The invoice was due by Feb. 1, 2014 and covers service from that date through Jan. 31, 2015. It was only after Plaintalker questioned the status of ShotSpotter service that the bill turned up, no doubt by coincidence.
From the Oct. 20 blog post:
The article also mentioned a shooting that was picked up by ShotSpotter. By chance, the top item on my "whatever happened to ..." list was ShotSpotter, the gunshot detection system that was first proposed in 2010 and last heard of in 2013, when the company president came to Plainfield to discuss "tweaks" in the system. Instead of a $1 million purchase, the city had agreed to a $169,000 grant-funded lease. So is there still a lease and is it still grant-funded? I guess I have to find out.
Actually I forgot to look up the details in the Dec. 1 packet, as I am finding the electronic version of the agenda more cumbersome than riffling through the paper version at the Plainfield Public Library. Each item has to be downloaded separately and I fear overloading the laptop.
The funding source is identified only by an account number, so I don't know whether it is grant-funded.
Anyway, the tardy payment of the ShotSpotter bill points up the fiscal disarray that the finance team of Mayor Adrian O. Mapp is trying to address. The bill for a $120,000 service renewal was dated Nov. 6, 2013, in the waning days of the previous administration, when Finance Director Al Restaino was on his way out. It was due for payment before Feb. 1, 2014. At least the Mapp team can handle the next bill, when the service subscription term expires in January.
While this may just have been an oversight, it is not uncommon for an outgoing administration to behave ungraciously to the incoming one, especially if political hostility is involved. From my days as a reporter, I recall a rather egregious instance a couple of decades ago where a lame duck mayor failed to inform his successor that the developer for the Park-Madison site had withdrawn. One also hears tales of document shredding at times of turnover and even glue in locks.
--Berniceually
I knew those Republicans were trouble !! Thank goodness they are out !
ReplyDeleteI guess the question should be, has there been a recent evaluation of ShotSpotter's effectiveness? Is the more rapid indication of gun shots helping the police in ways that either save lives or deter gun play that neighbors' phoning in an incident don't? How many false positives occur? Beyond the annual cost of the system, what is the cost of personnel to monitor it? Would one or two more police on patrol be as effective? And so on.
ReplyDeleteWhy aren't there any charges brought up against an outgoing administration that deliberately conducts themselves with petty deeds that directly affect the city finances and/or residents?
ReplyDeleteHope you are at the council meeting next week to support a forensic audit!
DeleteShotspotter deserves cancellation. On numerous occasions it failed, no lives have been saved or criminals caught because of it as far as I know, and the cost of "false positives" is a burden. A foot patrolman downtown would be better for the community than this high-tech toy for boys.
ReplyDeletePerhaps council should use the $60,000 it spent on a staffing agency to hire the right people. I really wonder how many more errors there are.
ReplyDeleteLet us not forget that Mayor Mapp was a councilman for more than a decade, so every dig you make on the former Mayor is an insult to the ENTIRE administration, because they had the responsibility and the power to do something.