08-15-16 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council President Tim Scott complimented Mr. Garces and his group for coming a long way. He stated that he has been interested in the consolidation of IT for a while. He stated that the group is headed on the right path. The big catch is the interfund allocations. The allocations from the Council and the other departments build their $1.5 million budget. Council President Scott asked Mr. Murphy to weigh in. Mr. Murphy explained that there used to be four (4) different IT allocations, the 311 Center, GIS, IT, then the balance of the cost was paid out of the COIT Fund, which was around $3 million. One of the strategies was to put IT into its own separate fund for operational reasons, as well as for this accounting reason. All of the costs of that department are allocated to the other departments based on usage, number of computers, etc. COIT was subsidizing a lot of IT costs, so the cost did not go up. Council President Scott said that a lot of departments, including himself, wondered what they are getting for that amount of money. Mr. Murphy said that from an accounting standpoint, this is what we are supposed to be doing, we should put everything into a fund and then allocate it. This way we can track the performance of the fund. Mr. Garces explained that they are trying to make sure their expenses are under control and continuously decreasing, and the allocation has started a healthy dialogue with the departments about what the expectations are, making sure that we are working on the priorities that they have, and that we are being responsible. We are happy to perform under this scrutiny, because it is good for the taxpayers to see what the technology is supporting. Doing the allocations has relieved about $1 million of pressure on the General Fund and COIT. The two (2) way radios that benefit the utility end and are necessary for the operations, are being supported out of the General Fund. No allocation is perfect, it doesn't always match its usage, but when we did the exercise going through the costs, you get very close to the actual cost of delivering services. Council President Scott mentioned the slight bump in the forecast for 2018, and asked why it is there. Mr. Garces explained that they will be replacing Naviline, and that is their initial assumption. Based on the numbers they are running, they expect the new program to be less expensive than Naviline. There will probably be a one (1) time expenditure and a multi -year project. Council President Scott asked how much money is allocated to the transition to PSAP on the City side. Mr. Garces explained that they had it budgeted, but they have been spending a significant amount of time making sure that they are providing guidance to the Police and Fire Departments. 15