The line needs to be read with a heavy French accent in a deep throaty voice. It's an invitation to follow me in an exercise of reasoning through the channels of my mind.
The last several council agendas have been sparse. Then, from having little to discuss for weeks on end, on Tuesday, several substantive issues were tabled for attention.
There ought to be a better way of spacing things to give town business the time and opportunity it deserves.
Argument for the purpose of persuasion consumes energy. By the time we got to the ninth item on Tuesday my available resources were exhausted.
The recommendation was not acceptable to me. Half a million dollars plus expenditure for a software program did not sit well.
No business case was made. No problem or need for improvement to current operations identified.
No indication was provided of savings anticipated. Or greater efficiencies to be achieved.
Quite the opposite in fact.
I declared opposition without an accompanying argument. Notifying my intent to pursue the issue prior to a decision being made.
In response,one after another council members declared their support for the recommendation based on private business practice.
"Welcome to the twentieth century" said the Mayor.
" Actually It's the twenty-first " pointed out the chair.
I pointed out the obvious difference between public and private business.
Private business uses private money. A council on the other hand spends money that doesn't belong to us. It belongs to the people.
Unwise, profligate spending in private business,frequently results in a visit from the bailiff. Bankruptcy proceedings usually ensue. In specific cases incarceration might result.
Equally reckless spending of public funds generally results in dipping deeper into taxpayers' pockets.
In turn, they tend to take exception to the practice. There's a leaning towards accountability.
Meaningless reference to private business echoed around the table, accompanied by a jingo exhortation to get with the program,tend not to serve the proponents well when push comes to shove..
Thursday 3 November 2011
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11 comments:
if it ain't broke, don't spend money fixing it. The
communication department for the Town is abysmal.
It will take more than new soft ware to repair. A house
cleaning of dated individuals is needed to bring us
us up to standards acceptable throughout the region.
Town staff are beginning to sound like my
nephew. He always wants something new but when you ask him what he plans to do with the thing he hasn't
got a clue.
"Argument for the purpose of persuasion consumes energy. By the time we got to the ninth item on Tuesday my available resources were exhausted."
Gosh, I hope you're not saying that you're not up to the job, Councillor Buck.
and what prey tell is the purpose of this seemingly extravagant soft ware , Do Tell Councilor
I believe there was some discussion several months back about steps being taken to bring the town's operating systems up to date. The notion I felt was they were somewhat primitive.
I forget which Director addressed the matter. There were to be several stages through which the final implementation would run and then at some point we would be at warp speed.
It seems to me that if an expenditure of this magnitude is being contemplated there must be reasons for it and cost benefits directly attributable.
How did we get from wherever we were to where we now are in terms of determining what was required and what best provided the solution? And is the solution going to commence free from operating error or will a major staff retraining initiative be necessary before the new system is placed in their hands?
I see no need to refer to private business practices when governments are generally far more complex than most businesses. Are the designers and sellers of software not able to demonstrate the capabilities of their products by referencing other government applications?
I find all of this discussion, quite frankly, very stupid. No member of staff or council knows very much about software operating systems, and yet they talk about it with all the familiarity as though they were ordering paper for the photo-copier.
Sometimes the competence level of employees and elected representatives seems to leave much to be desired.
I know - hire another consultant!
A simple question. Was this expenditure allowed for in the budget for 2011, or are we discussing including it in the budget for 2012?
Or is this amount just coming out of left field or some reserve fund?
We are nearing the end of year one for this council, as a voter is there any chance a report card will be sent home soon?
You seem to have hit another gusher here !
Mayor Dawe once told my husband that he must be
dong a good job because no one was angry with him.
Perhaps he should recall his electoral team for a
little chat about that ?
Is this Council working for those who elected them
or for staff of the town hall ? We have see that before
& it was not pretty.
what on gods good earth is going on , for a town of 50 odd thousand people there certainly appears to be an awful lot of waste and nonsensical spending of our money. You say it’s a half a million for software alone , what other costs will there be ? and how much ? How much will be saved by this state of the art operating system? What are the benefits to the tax payer?
Does the earth stop turning if you don’t buy it ?
To borrow a phrase that is often heard around the council table : "for clarification" I think the quoteClr Buck attributed to the mayor was during the discussions surrounding item #3 - Purchasing Card Implementation Policies and Procedures, not item #9 Award of RFP No IES2011-17.
My opinon on item #3 differs from Clr. Bucks, and I believe when the Mayor referred to the "20th" century he did so with the purpose of highlighting that credit/debit payment cards are a 20th century technology and that the town is late to the game in adopting them. I see no issue with adopting them as I believe they eliminate the need for a staff member to purchase out of pocket and be re-imbursed. The same checks and balances apply, the method of payment is the only thing changed. I don't see the fear in handing over a limitless credit card. Money could be moved onto the card after approval is given.
I'm in no way defending the support of item #9, which is an extravagant amount of $ to spend on a an asset management solution, especialy considering there was so much back and forth on the expense of doing the design work for item #6 - 4 underpasses which was 1/4 of this amount.
The fact that the mayor was arguing the proportion of the money being spent ($400,000+) represented a 1% cost of the towns assets ($500 million) is not a strong enough argument in my mind to support the astronomical cost of this RFP.
To answer Anonymous 4:51 question I saw the item during the budget discussions, and thought "wow", that must be some nifty software. But it doesn't look to be.
Here was the tender: http://www.biddingo.com/lcbo/*.main?toPage=StSupplierTenderDetail.jsp&bidOrgId=11003072&tndrId=1000683
It was awarded to the Createch Group (http://www.thecreatechgroup.com/ ) which is a Bell media company, so you can be assured their solution comes with a hefty price tag.
As to what other costs will there be, interesting enough
Council Meeting Agenda
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Page 5 of 8
Item #4 IES11-005 – Implementation of a Work Order Management Asset Management System (WAMS) RECOMMENDED:THAT Council receive report No. IES11-005; andTHAT Council authorize increasing the current contract with GHD Inc. by$152,825 to a revised amount of $231,445, excluding taxes, to support Phase 2 activities
I wonder what this has to do in relation to IES2011-17.
Is it the same amount or an additional $200,000+?
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