[QUICK synopsis for those of you new to this site: our IT Department consists of TWO people – neither of whom hold basic network certifications from Microsoft or Cisco and who subsequently pay TSM Consulting tens of thousands more per year to do THEIR network jobs for them. Monica Wright was somehow awarded with the sinecure (look it up, Monica) of Director of the IT ‘Department’ 13 years ago and her BFF and underling Kristy Acevedo comprises the rest of the “department”. Their ‘department’ was budgeted THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS this past year…which includes their $181,000 in salary and benefits – see page 24 and 25].
[Monica came to my attention last July when she oversaw the award of a no-bid contract to Azbell Electronics for almost $100,000 for the City Council chambers A/V system (TVs and microphones, essentially). I later discovered City Hall had actually gone out for competitive bid the FIRST time on this and had awarded the contract to Broadcast Works for $34,000. This was then rescinded for reasons unknown and the contract awarded with NO BIDDING to Azbell Electronics, also for reasons unknown].
I have spent the last week going over the city budgets of NINE other random small towns in Texas to see if THEY waste such colossal sums on an IT “department”. They are all very close to us in population size, although some are slightly larger and have a higher per-capita income. I used THIS list to find my candidates.
I have also sent an email (twice) to the manager of all those cities, although some never bothered to answer me. Either way, I looked over their city budget AND their city organizational flow charts looking for “IT Department” or “Technology Department” or something similar.
NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THESE TOWNS HAD AN IT DEPARTMENT OR TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT.
Not only did they not have a DEPARTMENT – they didn’t even have a PERSON. They outsourced their IT to large, expert companies like Barcom, TSM, or Network Plus.
The cities I researched are: Carthage, Gladewater, White Oak, Princeton, Hitchcock, Sanger, Crockett, Kaufman and Silsbee. Results are as follows:
Kaufman city manager Mike Slye told me they have a third-party contract for all IT services. He did not say which company it was.
Hitchcock city administrator Marie Gelles told me they “have a third-party contract with Barcom for IT services“. I requested the amount spent or a link to that department…no answer yet.
Carthage budget, website and organizational chart show no IT Department. I am waiting to hear back from city manager Stephen Williams CPA. They DO, however, have a civic center which ran a $112,000 deficit last year ($147,400 to operate vs $35,000 in revenue). The year before that, it ran a $92,000 deficit. Bruce “The Rascal” Haywood’s micro-penis will probably become fully erect after reading about that kind of reckless and profligate spending.
White Oak city manager Melba Haralson told me “we contract out those services“. Side note – this was one of the more impressive websites I navigated – slick, fast and extremely well laid out. Whoever is in charge of all that is quite a professional…an “anti-Monica”, if you will. Their budget summary and layout is incredible. [Fun fact: their expenditure on city salaries and benefits in the latest budget is $2,374,216 ($1.354 million of that is police). Ours is over $8 million.]
Gladewater apparently has never heard of email. I can’t find a single email for ANY city employees or departments. By far the shittiest and most incomplete of all the websites. In other words – perfect. The city probably spends close to nothing on a site nobody goes to anyways. Brilliant. I’d be shocked if they have a Monica or Kristy type on their payroll milking them dry. Maybe I’ll call them.
Crockett appears to have no IT Department. They are the city I profiled the other day who blow $86,000 per year on a civic center operating deficit. Waiting to hear back from the city administrator John Angerstein (awesome name). [Fun fact: city of Crockett operating budget of $8.1 million….they also spend $3.289 million on personnel – we spend over $8 million]
Princeton Assistant City Manager Lesia Gronemeier told me that “currently we contract this service out and will continue to do so for approximately the next three years“. Their budget shows no sign of an IT or tech department (page 22 organizational chart). Pretty sweet website for this city as well.
Sanger also has a fairly slick website and awesome budget page but appears to have no IT department (page 29 organizational chart). I could not find an email for a city manager or other big wig, so I emailed the city council….waiting to hear back. [Fun fact: very similar in government size to Lampasas with around 100 employees and a $25 million budget – however, “salaries and benefits” total $6.241 million in Sanger (page 49) and over EIGHT MILLION in Lampasas (so we somehow spend about 30% more on salaries and benefits)]
Silsbee city manager DeeAnn Zimmerman was very pleasant to deal with and informed me that “the city of Silsbee uses Network Plus for all of our IT work”….so they have no IT Department.
It is my belief that City Council and the City manager of Lampasas (Finley DeGraffenreid) need to seriously look at this department and decide if TWO full time employees are actually needed. I find it very hard to believe that the tiny town of Lampasas has 80 hours of IT work per week to keep them both occupied all day long. And by “IT work” I mean actual IT work (server migration, installing cabling, troubleshooting)….not Monica running over to the library or golf course to change a printer cartridge. I’m pretty sure every grown adult knows how to do that.
My personal belief is that the second IT position was created because (1) Monica was incapable of doing the work and (2) Monica then gets to be a “director” of this one-woman department – which I assume comes with higher pay and even less work. If the city had hired a competent IT tech to begin with, there would have never been a need for someone else.
It seems to me there are several options, all of which benefit the taxpayer:
- Eliminate the entire department and outsource everything. Gary Cox should get on the horn and talk to all these other cities to see if this is feasible. If they can outsource to TSM or Network Plus or Barcom for, say, $120k per year, they are STILL saving $180k per year overall – or $1.8 million over the next ten years. Think of all the roads and water lines that could be properly maintained with that money.
- Eliminate the second (redundant) “network administrator” job and give Monica a chance to actually get certified to do real IT work so she never has to call TSM consulting – this would result in TSM’s contract being cancelled – saving tens of thousands per year and also saving around $80,000 more as Acevedo’s redundant job position is eliminated. It would also mean Monica actually has to work full time instead of taking off 8 weeks per year. This would save about $1 million over ten years.
- Fire Monica and Kristy both as unqualified, hire some 24-year-old tech nerd right out of school who DOES possess all the normal network qualifications (Cisco or Microsoft) and let him actually do everything the job requires (no more calling TSM and handing them $30,000 a year to solve your problems for you) – a “one man department” who is well-qualified and pay him a decent wage. This eliminates the TSM contract as well as Monica and Kristy’s bloated salaries – or probably around $1.1 million over ten years.
