Tag: Monica Wright

Side-By-Side IT Comparison: How Overpaid Are Monica and Kristy?

I hate to flagellate a deceased equine, but literally every single city or county I look at makes it more and more obvious that our IT Department is FAR larger and more expensive than it has any right to be. Just for kicks, I recently compared the entire COUNTY of Burnet to our little town of Lampasas. Here is what I found:

LAMPASAS

Population 7,800

Area 6.2 square miles

IT staff – 2

IT salary $125,881

IT benefits $55,081

Consulting expense $21,600

TOTAL $202,562

BURNET COUNTY

Population 50,000

Area 1021 square miles

IT staff – 2

IT salary $113,336

IT benefits $43,788

Consulting expense $0

TOTAL $157,124

As you can see, Lampasas spends 29% MORE on salary, benefits and paying for outside consultants.

I have included “consulting” in this comparison because it represents the money we hand to TSM Consulting ($1,800 per month, every month) to be on call to do Kristy’s job for her. That is just the MINIMUM. They actually pay them more when there is actual work to do….but I am being conservative in my comparison.

You may notice the benefits are wildly higher here in Lampasas – something I have railed against for a year now. Here is the breakdown on benefits:

Kristy and Monica: $19,288 for retirement and $25,905 for insurance

Burnet county: $12,520 for retirement and $21,528 for insurance

The annual retirement contribution is FIFTY-FOUR PERCENT HIGHER here in our little town than it is 15 miles down the street. Insurance is TWENTY PERCENT HIGHER.

Yet more proof that our IT Department is over-staffed, over-paid and under worked. I say “under worked” because Monica takes off over TWO MONTHS every year, when you add it all up (as I did).

But that STILL isn’t enough loafing around for our IT Princesses! Oh, no! They want MORE time off, as you can see below:

Ideas For The New Budget – Part II

I have previously cited plenty of examples of waste in the city budget and why I think it happens. What to do about it? Here are a few ideas:

  • Eliminate the Lampasas Economic Development Corp. Mandy Walsh may be the nicest lady on the planet (I do not know her) but she is costing the city over $100,000 per year to go to conventions and attend a monthly LEDC meeting. The LEDC has wasted over a million dollars on the “business park” which is a complete disaster and not a legitimate function of any small government. After eliminating the LEDC, private citizens will still open up Burger Kings, MOJO Coffee shops, antique stores and new hotels and some old businesses will still fail. That is the nature of free-market capitalism. We don’t need a group of 5 or 6 “planners” wasting six figures to do that. The world of Lampasas will keep on spinning after LEDC is gone and the city will save a TON of money.
  • Start looking SERIOUSLY at alternatives to the current health care plan or provider. Lampasas seems to spend around $12,000 to $14,000 PER EMPLOYEE while other cities our size seem to spend more like $7,000 to $8,000 per employee. That is insane. Gary Cox needs to get on the horn to Harker Heights, Crockett, Princeton, Kaufman and other cities and ask their managers how they do it. I saw one city that used a Texas Municipal League program for their health care. Why don’t we? Hell, Kristy and Monica ALONE cost the city $25,905 for insurance (line item 505-5115). A 30% reduction in these costs would bring us in line with other cities our size and save OVER a quarter of a million dollars PER YEAR.
  • PLEASE FORGET about the civic center idea. We don’t need another “Old City Hall” debacle on our hands wasting hundreds of thousands per year in operating costs and interest payments. A cursory Google search shows many cities lose a ton of money on this type of project. The fact that Bruce “Always Wrong” Haywood wants one should be reason enough to bury it forever.

Implementing just these few ideas could easily save the city up to HALF A MILLION PER YEAR. That sounds like a lot, and it is. However, it only represents LESS THAN 2% of our $27,000,000 budget. I know most American families (including me) have had to cut spending at LEAST a few percent when times are tight. Don’t tell me the Lampasas City government can’t do the same and get by with 98.15% of what they spent last year.

I implore City Council to at least consider these proposals. They are all well-researched and well-documented.

Marble Falls ALSO Has No IT Department.

Marble Falls – which is right down the street and has a similar population – ALSO has no IT department. According to Kaleb Kraenzel, the Assistant City Manager: “currently, our organization contracts out with a local company for that service”.

That makes TEN cities our size I have checked with and ZERO IT Departments. That’s 0-10 on IT Departments….not a very good batting average, even for government work. The facts look worse for Monica and Kristy every time I get a response from another city manager.

Marble Falls takes in about FIVE TIMES the money we do in sales tax ($150k per month versus $750k), so there is clearly more money sloshing around there….yet STILL no IT department.

I asked Mr Kraenzel how much they spend on their IT contract and am waiting to hear back.

Hell, even Copperas Cove, which is around FIVE TIMES our population, only spends about $380,000 on their IT. Five times larger yet they spend roughly what we do? Very odd.

Clearly, we are overstaffed. I’m going to call the Lampasas IT Department the Department of Redundancy Department from now on. Monica has been feathering her nest for almost 14 years now. Perhaps it is time for a change.

Lampasas City IT Department Should Be Eliminated and Outsourced – May Save the City Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars PER YEAR.

[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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Mark It Zero, Dude!

Zero.

That is how many computer “experts” and IT Directors and Network Administrators the town of Kaufman, TX currently employs.

Kaufman is yet another small town about our size…another three hour drive up the road. Their median income is about 15% higher than ours and they are slightly larger. All in all, a decent comparison. Seeing those numbers, you’d think they would probably spend as much or more on a “technology” department than Lampasas does. Wrong.

How can this be?? I emailed the Kaufman city manager, Mike Slye, and asked him this very question. His answer verbatim from my email inbox:

“Third-party contract for IT services”

Oh….you mean like how our IT Director Monica Wright calls TSM Consulting or Cardinal Tracking or some dude named Neil Caldwell to do her work for her because she is completely inept and possesses no network certifications at all…just like our SECOND technology clown Kristy Acevedo?? You mean like how the city hands TSM Consulting $1,800 per month, every month, year in and year out, to be on call for any networking problems?

Yeah, kinda like that…except they aren’t dumb enough to pay TWO bozos a six-figure sum to sit in a chair all day and make those calls, like we do. Somebody else probably spends 3 minutes making that call – like the assistant city manager or something.

In other words, we could jettison the two bozos (who have proven incapable in the first place) and cut out the middle-(wo)men and just have TSM Consulting do all the work they are probably doing anyways? What a novel idea.

PROS: This would save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars per year AND free up two new grocery baggers for HEB to hire.

CONS: Monica and Kristy get even more angry at me.

As you can see, this is a terrific trade-off for the average citizen taxpayer of Lampasas….and one we should all be willing to make.

Her Name Should Probably Be Monica Can’t-Wright

I have held back on some of the more embarrassing examples of Monica Wright’s ineptitude because they weren’t really germane (go look it up, Monica…..)

However, since she and her BFF (and underling) Kristy Acevedo decided to antagonize me and my guests in a bar recently, I think it’s fair to post them now.

The following is from an email Monica wrote on Jan 3, 2017 to Chris Atkinson (a Nolanville bureaucrat) regarding bids for the audio/visual system she would later hand to Azbell Electronics arbitrarily (ignoring the bidding process altogether). Remember, this is a grown, 40-something, supposedly-highly-educated IT Department Head communicating with the outside world:

Chris, I wanted to reach out to you regarding the vm that you left me regarding A/V. I am currently working on our first big A/V project for our new City Council Chambers. I have not went out for bid for it yet, however I do have a vendor that I have met with on several occasions that has provided me with great information as well as will be bidding the project. I don’t have much information for you right now being that we are still working on our scope for this project.

If you would like, I can forward his information to you. I’m sure he would be happy to talk to you about your project/needs.

Broadcast Works – Adam Comer – North Texas Area Manager – 903-509-2470 x106 broadcastworks.com

Besides the atrocious grammar unbecoming of even a fourth-grade hillbilly, this is also even MORE proof that Broadcast Works was quite involved in the (supposedly) upcoming bidding process. Monica was clearly SO impressed by Broadcast Works (original A/V system bid of $34,000), she even sent THEIR company/contact information out for a recommendation to Nolanville City government….NOT the company information for Azbell Electronics (who was eventually handed a no-bid contract for almost $100,000 for the A/V system).

What a bargain the taxpayers get for $105,000 per year with Monica Wright-Like-A-Child: zero computer network skills, zero writing skills, zero make-up skills and only works 44 weeks per year!

Two Clowns and a Dwarf Walk Into a Bar…

…which sounds like the start of a bad joke. Unfortunately it turned into reality a few nights ago when our two obscenely overpaid and under-qualified City of Lampasas IT Department clowns (Monica Wright and Kristy Acevedo) drunkenly accosted me at a local watering hole. My first thought was “my god, they look a lot older in real life…and how long does it take to spackle on that much clown makeup?”

Related image

Yes, I guess the gloves have to come off now, if you are going to drunkenly antagonize me and my guests in my private life. That includes you, Jack Harrell.

The spackled clowns slurred a bunch of incoherent half-thoughts at me, despite me repeatedly asking them to leave me and my guests alone and stop embarrassing themselves. I couldn’t make out most of it through the slurring and layers of makeup but it was something about posting their “private” information on a blog like this (?) I’m not sure. Most of it sounded like mosquitoes buzzing or maybe two old crows squawking as they fight over a McDonald’s french fry in the parking lot.

Either way I have a newsflash gals: everything you do for the city and/or post on Facebook is PUBLIC information. That includes your ridiculously generous salaries, your lack of network certifications, the low number of hours you actually work, the fact you signed off on a no-bid $95,000 monstrosity A/V system, the fact you hire TSM Consulting to do networking jobs FOR you at great expense to the taxpayer. All of it.

I was kind of surprised they kept pestering me so overtly since there are cameras all over the place in the bar and it is very clear who is pestering whom from the video recordings. After the sixth or seventh time I told them to buzz off, one clown’s boyfriend jumped in and stuck his stubby little finger in my face and did some more slurring about “don’t talk to my lady like that!” (?). I remember being momentarily confused because I was sitting on a bar stool and he was standing upright….yet his face was nearly level with mine as he yammered away.

Hey Jack? Just because your girlfriend is two inches taller than you and your hair fell out, don’t take it out on me. M’kay? I know it’s gotta be frustrating that no matter how many dumbbells you hoist, the tape measure will STILL read 5’8…just accept it and go hit the tanning bed or whatever it is you do all day. Cool? Thanks.

The circus is in town!

Apparently the clowns think I’m a big meanie for posting information that is readily available on the City of Lampasas website and easily requested by anyone and everyone, as it is public record and you are (over)paid by the taxpayer. Much like cockroaches, they would prefer to operate in the dark with nobody knowing what they do all day or how much it’s costing the taxpayer.

Stay tuned and grab some popcorn!!!

New Info Emerges From City Hall Emails – Did City Manager and IT Director Deliberately Keep City Council in the Dark Over Exorbitant Cost of A/V System?

In short, the answer appears to be yes.

We have requested and received dozens of internal City Hall emails pertaining to the no-bid City Council chambers A/V system that was awarded to Azbell Electronics for almost $100,000 last July.

Emails belonging to the city manager, assistant city manager, city IT Director, Azbell sales rep Chris Anelundi and others involved in the expensive boondoggle were obtained through a Texas Open Records Request. They show city employees who have zero regard for tax dollars and who go out of their way to keep city hall in the dark over the true costs of the project.

The emails show the following information:

  • City Hall (IT Director, City Manager, assistant City manager) DID set out to re-bid the A/V system a second time around: Azbell and Broadcast Works were actively seeking to win the bid in Jan and Feb of 2017. This destroys Finley’s story he concocted (after the fact) that they didn’t need to re-bid the project since Azbell was a “buy board” member.
  • Assistant City Manager Gary Cox was well aware at the very start of this that Azbell was MUCH higher priced than other vendors. He pointed this out to Monica Wright – even giving an example of a video recorder he found for $2880 for which Anelundi and Azbell were charging $4880 – he called this “a significant markup over other vendors” in a private email to Monica dated Feb 8th, 2018.
  • ACM Gary Cox requested several bells and whistles for the project that added many thousands of dollars to the cost and weren’t really needed, but were fancy add-ons (including cameras and a wireless mike for the audience so audience members wouldn’t have to make the long walk up to the podium to speak on a normal microphone)
  • Broadcast Works was contacted by email by Monica (Dec 2016 through Feb 2017) and told the project was back on and there would be a second round of bidding. The Broadcast Works rep (Adam Comer) REPEATEDLY sent Monica emails expressing his hope to win the business, all the way through Feb and March 2017. Poor Adam was strung along, as Finley and Monica moved forward with Azbell behind his back – making the decision themselves to just go ahead with Azbell and not bothering to get a second bid. They did not even give Broadcast Works a chance to bid a second time after contacting them in Jan/Feb 2017 asking them to do just that!
  • Monica Wright was aware that Azbell had previously bid on this contract (and lost to Broadcast Works for being far more expensive) – she then informed current sales rep Chris Anelundi of this and even sent Anelundi the previous Azbell losing bid package (which was around $42,000)
  • Monica Wright SPECIFICALLY discouraged Anelundui 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.” [Editor note: sure sounds to me like they knew damn good and well this thing was ridiculously overpriced]
  • 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“

She got her wish. City Council rubber-stamped this thing with only feeble objections over the expensive earpieces for the hard-of-hearing.

In an email shortly thereafter, Anelundi (sounding quite amazed) asks “And just so I am clear, the approved amount totaled $94, 674.57 correct?” almost as if he can’t believe this group of wizards just ponied up TRIPLE the amount that Broadcast Works was going to do the job for a couple years earlier and well over DOUBLE the amount of the original, rejected Azbell bid of around $42,000 from just a few years earlier.

Digest that again: Council rejected Azbell’s original bid of $42,000 as it was about 25% more than the winning Broadcast Works bid (around $34,000). Then Monica comes back 2 years later, says “we’re finally doing this project”, tells Anelundi that his company, Azbell, was the losing bid last time around at $42,000 and then City Council goes on to APPROVE A NO-BID contract of almost NINETY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS to Azbell. I’m guessing Anelundi popped the champagne bottles that night, truly amazed at his good fortune.

Now, blame still falls squarely on City Council for approving this monstrosity and not asking any questions. Several council members were sitting in their seats the FIRST time this thing went through the bidding process [**cough Misti Talbert cough**] and the winner was Broadcast Works at $34,000. Somebody should have asked why this wasn’t competitively bid again. Somebody should have asked how the hell $95,000 was justified. Of course, Finley and Monica did their best to starve them of information on cost until the very last second, when they rammed this turd through in July 2018. Plenty of blame to go around.

The difference being City Council is an unpaid position, whereas Finley, Gary and Monica are quite highly paid – ostensibly because they are “experts” and “competent” and supposedly know what they are doing. I’d say this proves otherwise in the extreme.

The scariest part of all this? This debacle is just ONE item that popped up in the newspaper and seemed SO ridiculously over-the-top on price, that I was just enraged enough to spend a considerable chunk of my own time and money to find out what really happened. If I managed to hit the jackpot like this on my very first attempt, imagine all the other shenanigans that go on over there ALL THE TIME because nobody is paying attention.

THIS is the “leadership” that Misti Talbert supposedly exhibits as mayor? Please. Gimme a break. Talbert has pushed for this wildly overpriced boondoggle for years – as recorded in City Council minutes and chronicled here.

Perhaps a restructuring of incentives is needed at City Hall. I think the following would be a good start:

1 Make City Council a paid position and hold their feet to the fire for massive screw-ups like this one. The colossal sums wasted by the LEDC (Lampasas Economic Development Corporation) are another example.

2. Sharply reduce the salaries of these “experts” at the top of City Hall, since they have proven they do not have the taxpayers’ interests at heart, but only their own.

3. Have an outside entity go over the entire structure of City Hall to identify positions that are unneeded and/or paid grossly out of line with their private sector counterparts (and yes, the $30k per year in benefits counts towards their salary). Maybe take a look at what a lot of these people ACTUALLY do all day long (besides post on Facebook, go to loads of useless conferences with other city employees in other towns, and waste massive amounts of time and money planning a $1.5 million vanity project for City bigwigs)

Clearly, there needs to be a more adversarial role between Council and City Hall – especially the City Manager. Council should be looking out for the taxpayer since Finley and others at the top of City Hall clearly only look out for themselves.

Will any of these things happen? No. I’ll be called a trouble-maker and a pot-stirrer for daring to point out anything that might call into question the genius of those in charge. Better to just bury your head in the sand and let some government sponges hose the taxpayer over and over then ask for more.

More Money Spent in 2014 For Fancy Chambers That Still Isn’t Done. TVs, Computers and Refrigerators. So….Where Are They Now?

After awarding a $34,000 A/V contract to Broadcast Works in August of 2014, Monica and the IT Department went on a spending spree….you know, to “use up our funds by year end” and so forth.

First were the 100 stackable chairs, bought from Church Partners for $12,780 (but at least she got three bids and went with the lowest one!).  Who knows where the chairs are now.  Collecting dust somewhere in a rented storage unit?

Then, Monica made several purchases from CDW Government LLC on September 5th, 2014.  Including “Chambers A/V PC and RAM for $975.68” and “TVs for New Chambers $2730.30”

Looks like more “let’s spend our budget by year end so we don’t get less money next year” kind of bullshit to me.  I have requested copies of those receipts so I can see what exactly was bought.  Quick question: since it is over four years later and the project is not even close to finished…where are these TVs and computers?  Sitting in a dusty closet with the 100 stackable chairs?  In Monica’s living room?  Finley’s garage?  Already obsolete??  Just more waste and stupidity from a Department rife with it.

Oh…and Monica also went out and “bought a refrigerator for the new Council Chambers executive session room” that same month.  More pissing away of money!  I can’t find a receipt for that purchase, but there it is listed in Monica’s monthly report (Oct 27, 2014 page 43).  How much was it?  Where is it now?

I seem to remember some poor bastard county official recently being crucified here in town for “stealing” a tiny mini fridge or something.  People went bananas.  Yet here we have the city buying thousands of dollars worth of stuff FOUR YEARS before the “house is built,” so to speak.  Would you buy a bunch of furniture and computers and TVs and a fridge before you even broke ground on your house?  No, you wouldn’t.  Only an idiot or a lunatic does that.  You wait until it’s all done and THEN you furnish it.

Unless you are trying to waste a ton of money and pad your budget, I guess.

Here in April 2015, Broadcast Works apparently still has the bid it was awarded at $33,983…so I will keep working forwards from here to see where it all went wrong.  Stay tuned.

City Paying Three Times To Do One IT Job

I’m sure you have all gotten your property tax bills by now!  Happy?  You’ll be REALLY happy when you read yet another chapter of waste in the IT Department!

I just love picking up stacks of records from City Hall.  Love it.  It’s like Christmas in October.  Today, I was handed a nice big pile of copies (for only $151.60) pertaining to IT Department expenses under the heading “Professional Services” [budget line 505-5395].  As I have pointed out recently, in addition to our two highly paid IT ‘experts’, the IT department farms out a lot of work to “professionals” who then do the work that our ‘experts’ are unable or unwilling to do.  One of these “Professional Services” is TSM Consulting….and boy, do they make some easy money!

I was hoping that these copies of the TSM bills would provide SOME KIND of description of what EXACTLY the city is getting for their $1,800 per month.  Nope.  Nearly every single page looks like this:

Just month, after month, after month (for YEARS) of shelling out $1,800 to TSM Consulting…for “monthly network support”.  All initialed and approved by “MW”…seriously??  Her “Network Administrator” is supposed to be doing that stuff – it says so right in her job description:

Of course, neither our IT Director NOR our Network Administrator has a single certification from Cisco or Microsoft.  Most “experts” have their CCENT or CCNA or CCNP certifications.  Not our well-paid experts.  And why should they?  Just sit back and have the suckers taxpayers pay TSM Consulting $1,800 a month instead!  Presto! The city is paying three people to do one job!  And you wonder why your taxes go up every year.  Incredible.  Monica has been there THIRTEEN YEARS and does not posses an entry-level network certification.  Nor does her underling Kristy Acevedo.

Even worse, it appears that TSM Consulting gets paid $1,800 per month just to be on-call in case of a problem.  So they get paid to do nothing most of the time.  How do I know this?  Well, buried away in my pile of Christmas gifts was this – a nice double billing for Feb 29, 2016:

Yes, that’s right – in addition to the ‘normal’ $1,800 in free money paid to TSM in February 2016, it appears there was actually something for them to do.  Namely “remote support setup, network mapping, and internet and firewall troubleshooting” – and for THAT, we paid ANOTHER $2,000 on top of the $1,800 retainer!  Are you kidding me??  It also doesn’t even state how much time they spent on it!  Just “quantity 1” and “rate $2,000”.  Would be nice to see how many hours they actually spent on this.  Incredible!  Nobody knows how to burn money like the IT Department.

Worse yet, TSM isn’t the only one getting paid to do our IT Department’s jobs for them…CivicPlus, Cardinal Tracking and even some dude named Neil Cardwell are all on record as sending bills for IT work to “MW” over the years.  Here’s another one:

Server migration is just moving data from one server to another.  Kind of like I move damning financial photos from my phone to this blog – little did I know that was worth $150 an hour.  MW and her entire IT “department” didn’t know how to move data from one server to another??  Mind-boggling.

So, it appears the job description for IT Director is

  1. Show up to the office…post some Facebook crap on personal page
  2. Find a consultant to do anything harder than change a printer cartridge
  3. Sign “MW” after job is complete (complain during 2-hour lunch that you have hand cramps)
  4. Take three weeks paid vacation.
  5. Drive to Dallas.  Look at their City Council chambers.  Drive home.
  6. Go to a couple of City Council meetings and pick the “monthly website photo contest” winner.  Bat eyelashes at City Council.
  7. Throw away the competitive $34,000 A/V system bid.  Replace with $100,000 A/V system.
  8. Make sure you take all 10 sick days….you earned it.  Kinda.
  9. Collect fat check and year end “appreciation pay” from Finley, as soon as he takes break from setting $1,500,000.00 on fire over at Old City Hall.
  10. Annual get together with Finley, Gary and Kristy…create $500,000 money pile and jump around in it while laughing heartily at suckers taxpayers.
  11. Repeat for a few more years and then collect fat pension

Must be sweet!  Good thing there are thousands of suckers citizens out there paying that property tax bill every November!