Item 7B on the March 12, 2013 city council agenda proposes to award up to $207,380 to an out of town firm for computer software.
The backup material states:
- The City of El Paso’s Municipal Clerk’s Office and the Communications and Public Affairs Office are in need of software solution [sic] that will enhance their services, streamline their current process, and allow for easy distribution of information to staff and the general public.
That sounds pretty good. Will we be able to reduce our labor budget because of this?
What does not sound good is that once again the award will be to the “highest ranked” proposal, not the most cost effective one. Cost accounted for 25% of the evaluation points. Of course the award is to an out of town vendor.
Unfortunately this is business as normal at the city.
What is unusual here is what they told us in the backup material:
- Currently Municipal Clerk Staff do not have the technology to automate the creation of an electronic agenda, record meeting minutes, and meeting discussions. Incorporating this technology will help the department efficiently increase productivity to posting information for citizens and provide the public an innovative way to access audio/video, documents, agendas, government transcripts and broadcasting without the hassle of allocating City IT resources to manage and maintain the stream of information posted online.
Hassle? Keeping the public informed is a hassle? These people have even stopped trying to hide their disdain for the public.
We need new leadership.
Vote in May.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
El Paso is increasingly becoming more like certain other parts of the world where government employees and elected officials have ordained themselves as the new elite, privileged class, living well at the expense of the constituents they are supposed to serve.
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