So, we’ve already seen that a new “communications” position is a complete waste of money.
But maybe we need a new IT person? Ummm…no. I’ve already spilled a lot of ink on this, but here are the basics:
We ALREADY have two employees (nearly $200,000 in salary and benefits – see page 24) and essentially a third employee: TSM Consulting. TSM has been paid $1,800 a month for at LEAST the last five years to remain “on call” to do network support, even though we have a “network administrator” (Acevedo) whose job description is exactly that.
That $1,800 is just a retainer! When there is actual work to do, the City gets jammed for thousands more for TSM to do the job!
Hard to believe?? In just the last 18 months, the City has paid TSM Consulting over $64,000! You can download the documents below:
FURTHERMORE, the IT Department had their workload reduced GREATLY less than two years ago! How?
Mere months after our It Department allowed hackers to hold the City’s computers ransom and wreck tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, the police department “coincidentally” decided to take all of their data storage OUT of the hands of Kristy and Monica. In hindsight, probably a wise decision. But it WAS costly. From the Dispatch on 11/5/19 (page 10):
“The council voted unanimously to purchase a cloud-based video storage system for the police department. The police department’s existing video storage server is starting to fail, Montgomery said. He added that if the city bought a new physical server instead of using the cloud-based system, the new server would last only about four years.
The cloud-based system will keep data secure, allow for backups and make video-related work more efficient, Montgomery and Information Technology Director Monica Wright said.
The initial cost of the cloud-based storage system is $7,000. In addition, the per-month storage cost – based on the amount of total data the police department stores now – will be about $270, Montgomery said. Recurring annual costs – including software updates and support — will be $10,620.”
So apparently the City paid seven grand AND a recurring $10,260 (likely to increase 5% per year, if history is any guide) to take those duties AWAY from Monica and Kristy – and hand them over to a more trustworthy third party.
Somebody with a brain clearly realized Monica should not be trusted with important stuff like the police servers. When Monica ruins City Hall equipment, it can be swept under the rug by a pliable City Manager…but if police servers get bungled, very bad things can happen. Like gigantic lawsuits over lost body cam footage and stuff like that.
Either way, the police department is probably one of the biggest, if not THE biggest user of technology in the City. I mean, it sure ain’t the dog pound or the golf course requiring all the server tech! Bottom line? HUGE reduction in duties for the IT Department.
STILL not convinced the IT Department is overstaffed and underworked? OK – one last story to get you there. I have kept this story up my sleeve for over three years, but maybe now is the time to reveal it.
**UPDATE** – The Story of an Underworked IT Department
About three years ago, when I was stewing about the IT Department blowing almost $100,000 on an A/V system for City council, I was contacted by a former City employee – a guy who worked under Monica in the job that Kristy Acevedo currently holds. I’ll call him Mister X. I met him for lunch in Round Rock as I had a hell of a lot of questions for him.
Here is the gist of what he told me:
#1 – Monica is wildly unqualified. The guy who was Monica’s underling BEFORE Mister X apparently quit because he couldn’t stand the fact that his “boss” didn’t know what she was doing. Apparently he left for a nice career in the private sector. This was about the same time I decided to file Open Records Requests for all of Monica’s certifications. She had none of the certs you would expect for an “IT Department Head”. So there is that. If our IT Department head was more skilled, we likely wouldn’t be hiring TSM and other “consultants” all the time to actually do the work that needs doing.
#2 – Mister X told me that during his time with the City as Monica’s “network admin”, she was forced to take a leave of absence for a couple of weeks. I know this is true because I know the circumstances behind it. So basically, Mister X was left on his own for several weeks AND he was still fairly new too the job.
One of the IT Departments main jobs is “taking tickets” and completing whatever task in on them. For instance, the library may “write a ticket” saying they have a laptop that isn’t working and then either Monica or her underling go over there and try to solve the problem. This is probably 90% of their work. They get tickets from other departments (police, fire, library, City Hall administration, etc) and go solve the problem. In this way, you can see how they spend their time and how many tasks they completed.
Well, as it turns out, while Monica was gone and Mister X was in charge, he was absolutely FLYING through all the tickets. No tickets ever piled up and he was making short work of everything. Mind you, he was doing HIS job AND Monica’s job by himself.
Mister X told me that Monica did NOT like this development at all. She told him point blank to slow down and stop being so fast and efficient (I am paraphrasing here). She told him that she needed the network admin job to look harder and more complex because she wanted to add yet another employee to her “department” (sound familiar??) and that would be hard to do if ONE GUY was currently able to handle all the tickets thrown at him.
Let me repeat that: when Monica took a couple weeks off, the new guy was SO fast and efficient that Monica actually told him to slow it down because (a) it made her look bad and (b) it would hurt her case to Finley that she needed to hire another underling!!!
Now, you may call this hearsay. Maybe Mister X made ALL this up for no reason. Perhaps. I don’t see why he would. But I have other evidence of Monica acting in a devious and self-serving way, so it makes me think that this story is also true. I suppose we could always get her former underling to admit it himself.
Now, why do I think the story is true? (Besides the fact that I have seen the incompetence for myself??). Because this isn’t the first time Monica pulled a sneaky stunt to serve her own interests. I have actual emails written by Monica during the A/V debacle that show she was trying to HIDE the true cost of the bloated system from City council.
To wit:
Here are some excerpts:
“Monica Wright SPECIFICALLY discouraged Anelundi from giving any hard numbers during his council presentation on March 13, 2017…going so far as to write in her email: “as far as budget numbers go, we won’t mention that to City Council Monday night” then adding that “the City Manager wants Council to know what all is involved with this project….if they know the capabilities of the A/V system, the components and equipment needed to achieve what we want, hopefully their jaw will not drop when we ask for approval.”
“When the time came in July 2018 to actually go and ask for the ludicrous sum Azbell wanted for this vanity project, Monica appeared to have reservations about the cost again, writing in an email to Anelundi: “I am hoping they just award the contract and move on“