Pirates as well as hypocrites explained that our city was being sued by a software company for alleged piracy and violation of trade secrets.
Maybe a better term would be thieves.
It seems that city council has now voted to settle the case. It would appear that somehow someone has told them the truth and they see the futility of wasting money in litigation.
The software vendor attempted to get justice without litigation. On October 4, 2013 the vendor wrote a letter to our mayor and city council outlining the problems and asking that they stop. Copies of the letter were also sent to:
Our former city manager
Our former chief financial officer
Our city attorney
Our director of the office of management and budget (OMB)
The first three have been involved in many of the problems that we have experienced lately. Two of them are gone. The OMB director is a new name that must now be associated with problems. Was she acting under orders from the others? If not we should probably expect to read about her departure soon.
We don’t know the costs the city will have to pay to settle this claim yet. Don’t be surprised if the final settlement contains a confidentiality clause.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
City management and council know that the public will want to know the amount and will have a big issue if they try to keep it a secret. The only want they can keep it a secret is to blame it on the other party.
Knowing how city management and the city attorney operate, the city will have its out-of-town attorneys quietly ask the software vendor’s attorney to have the software vendor insist on a confidentiality clause. The city will probably even be willing to pay a higher price if the settlement includes that clause.
City management will then be able to play the confidentiality card the same way it continues to play the “personnel matter” card when trying to avoid scrutiny and full disclosure. They will do anything to hide information from us.
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There is only one city department whose actions could have resulted in this and that is IT. My experience with IT was that there was very little process for anything; they lived day-to-day in crisis mode. It looks like this company caught up with them. BTW, IT was one of the former CFO’s responsibilities.
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I thought software piracy only happened in Asia, Mexico and third-world countries, not model U.S. cities populated by honest, hardworking Americans. I also thought piracy was perpetrated by members of organized crime, not by… Oh, never mind.
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I am under the impression that piracy is a federal crime. Please correct me if I am wrong.
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I would hope that the contractor is issued a verbal written and public apology. No problem keeping settlement quiet although the citizens should know what the stupidity of the city has cost them.
Sent from my iPhone
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