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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_GGAF_04.06.2010 L:\Division\finance\Share2\GGAFSub\GGAF Meetings\2010\5.4.10\5.4.10DraftMinutes4.6.10.doc MINUTES GENERAL GOVERNMENT AND FINANCE (GGAF) ADVISORY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF GEORGETOWN, TEXAS The General Government and Finance (GGAF) Advisory Subcommittee met at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, in the in the Georgetown Municipal Complex Williamson Room, located at 300-1 Industrial Blvd, Georgetown, Texas. These minutes were approved at the May 4, 2010 GGAF meeting. Keith Brainard called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. 1. Review minutes from the February 8, 2010 and March 2, 2010 GGAF meetings – Danella Elliott There were no changes to the February 8, 2010 minutes. The March 2, 2010 minutes will be reviewed at the May 4th GGAF meeting. 2. Summary regarding “Other Finance Agenda Items and Items of Interest” – Micki Rundell A. Authorization to declare a 2002 John Deer 260 Skid Steer, a 2003 Bobcat 753 Skid Steer and a 2000 John Deere 5510 tractor as surplus and authorize staff to sell skid steers to Brazos River Authority and the tractor to Operations Management International for $37,536. B. Award of the annual bid for office supplies to V-Quest of Georgetown, Texas in the estimated amount of $48,000. C. Approve the annual payment for the operation of the county-side radio communications system to Williamson County for $95,103. Members Present: Keith Brainard, Chair, Patty Eason, Dale Ross Members Absent: None Staff Present: Micki Rundell, Paul Brandenburg, Laurie Brewer, Leticia Zavala, Mike Peters, Marsha Iwers, Terry Jones, Robert Fite, L:\Division\finance\Share2\GGAFSub\GGAF Meetings\2010\5.4.10\5.4.10DraftMinutes4.6.10.doc D. Approval of the cell and data phone service from Nextel dba Sprint and AT&*T through the Department of Information Resources (DIR) State of Texas Purchasing contracts for the estimated annual amount of $59,026. L:\Division\finance\Share2\GGAFSub\GGAF Meetings\2010\5.4.10\5.4.10DraftMinutes4.6.10.doc E. Approval of the purchase of a Fire Engine to Siddons Fire Apparatus through the state contract for $302,660. Robert Fite explained the recommendation to disburse funds for the payment to Siddons Fire Apparatus (Buyboard Contract) for the amount of $302,660 in order to purchase a Fire Engine for the dual purpose use of Airport Fire protection and normal emergency response from Fire Station 4. The price includes a discount of $2,265 if the chassis is paid for prior to final build delivery. The timing for the purchase is better because the price is about $40,000 lower than it was last year. This apparatus was approved in the 2009/10 budget and is being partially funded by the Airport Fund and the General Fund. After reviewing the needs of all parties, it was determined that a larger engine would be a more advantageous purchase than a vehicle for Airport use only. Due to the higher cost of an engine, additional funding was secured. This multi-team approach is purchasing a fire engine for fire station 4 to enhance the fire protection capabilities of the Georgetown Airport and the Fire District of Station 4. This purchase triples the water delivery capacity (300 gallons to 1,000 gallons) as compared to current response and adds a key foam component for aircraft fuel fires. The fire engine is much smaller, more fuel efficient, and able to access more areas within the Airport and Fire District 4. Keith asked Chief Fite to provide Council with a map of the areas assigned to each Fire Station. F. Authorization to approve a change order for $14,000 for the existing project management contract with Westin Engineering to provide payment for assistance in finding a qualified candidate for the IT Director position. Leticia explained that the total cost for Westin’s assistance in selecting and securing the most qualified applicant to fill the vacant IT Director position in the fall 2009 is $14,000. Initially, this task was planned to be funded within the contract’s contingency reserves, but due to the dollar amount of the overall Westin contract ($1.5M) in relationship to the contract’s contingency funds ($35K), an out of scope appropriation to Westin is requested. Due to billing delays, we are just now receiving this invoice. We knew what we didn’t want, but didn’t know exactly how to proceed with what we really needed. Westin provided a thorough and in-depth review of the applications received, initial candidate screenings, and recommendations to the internal interview team. A job description was developed and an evaluation matrix was used to pursue the most qualified applicants for the position. The City received 112 applications and interviewed 6 candidates. The vacancy was critical to the organization because of the impact to the long range sustainability of the committed IT projects. Emphasis on a candidate that provided business process analysis, enterprise-wide application deployment, infrastructure support, budgeting, and administrative operations was critical in achieving the required change management goal of the organization. Keith thought it was “money well spent” and cheaper than a search firm. He expressed appreciation to Mike for the job he was doing. G. Authorization to approve a scope change within the project management with Westin Engineering for $52,000 to fund technical expertise and resources to facilitate the new network design and migrate the City’s technology from a Novell environment to Active Directory. Staff requests approval for funding of the attached contract scope change with Westin Engineering to hire a subcontractor to oversee the implementation of the network design migrating the City’s current Novell infrastructure to an Active Directory environment. The City did not have the technical expertise or staff resources to facilitate this immense overhaul of the existing network. L:\Division\finance\Share2\GGAFSub\GGAF Meetings\2010\5.4.10\5.4.10DraftMinutes4.6.10.doc This migration to Active Directory is the first step in ensuring the City network is adequately structured to support future applications such as a new computer aided dispatch and records management system for police and fire, a customer information system for utility billings, and an advanced metering infrastructure that will provide the basis for 2-way communication into the home. Total cost for the above scope change with Westin Engineering is $52,000. Costs for this process were earmarked with potential “savings” within the existing Westin contract but due to the technical issues discovered during the initial conversion date in February, the project costs increased making additional appropriation necessary. H. Authorization to approve an increase in the annual maintenance contract for EST Group in the amount of $15,500 for maintenance and support of additional network equipment. During several audits, items/areas have been identified that did not include maintenance, etc. Hopefully within the next 12 months, everything will be “status quo” and cleaned up. I. Authorization to approve purchase of computers to keep in inventory for emergency replacement and training use in the amount of $13,000 from DELL Computer Corporation. During the Active Directory conversion, several “old” notebooks didn’t make the transition, which is not surprising. IT used all of the reserves as replacements. This request is for computers for emergency replacement and training use. J. Information Technology Update The upgrade from Novell to Microsoft Active Directory was necessary to support several new systems being implemented in the near future, particularly the new CAD-RMS system for Public Safety scheduled to start implementation in March. It supports a number of new policies and features to standardize user IDs, improve password efficiencies, “sync up” email addresses with citywide domain, and provide for a simplified access to the network through VPN services. Leticia explained that transition was very difficult, showing how antiquated our network was to begin with. Mike said that the migration from Novell to Microsoft Active Directory scheduled for the weekend of February 13th - 14th was delayed due to technical issues discovered during the weekend. He explained the process and how the issues were resolved. The upgrade was completed during the weekend of March 26th – 28th and they worked through issues the following week. During the process, several “old” notebooks didn’t make the transition, which is not surprising. IT used all of the reserves as replacements (thus the agenda item 2-I for computers for emergency replacement and training use). Computer Aided Dispatch/Records Management System (CAD/RMS): The delay in migrating to an Active Directory environment has not impacted the CAD-RMS project or timeline. The initial “kick-off” planning meeting was held on February 24th with OSSI-Sungard and City staff to discuss contract deliverables. The current timeline looks to implement the software during the fourth quarter of 2010. IT Master Plan: The Master Plan was accepted and approved by Council at the 2/23/2010 regular meeting. The document outlines “best practices” and defines projects that align with the overall City technology vision thus providing framework for the City’s internal IT Steering Committee and IT departments to use for evaluating future projects and ensuring Citywide goals are met. IT has started incorporating the technical and organizational actions to align the department with the overall recommendations. Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI): The City began the process of finding and implementing a new automated metering infrastructure (AMI) to replace the existing advanced meter reading system (AMR) in July 2009. This project upgrades the existing one-way communication system (meter to office) with two-way communication (meter to office and back to meter) and allows for time of use rates and provides basis for “smart house” technology. Timeline as follows: L:\Division\finance\Share2\GGAFSub\GGAF Meetings\2010\5.4.10\5.4.10DraftMinutes4.6.10.doc Customer Information System (CIS): The City began the CIS replacement process in October 2009 to align with the AMI project to support the new enhancements that will be available with the new technology. Providing such data to the customer base will lay the foundation for new services such as billing time of use rates and help customers with “green” initiatives. Keith said that he appreciates the e-mail upgrade, as it is much more user-friendly. This upgrade was done immediately prior to the AD conversion. Leticia noted that the last upgrade prior to the current one was 5-6 years ago. K. Mid Year Review Update More information will be available at the Council Meeting on April 27th. Information was not complete at the time of this meeting. Staff wanted to let the committee know of some areas identified to date that will need budget amendments: (1) Fire Truck that Chief Fite discussed earlier, (2) rollforward Arts and Culture funding from the previous year that that wasn’t used, and a (3) weatherization grant. Also provided will be a forecast of what is expected to be available, as well as moving forward on the budget priorities. L. Bank RFP update Micki and Laurie noted that we received 7 responses, 5 were strong. Those have been narrowed down to 4. They are evaluating the cost structure, and feel that any of these banks would do a good job. Hopefully, recommendations to GGAF will be available at the May meeting. 3. Presentation and discussion regarding the City of Georgetown’s 2010 Facilities Plan – Paul Brandenburg Paul gave a presentation on the Facilities Plan, updated from 2003 (see attached presentation ). He met with Dr. Boring (GISD) and discussed possibly partnering together and sharing space in the Albertson’s building for GISD Administration (along with moving City Hall and Municipal Court). This would show that we are working together. Comments from the committee were very positive regarding the presentation. Dale felt it was an incredible document and feels this is a case for urgency and hopes we move as quickly as possible. He said that a lot of thought went into this presentation and it captures what he has been thinking for several years. Freeing up some city-owned buildings for possible economic development in the downtown area is a great concept. He said that if we occupied the Albertson’s building, then we could control what it looked like, and might be a great gateway. Patty was pleased that we are getting aggressive in our approach, if we are able to get the public to vote for it. She asked for clarification on the downtown parking garage, verifying that it will be what has been discussed in the past. Paul said it will not only be a parking garage, but it will have a nice façade with retail, etc. 4. Presentation and discussion regarding the proposed Gainsharing Program – Paul Brandenburg Paul explained that the City is interested in promoting a gainsharing program to reward departments who develop and implement improved work processes, increased productivity and improved customer services that result in savings for the City. Through the program, a certain percentage of the “gain” within a department would be allocated to be used for additional equipment or training that had not been previously funded. Both the citizens and City can benefit from the efforts of teams and individuals who are improving work processes, increasing productivity, and improving the quality of service to all. With any gain identified, there must be a net savings to the City. For example, shifting of costs from one department to another is not a gain, nor is an increase in existing fees to cover costs of a gain. Gains must be measurable and verified by the City Manager and the City’s Finance department. All operating departments will be eligible to participate in the gainsharing program. Any program distribution will be paid from the relevant operating fund. Non-operating and capital funds will not be included in the program. Purchased power cost in the Electric Fund and Fuel Costs in the Airport Fund will not be eligible for inclusion as well. L:\Division\finance\Share2\GGAFSub\GGAF Meetings\2010\5.4.10\5.4.10DraftMinutes4.6.10.doc After explaining the program, he asked for thoughts and suggestions. Patty thought it was a good idea and suggested that he proceed. Dale noted that as long as it was not subjective and it was quantifiable with documentable savings, he agreed that reaching above and beyond normal duties was a good thing. He suggested that a pilot program should be set up to measure the success. He encourages innovation and certain amount of risk taking. It is a good idea to “foster”, not “demean” creative thinking. 5. Presentation and discussion regarding the City of Georgetown’s 2010 Grant Initiative Program – Paul Brandenburg Paul explained that the attached report included not only what grants the City is currently pursuing, but also his recommendations and intent to engage the services of outsourced resources to identify and pursue other grant opportunities for the City. He wants to continue with the current grant writing, but pursue and RFQ for grant writing services. He said that some companies charge a minimum retainer but that we may or may not get any results. Patty agreed with the plan for an RFQ, but is not interested in a retainer-based company at all. We have missed out on a lot in the past, and she would like to see the response to an RFQ. Dale doesn’t agree with a retainer either. After we reach a population of 50,000, our grant opportunities become greater. 6. The meeting adjourned at 2:55 p.m.