Most of us recall the almost $500K single source expenditures made to Tech Heads on behalf of the IT department during Kevin Stufflebean’s term as commissioner. The accompanying claims and promises that these expenditures had modernized the department for years to come make the sudden and unexplained imminent storage crisis all the more unbelievable. Stufflebean selected the current IT director and charged her with managing and maintaining the department so who is responsible for letting the department degrade to the point that we are now managing by crisis and are discussing a $103K storage area network lease that must be signed before the county loses all its data archives?
Cam Parry is the department liaison and is notorious for not actually visiting the courthouse while still collecting a paycheck, where has he been that this decision is left to the eleventh hour? Or, could this decision be put out to bid by implementing a cloud storage system until the new board has an opportunity to properly evaluate the department needs, its management and other contract opportunities? The current board, or two thirds of it, are hell bent on closing this contract before the new board is sworn in on the 7th of January. Why make the new board live with the consequences of the current board’s crisis management style?
UPDATE Absolutely nothing happened at the meeting today because there were no numbers or specific components or details on which to vote. It was determined that IT will request bids from a pool of vendors already doing business with the state and come back with some specifics by January 3 as outgoing commissioner Fred Messerle feels it is important to get as much done before the new board takes over on 8th as possible.
I thought the Tech Head contract was for $265k. And did the County spend this entire amount?
Are you insinuating that money spent five years ago should be all the department need’s for the next millenium? The IT department should be getting consistent quarterly funding. They’ve been starved for years and the department is now showing signs of aging. No surprise there.
It’s unfair and inaccurate to insinuate that the IT department is responsible for the current condition of the infrastructure. They’re at the mercy of their liason, the generosity and understanding of at least two out of three Commissioners, and a shrinking general budget. You want answers? Start with Commissioner Main. He was IT’s liaison for three years.
Considering we just went through this at Solid Waste, there should be no surprise that yet another department is struggling. We spoke about this ad nauseum last summer: the structure is broken. Don’t expect anything to change if you insist on the status quo.
Youbetcha Messy! And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!
Answer according to one scared to death department person – because Messerle owes a favor. Time for someone to be honest with the people who pay their salary.