance practices questioned
In a letter secured by the City County Observer through anonymous sources, City Councilman John Friend questions Chief Information Officer Matt Arvay regarding the overall information technology solutions implemented by the City of Evansville. In his letter Councilman Friend not only questions the decisions to choose specific hardware suppliers but lets him know that the service levels within the Civic Center are a source of complaints. All of this comes on the heels of a week where the Evansville region was cited for poor internet speed in a “Competitive Realities” report released by the Southwest Indiana Coalition for Economic Development. In that study Evansville was ranked as 368th out of 370 metro areas nationwide for speed of internet connection.
Councilman Friend’s letter which is included below furthermore advised CIO Arvay that the upcoming budget hearings will be difficult and that every economy will be explored. Friend specifically questions the planning process, the no-bid contracts practices, the investments in the arena and what budget should cover them, the failure to release plans, and the minimal use of customer satisfaction surveys.
The entire letter from Councilman Friend to Mr. Arvay is below.
Matt,
I have been surveying our service levels in the civic center and other locations and have discovered the following problems and concerns. We have been dedicating millions of dollars each and every year at a compounded rate of over 8% growth in your department. This rate of growth can not continue under the budget constraints at will be upon us. We will have to do more with less. For instances, as we previously discussed concerning Cisco Switches, USI dropped
Cisco and chose Junnifer, saving $1,000,000. And please don’t tell me, we are installing a Cisco 7613 switch in the Arena. As you know, this technology can provide connectivity for the entire City of Evansville.
Questions that have been asked around at the civic center and by local companies are;
1. Why does this department not involve other departments or the technology advice committee in the planning process?
2. Just how many contracts and for how much money total does the city pay to the private company that runs most of the computer department through BPW, the arena, the water utility and other departments?
3. Why was the private company given a new multi-million dollar contract bythe city and county without going out for bid? In this economy a better price could have possibly been negotiated and at the least a review of the private company’s financial statements during the bid process could have verified that only an acceptable profit was being made from these contracts (and possibly explain the new luxury vehicles, estate and airplane of the owner). Wouldn’t it also have been good to allow local companies to try for this instead of just giving it to an out of town company for whatever reason?
4. Why is the yearly plan (if there is such a thing) for this department not shared with the other departments and why do the departments not have a say in this plan?
5. Why is the long term plan (if there is such a thing) for this department not shared with the other departments and why do the departments not have a say in this plan?
6. Why has only 1 satisfaction survey been conducted to grade the private company’s performance? The previous company ACS did them annually.
7. Why is the budget for the computer department not broken out in the overall city budget that is published on the city’s website? Is it hidden in another department budget so that it can’t be monitored to verify that what is spent was what was planned?
In summary, the users of our IT have NOT be pleased with the overall service levels and procedural issues. For example, we have a down situation, MRC doesn’t come in on Sunday evening to resolve the problem, but, resolves on Monday mornings; thus, the service to our citizens and personnel efficiencies are obviously impacted.
As you know, our budget hearings are coming quickly and this will be addressed.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks, John
why doesn’t the city hire their own geeks and take care of the IT system in house? I believe this is the way most of the larger companies hancle it.
Short answer. Geeks command higher salaries than the City of Evansville can pay. $80,000 and up for 20 year-olds with associate degrees is not uncommon as close as Louisville and Nashville. I am quite sure that the city’s salary brackets can not compete with the real world for good geek talent.
What is the IT department budget under the current contract? What do the IT principle officers make per year? Why does the sheriff not use the city county IT department? Why do the judges not use the city/county IT department?
Excellent question, Henry!
It’s Juniper, not Junnifer.
Why does Mr. Friend seem to be the only counsel-person doing anything?
Looks to me like somebody has been tasked with running interference and damage control.
Unfortunately, like the criticism of SMG, this criticism to me, appears flimsy.
-Isn’t any IT shop that does more than 1 survey – survey happy – and needs some real work?
-Does the City have enough plans in place for the CIO to get into specific departmental planning functions?
-Nobody buys anything from Junnifer, was that mail order from Nigeria?
-When adequate analysis of the questionable bidding processes for the stadium job are asked and answered too, I’ll believe Mr. Friend really has the Cities best in mind.
-How exactly does our CIO salary rank nationally?
-How exactly does your plea for the professional government staff to work Sunday EVENINGS (for NO more compensation?) jive with the mound of cash and act of congress required to get our (somewhat militant) unions to pull a Sunday? (Remember the salary analysis from the CCO a few days ago?)
-Mr. Friend, we can’t get our parks cleaned/maintained, period. (Let’s ignore sewers for now.) And you’re wondering why the IT staff can’t come in on Sunday evening?
-Mr. Friend, would you please disclose the “local companies” that have asked these types of pointed questions… As most of the questions seem geared towards natural government oversight, readers may be confused what kind of business back-stabbing that might be going on here?
This letter, like the SMG letter. Standing alone, with all the other problems going on (with no public questions or debate), is insulting.
…the largest Tri-State employer contracts out as well…I believe it very common practice…
which may be true, but if the hotel my wife works at can get contracted 24/7/365 it tech support then why can’t the city?
I provide IT support for one of the area’s largest companies and I’m on call 24/7/365. With our yearly support agreement, it doesn’t matter what time or what day of week it is. When they call, I respond. Sunday, holidays or not, it doesn’t cost them anymore than any other day.
Nobody doubts that there are underpaid, overworked people in this community… the salary analysis proves it.
The question is, in the big scheme of things, is our government actively squeezing professional staff/salaries while flushing the unions… actively fighting the tide of the times, all while complaining about brain drain, too?
How long will they be allowed to have it both ways?
That is exactly what these knuckleheads are doing and they have been doing it for years. They force public construction projects to pay prevailing wages that are typically about double what the real prevailing wage is in Evansville. At the same time they set salaries that won’t even allow them to hire new grads in fields like computer science and information technology.
Brain drain??? It is not a drain, the local officials practically take a stick and drive talented people away with their antiquated way of doing business. And yes, the Evansville leadership and especially democrats promote overpaying for union jobs and then get donations (kickbacks) from both the unions and the construction company owners.
As they say in the CCO, this is Snegal (sneaky but legal). This practice also causes the people of Evansville to overpay for public projects by 50% or more. Witness the $240k Front Door Pride houses that sell for $100,000 or sit empty, the plans to spend $240,000 on apartments that are worth only $20,000, and that darn Arena that could have been built for at least $30 Million less without the restrictions on who could do the work and what they had to pay.
And we wonder why smart people leave and fools are left with staggering debts.
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