One of the items on tonight’s agenda is the request for $40,530 to purchase a SCADA for the wastewater plant [page 3, Item 7.6 and also page 207].
This would all be fine and dandy except for one thing. Almost exactly two years ago, the City ALREADY bought a brand new SCADA for $16,000 after the old one was wrecked due to our IT Department allowing ransomware to run amok on the City’s servers.
I’m sure you all remember that. Here is the article I wrote at the time:
Back then, here is how they justified the expense of $16,000 for a new control unit for the water/wastewater plant. This is lifted DIRECTLY from the City council packets [page 131]:
“The current SCADA computer was compromised in the recent ransomware incident and is not operational. While the computer was not planned for replacement in the current fiscal year, staff has been informed that due to the age of the device and the operating system (Windows 7) reaching end of life and no longer supported, it would be more cost effective to replace versus attempting to restore the existing device.
“The bulk of the costs of the replacement device result from a newer version of the SCADA software, which is required due to the update in the operating system to Windows 10“
So, they basically made it sound like Monica Wright’s IT Department fuckup was no big deal – because they needed to switch to Windows 10 anyways, right? They pretty much fobbed the whole thing off on Windows 10.
That was a mere two years ago. Here is a screenshot of the invoice for the August 2019 replacement from Trac-N-Trol:
Wow! A three-year warranty and tech support for the life of the system! And the much-ballyhooed upgrade to Windows 10. All for $16,000.
OK, we all know that this was a convenient excuse to cover for the IT Department fuckup, but whatever. The water/wastewater plant is pretty important and it was “only” $16,000. It should last a long time, right?
Wrong.
Tonight, the City will request yet ANOTHER SCADA unit! From tonight’s packet [page 207]:
“Trac-n-Trol will provide (for $40,530) the water department with a Windows 10 operating system, burn in and setup including all Microsoft updates,”...blah, blah, blah.
Whoah – sounds like they are using the “Windows 10” bullshit AGAIN. Sorry, but you ALREADY did all that a mere 25 months ago! Not to mention, the price now is more that DOUBLE what it was then! Hell, the invoices even look IDENTICAL!! Here is the screenshot for THIS YEAR’S SCADA:
They are virtually IDENTICAL! WTF? I don’t see any explanation in the packet as to WHY yet ANOTHER SCADA is needed just 24 months after the last one was installed (at less than half the price, I might add).
The only differences I see are very minor. The Xeon W-2123 versus the W-2223 chip – which I looked up, since I’m not a computer chip nerd – looks pretty much the same. The video card (going from the Radeon Pro WX 4100 to the WX 3200) looks WORSE, if you look at THAT comparison!
The hard drive for the NEW one is 512GB while the old one is a terabyte!
So…..the questions are (1) why in hell do we need a new one already and (2) why does the exact same thing cost over $40,000 when it was $16,000 two years ago?
Hell, the one from August 2019 is STILL UNDER WARRANTY!!!!
Hey City council….you paying attention yet?