Thomas MacMillan Photo
Controller Daryl Jones said the city’s computer technology is so “antiquated” that city workers sometimes can’t even open messages received from more newfangled email systems.
Jones (pictured) offered that anecdote at a recent hearing of the Board of Alders Finance Committee, where he testified about the Finance Department’s allocation in the mayor’s proposed $511 million budget. He explained why the city needs $1.6 million in capital upgrades to information technology (IT).
Mayor Toni Harp’s $511 million budget would raise city property taxes by 3.8 percent. Alders are expected to try to whittle away at that tax hike before taking a final vote on the budget at the end of May.
Jones made a pitch for spending more on IT despite tough budget times.
“The IT department hasn’t really been funded well,” he told the committee. “As a result, we have to upgrade.”
He said it’s “become very difficult to do business with outside vendors” because of how old the computers are. Sometimes, when someone sends an email to the city, because of our antiquated email, we can’t open the file.”
“So you’ll see our capital budget is really focused on improving our technology,” Jones said.
The capital budget includes $300,000 for software and hardware upgrades, $400,000 for network and email improvements, and $900,000 for IT “initiatives” including replacing computers and servers and improving the wireless network.
Jones said he’s learning from the Board of Education, which has more advanced technology than the rest of the city.
“We’re taking an approach we’re calling ‘hybrid outsourcing,’” he said. That means putting some data in the cloud. For example, the payroll system: “That accomplishes a lot right there. Now if something happens, in terms of disaster recovery, people will still get paid. It allows us to free up time for our staff to work on other projects.”
Alder Mike Stratton, who represents Newhallville and Prospect Hill, asked why the city doesn’t outsource all its information technology.
As it stands, the city’s computer system is so antediluvian that it would need an upgrade before any outside contractor would even be able to work with it, he said.
“Given that our shop is — I won’t say in the stone age — our IT structurally needs to be built back up,” Jones said. “It would be very difficult for an outside company to even take a look at us.”
“You’re saying it’s better to renovate the house first and then call the contractors in,” Stratton said.
No, Jones said. The IT department needs to be entirely redone, he said. A recent crash froze certain operations for days.
“Rather than reinvent the IT system,” Stratton asked, why not put the job out to bid?
Jones said that before he started working for the city this year, he contacted an old colleague from his days working on New York transit. He got the advice of the head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s IT department chief of staff. “They laid out the game plan.”
Jones said he also looked at an IT assessment that a consultant did for the city several years ago. “I showed that to MTA. They said, ‘Absolutely.’”
Both the consultants and the MTA recommended the plan that Jones is now following, he said. “We have a plan. We’re implementing the plan.”
“I’m just asking you to go to the cities with the best IT departments and have them come in and tell us, ‘This is what you need,’” Stratton said.
Even if the city were to outsource IT, it would still need to pay the $1.6 million to upgrade to be ready for outsourcing, Jones said. Plus, outsourcing can be less efficient — you can end up paying more in the end if you give over control completely.
“It doesn’t cost anything to get a bid,” Stratton said.
Hill Alder Jorge Perez, president of the Board of Alders, suggested a smaller group be formed to look at IT more closely.