Wednesday, July 7, 2010

State Sets Audit Example

One of the last stories I worked on as a reporter in July 2003 was an overview of City Council cell phone use. Actually, I started working on it much earlier, but due to a certain editor's dilatory ways, I spent much of my first day of retirement on the phone answering his questions.

The story ran on A-1 and jumped to a double-truck centerfold. Its charts, graphics and copy told a tale of cell phone usage that ran the gamut from zero for one council member to shocking excess by another. Soon the governing body established strict policies for cell phone use, with reimbursement required for costs over plan limits.

Today news broke of flawed oversight at the state level. For example, one employee's cell phone bill continued to be paid for six years after his resignation. Numerous unused phone lines were also found in state offices. Click here to read the full audit findings. You can be sure that phone and wireless usage will now be tightened up for millions in savings.

Now that city staffers and officials have pricey devices such as Blackberries, let us hope that the new "DoIT" (Division of Information Technology) plans to look into municipal policies and costs. A tale recently heard in City Hall was that one individual ran up a $2,000 wireless tab before voluntarily reimbursing the city. Unless a person carries two Blackberries, one for official business and one for personal use, it is easy for costs to be commingled. And all that texting under the table may also be expensive.

It's a different world from 2003 in other ways as well. Every year, the city has the same listings in the phone book. There are two listings for the formerly city-run substance abuse recovery program, Dudley House and Project Alert. It has since been privatized. Safe Haven, a grant-funded program that expired many years ago, is still on the list, but callers are asked to leave a message for the "engineer," a role that has also been outsourced. These are small things that could be corrected.

The IT division has only one employee. At the June 28 special meeting, City Administrator Bibi Taylor said the city requested a waiver from a state-imposed hiring freeze to add another employee, but the state never acted on it. IT Director Chris Payne has given one overview of goals for the division and was supposed to give another last month at a council retreat, but it did not take place.

Given the newness of the division and lack of staff, it is not likely that all issues can be addressed. But certainly the lack of fiscal oversight doesn't help. The state audit was performed by the Office of Information Technology within the State Comptroller's office. As bloggers and council members alike have pointed out, the city has no chief finance officer or finance director to mind the local purse strings. The mayor has stated that media and communications should be under her purview, not that of a department head as required by the city's special charter.

The state audit is a good reminder that periodic reviews of various operations can lead to savings. It's a lesson for city officials to take to heart.

--Bernice Paglia

8 comments:

  1. "The mayor has stated that media and communications should be under her purview" Sounds like a scenario to skew the facts that crime is down 300%. As for the last few months would that mean crime, i.e. 14 plus shooting is up 300%? Oh that’s right shooting someone and not killing them is not a crime it’s an “incident”. Hog wash, follow the charter or resign. Better yet just resign so we can get an effective mayor.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bernice,

    If I am elected to the council in November's general election, I will forego a city cell phone--and that's a promise!

    Best,

    Rebecca

    ReplyDelete
  3. You bring up a great point, Bernice. I keep hearing that looking at cell phone costs doesn't add up to much, and looking at how much the mayor spends on food doesn't add up to much, and looking at printing costs doesn't add up to much. In my personal budget, cutting back on all those "doesn't add up to muches" saves me a boatload of money.

    Thank you for bringing up an important point. Look at EVERYTHING, and you get taxes that are under control.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bernice, Chris Payne gave a comprehensive and logical presentation at the second day of the retreat. It laid out all the IT areas, what changes were needed and how Plainfield can benefit financially from upgraded IT.

    This presentation should be on the city web site for all to see. It maps out where we are, where we need to go and consequences if we do not move forward. It is worth finding the presentation.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Now if the cell phone numbers of ALL city workers were available and people could be ACTUALLY reached, the expenses would be worth it, but it is usually a case of "Don't call me, I call ....."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous,
    The "new" IT Director earns a salary of $105,000. The former IT staffer, who was layedoff as Payne was hired made $50,000. Did we get anything from Payne other than slick talk and a nice presentation for the additional $55,000 of tax payer $. How much has the City spent on consultants since Payne took over the reigns (correction, the Mayor) of IT?

    IT is very important but its also supposed to save $ not increase costs and be a bottomless pit for the Mayor to use as a pet project. The City Council must look at this closely instead of simply saying we need IT and write a blanck check. What we need is someone to watch the pursestrings and be responsible with our money.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I disagree with 12:45pm. Chris Payne's presentation focused on strategy, not pie in the sky nice to have. He outlined the areas that needed to be addressed. He will attach numbers and priorities to it and then the hard part begins - implementation.

    I was not aware that the IT staffer for 50K had the IT credentials needed to review all the IT architecture, networking, VOIP, training, and hardware/software that Chris has. I thought the 50K person was to do media, not IT.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cell phone (AB)use is rampant across all city government. The PMUA spend in excess of $3500 per month on their cell phones. Between the PMUA and the city wireless expenses, we could have placed WiFi at every corner and used handheld WiFi VoIP phones. It's simply an abuse of power and tax dollars. There is no other explanation.

    ReplyDelete